Education
Teachers Union Head: Escambia Says No to Almost Everything, Even Duty-Free Lunch
Carol Cleaver, the new president of the Escambia Education Association, says the school district rejected nearly every request the union brought to the bargaining table — not because of the money, but because “it has a dollar on it.” The next session is July 9.
Escambia County teachers aren’t expecting a big raise this year, and their union isn’t asking for one. But the union’s new president says the school district won’t even budge on things that don’t cost much of anything — like letting elementary teachers eat lunch without supervising a classroom of kids.
- Carol Cleaver, president of the Escambia Education Association (EEA), talked with me this week about where contract negotiations with the Escambia County School District stand heading into the next bargaining session on July 9.
Cleaver didn’t mince words about why there’s so little money on the table. She points to Tallahassee.
“Our public school students are being robbed in order to fund vouchers to schools that don’t have to have the same accountability measures.”
Escambia County’s reserves were cut in half in one year, Cleaver said, while the district spent more than $18 million last year on vouchers for students attending private schools—schools that, unlike public schools, aren’t required to undergo financial audits, employ certified teachers, or serve students with disabilities. She lays that squarely at the feet of the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying the Florida House refused to take up a voucher accountability measure pushed by state Sen. Don Gaetz.
Knowing raises weren’t realistic this year, Cleaver said the union shifted its strategy at the table. Instead of pushing for pay increases, EEA asked for contract language changes that would improve teachers’ working conditions and says the district turned down almost all of it.
What the Union Asked For
Duty-free lunch. Cleaver said Escambia is the only county in Florida that doesn’t guarantee teachers an uninterrupted lunch period.
“It means that we get like 25 minutes to just sit and eat without having to supervise children.”
She said the district’s response has been that kids need supervision, but that every other Florida county has figured out how to schedule the day so teachers get that break. The district said no.
Bereavement leave. Escambia is also the only county, Cleaver said, that doesn’t offer bereavement leave separate from sick leave. Employees who lose a family member have to burn through their own sick time first before any bereavement leave kicks in.
- Cleaver made the request personal, telling the district’s negotiator about her own father’s death last November:
“I’m not asking for a $5,000 raise here. I’m asking for you to recognize me as a human being that has a family and has suffered a loss.”
Guaranteed classroom prep days. The union also asked for guaranteed days during pre-planning week before the school year starts when teachers can work in their own classrooms instead of sitting in meetings. Denied as well, Cleaver said.
Cleaver said she’s compiling a document comparing Escambia’s contract language to surrounding counties’ on issues like duty-free lunch and bereavement leave, pulled directly from those counties’ contracts. She plans to have it available for the public at the July 9 session.
Bargaining sessions between the school district and the union are open to the public by law.
The District Just Earned Its First A. Teachers Did That.
Here’s what makes the district’s answers at the table so hard to swallow: Escambia County Public Schools just posted its first-ever district grade of A, with 19 schools earning As, 16 earning Bs, and not a single D or F anywhere in the district.
When the Florida Department of Education released those grades last month, the politicians in Tallahassee rushed to take credit. Gov. DeSantis credited his “education reforms.” Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas issued two statements praising his own tenure. State Board of Education Chair Ryan Petty credited the commissioner’s leadership. Teachers barely got a mention.
But the turnarounds tell you who actually did the work. Montclair Elementary went from an F to an A in three years. Navy Point Elementary jumped from a D to a B, the biggest point gain in the district. Scenic Heights Elementary leaped from a C to an A. Blue Angels, Lipscomb, Beulah Middle, Ernest Ward Middle and Tate High all climbed from Bs to As. Escambia’s math gains outpaced the state’s own numbers, and all nine middle schools increased or maintained their grades.
No press release from the governor’s office taught a struggling third-grader to read. Teachers arrived early for tutoring, stayed late after the buses left, and spent their own money on supplies because the budget didn’t stretch far enough.
These grades belong to the teachers. They earned it in a thousand moments nobody photographed and no politician will ever put in a press release.
That’s the context that should be sitting on the table on July 9. The same teachers who just delivered the district’s best grades in its history are the ones being told no to a duty-free lunch, no to bereavement leave, no to guaranteed classroom prep time. If the state won’t reward them, the least the district can do is stop saying no to requests that don’t cost significant money. Escambia’s teachers earned more than a passing nod.
- Teachers should be rewarded for their efforts and treated as well as those in other Florida school districts.