This post was created on 05/24/2022.
Pasco teachers and non-instructional staff have ratified a contract with the school district that will result in a supplement equal to 4% of their salaries. Both the instructional and non-instructional employees groups approved the contracts by a wide margin, with instructional employees and non-instructional employees voting to ratify by 92% and 91% respectively. The Pasco School Board voted to approve the contract settlement last week.
The employees are expected to receive the supplements on June 17.
“This is very good news for thousands of employees who have been waiting to receive these supplements,” said Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning. “This is extremely well deserved.”
Included in these agreements are a commitment of over $15.5 million dollars in additional salary supplements for this school year; an amount sufficient to provide each actively employed teacher and SRP with an additional 4% salary supplement beyond the $1,000 payments made to employees earlier this school year. For SRP, the minimum amount of these supplements would be $700 for full-time (defined as working 6 hours or more per day) employees and $350 for part-time (defined as working less than 6 hours per day) employees.
Additionally, the agreements include increases to the District’s contributions toward employee health insurance and Florida Retirement System benefits for the 2021-2022 school year, and nominal salary adjustments to teacher salaries based on a small increase to the state’s Teacher Salary Increase Allocation (TSIA) categorical. Also included is a commitment by both parties to return to the negotiating table immediately upon the governor’s signature of the 2022-2023 fiscal year budget so that the District and Union can begin the process of negotiating permanent raises for employees for the 2022-2023 school year, with the goal of having these raises ready for employees when they return to work this August.
The contract agreement took longer than usual this year, and both the school district and the United School Employees of Pasco have expressed interest in starting negotiations on the new contract as soon as possible.
It should also be noted that the School Board recently approved a resolution to place an ad valorem salary referendum on the ballot in August with the sole purpose of generating additional funds to further improve employee salaries.
