TAMPA, Fla. — Over the weekend, a recount made it official.
Hillsborough County’s referendum that would’ve increased property taxes for teacher raises failed by a razor-thin margin.
With that defeat now certain, 10 Tampa Bay has learned that the school district and the teachers union were going back at the negotiating table Monday, ending a month-long stalemate.
“Yeah, we’re back at the bargaining table today and absolutely, we look at every single dollar that is available,” said Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Kriete.
Faced with the reality that, for now, they’ll have to work with what they’ve got – meaning no additional funds from the failed referendum.
“The district has asked us to reengage with something that they say we might be interested in,” Kriete said.
The teachers want credit for years of experience, which would move them up the pay scale. The estimated cost of doing that is $25 million, which is a big number when voters have just pulled the plug on additional funding.
Still, the union points to other sources like an estimated $58.6 million in additional property taxes compared with last year, according to the Hillsborough Property Appraiser’s office, thanks to higher real estate values.
“That’s correct,” said Kriete, “And that’s exactly what we talk about at the bargaining table.”
Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Addison Davis says the district will almost certainly have to increase class sizes to offset 600 open positions. But those vacancies have also created a budget surplus.
“We’ve got to get to a point where compensation packages are valued,” said Davis. “This will be the first time in a decade that we end the school year, this past school year, not in a financial deficit.”
Still, whether that or any other surplus goes directly to teachers’ raises is uncertain. Approximately $22 million is already earmarked to bring staff wages up to a $15 minimum.
Operational costs like bus fuel and electricity are higher, too.
The union says there’s been discussion about benefits and perks that don’t necessarily cost more.
“Something needs to be done,” Kriete said. “We were hoping that the millage was going to be that answer, but we have to look creatively at how to break that up and give them something along the way to reward them for the hard work that they’re doing every single day for the students.”
The teachers union said it was expecting its renewed bargaining session to last about two hours.
Kriete says they will listen to whatever the district is proposing and then take that back to union members in a series of workshops. They’ll then come back in about a week with an answer or counteroffer.
“They are doing it for the love of the students, quite frankly,” Kriete said of the district’s workers. “That’s really where the rubber hits the road for these teachers. They’re not really in it for the income. They’re in it for the outcomes that they get from these kids.
"Now, the income is obviously necessary for them to do what they do, but they love these kids. They love what they’re doing. So, that’s what’s really moving them every single day.”