Teachers And School District Negotiations Deadlocked
Union President Claims School District Refuses To Consider Their Proposals
A budgetary storm is brewing in the Clay County School District. Every year, the school district and teachers’ union negotiate a new contract. Most years, a compromise is found that gives each side a little bit of what they want. But this year, the school district says there’s no money to increase pay for all teachers. In response, the Teacher’s Union wants the district to get creative with its funding, which has led to an impasse in the negotiations.
For the past few months, the school district has been sounding alarms about an impending financial crisis. This rhetoric has been used during the negotiations with the Clay County Education Association (CCEA). The union wants all teachers to receive a pay increase and has asked the school district to use the Safety and Security Millage tax funds to pay for it.
Financial crisis or not, increased pay is a large problem to solve. Clay County currently has roughly 2,400 teachers. Even an increase of $1,200 per teacher would cost $2.8 million. Some online conversations have called for raises as high as $5,000, which would add an additional $12 million to the district’s budget.
CCEA will likely face an uphill battle for additional funding. Florida ranks 46th among U.S. states in teacher pay, but Clay County ranks 7th out of 67 counties in Florida. So while Republicans at the state level have been reducing school funding as part of the party’s push to privatize education and profit from charter schools, our county is paying teachers more than in 60 other counties in the state. Clay ranks behind St Johns County, but ahead of Duval, Bradford, and Baker counties.
But above-average teacher pay in our state doesn’t mean teachers aren’t deserving of more pay. Nationally, the average teacher salary is $72,000. This puts Clay’s average of $56,000 at 22% behind the national average.
The School District started making claims in June about a looming financial crisis. During board workshops and meetings over the summer, the school board and district claimed to have cut $30 million from their budget, but no details have been provided to the public to confirm the alleged cuts or their dollar amounts.
Later in the summer, after the budget cuts, the school board approved a district-prepared budget that included a $10 million property tax increase. Again, no details have been provided as to what the additional tax dollars would be spent on. It is worth noting that the money raised through tax increases would cover most, if not all, of the raises teachers are asking for.
On October 27th, 2025, CCEA President Vicki Kidwell and the Clay County Democrat party published an “emergency” podcast episode discussing the impasse in negotiations with the school district.
Kidwell missed the mark in some of her criticisms of the school district, but did rightly point out that the district has money for things other than teacher pay, such as LED outdoor school signs and communication systems.
Clay News & Views has also reported on school district spending, including highly paid athletic directors in local Middle and High Schools. Clay Schools also operates a large fleet of vehicles, many of which are assigned to specific individuals. Most often, these vehicles are occupied only by the driver, and district employees drive their own cars even when multiple people are traveling to the same school campus. Here’s a recent example of that happening at a local elementary school:
While there could be a reason employees drove separate taxpayer-funded cars to one location on the same day, the optics don’t align with the image of an out-of-funds school district cutting corners to make ends meet. Clay News & Views reached out to the school district for an explanation on the use of the above-pictured cars, but received no response.
Given the school district's contrasting actions and narrative, it’s understandable why some teachers feel the district could pay its employees more but chooses not to. Last year, Superintendent David Broskie rebuked teachers who spoke at school board meetings advocating for higher wages, leading many to be reluctant to publicly voice their opinions. This year, that reluctance has faded as more teachers join the calls for better pay.
The next bargaining session between the school district is scheduled for today at 4:30 pm.
I’ve been hearing the same thing about teachers pay in general for at least 50 yrs that I recall. So if everyone knows the job does not pay what you think it’s worth why do you choose to get a degree in education, incur debt, many certifications etc etc and then constantly complain about the pay? Did you do your homework on the profession prior to the decision to pursue it? If you truly made a mistake as MANY people do when choosing a career path then why don’t you do what millions of people do and redirect your career, quit, make a change to a new field?….one that pays what you desire?
The whole notion of ranking Florida with the other states and then each county against each other within Florida is misleading. If you gave every teacher in the country a $million dollar raise the rankings would be exactly the same. The real questions are what is the budget available for raises, what are the taxpayers actually getting for their money and the method of who deserves a raise or not. The vast majority of industries seem to have figured it out. Oh but there’s that pesky teacher’s union fly in the ointment.
My son was in honors English his senior year at Fleming Island High School. He never read one book and never wrote one paper. Of course he passed. Our public schools do not teach anything.
Teaching jobs were never meant to be the sole income for a family. We don’t need government and unions in public schools. It should be one or the other.