The Osceola County School Board has approved the following salary and benefits package for teachers for the 2018-2019 school year, including:

·         Average of 2% salary increase per instructional employee, with $1,200 for “highly-effective” status and $900 for “effective” status on the performance pay schedule and $1,150 for Grandfathered status.  This is the largest raise for instructional employees that has been given in the past five years;
·         Increased starting salary of $41,000 for new teachers to the district;
·         Employee recruitment incentive equal to $250 for each job candidate referred to and successfully hired by the district and who successfully completes 90 days of employment;
·         Design changes to the school district’s major medical Health Insurance Plan that ensure a no-cost option for individual employees and that the district’s Health Benefits Trust Fund remains fiscally solvent;
·         Flexible Spending Account Match, where the School Board will match an employee’s FSA savings of $750 or more with a contribution of $250 in order to assist the employee towards meeting the deductible; and
·         Continued commitment to the district’s Center for Employee Health, providing no co-pay for doctor visits or prescription costs.

Teachers will see their salary increase beginning with the September 28 paycheck. The School Board echoed the Superintendent’s desire to immediately continue the collaborative bargaining process with OCEA to reach Memoranda of Understanding on additional contract language to improve working conditions.

“Of all the work that occurs at every level of our education system, the interaction between teacher and student is the primary determinant of student success,” said School Board Chairman Ricky Booth.  “My fellow Board Members and I dedicated as much of the limited dollars we receive from the state as we could towards higher compensation and benefits for our teachers, and the district will now quickly get the additional salary dollars in the pockets of our teachers where they belong.