FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Just days after the new Broward Schools superintendent was sworn into office, the school board is now working on his agenda, which includes a possible pay raise for teachers.
One school board member wants to pay Broward County teachers $100,000, which he said, is just half of 1% of the schools budget to get it done.
“To say that teachers are underpaid, considering the value that they contribute to the community, is almost an insult to the teachers,” Dr. Allen Zeman said. “We know they are underpaid. We know their contributions to our schools, to our kids, to our families and to Broward County, and it’s time to make them whole.”
Zeman wants to pay teachers $100,000 by 2025, which includes $80,000 in pay and $20,000 in benefits.
‘There’s a real competition out there for talent out there and I want Broward to be the first county in Florida to pay teachers $100,000 by 2025,” said Zeman.
“We’ve Identified $25 million, one-half of 1% of our budget so that we can meet this target of getting to $100,000 for teachers in total compensation by 2025, and $150,000 for principals and assistant principals by the same year,” Zeman said.
Zeman said he has the support of the district’s new superintendent Dr. Peter Licata.
“This is gonna be huge for Broward, we just gotta make sure, we do it in delivered fashion, to make sure we are not removing services and that worries me too,” said Licata.
The average teacher in Broward Country currently makes just over $66,000 a year.
“I have to be able to afford certain things for my children, and, you know, I do a lot of extra things at the school,” a teacher said.
Zeman’s proposal would cover the next four years, but beyond that, it is not clear how the raises would be sustained, which has prompted concerns for at least one other school board member.
“Though I really want to have a good, solid, honest discussion about what that $80,000 and a discussion on how it breaks down,” Debra A. Hixon said.
A school board meeting was held Tuesday afternoon and could get delayed by Tuesday evening, where the school board could vote on raises for Broward County teachers.
School Board voted on the teacher pay raise and the motion failed, Tuesday evening.
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