Pasco Instructional Employees Ratify Contract

After counting teacher votes, the United School Employees of Pasco received a stamp of approval on the most recently negotiated contracts with the District School Board of Pasco County.

Eligible employees cast ballots this past Wednesday and the votes were counted today. The USEP Officers, staff, and volunteers just completed the counting at the United School Employees of Pasco office. 91% of the teachers voted in favor of the tentative agreement.

Teachers had several weeks from the date the tentative contract agreement was signed to review the settlement summaries and actual language. The information was sent to the worksites and published on the USEP website. The results show overall satisfaction with the most recent salary, teacher evaluation and working condition improvements.

At the USEP Building Representative Council meeting held Tuesday, January 28th, Building Representatives voted unanimously to recommend the tentative agreement to Pasco’s teachers. The Pasco County School Board voted to accept the tentative agreements at its January 14th meeting.

The settlement includes the state-required cost-of-living adjustment and performance pay and continues to provide a fully-paid employee health insurance package that includes major medical insurance, prescription drug coverage, a mental wellness program, life insurance, and other fringe benefits. The entire settlement package for Pasco’s teachers totaled $7,582,280.

USEP President Don Peace said, “We are very pleased with this year’s agreement. This was one of the more rewarding settlements in recent history based on the combination of salary increase and language. We are proud of the accomplishment of our joint Teacher Evaluation Workgroup with the District in providing not only a consistent Teacher Evaluation process, but to be able to put that into contract language now provides year to year stability in this area for both teachers and administrators.”

“I am grateful that the Board agreed with the request to prioritize a 3% improvement for employee salaries at the front end of the budget. We ultimately settled a little higher – at 3.25% for all qualified teachers. The settlement also provided recognition for our Grandfathered employees by getting them the full 3.25% increase, the first full increase in their salary since 2015.”