Dec 15, 2008 6:37 pm US/Eastern
Teachers Fight Again Over Promised Pay Raises
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Teachers wearing red shirts listen as lawyer for their union and from the school district argue over promised raises.
CBS
The United Teachers of Dade are meeting Monday and Tuesday to demand pay raises from the Miami-Dade County School District. The raises were cut from the budget as the school board tried to dig the district out of a $250-million dollar budget deficit and now the teachers union hopes a Special Magistrate will rule in its favor.
In a show of solidarity, dozens of teachers dressed in red T-shirts attended Monday's meeting at the Adrienne Arsht Center in downtown Miami.
Teachers are angry that they have not received a pay raise which was supposed to kick in back in July. "We're talking about $32, if that, a paycheck. It's pretty sad," said teacher Mari Corugedo. Corugedo makes around $50 thousand a year as one of the highest paid teacher, because of her 16-year tenure with the district and master's degree. Most starting teachers make just $38 thousand. A contract between the union and the district was supposed to boost that to $40 thousand yearly.
But the school district says they're suffering, with a deficit of hundreds of thousands of dollars. "It's not a question we don't want to," explained Miami-Dade School District C.F.O. Richard Hinds, "It's a question of we really don't have the money. We didn't have the time of budget adoption and since then our financial situation has continued to deteriorate."
The school district says they're losing around $100 million in state funding. The embattled raises would equal just below half that, at around $45 million.
It's an argument that falls on deaf ears for teachers like Corugedo, who uses at least $15-hundred of her own money yearly to purchase school supplies.
The teachers union hopes the Special Magistrate will rule in their favor over the promised pay raises. The Magistrate is hearing from attorneys from both the UTD and School Board before making any recommendation.
Ultimately, the Special Magistrate will have the final decision on what to recommend to the School District. However, the school board has the option to reject whatever decision the Magistrate makes.
Teachers have been waiting for a resolution ever since former Superintendant Rudy Crew said the district did not have the $72 million needed to award the raises due to state budget cuts.
The meeting is expected to go well into the evening. The hearing will continue Tuesday. Come next week, the whole system will begin again as the school board delves into the issue of health insurance.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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