BARTOW, Fla. — The Polk Education Association is asking the school district to set dates to begin the bargaining process for teacher and staff salaries for next school year.

What You Need To Know

  • The Polk Education Association is asking the school district to start bargaining now, and not wait until the end of the fiscal year this summer

  • PEA officials say 19 other Florida school districts have started the bargaining process, including Hillsborough and Pinellas

  • More Education headlines

Union members say bargaining has always started right after the legislative session ends in mid-March, but this year, they’re being told it likely won’t happen until June or July.

Polk Education Association President Stephanie Yocum attended Tuesday’s school board meeting, along with about 100 other Polk County educators, to push for bargaining to begin.

“We have about 19 other districts in Florida that have come back to the table with their union to bargain salaries, raises for next year," she said. "We have four in our immediate area — Hillsborough, Orange, Osceola, Pinellas."

She says those other counties are her concern, because many teachers are making employment decisions for next school year right now.

“Our teachers and staff that are currently working for Polk county some hope of what this might look like even if it’s not fully done, to see what it looks like, they might stay," Yocum said.

At the meeting, Superintendent Frederick Heid said without the governor signing the budget, the district can’t negotiate until the fiscal year closes this summer.

“What I won’t do is lowball our employees, because right now, if we were forced to go back to the table, I have to under worst-case scenario assumptions, not best-case scenario assumptions, and that means I cannot over-extend us fiscally,” Heid said.

Yocum countered by saying what the district can’t afford to do right now is wait.

“There’s about 550 instructional jobs open for next school year,” she said, scrolling through job posting’s on Polk County School’s website. 

With so many teacher vacancies, the risk of losing any more is too much, and ultimately, she said it's students who will suffer.

“We want what’s best for kids — we need our district to also see the bigger picture that this is about kids," Yocum said. "And when you treat your teachers and staff with respect, when you give them what their raise could look like before making decisions for the summer, that helps kids.”

The Polk Education Association is also pushing the district to put a millage referendum on the ballot, which they say also needs to be decided on sooner rather than later.