Arbitrator rules in favor of the Teachers Association of Lee County

The teachers union in Lee County has won $8.2 million arbitration against the Lee County School District. The arbitrator sustained the Teachers Association of Lee County’s (TALC) grievances in its entirety and ruled in favor of the union.

TALC won $8.2 million but will only take home $5.5 million dollars. This is because the arbitrator found the district had already paid $2.6 million.

The language of the decision is as follows: On or before October 31, 2024, the District shall pay each person on said list the District’s calculated net amount due–up to a maximum payout of $5,512,612.56, which figure represents the difference between $8.2M that should have been the cap under§ 10.04(4)(h) and $2,687,387.44 (the amount paid through March 15, 2023, per EX-11).

According to the arbitrator, the large amount of money will go towards teachers who have covered classes they aren’t normally supposed to.

At the elementary level, to cover somebody who’s out, sometimes they would take that class and split it among the rest of the team. At secondary, they may ask somebody to give up their planning period or a lunch and teach while they should have had that time off. 

This all started in 2023 when the Lee County School District said the money for teachers taking on more students or additional classes was all exhausted. This led the Teacher’s Association of Lee County to fight back, and on Friday, they learned they won.

They were supposed to get a decision in September and are “pleased” to see change happen sooner than anticipated.

Imagine taking on more students, more classes and not getting paid. That is the reality of some Lee County teachers.

“They’re rock stars. They’re being asked to perform work and some really tough conditions,” the Director of the Teacher’s Association of Lee County, Kerr Fazzone said.

ESSER funds, which stand for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, went towards teachers doing additional work. The union claimed the Lee County School District violated their contract when they exhausted funds to pay teachers for the additional work.

He said these teachers not getting paid for their extra help didn’t sit right with him. In August 2023, Fazzone and the union asked for an arbitrator.

The hearing was supposed to be in February. The district said that they couldn’t do it in February because of the superintendent’s change. The hearing got punted to June and the result came Friday.

“We were very pleased that the arbitrator found TALC’s favor completely. The district threw a lot of arguments at the arbitrator and none of those ended up sticking,” Fazzone said.

The Teacher’s Association of Lee County was awarded $8.2 million dollars but will be getting $5.5 million dollars, since the arbitrator found the school district already paid $2.6 million dollars.

“The arbitrator is very clear that the money was for teachers covering classes that weren’t normally theirs, and that that’s who the money should go to. It would have been unfair to pay somebody who didn’t cover a class,” Fazzone said.

With teacher shortage, working teachers were asked to do more.

“The big part of the issue was the fact that the district had hundreds of teacher vacancies, and so the kids were still in the classroom, and so they needed to have people that were, you know, that to take on those additional duties, and to take on those additional duties people expect to be compensated,” Fazzone said.

This marks the end of a long debate, at least for now.

“This is nowhere near enough, but I’m very pleased that this will help us in their money in their pockets. I hate that it’s taken so long to get here, but I’m glad that we’re here,” Fazzone said.

In October, the school district must give the teachers’ association a list of people who were paid and those who weren’t paid. Once a final list is made, those on the list should be paid by December 15.

The arbitrator made a note in the award that if, for some reason, both sides can’t agree on who that money is supposed to go to, then the parties must another arbitrator to determine that.

TALC says in the coming weeks, the Teachers Association of Lee County hopes to have more concrete plans for the distribution of the money.

Lee County School District did send WINK News a statement on the arbitration decision.

“The District entered into arbitration process with TALC regarding class coverage payments in the 2023-2024 school year. Per the arbitration decision, teachers who were paid for class coverage during that time period will be provided additional compensation. Although the ruling does not allow us to use the funds to compensate all teachers, we look forward to continued collaboration with our teacher’s union to increase compensation for all teachers in the future.”