Public school teacher salaries in Collier County will increase some $24 million starting Friday, making them among the highest paid in the state.
This influx of cash is the result of five months of negotiations between the district and the Collier County Education Association. Add in last year's boost, and that’s a $50 million increase in the past two years.
The increases are based on a number of things such as performance and grandfathered-salary schedules.
Now, the new starting salary will be $57,000 annually. At the time of the union negotiations, this would have put Collier’s new teachers in the No. 2 spot in the state. Sarasota County Public Schools, however, is expected to take that ranking if it finalizes an agreement that would start teachers' salaries at $57,500. Earning top honors is Monroe County where the starting teacher salary is $62,100.
With these across-the-board bumps for full-time teachers, the majority of Collier teachers — 1,099 — will now a make between $70,000 and $79,900 annually. Nearly 560 teachers will make between $80,00 and $89,900 while 286 teachers will make between $90,000 and $99,900.
The pay raises represent an 11.65% increase, a slight dip from last year's 12.5% increase. The increase for the 2022-23 school year was 9.7%.
Many schools across South Florida and beyond have struggled to attract and keep public school teachers for various reasons over the past few years. Chief among concerns is pay that for years has not been in line with the cost of housing in the area.
Lee County — where there are increasingly fewer areas of the county considered affordable — has been losing teachers to Collier and Charlotte counties for years. Lee’s public school teacher starting salary is $50,000 while Charlotte's is $53,000.
“We're going to need to dig in. And prioritize our budgets so that we can become competitive because here's the reality, we have teachers that we're going to lose to those counties. And I don't blame them,” said Denise Carlin, a candidate running for superintendent of public schools in Lee County.