PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — UPDATE: The Pinellas County School Board voted 6-0 to approve the 2023-2024 Instructional Employee Contract. School board member Dawn Peters was not at the meeting.
According to Chief Human Resources Officer Paula Texel, instructional employees can expect pay increases, including retroactive pay dating back to July 1, in their November 2 paycheck.
ORIGINAL STORY: At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Pinellas County School Board members will discuss raising teacher salaries.
The school district’s bargaining team and the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association have reached a tentative agreement.
“This is the largest raise we’ve had in several years in spite of the financial strain the county’s under,” said PCTA President Lee Bryant.
Both the district and the PCTA have been going back and forth to find an agreement for the 2023-2024 school year.
“The counties only get so much money. Then everybody has to go in and really, really, really negotiate hard to try to get their fair share of it,” said Bryant.
If the agreement is approved at Tuesday’s school board meeting, it would include a 4.5% average salary increase for all instructional staff, according to district documents.
That means that extra money gets added to the overall fund for teachers, then divided among staff— according to each person’s specific salary schedule.
“A few people will wind up with a little bit more, some with less. It’s all depending on the massive number of laws that are written to regulate teacher pay,” said Bryant.
“The continuing salary schedule, we’re getting about a $2,060 increase on their scale,” he added.
The teacher's starting salary would be increased to $52,000 from $50,568.
On top of the pay raises, in the new agreement, the school board would cover 80% of healthcare costs for employees.
The district would also provide an additional payment to teachers who perform other duties for things like athletics and arts. That minimum supplement will be raised to $300.
“I am proud of what we did with the money that they started offering and what we wound up getting. I’m very happy,” said Bryant.
The meeting starts at 5 p.m.
