ORLANDO, Fla. — It all depends on whether the majority of the educators approve the union’s agreement with the school district in a vote Monday night.
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This vote will lead to what Orange County Public Schools call a “historic” pay raise--a nearly 10 percent increase for most teachers.
It adds up to about $5,400 for the average teacher a year.
This is after the union and school district were stuck in an impasse for nearly seven months. That was until they struck a deal in March-- with the district agreeing to offset the insurance rate hike by paying 50 percent of the costs for the first year, in addition to its normal contribution.
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If passed, teachers will see that pay bump plus back pay for the 2023-2024 school year on April 10.
Union president Clinton McCracken told Eyewitness News Monday he expects educators will vote to approve the new deal. The union are encouraging educators to vote ‘yes’.
“Are you proud of this deal?” Channel 9′s Ashlyn Webb asked McCracken.
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“We’re very proud of this deal? Yeah, it’s a good, it’s a good contract negotiation, McCracken said.
Eyewitness News was there as the union counted ballots sent to 14,000 educators about whether to approve a new agreement with Orange County Schools.
“We know teachers will be excited to get those percentage raises. Again, we were able to get the reduction and the insurance increases. And there’s some other wins in there as well,” McCracken said.
“We tried to do everything we can to get as much money in the pockets of our teachers as quickly as we can. And we’re here today, you know, because of things that had happened or didn’t happen along the way,” said Orange County Schools Chief Communication Officer Scott Howat.
This is as Orange County is the one of three school districts in the state where teachers have not received pay raises the state legislature passed. It was brought up in a State Board of Education meeting last Wednesday where state officials and the School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs blamed the union for the delay.
“We are losing teachers, so everything that delays this is unconscionable,” Jacobs said.
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McCracked said Monday the delay was because district officials stalled on coming to the bargaining table on health insurance.
“More than 15 times union leadership spoke to either on the phone or through meetings or through emails. That we were suggesting alternatives to the insurance increases that the district was proposing,” McCracken said. “It’s what our teachers asked us to fight hard to try to get some movement.”
McCracken told Eyewitness News he expects the union will be done counting ballots by 9 p.m. Monday.
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