Hillsborough school district to begin negotiations with teachers’ union

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County Public Schools and the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association will meet at the bargaining table Monday to begin contract negotiations for the 2024-2025 school year.

The district said the session will focus on instructional staff and support staff.

This comes as a recently released report by the National Education Association found that Florida teachers are paid the least out of any state. It found the average teacher in the state makes a little over $53,000 per year, as of the 2022-2023 school year.

The report, from the country’s largest teachers’ union, ranked Florida 50th of all states. That’s a drop from the 2021-2022, where Florida ranked 48th.

The Florida Department of Education said the state has invested billions of dollars in pay raises for teachers since Governor Ron DeSantis took office, and increased the starting salary for teachers from $40,000 to $48,000.

In a statement to 8 On Your Side after the report was released, the state Department of Education wrote in part, “When the union gets involved in salary negotiations, teachers lose out.” It went on to say, “Last year, the Hillsborough County teachers’ union used delay tactics to stall teacher pay raises for more than 6 months.”

In response, the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association fired back, writing, “This is unequivocally false and is a malicious attack on hardworking educators and staff.”

The union said the school board and previous superintendent didn’t offer pay raises and were unwilling to honor the contract.

The union’s statement continued, “Our Hillsborough County Public School employees deserved better then and still deserve more to this day.”

This year, the union said new district leadership has helped the two sides get to negotiations for next school year earlier than ever before.

The Hillsborough County School Board also voted to put a millage renewal on the 2024 ballot , which it said would help provide teachers with pay raises. That would still need to approved by voters in November.

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