Grandfathered Salary Suit Filed Against Miami-Dade Schools

Last week, the Grandfathered Salary lawsuit was served upon Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Read the redacted complaint filed in federal court in Miami (redacted due to federal law per personal information of plaintiffs).

In the fall of 2015, M-DCPS and the United Teachers of Dade together unlawfully changed a legislatively designated “grandfathered salary schedule.”

Thus, a group of teachers incorporated as “The Grandfathered Inc.” decided to take action and challenge M-DCPS’ and UTD’s unlawful collusion in court and to set the record straight.

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

Why would 19,000 teachers sue the School Board of Miami Dade Public Schools for $60 million in lost salaries?

Because a law passed by the Florida Legislature in 2011 required that as of July 1, 2014, whatever salary schedule was in place would thence forth be frozen in time, or, as the statute phrased it, grandfathered.  But the school district just didn’t do it.

The current law (Fla. Stat. §1012.22) was intended to prevent further annual increases to district salary schedules for teachers hired before July 1, 2014.  Teachers hired after that date would receive performance pay, which would be calculated or derived from the greatest increment between levels of the grandfathered schedule, depending upon a teacher’s effectiveness.  In theory, performance pay would quickly out-pace the frozen schedule forcing veteran teachers to relinquish their tenure to join the new comers.

However, M-DCPS just kept on bargaining new schedules to attack the higher end salary steps for teachers approaching retirement.  And not incidentally, for two years, the District did not award any performance pay whatsoever.   The damage to teacher salaries is estimated at $20 million per year.

A few points of the lawsuit explained:

  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).

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

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

The below video highlights a large part of the problem, which is M-DCPS seemingly diverting money meant for teacher salaries into capital projects.  From the video, you can view teacher Shawn Beightol putting Superintendent Carvalho on the spot at a public forum on this issue and view a PERC transcript with talking points that debunk District explanations.

The progress of the lawsuit can be followed on the  Grandfathered Salary Suit Facebook page.

If you are a M-DCPS teacher and desire to collect damages and regain your steps, sign a retainer.

Please note the lawyers will be paid out of the settlement, so you, the teacher, will not be billed lawyer fees, and legal costs are being covered by donations.

3 replies
  1. Well Said-Thanks Carlos Gonzalez!
    Well Said-Thanks Carlos Gonzalez! says:

    Carvalho: If Lawmakers Hold Irma Special Session, They Should Rewrite Charter School Law Too

    More whining, crying, moaning, bellyaching and grandstanding from the alleged philandering, self-serving, attention seeking, charlatan and social media-lite opportunist, that the Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) Board of Education employs as superintendent, Alberto M. Carvalho.

    In a letter, only befitting of the trash bin, co-authored and “crayoned” by Carvalho and one of the “monkey see – monkey do” school board members; he will, once again, plead his pathetic political case, hopefully upon deaf ears.

    His agenda and contributions, while portrayed otherwise in the media and via social media (mainly by himself), on what seems to be an hourly basis, appear to feed his ego and narcissistic ways. They center around who, what, when, where, why and how what matters most – Carvalho.

    The school system, under his leadership, and with the help of a biased local media, has become hyper-politicized, vainglorious and seemingly operates an around-the-clock production to broadcast Carvalho, his awards, his accolades, his name, his brand, his agenda, his trips to the White House, his career and anything and everything else centered on him.

    This is the nation’s 4th largest school district and yet it seems as if all we see, hear and read is about one little man with a massive mouth and even bigger ego. It’s nauseating and disappointing to witness how this seemingly weak-minded and manipulated school board, has allowed him to make this his personal sandbox to play in and throw sand around at others, in this case, at Florida Governor Rick Scott.

    His scripted and choreographed photos, feeding people at shelters, hugging Black children at crime scenes, taking stands on issues like stadium deals and immigration, opining on Zika Virus, failed attempt to hijack WLRN and every other Godforsaken issue he feels the need to chime in on, yet often times, isn’t qualified to do so, are alll a part of his showmanship.

    The past eight years has been like a Broadway show, written by Carvalho, directed by Carvalho, starring Carvalho as Carvalho and is all about Carvalho. He’s a shameless man, who will act like he gives a damn about an urban core school’s football team, as long as it earns him some “likes” within the Black community.

    Carvalho, the married self-appointed morality czar of the county, likes to scream about morals, values, ethics, principles and tell us all how we should think, see, hear, speak and behave, pretending to be a champion for kids and saint. Let us not forget it was Carvalho, who was alleged to have been involved in a sleazy and salacious affair with a news reporter, half his age, he befriended (and possibly more). Nice role model for kids.

    Now, Carvalho will dredge up HB 7069, and talk tough about supposed implications and the possibility for litigation. He’s a damn blowhard.

    Legislative leaders didn’t act on Carvalho’s suggestion the first time, nor should they. He sounds like a dog barking endlessly in the night or, in Carvalho’s case, like a teenager who can’t put down his iPhone to stop Tweeting and posting to Facebook.

    House and Senate leaders don’t seem interested in his proposition. No, the only thing they’d probably like from Carvalho is for him to shut his mouth, which is a novel idea, yet happens less frequently than a lunar eclipse.

    Someone send this spoiled rotten, little brat, back to his seat.

    Reply
  2. Latrecia Wynn
    Latrecia Wynn says:

    I have been fighting for forty years to have my work history corrected.
    I never got paid for working in Broward for three years.

    They lost my paperwork when the Cuban people came to Miami in the 80s.
    I have the same problem with Broward.
    Identity theft and lost wages.
    I have three sets of income they claimed I earned and no reported earnings to the federal government.

    Example
    They claimed I earned 137 thousand.
    I don’t have a master degree.
    My whole life work history is a lie.
    803.446.4791 is my cell number.
    I am desperately seeking assistance to expose this legal white collar crime against African American Public School teachers.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *