In negotiations with the teachers’ union, Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Mike Burke made the “difficult decision” to recommend a salary freeze for all teachers and employees for the current school year.
Facing a revenue shortfall of $60 million as a result of losing nearly 6,000 students this school year, the district eliminated 1,200 roles and implemented a hiring freeze. Staff in those roles were mostly reassigned to other positions. Still, layoffs were inevitable, the superintendent said in a statement on Wednesday, as another $15 million are on the line for the current year.
“Approving additional salary increases while District revenues decline would require additional layoffs and drastic cuts to student services,” Burke said in the statement. “My priority is to maintain the educational programs our students depend on while protecting as many jobs on Team Palm Beach as possible.”
Raises could happen “in future years,” he said, but the district’s present dire financial situation needs to be addressed before it can look ahead, he said.
Gordon Longhofer, president of the Classroom Teachers Association (CTA), told WLRN the union is “aware of the email and is studying it in detail for further comment.”
In May of this year, the Palm Beach County School Board voted to raise teacher salaries by 3.5% as recommended by an outside mediator after a fraught negotiation process between the CTA and school district.
While the negotiation may be a drawn out process lasting months, the next step is for the union to respond to Burke's recommendation.
Over the years, salary negotiations between the teachers union, which represents more than 12,000 teachers, and the district yielded raises. Teachers got a 7% raise two years ago, and a 3.5% raise in 2022-23.
Palm Beach is the third most costly county in the state in which to operate public schools, according to the Florida Price Level Index, which analyses the relative cost of personnel among Florida's 67 school districts. Palm Beach is the nation's 10th largest school district.
“CTA remains committed to the principle that public school employee salaries must keep pace with local costs as they lead students to reach their potential,” Longhofer said.
READ MORE: With 7,000 fewer students, Palm Beach County Schools face less state funding, budget cuts
Average teacher pay in the district is $69,300, higher than the state average of about $55,000 because of the area's high cost of living. However, the latest National Education Association report on teacher salaries shows that — for the third consecutive year — Florida ranked at the bottom nationwide. It found the average teacher salary in Florida public schools was $56,600 in 2025, compared to the national average of $74,400.
The state funds for teachers with 10 or more years of classroom experience in a Florida public school. That allocation isn’t affected by the district’s freeze. However, the state’s definition of “classroom teacher” excluded about 1,600 veteran teachers from qualifying. The district found a way to include those staff members and in July, with School Board approval, will also benefit from the state’s 2.187% recurring increase to their base salary.
Since 2018, the district has received supplemental dollars for teacher pay, mental health resources and school security from a voter-approved tax referendum. Florida law requires its renewal every four years, so the district and Burke are getting the word out to voters about how important the renewal is. If voters don’t approve again in November, then it could result in about 1,000 teacher cuts.
“We are in a very difficult budget situation and there are no easy solutions,” Burke wrote. “I know that many members of Team Palm Beach are facing their own personal financial challenges, and I will continue to strongly advocate for better state funding to improve compensation for Team Palm Beach.”
