FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Pre-Kindergarten educators are fed up and making a call for action for teacher status after an expected bonus never came in.
Teachers could be seen protesting outside of the Broward County Schools Administration Building, at 600 SE 3rd Ave., in Fort Lauderdale, Tuesday afternoon.
The Pre-K teachers first got word of an incoming bonus after an email was sent from the Broward County School district in December 2018.
The email read, “Dear Teacher … our records indicate that you should be eligible for the Florida Department of Education’s Best & Brightest award based on the Highly Effective you earned on your BrIDGES 2017-18 overall evaluation. We expect your award to be paid to you in March 2019.”
“So, yes, everyone was very happy, thinking that our hard work really paid off,” Broward Pre-K Teacher Merrill Galante said.
But just days before the money was expected to come in, another email came in. This email came with an upsetting update.
“At that moment, I just felt like a little girl that got sucker punched,” Broward Pre-K Teacher Cheryl said.
The email said, “The State of Florida Auditor General had conducted audits throughout the state and determined the following: ‘State law does not include prekindergarten teachers in the definition of classroom teachers, limits the definition of classroom teachers to K-12 personnel, and separately defines prekindergarten instructors.'”
The email goes on to say, “We are disappointed in these rulings and unfortunately, you will not be receiving the Best & Brightest Award on 3/29/19. We are legally prohibited from making these payments out of state funds.”
“They’re saying it is for K-12 only, yet the contract that we sign every year and other things that we sign at the beginning of the year, link us to the same statutes in K-12 and education code K-20. Yet then, when it comes to these bonuses, they say we can’t get it because we’re not K-12,” Galante said.
The district said it is working on finding a positive resolution, and it will provide an update as soon as possible.
Anna Fusco, the President of the Broward Teacher’s Union, said they are asking the district to find the money to pay the teachers.
“Can they find it? I don’t know, but I can tell you right now, we are pressuring them to find it and not use it against our raises,” Fusco said.
“We just want to be treated equally and recognized as teachers that we are,” Galante said.
7News has reached out to the school district for comment but have yet to hear back.
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