This post was created on 10/17/2023.
The District and the United School Employees of Pasco (USEP) reached tentative agreements on employee salary and benefit packages for the District’s teachers and School Related Personnel (SRP). These packages not only provide recurring salary increases to our employees, but they also provide for increased District contributions towards each eligible employee’s Florida Retirement System (FRS) benefits and comprehensive health insurance packages.
It is important for everyone to note that the increases listed below are unrelated to the recent salary referendum ballot initiative and the resulting Salary Referendum Supplements (SRS) payments eligible employees have been receiving since the start of this school year. All increases listed are calculated off each employee’s base salary amount, exclusive of any SRS amount the employee may be receiving.
For the District’s teachers, the minimum full-time starting teacher salary has been increased by 1.25% to $47,000 per year (based on a traditional 196-day, 7.5 hour per day contract). All currently employed teachers who earned a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year will receive this same 1.25% increase, plus an additional 2.25% increase, for a total of a 3.5% base salary increase for the 2023/2024 school year. Any teachers newly hired in Pasco for the 2023-2024 school year and those teachers who did not earn a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year will have their base salary increased based on the District’s 2023-2024 New Hire Placement Schedule; a roughly 1.25% salary increase. In addition to these base salary increases, the District and USEP also reached agreement on nearly $1.3 million in academic and athletics supplement improvements for the 2023/2024 school year and beyond.
For the District’s SRP, all SRP who earned a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year will receive an increase of 3.5% to their base hourly rate of pay. Any SRP newly hired in Pasco for the 2023-2024 school year and those SRP who did not earn a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year will have their base hourly rate of pay adjusted based on the District’s updated 2023-2024 SRP salary schedules; a roughly 1.25% salary increase.
Funds have also been designated to provide NNB, Administrative, and Professional Technical Employees with commensurate salary increases. NNB, Administrative, and Professional Technical employees who earned a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year can expect a 3.5% salary increase for the 2023/2024 school year. NNB, Administrative, and Professional Technical employees newly hired for the 2023-2024 school year and those who did not earn a year of Pasco service credit for the 2022-2023 school year will have their salary adjusted based on the District’s updated 2023-2024 NNB, Administrative, and Professional Technical salary schedules; a roughly 1.25% salary increase.
For all employee types, the District is also absorbing a 1.66% increase in FRS contribution rates for all employees and is increasing its per employee contribution towards the cost of the District’s comprehensive health insurance packages by $428.14 (from $7,812.50 per employee per year to $8240.64 per employee per year).
In terms of timing, the District is working to have employees’ new rates of pay in place for the November 24, 2023, paycheck. The District is then targeting a special payroll on Friday, December 15, 2023, to provide eligible employees with retroactive pay on their salary increases stemming back to the start of their 2023-2024 work calendar. If there is a change in these target dates, notification will be provided to all employees as quickly as possible.
Finally, the District is just beginning to process these salary increases. Staff in Human Resources and Educator Quality (HREQ) and Finance/Payroll do not currently have individual salary increase amounts for employees. Please do not contact these departments at this time, as it will only delay salary increase processing. As additional salary increase information becomes available, it will be posted to the District’s compensation webpage.
In closing, the District and USEP are pleased with the terms of this year’s salary and benefits packages and view this year’s settlement as part of an ongoing cooperative commitment to retaining the high-quality staff that our District, schools, and students need to provide a world class education. Thank you for all you do for our students each day.
