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Hernando Today

Tentative Deal Struck Between Union, School District

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 8, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Hernando's teachers would get a 2.4 percent raise this year as part of a tentative agreement reached late Thursday by the union and the school district.

Negotiators for the school district and the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association agreed that's a realistic compromise after several rounds of cordial talks. The deal must now be ratified by the school board and union membership to take effect in January.

Teachers had hoped for the same 5.5 percent increase that Superintendent Wayne Alexander received. But the union understands the tight fiscal constraints imposed on school districts by the state, said HCTA President Joe Vitalo.

"The budget just could not handle that," Vitalo said. "These are tough times, and the only way we can help out the employees and economy is to try to get as much as we can for employees. I do have to commend the district for recognizing that."

"You always have different positions, but it went really well this year," said Heather Martin, the district's executive director of business services and chief contract negotiator.

The agreement would hike the district's teacher payroll by 2.39 percent, which will cost the district $2.1 million. The district also will cover the 1.5 percent increase in the cost of health insurance.

The district agreed to apply the raise in January instead of retroactively to the beginning of the current school year. That was key, Vitalo said, because a retroactive application would have meant a lump sum payment for the first five months of this school year and a bigger chunk lost to income taxes.

The two parties also were able to compromise on a new salary schedule. The number of teacher pay grades, called steps, will drop from 28 to 20. The union had hoped to reduce that to 15, Vitalo said.

But even compressing the salary schedule to 20 steps means a teacher could earn an additional $90,000 over the course of 20 years, he said.

Another positive outcome, according to both sides: The starting pay for a teacher would increase from $34,000 to $35,000.

That brings Hernando closer to surrounding counties such as Pasco and Citrus, Martin said.

"We're making headway in that. That's been a board priority," she said.

Hernando's teacher salary level ranks 61st out of Florida's 67 counties, according to Vitalo. This deal is one of the higher settlements reached in the state so far and will likely cause that to climb, he said.

The district is dipping into the rainy day fund for this year's raise, bringing its unallocated reserve fund down to 1.2 percent of the overall budget. The state recommends at least 3 percent.

The willingness to dip into reserves convinced the union the school district was working in good faith, Vitalo said.

But Vitalo and the union have plenty of acrimony toward the state. It's the Legislature's crippling cuts to education funding that cost teachers a better raise, he said.

"We have qualified teachers in Hernando who would be more than happy to teach Tallahassee how to do accounting so they don't have to keep coming back and cutting because they don't know how to budget," he said.

Martin acknowledged that dropping the reserve level is concerning, especially as state officials have indicated school districts face another 4 percent cut in funding as the Legislature grapples with a $4 billion budget shortfall.

But she is hopeful that the district's own budget frugality will help bring those reserves up.

"The message here at the district is to be austere," she said, "so you hope the austerity results in budgeted money not being completely used."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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