UTD Members ask School Board:
      Why Should We Stay in Miami-Dade?

Keeping salaries competitive is the name of the game.  That’s the message UTD members brought to the School Board, as the cost of living continues to rise in the country’s 4^th largest district. 

“I come to tell you we are losing teachers much faster than you could ever dream of,” UTD member Patrenia D. Washington informed the board.  “A lot of them are going to bordering states because the cost of living in Dade County is increasing at a pace we teachers cannot keep up with.” 

The rising costs of homeowners insurance, property taxes, utility bills, groceries, gasoline to and from work; the list goes on and on.   Many teachers took a half-day from their jobs for the opportunity to tell the board how difficult it was to live on a teacher’s salary. 

Sharon Frazier-Stephens, a Miami-Dade teacher told the board of how one of her nieces, also a teacher, had left to teach in Broward.  “It is sad when a teacher and a police officer in our community cannot buy a home because they cannot afford it on the salary they make,” Frazier-Stephens said.

Sympathetic to the numerous stories told by teachers and their struggles trying to make ends meet, board members reiterated the importance of reaching an agreement as soon as possible. 

However, UTD President and Chief Negotiator Karen Aronowitz said rushing just to settle was not the solution.  “I am not here to bargain from the floor, but I am here to let our school board know that we cannot discuss additional changes to our contract without an agreement on what we will be paid.”

Click here for UTD President Karen Aronowitz’s entire speech at the Sept 13 School Board meeting.