Wes Wolfe
Sometimes lost in the discussion of trying to recruit and retain public school faculty and staff are the contract negotiations with those who are showing up and putting in the work currently.
For the Nassau County School District, which is trying to thread the needle of pay that’s not keeping up with a prohibitively expensive housing market, one contract appears done, but negotiations continue with the district’s teachers.
“I’m happy to report, as you are aware, we have a tentative agreement with NESPA (the Nassau Educational Support Personnel Association),” district Human Resources Director Scott Hodges said at the latest county School Board meeting.
“It was reached on Aug. 16. I think that’s a record time for a tentative agreement — at least in the last 20 years I’ve been paying attention, so we’re happy about that, and thank you for your assistance in that endeavor.”
There is a $1.37 an hour pay increase for all salary lanes in the bargaining unit, and an increase to two paid bereavement days regardless of accumulated sick time, for a death in the immediate family. Workers will also obtain annual contract status after one full year of probationary employment.
The $1.37 increase bumps minimum pay in the district to more than $15 an hour.
Ratification on the contract is set for an Aug. 31 vote.
“The NTA (Nassau Teachers’ Association) negotiations are just getting underway,” Hodges said.
The negotiating teams had an executive session Thursday night and a bargaining session set for Sept. 1.
In the search for new teachers, district personnel went to nine virtual and in-person recruitment events at the University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida State University, the University of North Florida and Valdosta State. They also went to the Diversity in Education Virtual Fair and the Great Florida Teach-In, and held local career fairs.
They’re planning on having both an in-person and virtual Nassau County career fair for this year as well.
“You see, a lot of the fairs, I heard a statistic — our state universities went to putting 10-12,000 teachers out a year until 2-3,000 (now),” Hodges said. “The results show in these fairs. Going to these fairs, we don’t have the education recruits we’ve had.”
They were most successful through local in-person fairs and their application website.
As of Aug. 17, they hired 194 new instructional employees for the 2022-23 school year, and along with those 74 are internal district transfers. The district also brought on 102 non-instructional hires, with 42 non-instructional workers transferring to other jobs within the district.
The non-instructional jobs break down into 58 paraprofessionals, 25 temporary workers, six food service workers, four custodians, three bus drivers, along with a handful of other jobs.
“Those (temporary employees) could be people that didn’t work for us at all, or maybe some of the cafeteria workers that want to maybe help out on the buses in the afternoons, or the paraprofessionals that are helping out with the buses in the morning,” Hodges said.
There are 15 administrators new to their positions — two new to the district and 13 internal moves.
The district’s year is starting off with 1,614 full-time employees, split between around 890 instructional, 670 non-instructional and 54 administrative workers. They’re just short of 400 temporary employees, substitutes and community athletic coaches.
They’re still looking for another 16 classroom teachers and two part-time teachers for adult education. Meanwhile, the district is short more than 40 non-instructional workers, including 12 paraprofessionals, around 11 food service positions, eight custodians, a mechanic, a secretary/bookkeeper, a supervisor secretary, a nurse and an accountant.
There’s also a need for a food and nutritional services director and another six support staff.
The Board voted earlier this year to put a 1 mill property tax increase on the November ballot, in part to help finance recruitment and retention of personnel.
“While the state provided an increase in starting teacher salaries, it resulted in our most experienced teachers making the same or slightly more,” according to a school district statement on the proposed millage.
“Many of these teachers are going to other districts or moving into higher paying, less stressful jobs. Nassau County’s average teacher salary ranks 44th out of 67 Florida districts, in a state that ranks 48th out of 50 in the nation. Salaries are cited as one of the main reasons there is a national teacher shortage, which is now impacting Nassau County vacancy rates. Voter approval is needed to increase funding.”
