After a months-long process of negotiating over pay and health insurance costs, teachers and other school staff in the Orange County public school system have voted nearly unanimously to approve a new union contract with the school district, delivering “historic” 10% raises.
“This contract victory was achieved through advocacy and unity,” said Clinton McCracken, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association in a statement. “It is not only an agreement that teachers deserved and earned — it also helps our students succeed. Our Union remains dedicated to ensuring that our educators are recognized for their teaching excellence.”
According to the Orange County CTA — a union representing roughly 14,000 school teachers, school psychologists, librarians and other staff in Orange County Public Schools — union members approved their new contract in a 99.5% vote of approval.
About 50% of the bargaining unit — 7,082 school staff — turned out for the vote, according to the union, with just 35 employees voting against ratification. The Orange County school district described this as a “record” number of ballots cast.
“It is exciting to see our teachers decisively voted to ratify their contract,” said Dr. Maria Vazquez, superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, in a statement. “With this vote, our hard-working teachers have guaranteed their well-deserved raises.”
According to the district, both the salary increase and retroactive pay will show up in staff’s April 10 paychecks. This marks the first time that the district will be offering up percentage-increase raises, instead of flat amount increases — something the union fought for and won.
Ultimately, the district agreed to a 2% cost of living adjustment and added salary increases for teachers who receive “effective” and “highly effective” educator evaluations. Under the new agreement, “effective” teachers will receive a 7.75% raise (with COLA included) and “highly effective” teachers will receive a 9.7% pay increase.
Under the new agreement, starting teacher pay will rise from $48,400 to $49,375 annually, with additional supplements for staff with advanced degrees. Minimum pay for school psychologists will similarly increase about $1,000 annually to $58,293.
Statewide, Florida ranks 48th in the nation for average teacher pay — and both the union and the school district have acknowledged the need to make teacher salaries more competitive.
Amid the GOP’s culture war fights targeting public education and new state regulations targeting teachers’ unions, competitive pay is one of the more achievable ways for local school boards to retain and recruit teachers, provided there are the funds and political will.
The cost of living in Orange County — and Orlando in particular — soared during the pandemic, leaving many locals working what were once considered solid middle-class jobs at risk of being priced out of the area.
Still, negotiations for this new agreement dragged out for months after the district declared impasse last August over disagreements with the union on several issues.
The union, for instance, fought the district over the percentage-increase raises (which they said would better benefit longtime teachers) and asked the district to recognize June 19 (Juneteenth) as a paid holiday.
The most important issue that delayed reaching a final agreement, however, was a proposal from the district to raise employees’ healthcare premiums. In some cases, the proposed increases were substantial, ranging from increased costs of up to $646 a year for employee-only coverage plans, and up to $3,459 a year for family plans.
The district hasn’t raised health plan costs in years. In 2019, a proposed insurance hike drove a majority of union members to actually reject a deal reached by the district and the union (under different leadership at the time) by a 4–1 margin.
“What the CTA wanted was a far cry from the contract they rejected,” Orlando Weekly reported at the time. “In an ideal world, they would have walked away from bargaining with a 10 percent increase to the payroll and no increase on health insurance premiums.”
This past contract cycle, the district argued that continuing to keep premiums the same was unsustainable. Union leaders argued the proposed increases were too costly, and would essentially negate the ”historic” raises the district had finally decided to offer.
The district also tried to make the insurance premium hike effective June 30, 2024 — the final day of the contract they were negotiating — which union leaders found to be disingenuous. In January, a special magistrate — a third-party mediator of sorts — agreed.
The two parties — union leaders and school district staff — held a nearly nine-hour hearing last month to hammer out a deal. Eventually, the district agreed to delay the full proposed health insurance rate hikes to the 2025-2026 school year, in part by agreeing to pay $4.4 million to help cover a partial increase that will be effective this September.
This wasn’t an ideal outcome. Former Orange County mayor and current school board chair Teresa Jacobs, speaking before the state Board of Education last week, pointed fingers at the union for allowing the health insurance disagreement to delay teacher raises.
The District and School Board are rewriting history and attacking OCPS teachers and their union before the State Board of Ed. Despite over 15 attempts by the Union for reasonable solutions to insurance costs, they refused to budge from their massive insurance proposal all year.… pic.twitter.com/ojwZQGxA08
— Orange County CTA (@orange_cta) March 29, 2024
She argued the union refused to budge from their original position, while claiming that the union representing school support staff — Orange Education Support Professionals Association — was more willing to negotiate.
On social media, the union subsequently blasted Jacobs (and the district’s chief of staff) for their comments, accusing them of attacking teachers “by stating they were unwilling to negotiate in good faith.”
The district, however, has agreed to continue exploring options for keeping health insurance affordable, according to the union. Since contracts are negotiated annually—and this last cycle of contract talks dragged out for months — both parties are expected to soon return to the bargaining table to discuss a contract for the 2024-25 school year.
Are you a teacher or other union-represented employee in Orange County Public Schools? Let us know what you think of the contract or this article by emailing reporter McKenna Schueler at [email protected].
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