When the school bell rings this month, longtime Palm Beach County teachers will be smiling.
That’s because educators with at least a decade of service will receive a $10,000 salary bump on Aug. 23, thanks to a 2018 county voter referendum.
“I’m looking forward to that $10,000 raise,” says Alexandra Clifton, who has taught at Santaluces High School in Lantana for 13 years.
Clifton switched careers from journalism to teaching in 2006, shortly after automatic step salary increases for teachers were abolished. She was disappointed in the change but felt the job would be beneficial for her family.
“I needed a set schedule because of my young daughters,” she says. “I knew this job was not lucrative when I started.”
Her daughters – who were a toddler and a newborn in 2006 – are now teenagers.
“I love being a teacher,” Clifton says. “I tell my students this is the best career, right up there with being a journalist.”
She believes in her students: “The kids are just amazing. They’re funny and caring. There are a lot of good kids out there.”
Even so, Clifton and other teachers locally and nationally face daunting obstacles in their quest to educate the next generation. And many are voicing their complaints through large-scale strikes, rallies and protests. Between crowded classrooms, inadequate resources, an emphasis on high-stakes testing, a burgeoning workload and fears about school security, it’s a struggle to keep educators on the payroll.
Many teachers leave their classrooms exhausted – and with piles of paperwork that they tackle nights and weekends. Some have second jobs to make ends meet. Others don’t want their names associated with negative comments about their job, fearing retribution from principals.
And, in late April and early May, the raise that many eagerly awaited was in jeopardy. The issue: Some state legislators wanted the district to share money from a referendum that raised property taxes to pay for raises and other educational expenses with local charter schools – a proposal that was met with a backlash with a capital B.
One of the strongest opponents was the county teachers union, which organized two rallies in the spring, each drawing a record number of participants.
“The participation levels were some of the highest in the past decade for any organized action regarding public education here in Palm Beach County,” says Justin Katz, president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association.
Middle school teacher Susan Oyer, who has taught different subjects during her 21 years with the district, says: “I participated in the second rally as a show of solidarity with the county teachers union and other teachers. The language on the ballot that the voters approved in Palm Beach County needs to be respected by the [Florida] Legislature."
They talked. Legislators listened. A proposal that would have sent about $20 million in voter-approved local money to the county’s charter schools was defeated.
Katz notes that the turnout (about 300 people, including educators, residents and even school board members), along with abundant calls and emails to state legislators, sent a loud and clear message that they “can’t retroactively rewrite laws to overturn lawful elections when they dislike the outcome.”
He adds: “Our message was more about protecting the voters’ intent than the actual uses of the funding.”
Katz knows that the fight for better teacher pay is ongoing as the extra money from the referendum will end in four years.
“We need the Florida Legislature to do its job and properly fund our public schools,” he says. “That is and has been the most critical issue since the recession.”
Florida may rank third in population nationally, but it continually ranks near the bottom for state spending on education, including teacher salaries. For the budget year that started July 1, Florida will increase its spending per student from $7,429.42 to $7,672.02 – a difference of $242.60 or 3.27 percent, said State Sen. Lori Berman. It will be up to each district to decide how it will spend the money and share it with charter schools.
Sadly, educational supplies and salaries are only a few line items on the budget. These days, safety is paramount. Last year’s education budget was mostly used to increase security and add mental health counselors at schools – sparked by the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Amid the shock and grief, lawmakers grappled with ways to ensure the safety of students, teachers and staff. In May, state legislators passed a controversial bill allowing non-instruction school personnel – as well as teachers – to be armed to intervene in school shootings.
School districts must opt in to the so-called “guardian program,” which allows teachers and non-instructional staff to volunteer to be screened and then trained by sheriff’s offices to carry a gun on campus.
“I voted against it,” says Sen. Berman. “There are too many unknowns. How is the teacher supposed to keep that gun secure during the school day? What if the teacher goes to the restroom – are they supposed to take the gun with them?”
Five of the state’s largest districts, including Broward and Palm Beach counties, are not in the guardian program or decided to use that money to put an armed officer in each school and hire more mental health counselors.
“Many of the smaller districts, about 20 counties, signed up for the program,” Sen. Berman says. “They are so rural that they feel they are too far from law enforcement to arrive in time to help.”
Another possible drain on Florida education dollars comes from the 2019 Florida Empowerment Scholarship, which basically provides state vouchers for private schools. That could cost up to $131 million in the next budget year.
“In 2007, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a similar law, but it was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court,” Sen. Berman says.
But the court composition has changed: Three liberal justices retired in January due to the state’s mandatory retirement age. Gov. Ron DeSantis “is making the Supreme Court more conservative – the legislators decided to take their chances,” Sen. Berman says. She did not vote for the private school vouchers.
In 2018, the American Federation of Teachers found that Florida was among the 11 states with the lowest public education funding, according to its “Decade of Neglect: Public Education in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” report.
One sore point is the growth of charter schools, the report said.
Adds Katz: “In Palm Beach County, charter schools underperform our traditional, district-operated public schools in almost every measurable metric. I have no problem stating bluntly what the charter school movement is all about … profiteering at the expense of the quality of education and level of service the public school system can provide for our students.”
Teachers also want to see more accountability from charter schools.
“Charter schools started out to educate differently,” says Karyn Colombo, who taught at two charter schools before moving to Forest Hill High School. “But they morphed into a private-sector bonanza for their operators.”
Colombo is in her sixth year at the West Palm Beach school, where she teaches intensive reading.
“It’s draining and stress-filled,” she says, “but it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”
Debbie O’Meilia, a veteran public-school teacher, is critical of where charter schools are located in urban areas: “If they’re in a strip mall, what kind of playground can they provide? Younger kids need mandatory play time to get rid of excess energy and also to learn how to solve problems. Running around the playground will help them understand the concept of perimeter.”
She originally wanted to be a doctor.
“But teaching allows me to be a mom, a wife and a softball coach,” she says.
O’Meilia, with the district on-and-off since 1987, now is a behavioral health resource teacher. That means she talks with students and teachers about mental health issues, but she is not a licensed social worker and cannot counsel them. She divides her time between Jupiter and Dwyer high schools in north county.
The district teachers interviewed for this story are pleased with Superintendent Donald Fennoy, who took the post last year.
“He’s fighting for the right things,” O’Meilia says. “He secured longevity pay for district teachers and asked his leadership team to develop ways to retain good teachers. He’s allowing more school-based decisions.”
The county has more than 193,000 students, making it the 10th largest school district in the nation.
This poses unique challenges – but Fennoy is ready to face them, he says: “I balance my time and efforts around effective instruction, building a supportive climate, developing talent, creating a high-performance culture and working closely with the community. Knowing that my decisions impact the lives of more than 200,000 students and staff is a responsibility that I take very seriously. I think of all of our students and staff as my extended family; I love my job.”
Florida has 73 school districts, with 67 based in counties. Other states have many more districts because they are centered on cities or geographic areas. Texas has the most, with 1,031.
Also, Sunshine State teachers can’t strike as their colleagues do in other states. The last teacher strike was on Feb. 19, 1968, when about 35,000 teachers statewide decided to protest low wages and poor benefits. It lasted three weeks. Then, in 1974, Florida became a right-to-work state, banning strikes.
However, strikes aren’t always effective, says a veteran Pennsylvania teacher who asked to remain anonymous.
“We had one in the late ’90s when the community turned against us,” she says. “People think teachers have cushy jobs because we have the summers off. But they don’t see the reports we bring home to finish in the evenings and on weekends.” O