Dear Mr. Carvalho: The Miami-Dade Schools Grandfathered Salary Suit is Very Much Real

Recently, the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Alberto Carvalho, called a related story “fake news” in response to an inquiry from Mr. Andrew Ladanowski. 

Anyone can say anything; it doesn’t make it so. After all, I can pin some fake antlers on Baxter the Cat and call him a 10 point buck; however, the fact remains he is still, and always will be, a cat.

What proof is there that the School District of Miami-Dade County violated the law with respect to the grandfather provisions of Florida Statute 1012.22?  The short answer is that the District ignored the plain language of the statute.  That said, you are entitled to a better explanation.  So first I am going to present the text of the law to you as it actually exists in print.  Next I am going to give you an example of grandfathering so that there is no doubt as to what it means.  Then I am going to give you some representative examples of deviations the District implemented – I can’t give you all of them over the last three years because it would take too many pages.  And finally, I am going to tell you how the District verbally tried to justify what they did.

1. The statutes (both of them) are easy to read:

Grandfathered Salary Schedule — 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.

Florida Statute § 1012.22 (1) (c) 4. a. (emphasis added).

Grandfathered salary schedule means the salary schedule or schedules adopted by a district school board before July 1, 2014, pursuant to subparagraph 4. (Cited immediately above).

Florida Statute § 1012.22 (1) (c) 1. b. (emphasis added).

2. How about an example of grandfathering?

Many cellular phone carriers including AT&T and Verizon had an unlimited data plan in the past, but these plans were discontinued. However, customers who already had subscribed to unlimited data plans could continue them for as long as they kept the same service. They were grandfathered.  But not new subscribers.  For them, the unlimited plan was no longer available, and they had to select from a limited plan.

3. Some examples of 2015-16 salary schedule deviations from the grandfathered salary schedule:

Step

17             48,425             Down $1,875.00 from the grandfathered schedule.
19             51,900             Down $1,200.00 from the grandfathered schedule.
21             57,350             Down $1,000.00 from the grandfathered schedule.
22             60,775             Down $3,539.00 from the grandfathered schedule.
23             66,575             Down $3,750.00 from the grandfathered schedule.

4. The District tried to justify it by saying that the grandfathered salary schedule would be any schedule they “designated as such.”

A little lame, don’t you think?

For a complete perspective of the pending complaint (still being drafted) that will be filed shortly in court, please review the amicus curiae brief authored by the lead attorney in the case per a related complaint that was addressed recently before Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission.

As it will be a class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs are virtually suing on behalf of all the teachers of Miami-Dade County; thus, it is fair to say that 19,000 some odd M-DCPS school teachers will be suing the School Board in the foreseeable future.

Sadly, the United Teachers of Dade sided with M-DCPS in PERC and is opposed to the impending lawsuit.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Growing chorus of Miami-Dade teachers denounce pay deal by Carvalho, union

Miami Teachers Look to Sue District Over Merit Pay Raises

---