Miami-Dade School Board voted to extend superintendent Carvalho’s contract and negotiate compensation
The Miami-Dade County School Board members voted to give board Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman the authority to negotiate a five-year extension (2020) for Carvalho, as well as performance incentives and a new compensation based on the superintendent’s “fair market value.”
Superintendent Carvalho has stated he has no intention of negotiating a budget-ruining contract, and said he’s waived roughly $200,000 worth of benefits and perks afforded in his current deal.
Superintendent Carvalho negotiated in 2008 a $275,000 salary, as well as a $900 monthly stipend and other benefits.
The majority of the individuals who spoke, a Teach For America representative being one, endorsed the renegotiation of his contract based on Miami-Dade County Public School systems 2012-2013 successes, such as the district winning the prestigious Broad Prize and it receiving voters’ support to issue $1.2 billion in bonds to fund school construction.
Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman proposed an extension and raise for Carvalho equal in percentage to wage increases recently given to teachers, principals and administrators. A committee of board members agreed to change the proposal to negotiate a salary at “fair market value” for public employees after board member Carlos Curbelo argued Carvalho was underpaid in comparison to other Miami-Dade executives of public agencies. School board member Marta Pérez stated that Miami-Dade County teacher's average salary is around $35,000 and the average Florida teacher's salary is around $47,000, placing Miami-Dade County teacher's salaries under fair market value. However, the average public administrator in Miami-Dade County salary is around $63,000 as opposed to the average Florida public administrator salary is around $55,000. This caused her to be alarmed because she does not want the school board agreeing to this raise to be seen as fiscally irresponsible.
The negotiated salary increase will have to come back to the board for final approval.
The feats we accomplished this year are amazing and I believe the success was due to the hard work and effort of the men and women who teach our students on a daily basis and to the students who work hard and accomplish the goals their teachers set for them. Educational success is a communal effort, not an individual effort. I believe the majority of individuals would agree Superintendent Carvalho has done a good job as a superintendent and deserves to be retained and rewarded for his hard work, which is not in question. The question is how much of a reward? We, to this moment, don't have a number amount; we have a phrase "fair market value". The vagueness of negotiating a contract based on “fair market value” has raised concerns as to what this number will look like? School board member Marta Pérez stated, "The truth is we are one of the poorest districts in the country,” and those realities are echoed in negotiations for the pay of teachers and was felt in the step increase given to teachers.
What Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman proposed seems a fair raise for Superintendent Carvalho. However, board member Carlos Curbelo argued Carvalho was underpaid in comparison to other Miami-Dade executives of public agencies and other speakers mentioned his accomplishments speak for why he deserves this raise; School Board member Perez refuted his argument. The question still remains, what about teachers? We were just as instrumental in Miami-Dade County's success this year; don't we deserve "fair market value"?
Will we be met with resistance from the board when we come to the board to negotiate? Will being the poorest district in the nation have more meaning when the ones who were in the trenches are asking for "fair market value"? Will the same accolades be mentioned? These are questions that I believe will inevitably come up when determining anyone's value.
