Broward teachers union not likely to help district win Race to the Top money (will others also object?)

posted by lesliepostal on December, 14 2009 12:41 PM

The Broward County teachers union isn’t likely to help its school district win up to $48 million in federal Race to the Top grant money, according to this story in our sister paper, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

District administrators and the union have been at loggerheads and are still negotiating raises, health insurance and other issues for this school year.

“You can’t expect us to be cooperative when the district is completely uncooperative in dealing with the contract settlement,” Pat Santeramo, the union president, said Friday.

As we reported last week, school districts that want a guaranteed share of any grant money Florida wins, must agree to overhaul their teacher and principal pay systems. Key among the changes is making student growth — as measured by tests — the main driver of pay boosts and promotions, not years of service.

It is a big change, and it’s not clear yet how much union support there will be.

In Central Florida, district-union relationships have definitely been more testy in the last year, thanks in large part to budget cuts. But they have not been as tense as they have been in Broward.

The Seminole County School Board plans to talk about the grant application at its meeting tomorrow.

Superintendent Bill Vogel said last week he hoped “continuing conversations” with Seminole’s union would lead to a joint decision on whether to sign the intiail grant paperwork.

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