My name is Dr. Trudy Jermanovich. As you know the District and the BTU are finally negotiating teachers’ raises for the 2024-25 school year which is always way behind other districts. Again this year the Board wants to have some health insurance to be paid by teachers. For raises the offer from the Board was a 2% increase where about 1 1/3% of it is funded and dictated by the State. In other words, the Board is offering less than a one percent raise plus increased costs for teachers. The BTU would not accept the offer and negotiations continue. You must speed up this process. We know that teachers in Broward have been stretched to the limit financially, and every raise is important. Teachers also want to see that the district cuts money from the administrative budget. That does not appear to be happening. Also, more edicts from above continue to take away a teacher’s autonomy in the classroom. Teachers want to be a part of the decisions for the curriculum which they use. They feel those decisions are made from the top and teachers are forced to just take it. Give teachers back their autonomy and work to give them a decent raise so we don’t continue to lose them to other districts.
We are also on the cusp of a major change for programs which are organized at the federal level. Here’s one teacher’s hope for the government: “Our elementary school is the heart of our community. In many cases, the school is the only safe place for our students. With the stability of our school, many of our students have gone on to have successful careers and have broken the chain of their childhood.
We are a Title I school, so we receive a lot of Title I funding, which gives our students the opportunity to have experiences that they wouldn’t get otherwise. We also have a high population of special education students, and the federal government helps us with their needs so that they are able to get a fair education. We are able to purchase special materials that the school wouldn’t be able to purchase on it’s own.”
The district must be proactive for what is about to happen to our schools. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.