Dade Teachers Unhappy Over Agreement With District
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Some Miami-Dade County school teachers say they are not too happy with the recent agreement between the union and school district.
They say under the new plan their pay is not adding up. Teacher, Shawn Beightol says, "this will affect my lifetime earnings."
Beightol is a chemistry teacher at Ferguson Senior High. He's taught in Miami-Dade County for 23 years. He said he was due for a $5,000 raise this year and a $7,500 next year but under the new negotiated agreement with the school district and the Miami-Dade teacher's union, he will now get half.
Breightol said, "I'm trying to change it now. I'm grandfathered in."
Beightol and a small hand of other teachers have hit social media saying when they signed up, a raise was set in place but, as of 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott changed the plan making pay raises based on performance.
CBS4's Cynthia Demos spoke with the union president, Fredrick Ingram, who said, "This is a small group of people not getting the facts right."
He said teachers are getting an average, if a three percent increase, and the increases that were previously set in place were not guaranteed.
Ingram said, "I say join us and fight on in Tallahassee. The circumstances are not great. The governor is frantic about education given the circumstances we've done a great job."
The school district said 85 percent of teachers will get the increase they were expecting.
Beightol is not in that group and says he's taking his fight to a labor attorney and looking at a class action lawsuit.
Beightol said, "I hope they realize they have great teachers. Isn't that worth $7,500?"
There is a meeting set for representatives and teachers on Tuesday night at 5 p.m. A vote on the matter is set for September 8th.
