Collier County Teachers Union to meet and negotiate salaries

Author: Sommer Senne Writer: Nicholas Karsen
Published: Updated:
Collier County school classroom
FILE: Kids in a school classroom. (CREDIT: WINK News)

Collier County teachers brace for their third day of salary negotiations as those living within the area struggle financially.

The teachers union will appear on Wednesday at the Collier County Education Association Building to discuss increasing teacher base salaries.

The president of the Collier County Education Association, Ken Mouton, said that the school district already has the available funding to increase the base salaries; however, negotiations between the district and the union have been ongoing for about a year.

The district’s initial salary proposal for this coming school year represented an 8% increase for union teachers.

The average salary for a Collier County teacher is around $69,460, yet the base salary starts at $54,000.

Mouton told WINK News that the current salary is insufficient to keep teachers within the county.

“Our district has over $122 million in its reserve. $82 million of that is unassigned, which they can put towards teacher salaries,” said Mouton. “So I challenge them, our union, our teachers, challenge them to take that $82 million, that’s unassigned and put it towards teacher salaries.”

The bargaining session is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

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