I strongly oppose the proposal to recind teacher pay. Teachers in Broward County are already making less than the surrounding counties. They need to have a living wage to survive and thrive here in South Florida. If you vote for this, you are showing a severe lack of respect for the work teachers do.
Give teachers the raise *already voted on* and do work this summer to figure out how to balance the budget.

My name is Dr. Trudy Jermanovich and I’m leaving you with words from the Founder of STOP MOMS FOR LIBERTY.

“My name is Liz Mikitarian. I am a retired Florida teacher and the founder of the national movement, “STOP Moms for Liberty.” I have been watching events unfold in Broward and felt compelled to comment.

Board, please make a clear position - Are you AGAINST pay raises for teachers?

Don’t let the extremists undermine your teachers because they are anti-union. Stand up for your teachers.

For pretty transparent reasons your board is under scrutiny and possibly in danger of an attempted takeover by a rouge governor whose fear mongering foolishness was not acceptable to most of this country, as evidenced by his poor national performance.

Don’t be fooled to think that state interference with the governance of your Broward school board is anything but geared toward driving people away from the public schools. Actions by the state and local extremists are all part of the privatization agenda. It is meant to drive families into for-profit education. Newsflash …..educating children should never be about profit.

But far rightwing extremists’ strategies are backfiring. There is more support being generated now across this country for public education than I have seen in my 30+ years working with children.

—Book banning is a distraction.
—Bathrooms are a distraction.
—CRT fear is a distraction.
All are meant to distract us from the privatization dangers.
This is about the money that can be made off the backs of children. Stop it now while you still can. Keep Broward in control of their public schools.

Don’t allow extremism to take hold.
Those of you who have been duly elected, have an obligation to represent your community and to save your public school system.

Do your jobs correctly or history will not look upon your public service favorably.”

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This matter has been voted upon and is not subject for revote. The teachers impacted by this salary raise are not entitled to the annual performance raises that each of the other employees named in the pending motion are reviewed for. When the new statute was enacted in 2014, veteran teachers were forced to surrender their tenure or in essence, be subjected to a reduced salary until their ultimate retirement. By statute, teachers hired before 2014 are already making at least 25% less than teachers hired after them. Adding the slight percentage raise for the limited number of impacted teachers does not fix the greater overall deficit - nor does taking back the only raise veteran teachers have received in nearly a decade balance the district’s budget.

Teachers and employees hired after the 2014 statute was enacted are provided with opportunity for an annual performance review and salary increase, in addition to their starting salary which must be at least 25% more than that of a veteran teacher.

To suggest that depriving veteran teachers of a well deserved pay increase to enhance the pay increases of employees who are already receiving raises is deplorable. When the money is plucked from one employees wallet and placed into the pocket of another, the budget still remains an issue to be tackled. To suggest that the way to address the inequity is by forcing the teachers - your human assets - to pay for the shortage - is a misstep. Cut spending and excess from the top down. Cut excess in outstanding and ongoing projects, and reduce channeling money for tutoring and in school projects to private entities.

Hello. My name is David Wood, a teacher in my 31st year in Broward County, and I am deeply appalled by this proposal to rescind our settled raises.

I guess it makes sense that it has been forwarded by a Board member who was APPOINTED and not elected - proposing to vote to "take back" a negotiated, settled, and ratified collective bargaining agreement is exactly the kind of thing one would expect from someone who was appointed to his position by a governor with a grudge against our District instead of going through the normal process to attain the power of his position. The BTU EP Unit bargained with the District for nine months IN GOOD FAITH to reach this agreement. It went through all the normal processes: proposals and counter-proposals, public actions, PR moves, etc. Having served on the union negotiations team in the past, I know what a legal, valid negotiation process looks like. We have a settled contract – the issue is closed. Mr. Alston and the other Board members who support this idea (and who clearly didn’t vote to approve the raise) need to move on – and figure out how to give the other deserving bargaining units (and other employee groups without actual unions – like administrators) equivalent or better raises.

The title of the proposal – No Employee Left Behind – is deceptive and belies the actual goal of the proposal – which is to cause employee groups in Broward Schools to turn on each other. We have already seen it happening. Mr. Alston may claim to be acting in good faith, but this sure appears to be yet another attempt to sow division and chaos in Broward – perhaps the exact reason he was appointed by Governor DeSantis – to punish and destabilize the Broward County Public School system.

I encourage Board members not only to vote down this proposal but also to send a clear message that they stand by their settled agreements and that their words mean something. Stop giving so much power to people who are clearly hellbent on causing chaos and instability in our system.