Duval Co. schools approves raise for teachers, staff

Teachers increase amounts to $2,090; $700 for other employees

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Duval County School Board has approved the teacher salary increase, an agreement ratified with Duval Teachers United in a special board meeting held Tuesday afternoon.

The agreement will amount to $2,090 for instructional personnel and $700 for support personnel. This raise will be effective before the winter holidays and is to be an annually recurring supplement that counts toward employees' retirement.

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The board action adds Duval County Public Schools to the list of districts in Florida who have reached an agreement with the funds provided in 2012-13 by the legislature as part of the Florida Education Finance Program. Duval County Public Schools received $21.2 million from the state to be used for salary increases for employee groups.

"We have enjoyed working collaboratively with our teachers' union over the past several months on the development of a plan to increase salaries of Duval County educators," said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. "This increase, which is in addition to the step raises provided to teachers earlier this year, serves as a demonstration of our commitment to educators during difficult budget times when recurring or annual increases are rare for school districts." Step raises included an additional $500 for instructional and $500 for support personnel.

In addition to salary and step increases, Duval County Public Schools has continued to fund increased health care costs for district employees, and currently maintains an insurance plan that is no-cost to employees.

While insurance costs have increased, Duval County Public Schools has absorbed the cost increases of $818.36 per employee or $8,354,637 in total funds for members of the DTU bargaining unit.

"DTU represents over 10,000 hard-working, dedicated employees," said union President Terrie Brady. "This collaborative settlement provides those employees additional compensation for all the work that they do. We thank the Superintendent and the School Board for working collaboratively with DTU to achieve this settlement. We thank all of our employees for going above and beyond in working to provide our students a quality education."