PLANTATION, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County schoolteachers came face to face with school district officials about their pay increase at a tense, packed meeting in the City of Plantation.
Cellphone video captured members of the Broward Teachers Union at Plantation High School wearing blue T-shirts, as they showed up for what they called the circus of the Broward County Public Schools, Tuesday.
At one point in the hearing, teachers turned their backs on the board.
An estimated 1,000 members of the union tried to convince the school board to give their salaries a boost. The union said the 1.5% increase offered by the district is just not enough for their long hours and hard work.
Irene Duran has taught in the district for 16 years.
“I think all teachers are just asking to be compensated correctly for the amount of things we do,” she said. “The amount of time we put in, the amount of money we put into our students, all of the extra hours we put in. We work really hard.”
Meredith Chassen has been a speech language pathologist in the district for 18 years.
“The students with special needs, it’s even harder. We get kicked. We get hit. We get spit on,” she said about managing some of these students. “I’m down on the floor. Today, I felt a new — every day, I say I feel a new pain, and right now the teachers feel pain in their hearts because we’re not being appreciated.”
The impasse hearing aimed to getting both sides to find a solution.
The teachers said part of this is about pay and how the Broward County School Board is spending its money. It’s also about respect, they said.
“We have facts, data, and we’re looking at and saying to come up with the funds to give your teachers an — I don’t know, how should I say this? — a real share of the pie,” said physical education teacher Raed Hamed.
Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said the nation’s sixth largest school district is being hamstrung by limited funding from Tallahassee. He said a referendum passed by Broward taxpayers already gave teachers a raise.
“Because we knew we were strapped for funding, and thanks to this community, they approved a referendum that allowed teachers to start this year with an average of 7% increase,” said Runcie. “These negotiations are for additional compensation on top of that. The total package that we’ve put on the table is 9.4%.”
As of 11 p.m., the hearing was still going on.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.