- January 21, 2025
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The Volusia County School Board voted 5-0 at a Jan. 25 meeting to approve a collective bargaining agreement with the teacher's union, the Volusia United Educators.
"We’ve got to do better for our mid-career and veteran teachers as far as salary goes. I have heard your commitment to doing that now that we’re at the $47,500."
— ELIZABEH ALBERT, Volusia United Educators union president
But even as they did so, some School Board members acknowledged that pay raises resulting from the state Legislature's move to increase new teachers' pay have also largely left out mid-career and veteran teachers.
The state in 2020 pushed districts to work to raise teacher starting salaries to $47,500.
Volusia County's new contract does that, increasing the base salary for a new teacher with a bachelor's degree to $47,500, up from $44,335 in the 2020-2021 school year.
But the state set aside little money to increase the salaries of teachers who'd been teaching for years, leading to a situation in which some mid-career teachers in some districts are not making much more than the new hires receiving the $47,500 minimum.
"We do have work that still needs to be done," Volusia United Educators Union President Elizabeth Albert said at the meeting. "You know that we’ve got to do better for our mid-career and veteran teachers as far as salary goes. I have heard your commitment to doing that now that we’re at the $47,500."
The district also needs to work to raise staff salaries to $15, she said. "The pathway to $15 for our support [staff], that’s very critically important that we lay that out, and it would be wonderful if we could get there before 2026," she said.
Shane Story, a second-year teacher, told the board that he felt things were heading in the right direction, but that he had voted against ratification of the contract because he felt it did little to help the more experienced teachers who'd mentored him and other new teachers.
"Think about how you would feel if you spent that much time in a position, and you look down and see somebody that just got here yesterday, and they’re making almost what you make. That’s depressing," Story said. "Why would you stay in the same field, or why would you stay in the same county?"
School Board member Jamie Haynes acknowledged the problem, then noted that the district's ability to raise salaries is limited because of the way the state constrains school district budgets.
Several board members, she said, had travelled to Tallahassee to push the legislature to allocate more funding for more experienced teachers, with some success — instead of 100% of the legislature's allocation going to raises for new teachers, as originally planned, 80% was set aside for new teachers, and 20% for raises for experienced teachers.
"We need them to continue to give us that funding, but now give us the flexibility so that next year … we can raise the salary of our experienced teachers here in Volusia County," Haynes said.
She urged listeners to contact their representatives in the Florida Legislature.
"Call their office, send them an email, and say, 'Please allow Volusia County the flexibility next year ... so that they can work on raising the salaries of the experienced teachers,'" she said.
Board member Linda Cuthbert agreed, and noted that step raises for teachers also ended in 2010.
"That was the year I obtained 25 years of experience, so I was able to get that last nice bump of salary. No one has had that since," Cuthbert said. "So it is true: Someone with 26 years experience that I had when I retired is not making the same amount, and that reflects not just in salary, but in your retirement."
Legislators, she added, don't seem to be moved by appeals coming from School Board members.
"They’re not listening to us anymore. We need the general pubic to advocate with us," she said.
