A resounding theme surfaced when we recently asked our stakeholders — students, parents, staff, and community members — to explain the most important next steps for our school district to best support students in their academic success. From September through December, Collier County Public Schools (CCPS) gathered input for our new five-year strategic plan. More than 9,300 people took part in our initial question about ‘next steps’ and provided 5,000 individual thoughts. Participants rated those thoughts to signify the level of importance. From the highest rankings, six keywords surfaced: qualified, live, retain, hire, pay, and quality. All those words are connected to the important national issue of recruiting and retaining instructional staff.
On that note, the District School Board of Collier County took a major step in November 2023 on the heels of a 9.7% increase in salary expenses the prior year. The School Board approved agreements with the Collier County Education Association (CCEA) for a salary package representing a total increase of $26 million, which equals an approximate 13% increase in the district’s expenses for salaries when supplements are included.
This raises the starting base salary for CCPS teachers from $50,000 up to $54,000. The agreement provides a one-step increment for all teachers on the Grandfathered Salary Schedule and an additional $4,000 increase to their base salary retroactive to July 1, 2023. The timing of the deal allowed teachers to receive extra money (the retroactive pay) before the holidays. “I’m really proud to be part of the team that approved the largest salary increase for our teachers that this District has ever seen,” School Board Vice-Chair Stephanie Lucarelli stated during closing comments of the November 14 Regular School Board Meeting. “Really thrilled it was able to be approved in time for our teachers to use that money before the holidays. I would like to thank our [bargaining] teams for making that happen.”
For those on the Performance Salary Schedule, the agreement includes a step increase of $3,520 for all highly effective teachers and an increase of $1,320 for effective teachers retroactive to July 1, 2023. Additionally, there will be an increase of $4,000 to the base salary on the Performance Salary Schedule. “I’m glad to see we got the teacher pay contract taken care of,” School Board Member Tim Moshier stated during closing comments. “I’ve received a lot of calls from people around the state that I’ve met at school board training who said, ‘I can’t believe you guys offered that much of a pay increase.’”
The agreement also includes the following:
Increased period pay for coverage, team leader supplement, 7th-period assignment pay, art/music/drama supplements, and lunch duty coverage.
Added dual enrollment supplement for the performance of students in the classes.
Added supplement for beach volleyball coach.
Increased the number of years of experience an employee could bring into the District from 10 to 18 years of verified outside experience (this includes employees who currently work for CCPS that were previously credited for 10 years).
“Very impressive salary increases. To be quite clear on that, if the budget had not been approved, then [salary increases] would not have happened,” stated School Board Member Erick Carter, who also addressed the referendum that voters overwhelmingly approved in 2020. “We moved the millage rate of .35% from the Capital [Budget] into the Operating [Budget], and if that would not have happened, we would not have gotten the increase that we did.”
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