Teachers will receive a 2.5 percent pay bonus and earn overtime if called to fill-in for an absent teacher, according to a tentative contract agreement recently reached between the teachers’ union and Indian River County School District.
A teacher ratification vote is scheduled for April 2, said Liz Cannon, president of the Indian River Education Association, district’s local teacher’s union. The contract is for the current 2019-20 school year.
“This has been the most collaborative relationship that we’ve had with the district since 2015,” Cannon said. “Dr. Moore and his staff have really worked with us to come up with a fair contract.
“This has been a very different experience for us, so I am very pleased.”
Cannon noted that the union had an acrimonious relationship with the district during former Superintendent Mark Rendell’s tenure from 2015-2019.
Every contract negotiated during Rendell’s tenure resulted in contract impasses that had to be mediated by a magistrate, Cannon said.
Teachers in November overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract offer for the 2018-19 school year, after the School Board over-ruled a magistrate’s recommendation in favor of the union on two key issues – merit pay raises and health insurance premiums.
Moore earlier this week told the board he was pleased that a tentative agreement was reached with teachers after just nine negotiating sessions.
