Title: Public School Personnel

Summary: Authorizing additional criteria for the use of advanced degrees in setting salary schedules, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to public school personnel; amending s. 1012.22, F.S.; authorizing additional criteria for the use of advanced degrees in setting salary schedules; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section 1012.22, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 1012.22 Public school personnel; powers and duties of the district school board. The district school board shall: (1) Designate positions to be filled, prescribe qualifications for those positions, and provide for the appointment, compensation, promotion, suspension, and dismissal of employees as follows, subject to the requirements of this chapter: (c)  Compensation and salary schedules.   1. Definitions. As used in this paragraph: a. Adjustment  means an addition to the base salary schedule that is not a bonus and becomes part of the employee s permanent base salary and shall be considered compensation under s. 121.021(22). b. Grandfathered salary schedule  means the salary schedule or schedules adopted by a district school board before July 1, 2014, pursuant to subparagraph 4. c. Instructional personnel  means instructional personnel as defined in s. 1012.01(2)(a)-(d), excluding substitute teachers. d. Performance salary schedule  means the salary schedule or schedules adopted by a district school board pursuant to subparagraph 5. e. Salary schedule  means the schedule or schedules used to provide the base salary for district school board personnel. f. School administrator  means a school administrator as defined in s. 1012.01(3)(c). g. Supplement  means an annual addition to the base salary for the term of the negotiated supplement as long as the employee continues his or her employment for the purpose of the supplement. A supplement does not become part of the employee s continuing base salary but shall be considered compensation under s. 121.021(22). 2. Cost-of-living adjustment. A district school board may provide a cost-of-living salary adjustment if the adjustment: a. Does not discriminate among comparable classes of employees based upon the salary schedule under which they are compensated. b. Does not exceed percent of the annual adjustment provided to instructional personnel rated as effective. 3. Advanced degrees. A district school board may not use advanced degrees in setting a salary schedule for instructional personnel or school administrators hired on or after July 1, 2011, unless the advanced degree:a.  Is held in the individual s area of certification;b. Is in the subject area that the individual is currently teaching; or c. Is identified by the school district as having application that is relevant to school-based learning. An advanced degree may be used only for purposes of and is only a salary supplement. 4. Grandfathered salary schedule.  a. The district school board shall adopt a salary schedule or salary schedules to be used as the basis for paying all school employees hired before July 1, 2014. Instructional personnel on annual contract as of July 1, 2014, shall be placed on the performance salary schedule adopted under subparagraph 5. Instructional personnel on continuing contract or professional service contract may opt into the performance salary schedule if the employee relinquishes such contract and agrees to be employed on an annual contract under s. 1012.335. Such an employee shall be placed on the performance salary schedule and may not return to continuing contract or professional service contract status. Any employee who opts into the performance salary schedule may not return to the grandfathered salary schedule. b. In determining the grandfathered salary schedule for instructional personnel, a district school board must base a portion of each employee s compensation upon performance demonstrated under s. 1012.34 and shall provide differentiated pay for both instructional personnel and school administrators based upon district-determined factors, including, but not limited to, additional responsibilities, school demographics, critical shortage areas, and level of job performance difficulties. 5. Performance salary schedule. By July 1, 2014, the district school board shall adopt a performance salary schedule that provides annual salary adjustments for instructional personnel and school administrators based upon performance determined under s. 1012.34. Employees hired on or after July 1, 2014, or employees who choose to move from the grandfathered salary schedule to the performance salary schedule shall be compensated pursuant to the performance salary schedule once they have received the appropriate performance evaluation for this purpose. However, a classroom teacher whose performance evaluation utilizes student learning growth measures established under s. 1012.34(7)(e) shall remain under the grandfathered salary schedule until his or her teaching assignment changes to a subject for which there is an assessment or the school district establishes equally appropriate measures of student learning growth as defined under s. 1012.34 and rules of the State Board of Education. a. Base salary. The base salary shall be established as follows: (I) The base salary for instructional personnel or school administrators who opt into the performance salary schedule shall be the salary paid in the prior year, including adjustments only. (II) Beginning July 1, 2014, instructional personnel or school administrators new to the district, returning to the district after a break in service without an authorized leave of absence, or appointed for the first time to a position in the district in the capacity of instructional personnel or school administrator shall be placed on the performance salary schedule. b. Salary adjustments. Salary adjustments for highly effective or effective performance shall be established as follows: (I) The annual salary adjustment under the performance salary schedule for an employee rated as highly effective must be greater than the highest annual salary adjustment available to an employee of the same classification through any other salary schedule adopted by the district. (II) The annual salary adjustment under the performance salary schedule for an employee rated as effective must be equal to at least percent and no more than percent of the annual adjustment provided for a highly effective employee of the same classification. (III) The performance salary schedule shall not provide an annual salary adjustment for an employee who receives a rating other than highly effective or effective for the year. c. Salary supplements. In addition to the salary adjustments, each district school board shall provide for salary supplements for activities that must include, but are not limited to: (I) Assignment to a Title I eligible school. (II) Assignment to a school that earned a grade of  F  or three consecutive grades of  D  pursuant to s. 1008.34 such that the supplement remains in force for at least year following improved performance in that school. (III) Certification and teaching in critical teacher shortage areas. Statewide critical teacher shortage areas shall be identified by the State Board of Education under s. 1012.07. However, the district school board may identify other areas of critical shortage within the school district for purposes of this sub-sub-subparagraph and may remove areas identified by the state board which do not apply within the school district. (IV) Assignment of additional academic responsibilities. If budget constraints in any given year limit a district school board s ability to fully fund all adopted salary schedules, the performance salary schedule shall not be reduced on the basis of total cost or the value of individual awards in a manner that is proportionally greater than reductions to any other salary schedules adopted by the district. Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2013.