Polk County Public Schools and the Polk Education Association have reached a tentative agreement regarding salaries and benefits for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

PCPS has more than 13,000 employees. PEA represents approximately 9,000 of these employees, including teachers, paraeducators, and other educational support (clerical) positions.

The tentative agreement totals $16.5 million specifically for salary increases. 

The agreement also specifies that $10.6 million will be directed towards teacher salaries, primarily consisting of $9.7 million of state-directed Teacher Salary Increase Allocation (TSIA) funds. 

TSIA funds are part of the state initiative to increase the minimum beginning teacher salary to $47,500.  The school district met that minimum last year.  This year, and in the following years, the focus will be on increasing salaries for veteran staff.

The tentative agreement also directs that $5.8 million will go towards salaries for paraeducators, secretaries, and other similar support positions.

Employees represented by PEA must now vote upon whether to accept this salary package, including specific salary schedules.

PCPS is still in negotiations with the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2227 union, which represents approximately 2,300 employees, including bus drivers, custodians, school nutrition workers, maintenance, and trade positions.

The district presented its salary and benefits enhancement package in June to the unions, which totaled $31.5 million for both salaries and benefits from the general fund for all employees. 

The district’s finance team recently reviewed the budget and determined that current cost-controlling initiatives would allow an additional $1.3 million to be figured into the total salary and benefits package.  

The district absorbed all health insurance increases into its budget, offering yet another year of $0 employee health insurance premiums, at a cost of $13.7 million.  The district continues to be one of the few employers in the region offering $0 health insurance premiums and free access to employee health clinics.

Non-union staff — those in administration and others that work at the district level — will soon receive specific details of their salary increase package, which will total $2.1 million for salaries and benefits.

It should be noted that both union and non-union employees will see a proportionate share of the total $32.5 million increase. Superintendent Fred Heid made this practice a priority when he arrived at PCPS more than two years ago.

The overall package is nearly 3.4 percent increase in salaries across all employee groups. The district is also picking up the increased cost of health insurance — representing an additional 2.6 percent of benefits for employees.

“I would like to thank all of the members of the union and district negotiating teams for all of their hard work,” said Heid.

“Everyone came together to reach this tentative agreement. We always want to provide more salary and benefits for our dedicated employees, but we must also be careful to work within our budget.”

“PCPS remains in the bottom five, lowest-funded school districts in the state on a per-pupil funding level,” Heid added. “However, this tentative agreement allows us to boost salaries, but still meet the minimum general-fund balance of 5 percent.”

The budgeted fund-balance, as part of the balanced-budget presented to the school board in June, and approved as part of the final budget on Sept. 5, 2023, was 5.18 percent.