Orange County teachers still awaiting raises promised by Gov. Scott

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County's teachers are still fighting to get the raises they were promised by Gov. Rick Scott, a battle Channel 9 has been following for months.

On Thursday, a special magistrate heard from teachers and the district over how that money should be split.

The district believes the law requires the raises to be performance-based, but the teachers union argues that law goes into effect next year and it could even be pushed back to 2016 because there is no way to fairly evaluate a teacher's performance.

Scott was at Ocoee Middle School in January when he promised a $2,500 raise for every full-time public school teacher in the state, a raise 13,000 teachers in Orange County are still waiting for.

"We haven't seen any of that money," said teacher Wendy Doromal.

Doromal, who teaches at Timber Creek High School, also works a second job at Universal Studios.

The teachers union and district have been at odds since May about how to divide the money up and give teacher raises.

Orange County Public Schools wants raises to be based on performance and they claim the law requires it go down that way.

But the teachers union believes that law doesn't go into effect until next year, and other districts have ignored it.

It also argues performance evaluations are not consistent across the district.

"They really don't have anything right now to measure student growth. Part of our evaluation is on student growth," said Diana Moore, Classroom Teachers Association president.

The union is arguing for a $1,500 bump in pay, plus a 4 percent raise for each teacher.

The district said that would average a 9 percent raise, which would break the district.

It's offering just over 6 percent, a deal it said is one of the highest raises in the state.

So, now with the two sides at an impasse, they took their arguments to a special magistrate on Thursday.

WFTV