SWFL.io - Local NewsNAPLES, Fla. (WINK) — After nearly a year of negotiations, Collier County teachers are getting a raise — but not the raise many of them were fighting for.
The Collier County School Board voted Friday night during a special public hearing involving the district and the Collier County Education Association, the union representing teachers.
The hearing centered on an impasse over teacher pay for the 2025-2026 school year.
The room inside the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Administrative Center was packed with teachers wearing red. But once the board made its decision, many got up and walked out.
For some teachers, the vote was disappointing.
“We’re the ones that are making this district a district, and it seems like we’re the ones that always have to fight just to get a little tiny bit just to survive,” said Chad Furman, a teacher at Naples High School. “And it’s exhausting. It really is.”
Furman has been teaching in Collier County for 22 years. He said teachers love the district and their students, but many are struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
“We all love this district and love working with kids, but we’re finding it very difficult to pay the bills,” Furman said.
The dispute dates back to negotiations that began in May 2025 over a successor agreement to the current collective bargaining agreement.
According to information provided by Collier County Public Schools, the district’s wage proposal costs more than $8.2 million.
The plan includes:
$1,350 added to base pay for teachers on the grandfather salary schedule who are rated effective or highly effective.
$1,350 added to base pay for teachers on the performance salary schedule.
A $0 performance increment for teachers rated effective.
An additional $880 performance increment for teachers rated highly effective on the performance salary schedule.
The superintendent recommended the board accept the district’s offer in full to resolve the impasse.
Teachers and union leaders had pushed for more, saying the district’s offer does not go far enough to help educators afford to live in Collier County.
“We need a salary increase, a cost of living salary,” Furman said. “Everything’s gone up so high that we need to be able to survive down here.”
The district says Collier County teachers are already among the highest paid in Florida.
According to CCPS, the average teacher salary in Collier County is more than $74,000, while the starting salary is $57,000. The district also says 64% of full-time CCPS teachers make more than $70,000 a year.
CCPS also points to a 97% teacher retention rate and says it has no “student-facing” vacancies.
But district leaders say their budget is tightening.
CCPS is projecting a $42.2 million deficit for the 2025-2026 school year, following a $9.3 million deficit in 2024-2025. The district says rising operational costs, salary and insurance expenses, stalled state funding, and reduced federal funding are contributing to the structural gap.
Friday’s vote followed a recommendation from a special magistrate.
The special magistrate supported the district’s salary position overall, but recommended additional money for some grandfathered teachers.
The district rejected that portion of the recommendation, arguing it would violate Florida’s performance pay statute.
Stephanie Lucarelli, chair of the Collier County School Board, said the board accepted most of the magistrate’s recommendation, but could not accept the part involving additional pay for grandfathered teachers.
“That is something that we can’t go — we would be breaking statute if we did that,” Lucarelli said.
Lucarelli said the district has worked to raise teacher pay over the past several years, but also has to make sure those raises are sustainable.
“We just have to be very careful, because going big means that we have to be able to sustain it,” Lucarelli said. “And so now we’re trying to sustain the raises that we’ve given over the last three years.”
She also said teachers are still receiving a raise.
“Collier County teachers will be getting the largest raise of all teachers in the state,” Lucarelli said. “So it’s not nothing.”
Still, for teachers who packed the room, the decision was not the outcome many hoped for.
Furman called the process “disheartening.”
The next step moves back to the union, which will vote on whether to ratify the agreement.
Lucarelli told WINK News that even if the union does not ratify it, the contract can still be imposed and there are no further steps in the process.
The school board is expected to meet again next Wednesday at 11 a.m., where it could formally accept the contract. At that point, teachers could begin receiving their raises and retroactive pay.