The Orange County teachers’ union is calling foul on a decision by the county school board to hold a public hearing on a proposed health insurance hike for teachers at a time when teachers themselves would not be able to attend.
During their Tuesday board meeting, Orange County school board members decided to hold their public hearing on the issue on Tuesday, March 5, beginning at 9:30 a.m., though it was not a unanimous decision.
Obviously, teachers will be on the job with students at this time.
The public hearing specifically concerns an impasse between the school district and the union on contract negotiations, with a proposed health insurance rate hike the primary point of contention.
The school district had proposed raising the cost of health insurance by 64%, according to the union. A special magistrate for the state ruled against the increase in February.The district’s deputy general counsel, John Palmerini, estimated the hearing on Tuesday could last more than eight hours, based on past hearings.
He also argued that, because it's primarily just one issue up for discussion — the health insurance rates — it would be most prudent to hammer it out in one day. “I'd suggested that one day for one issue should probably be sufficient, and both sides did agree with that assertion,” he said.
Last time the district was at impasse with the union, in 2022, hearings on the impasse lasted roughly 14 hours, split over two days. One of the hearings lasted from 4 p.m. to past midnight. The next, two days later, lasted from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
“You all have indicated that going that late really negatively impacted your decision-making process,” Palmerini reminded the board. (That meeting did take place before two current board members, Alicia Farrant and Maria Salamanca, were elected.) “You were tired doing it, and so the earlier start time was meant to combat against that.”
Teachers' union president Clinton McCracken, however, disputes the estimate provided by Palmerini, arguing that last time there were four issues at impasse. This time around, there's just one. Starting later in the day, McCracken told Orlando Weekly, is “completely doable” in his opinion.
Board members in support of the 9:30 a.m. start time also justified their decision Tuesday by underscoring the fact that educators themselves would not be permitted to speak at the hearing, regardless of whether they attend in person.
Because there's no public comment period, teachers would only be able to listen and watch the hearing. The hearing will be live-streamed, and also available online to watch at some point afterward.
School board chair and former Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs (of text-gate fame) said she doesn’t want to give teachers the “false belief” that if they attend, they’d be able to speak to the board as they might during a regular board meeting. “If I were them, I would be showing up thinking I'm going to speak.”
Board member Angie Gallo, a former PTA president elected in 2018, suggested changing the start time to noon, so teachers would at least be able to come after school and observe a greater portion of the hearing. But others in opposition to the shift argued this would just provide teachers with an incomplete picture of the process.
“If the teachers come in the middle of a discussion and don't have the background for that discussion, how does it help them participate in this process?” asked board member Pam Gould, who recently withdrew a bid for a seat on the Orange County Commission.
“We cannot start at 5 o'clock,” said Gould. “We can't, unless we're going to do this over three days at 5 o'clock, and that would be horrific for everyone involved, including the teachers.”
The Orange Classroom Teachers Association — which represents roughly 14,000 staff in Orange County Public Schools — argues that teachers deserve the right to be able to attend the hearing as it occurs.
“These school board members are elected officials and they are accountable to our community, and what they're going to be deciding is not a small issue,” said McCracken, who taught for over 20 years in Orange County Public Schools himself before being elected union president in April 2022. “It is a massive increase to health insurance that they have proposed that negatively affects every everyone, but greatly affects those people who have children or their families on their plan,” he argued.
Those directly affected by the proposal, he added, should be able to attend.
The union has asked the board to begin the public impasse hearing at 5 p.m. rather than Tuesday morning. He's also encouraged anyone who is able to attend (whether teachers, family members of school staff, or community members) to wear red in support of educators.
Board member Karen Castor Dentel, who agreed with Gallo on her proposed noon start time, acknowledged that it’s important that teachers have the opportunity to be present.
“I think what teachers are asking is simply to be in the room when it happens,” said Castor Dentel, a former teacher for the school district herself. “To quote Hamilton [the musical].”
“I think if we just make that clear that there won't be a time for people to make a comment, their presence can make a big difference when they're all sitting in the room with red shirts on, looking at us as we deliberate,” said Castor Dentel, referring to teachers’ union T-shirts. “It does impact our decision-making, you know, so I don't mind having teachers come when they're able to, to be a part of the process.”
Board member Maria Salamanca, elected to her seat in 2022, emphasized that it’s not that she doesn’t want teachers to be there when they have this public hearing.
But, with how long it’s expected to take, she doesn’t want to feel crunched for time, or have to be discussing an issue of such importance to teachers at midnight or 1 a.m.
“When I'm making a decision on the health care of 25,000 people, I want more time to deliberate,” said Salamanca. “I want more time to ask questions.”
The board’s decision on the health insurance premiums won’t just affect school staff represented by the union, but also other staff system-wide.
The Orange Classroom Teachers Association, which is simultaneously fighting to survive new anti-union regulations imposed by the state, has called on the community to tell the school board to change the time of the hearing. Central Florida Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor and social advocacy groups, launched an email petition campaign on Action Network in support of the cause.
“In this pivotal moment of the bargaining process where the insurance costs will be determined, the board has scheduled the hearing for 9:30 AM, a time where teachers who will be directly impacted by the decisions made will be at work,” the petition reads. “Email the OCPS School Board and alert them that as a community, we stand behind our teachers!”
Several board members acknowledged Tuesday night that they’d already received a flood of emails from community members and teachers over the issue.
“I think what teachers are asking is simply to be in the room when it happens”
tweet this
“According to the emails that I received, it was still very important that the teachers were in the room,” said Gallo, who described her suggested noon start time as “splitting the difference.”
The impasse has been a frustrating affair for the union and the staff they represent, in part because it's effectively delayed them from receiving raises they've already reached an agreement on with the district.
Essentially what happened was, during contract negotiations (an annual process for the teachers’ union), the district and union could not agree on certain issues — the primary one being employees’ health insurance rates.
The district hasn't raised the cost of health insurance for several years, and has argued that continuing not to do so is not financially sustainable.
The district has offered teachers a “historic” 10% raise in the proposed contract, which the union isn’t mad about. The district has agreed to a 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA), and even higher salary increases for teachers who receive “effective” and
“highly effective” educator evaluations. “Effective” teachers will receive a 5.75% increase and “highly effective” teachers will receive a 7.7% pay increase on top of COLA, once ratified.
But the union, which also represents school psychologists, librarians and other school staff, argues that the district’s proposed increase to health insurance premiums — an average 64% jump, according to the union — would partially water down those gains.
The district, meanwhile, argues they can't afford to offer that raise without also increasing insurance rates.
The health insurance costs wouldn’t rise until the end of the 2024-2025 school year, literally until the last effective date of the union's contract. McCracken says that's because the district had already promised not to raise rates during the prior school year.
A special magistrate earlier this month, pointing to the district’s decision to implement this on the last effective day of a contract, agreed with the union's dissent to the proposal, and recommended no changes to what’s currently outlined in their contract.
Special magistrate Barry Goldman, a neutral third party in the situation, did disagree with the union's framing of the insurance hike as “astronomical,” since the actual percentage increase to their rate would vary based on the employees' health plan.
McCracken knows they won't be able to fend off rate increases forever. “We have said over and over that we are willing to immediately, as soon as this is over and teachers get their raises, to immediately go into bargaining to talk about insurance,” he said. The national estimate for rate increases is about 5 to 7 percent.
The school district has rejected Goldman's recommendation.
During the public hearing on March 5, board members will hear from representatives of both the school district and the union, who will present their own arguments on the issue. Ultimately, board members will have the final say on what goes.
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | or sign up for our RSS Feed
