Despite technological difficulties with electronic voting — and with the 2019-20 school year behind them — Miami-Dade teachers approved Monday a new labor contract that benefits new educators by increasing the minimum salary by $6,500 but shorts mid-career teachers, who will receive almost the same base pay as rookie teachers.
The contract ratification passed by nearly 62%. A little more than half of the approximately 30,000 Miami-Dade County Public Schools teachers and other employees represented by United Teachers of Dade — 15,304 — voted electronically, a process that has been heavily criticized by some of the voters. UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats said that’s “about the normal turnout rate,” adding that about 15,800 employees voted in 2018 for the last contract’s in-person election.
The contract calls for the starting salary of beginning teachers to rise from $41,000 to $47,500. The base salary of mid-career teachers, who have been working for as long as 16 years, is up to $47,800, $300 more. Late-career teachers, whose last years count the most toward retirement, saw bigger payouts.
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