Beyond the Bell: Pinellas County Teachers’ Unpaid Hours of Dedication and Service

As President of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association (PCTA), I have the privilege and obligation of understanding what our members are doing so that I can represent them to the best of my ability. I recently sent an online survey to our members that included, along with other questions: Do you work outside your contract hours on school related activities? If the answer above was yes, is the work done off PCS (Pinellas County Schools) property? (e.g., Home, Library, coffee shop. etc.) And how many hours a week do you work outside of your contracted hours? (With the choices of 1,3,5,10,15 or more than 15).

After hearing back from hundreds of my members, I noticed a general trend that to be honest did not surprise me much. I just left the classroom this last year, so I have my own experiences of 28 years in the classroom to draw on as well as the first-hand knowledge of what my friends and co-workers do. As of the writing of this, Pinellas County Schools employs 6,387 educators in the classroom teacher bargaining unit. I have no way of surveying the employees that are not part of PCTA, but I cannot believe the numbers would change much.

It is common for teachers at the high school level to dedicate a couple of extra hours per day, and one day per weekend, just to get caught up on their work. With the sheer number of students and the number of meetings, e.g., IEP (Individualized Education Programs), 504 plans, staff meetings, PLC (Professional Learning Communities), that teachers must attend it is impossible to develop “rigorous and relevant” lesson plans and then get the assignments graded in the time allotted. The amount of time spent by elementary school teachers outside of the classroom to have everything as perfect as possible and to help their youngsters start on the path to becoming whole and complete human beings is astonishing.

The median teacher salary, regardless of years of experience, with no advance degrees or supplements is $61,484.50. Of the respondents to our survey, 93% say they work outside of the contract day, an average of 10 hours a week. If we multiply that out, then on average, during the contract year teachers work 418 hours a year for FREE. With the average hourly rate times the number of hours worked, that equals $29,260 of free work a year PER TEACHER. Now if we take that to its fullest, $29,260 X 6,387 teachers that works out to $186,883,620 of free work voluntarily provided by the teachers of Pinellas County Schools.

In addition to the free work done for the school system, it is sad how many teachers are working 2nd and 3rd jobs to make ends meet. You have no idea how diminished a teacher feels when they are delivering pizzas and the door to the house opens to the parents of one of their students, or worse yet an apartment full of their own students having a party. Imagine how it feels to have your students come through your checkout lane and they feel sorry for you. Or the shame you feel as you quickly leave the plasma center hoping no-one saw you this week.

This is not a Pinellas schools’ problem; it is a Florida schools’ problem. Florida teachers are dedicated, diligent, and extremely capable educators that are not being fairly compensated by the leaders of Florida. In Pinellas County the voters show their support of the educators by passing the Property tax referendum again and again. Poll after poll show that the people of Florida want their teachers to be fairly compensated and yet Florida continues to keep its teachers at the bottom of the national pay scale. Tens of billions of dollars of budget surpluses over multiple years and the teachers are not feeling the admiration that the people express to us when they see us in public. The education unions in Pinellas (PCTA and PESPA) march in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade in St. Pete every year. And every year we hear the people shout, “We love our teachers.” This past year we gave away thousands of books to kids along the way. It was—as it always is—an amazing day.

When Covid hit Florida, educators made hard pivots to the online learning platforms and changed the way we teach forever. While sitting in a spare room or at the dining room table trying to help students overcome the harsh world of Covid we were hailed as “heroes “. Just the next year when we got back to the classrooms and attempted to welcome the students back to a real world, we were attacked by a small minority as “Groomers” and “Indoctrinators.” If teachers had any indoctrinating power, it would be to indoctrinate students to put their phones away and turn in their work on time.

Seen in a classroom recently was a sign that told the students “We are not here to be average; we are here to be awesome.” That is the attitude that our teachers bring to our students. It is past time for the government of Florida to treat our educators with the dignity and respect they have earned. The budget of Florida is more than large enough to compensate our educators and support professionals fairly. The problem is a lack of will from the government. A top five state should not have its educators paid in the bottom five. Our educators are not here to be average; our educators are here to be awesome; it is time to pay them as such.