Teachers and union leaders in Northeast Florida are warning that Senate Bill 1296, which is advancing through the Florida Legislature, could jeopardize collective-bargaining rights for public employees.

The Clay County school board held an impasse hearing with the Clay County Education Association to decide teacher raises for next year. The board ultimately accepted a proposal that would give teachers with 10 years or more experience raises ranging from $400 to $800.

Clay County teachers and school district officials will make presentations to the School Board next week in hopes of resolving an impasse over pay raises.

Clay County teachers and school district officials will make presentations to the School Board next week in hopes of resolving an impasse over pay raises.

A strong push to increase teacher pay took center stage at a Tuesday night Clay County school board meeting. Teachers, parents, and community members flooded the meeting to express their frustration after salary negotiations between the Clay County Education Association and the school district hit an impasse last week.

The two sides met Tuesday with no progress, now School Board will likely have to arbitrate.

The Clay County School District said it is reevaluating its spending as it faces a potential $10 million budget shortfall next year.

Teachers are sounding off about the removal of paid sick days that were in place last year for anyone who had to quarantine due to COVID-19.

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – After a month-long impasse, Clay County School District leadership resumed talks with representatives of the Clay County Education Association and reached a tentative agreement on how teacher pay raises will be distributed on Monday. According to the union, the minimum salary for teachers will move to $44,867 and all teachers will get a minimum salary increase of $1,200. Starting pay for Clay County teachers was $38,000 for the 2019-2020 school year. The state-funded pay raises are a result of HB 641 which was signed by Gov. It set aside $400 million to raise the minimum salary for teachers and $100 million to provide veteran teachers a pay boost.

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Negotiations reached an impasse Friday night between the Clay County School Board and representatives for the Clay County Education Association which represents teachers. The sticking point, according to CCEA president Vicki Kidwell, is the distribution of state-funded pay raises through HB 641, signed by Gov. It sets aside $400 million to raise the minimum salary for teachers and $100 million to provide veteran teachers a pay boost. The Clay County School Board’s plan would give new teachers an increase of around $6,000, while longer-serving instructors would receive around $600, according to Kidwell. Nearby, negotiators with the St. Johns County teachers union and the St. Johns County School District tentatively agreed to terms on Tuesday that would raise the starting pay for teachers by more than $6,500.

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Teachers in Clay County said Tuesday the local health department isn’t providing information on the spread of the coronavirus within the district’s facilities fast enough. On Friday, a Clay County teacher died due to COVID-19 complications, though it’s unclear whether they were exposed at a school. The Clay County School District COVID-19 dashboard only shows district-wide data and is updated weekly. Marlow said the tracing process is the same in Clay County as it is across the state. “Those individuals are then notified by their county health department and instructed to self-isolate for 14 days after their exposure to the virus, and to contact their county health department and health care provider immediately if they develop symptoms.

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. The state mandate for schools to re-open five days a week caused chaos for leaders in the Clay County school district who had been working on a reopening plan. This as the Clay County Education Association, the local teachers union, is saying many of its members who would go back into schools are immune-compromised. With little to no cases, under the draft plan, Clay County students would return to campus classrooms as they normally would with some new health and safety protocols in place. Parents are sounding off in the News 4 Clay County Facebook Group with many supporting the reopening of schools. Forty percent of our respondents said that they have a medical condition that makes COVID especially dangerous for them, said Victoria Kidwell, incoming President of the Clay County Education Association.