Union, district fight over $28,003 raise pool and Western Zone supplement after MOA and grievance

Martin County negotiators and the Martin County Education Association argued over how to allocate about $28,003 left in the bargaining "raise pool," and whether money should be used to preserve a supplemental pay distinction for long-tenured teachers in the county’s Western Zone.

The union detailed three core unresolved issues in opening testimony: leftover raise-pool funds, personal/campaign/presidential leave language, and the Western Zone supplement tied to Indiantown Middle School and Warfield Elementary School. "We have $28,003.33 remaining in that raise pool," the union's witnesses testified. That balance formed the basis for multiple competing proposals.

The Western Zone supplement has a long history in the contract. Article 2.4(e) references a two-part formula: a fixed amount that applies to teachers hired on or after a cutoff date and a grandfathered provision for those hired earlier that adds $13.75 plus an amount tied to appendix B2 (historically expressed as 4.5% of a $37,000 base). The board and union disputed whether a 2022 appendix amendment (that set a $2,000 flat amount in B2) removed or supplanted the older article language for grandfathered employees. The union filed grievances arguing the grandfathered teachers were still entitled to an effective $3,375 total (the union’s interpretation), while the district said the adopted MOA and the appendix change produced a $3,100 harmonized supplement for everyone in the zone.

To resolve the dispute, the parties recorded a memorandum of agreement in January 2023 that, according to testimony, "was meant to supplant, replace, and supersede the language in article 2 and appendix B2" and set a $3,100 Western Zone supplement. That MOA was ratified by the union and approved by the school board, and the district subsequently paid $3,100 to Western Zone teachers. Still, the union maintained a separate grievance seeking the larger grandfathered payout and the parties reached a settlement for the shortage prior to arbitration.

When bargaining resumed in 2024, the union proposed three options to use the remaining $28,003: (1) a targeted fix to make grandfathered Western Zone teachers whole plus a 1% commitment to all supplements; (2) raise the Western Zone supplement so it is harmonized for all zone employees and compensate grandfathered teachers for the shortfall; or (3) begin impasse procedures. The district answered with a counterproposal to distribute the $28,003 across the entire bargaining unit — an additional roughly $25 per person — and later presented an alternative that added $75 per enrolled employee to the school board’s contribution to health savings accounts for those in the high-deductible health plan. Finance testified the $75 HSA add-on would exhaust the remaining funds.

Carter Morrison, the district's assistant superintendent for finance, summarized the arithmetic: the union’s original large supplements proposal would have cost roughly $600,000 and was not affordable within the locally available raise pool; the district’s final counter used the remaining $28,003 to provide modest across-the-board relief or, as a second option, a targeted health-savings contribution that would fully expend the remaining pool.

The hearing record includes spreadsheets and exhibit documents costing out each alternative, the grievance and settlement documents for the Western Zone shortfall and the January 2023 MOA. The parties did not resolve the allocation issue at the hearing; the district says it has already implemented the $3,100 payments and advanced a health-insurance supplement option, while the union maintained its request to make grandfathered teachers whole.

Provenance: topicintro at transcript block s=381.555 where the union introduced the Western Zone matter; topic discussion and exhibit submissions continue through the session exchanges and closing proposals (topicfinish around s=8161.92).