TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Teachers across Hillsborough County are back at the bargaining table this Labor Day as they negotiate a new contract with the school district.<\/p>\n
Nearly 20,000 teachers are working in Hillsborough County Schools this year, but the district is facing financial pressure, including declining tax revenue and fewer students attending public schools.<\/p>\n
Those financial challenges could limit how much the district can offer in salary increases.<\/p>\n
For a first-year teacher in Hillsborough County, the starting salary is just over $48,000 a year. That is about $3,000 less than the income the MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates a single adult needs to cover basic expenses in the area.<\/p>\n
Rob Kriete, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, said teacher pay remains an important part of the ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 50th in the nation in teacher pay,\u201d Kriete said.<\/p>\n
But Kriete said the negotiations are about more than salaries. Teachers are also seeking changes to working conditions, including how much time they spend on paperwork and other duties instead of working directly with students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get them the most that we can with their salary, but really about the working conditions,” Kriete said. “Because remember, our working conditions are our students\u2019 learning conditions.”<\/p>\n
Kriete said teachers want to spend more of their workday focused on students and meeting their individual needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want them focused with their hours working with those kids on what really they need to meet their needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The financial pressure facing teachers is not unique to Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n
Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar recently highlighted concerns from educators across the state about the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too many of us, we are struggling to make ends meet,” Spar said. “We are struggling to pay the bills, to afford housing, to get the quality healthcare we need.”<\/p>\n
While teachers continue negotiating with Hillsborough County Schools, other district employees have already reached an agreement on a new contract.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough School Employees Federation, which represents support staff including bus drivers, maintenance workers and nutrition workers, has reached a deal with the district.<\/p>\n
Under that agreement, bus drivers will receive a one-time $2,500 bonus.<\/p>\n
Other support staff will receive one-time bonuses ranging from $200 to $1,250, depending on their years of service.<\/p>\n
The teacher contract negotiations remain ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Teachers across Hillsborough County are back at the bargaining table this Labor Day as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4996,274,113,28,276,2635,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-392847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-education","tag-app-top-stories","tag-education","tag-florida","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jason-lanning","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}