Asociación de Educación de Polk

ALL of the following information is based solely on proposals and does not, in any way, constitute guarantees

 

PEA first met with the employer in July of 2024.  At that time, the district was unwilling to discuss salaries but presented their expectation of being able to offer $20 million to the PEA groups for wages, inclusive of the $6 million provided by the state specifically and only available for teacher raises, with the possibility of a little more, depending on their fiscal closeout.

 

PEA’s first proposal included full decompression of the teacher salary schedule, and further, though still partial, decompression of the ESP and Para salary schedules, in addition to 30 consecutive minutes of lunch time allotted to all three contracts, 2 possible TDAs for all instructional personnel throughout the year, and educational credit supplements for ESPs, for a package total of roughly $47 million.

 

The employer accepted the educational supplements for ESPs, rejected the salary proposal and TDAs, and began discussing the options for 30 minute lunches, noting this would not be able to be accomplished before the next year (25-26 SY).

 

When the employer finally presented a salary proposal, it was for $20 million total which would, equate to a roughly 4% raise, according to their figures and include NO further decompression at all (meaning that all employees would stay at their current levels; ex. a teacher who has been teaching for 3 years makes the same as those only teaching for 1 and a Para/ESP with 10 years of experience makes the same as one with only 1 year).

 

PEA rejected this proposal citing their large fund balance and their need to prioritize staff salaries when creating their budget moving forward, acknowledging that without a millage in place, the PEA proposal would, within 2 years, bring their fund balance below the board set minimum of 5%.

 

The employer rejected the PEA proposal citing the large disparity between their offer of $20 million and our proposal of $47 million.  The PEA bargaining team created a new package proposal, coming to a middle ground of roughly $35 million in raises (which would still include the decompression), and a guarantee of the 30 minute lunches, ALL early release days being converted to teacher planning time, and the millage referendum being placed on the ballot by the board which would guarantee future funding sources and help alleviate some of the annual battles for fair pay in Polk.  

 

Please note, this proposal is just that!  This package was proposed by PEA on November 20th and the employer has yet to accept or reject, with our next bargaining session on Wednesday, December 11th.  This means that these figures are in NO WAY guaranteed to happen.  

 

To see an executive summary of our current proposal, and specific figures of the salary proposals (again, these may fluctuate before anything is settled), click on the corresponding links below: