- Leon County Teachers can expect to get more money in their paycheck—plus back pay next month.
- March 31 is the target date to get teachers paid including--retroactive pay.
- Watch how the Leon Classroom Teachers Association president questions state data regarding how high Leon County school teachers are paid. Leon County Schools responds to this claim.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Leon County Teachers can expect to get more money in their paycheck—plus back pay next month.
Or at least that’s the goal.
The Leon Classroom Teachers Association voted Tuesday to ratify the contract they negotiated with Leon County Schools to give teachers more pay.
I’m told March 31 is the target date to get teachers paid including--retroactive pay.
The Leon Classroom Teachers Association contract to increase teacher pay became official after LCTA members ratified the agreement Tuesday and the Leon County School Board unanimously voted to accept the agreement last week.
Veteran teachers like the ones ABC 27’s Maya Sergeant spoke to weeks ago are thankful for how it will impact them.
We followed up with those teachers and they told us in a statement in part.
“This ratification is the beginning of the process of recruiting and retaining valuable educators. The students of Leon County Schools deserve qualified professionals in the classroom. The salary increase is a step in the right direction, but the work continues," Mis'Shaylanqua Smith and Brandy Vance said.
Full Statement:
Our attitude of gratitude extends to Leon Classroom Teachers Association's bargaining team for their time and efforts in starting the conversation around salary increases and compression. It was the advocacy of teachers, staff, parents, and citizens that made this a success. All the phone calls, letters and speakers at the board meetings truly made an impact. This ratification is the beginning of the process of recruiting and retaining valuable educators. The students of Leon County Schools deserve qualified professionals in the classroom. The salary increase is a step in the right direction, but the work continues.
The two sides agreed to increase the base pay for all teachers by $575 and for teachers with more experience, they get an extra $100 per year.
"Living in Leon County, and the surrounding area, we know the cost of living and what it takes, and, you know, when we have teachers that are, you know, 47% of their salary is going to rent alone," Scott Mazur, LCTA President said. "You know, it's it just makes it very difficult to stay in the classroom, even if you're a great teacher."
Leon County is not immune to the state and nationwide exodus of teachers. With this new contract, we looked into how competitive Leon County Schools pay compared to others in the state.
We downloaded the most recent data from the Florida Department of Education from the previous school year which is the 2022-2023 school year. We are currently in the 2023-2024 school year.
We filtered the data and saw Leon County Schools ranked #7 among districts for the highest average salary last school year—and that’s before the current pay raises kicked in.
"If you look at just the average teacher salary in Florida, and you see the average teacher salary in Leon County Schools, there is a drastic jump in the numbers that are reported by Leon County schools to the Department of Education," Mazur said.
The jump Mazur is referring to is between the 2021-22 school year to the 2022-23 school year.
A publicly available average teacher salary spreadsheet shows in the 2021-22 school year Leon County Schools' average pay was $48,658.14.
The average teacher salary spreadsheet for the 2022-23 school year showed Leon County Schools teachers made an average salary of $56,869.37.
"We're very proud of our staff and in the experts that we have within our financial division," Chris Petley, the Leon County Schools Spokesperson said "They send the information to the Florida Department of Education and again, it's up to the DOE what they do with those numbers and how they compare to the other counties. All we do is report what was reported on."
We contacted the Department of Education to confirm how they collect teacher pay data and are waiting for a response.
We asked them: How the Teacher Salary Data 2022-23 is collected by the Florida Department of Education? They were self-reported numbers by the districts? If so, how are they confirmed by the Florida Department of Education before publication?
We do know during the 2020 Legislative Session Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature funded $500 million towards a teacher salary increase allocation that has increased teacher pay in the last few years.
I asked Mazur, "So, to be clear, you're questioning that number?" referring to the average salary of an LCS teacher being $56,869.37.
He replied:
“Oh, definitely."
He continued by saying, he has spoken to teachers who have said, " I never saw that kind of money. Where's that money? And what's very important is this, that we're all speaking the same language."
Leon County Schools said they’re proud of the teacher pay raise agreement.
"We look forward to working with them continuously to reward teachers for what they do every day in our classrooms. We're only as strong as our teachers, and we're proud of that," Petley said.
We also looked at the median teacher pay as reported by the Florida Department of Education. That number does show Leon County Schools ranked #5 in the state. FLDOE says the median salary is $56,965.92.
Both the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Educators Association’s data on teacher pay is only recent up to two school years ago. Meaning it shows numbers from the 2021-22 school year.
NCES reported the average pay was $66,397 nationwide.
NEA says it was $66,745. In Florida, that average pay was $51,230. In Georgia, it was $62,240.
