May 3, 2009 11:02 pm US/Eastern
Broward School Board To Vote On Teacher Raises
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
The Broward County School Board is expected to approve a tentative contract this week that gives teachers a 3.25 percent retroactive pay raise for the past school year. The teachers union overwhelmingly approved the plan recently even though it does not promise to give teachers a pay raise in the coming years.
"I think that it's a good thing that the teachers approved and the board should approve it," said Arthur Goldsmith, a biology teacher at Hallandale High School. "I think it allows us to get on with our teaching and allows us to get on with negotiations for next year, put everything behind us and we start anew again."
It took nearly a year to agree on this plan and now in just two weeks both sides are slated to start the process all over again. This time they will look at teacher salaries for the coming year. Under the contract just approved by the teachers, the district makes no promises for future raises.
"It's really important to note that Broward teachers have never not received a raise," said John Ristow, a spokesman for the Broward Teachers Union. "There's a little bit of a misconception, the battle was that in the past years they've always agreed to promise a raise, which is called a step movement. Unfortunately, due to the economic times, they were unable to do that. We believe that they were, but through the impasse process we did not win that argument."
Ristow says the average teacher in Broward County makes about $46,000 a year. Still, Broward teachers rank 29th in the nation when it comes to their salary.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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