CBS12 News Team

Step Raises: Are PBC teachers pushed to the bottom of the pile?

UPDATE: There's new hope tonight for Palm Beach County teachers asking the school board to reinstate step raises into their contracts. Tonight we received a statement from the school district: "The Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association has requested that the district begin bargaining the last week of May. District staff members are working to schedule and honor that request. This will be the first negotiating session."

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. -- About 200 teachers protested in front of Palm Beach County School Board headquarters Wednesday asking the school board to reinstate step increases into their contracts.

Teachers haven't received step raises since the 2007-2008 school year. The CTA proposed restoring them during negotiations last year, but eventually approved a contract that gave all teachers a $500 raise across the board.

Some teachers say they're actually making less than they used to and without step raises their retirement is in jeopardy.

Marty Schaap, Classroom Teacher's Association: They're holding everybody hostage. It's a hostage-taking situation. You can't move, you can't do anything. You plan for kids college based off of step raises. You haven't got it. We have some people who have probably lost about $20,000 waiting for these step raises.

Negotiations between the union and district are expected to begin later this month. In the meantime, the school board has not authorized any raises in the 2012-13 budget.

One teacher at Lake Park Elementary tells us it's crucial for teachers to get those raises back.

Lisamarie Wear knows the school system inside and out. She should. She's been a Palm Beach County public school teacher for 25 years. The last 18 of those 25 years have been at Lake Park Elementary.

Lisamarie Wear: I think if we want teaching to be considered a viable, respectable profession, that we need to treat people professionally and as professionals and if they're not gonna pay its not going to happen.

She says giving teachers raises is an issue that often gets pushed to the back burner.

Lisamarie Wear: Teachers, very frequently, are at the bottom of the pile. It seems like we're always the scapegoat. Education is an easy way to take money and to use it for other things. And its unfortunately, it impacts every single one of us.

Wear says the school board may say it can't afford teacher raises, but she doesn't buy it.

Lisamarie Wear: I say they can find it they want to and if it's a priority and once again, if it's not a priority it's not important enough and that's what the message is that's being sent. That education really isn't that important.

She wishes the decision makers, the folks who control how the money is spent, would wake up. If she got a step raise, Wear isn't sure how much that would increase her take-home pay. But she says like everyone else, she would use it to pay off debt and make sure her bills get paid every month.

When the school district will vote on whether to reinstate step raises is anyone's guess. But teachers say it can't happen soon enough.

Wednesday, May 16 2012, 09:13 PM EDT

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