District teachers made $2,500 less than state average last year while many administrators were paid top dollar. (SAR)

The highest per capita income county in Florida underpays its high-achieving teachers and overpays its administrators. "This is a {disgrace to the human race," as Jimmy Carter once said of tax laws.

Above is the 2008 cartoon by Ed Hall that resulted in his firing under pressure from thin-skinned St. Johns County school administrators and their toadies.   (I love this cartoon and purchased the original from Mr. Hall, whose work is now widely shown in the media and whose firing was a cause celebre in the political cartoonist community.)

Good reporting in St. Augustine Record by education reporter Travis Gibson:


District teachers made $2,500 less than state average last year while many administrators were paid top dollar

A student holds up a sign during a walk-in at Ketterlinus Elementary School in St. Augustine on Wednesday. The walk-in was an effort by the local and state faculty unions to highlight what they say is a lack of state public education funding, including low teacher pay. [CONTRIBUTED]

By Travis Gibson tgibson@staugustine.com
Posted Apr 20, 2019 at 5:57 PM
Updated Apr 20, 2019 at 5:57 PM

On Wednesday morning, teachers and parents assembled in front of nearly every school in St. Johns County, all dressed in red. The gatherings were part of a “walk-in”, a coordinated effort organized by the state teacher’s union to show solidarity by walking into school together. Behind the effort is the ongoing call for an increase in state funding for public education, including raising teacher’s salaries.

In St. Johns County, an “A” school district that is consistently recognized as one of the best districts in the state, teachers were paid well below the state average last school year. According to state data analyzed by The Record, the 2,339 teachers working in the St. Johns County School District made an average of $45,606 during the 2017-18 school year, more than $2,500 below the state average of $48,168 for teacher pay, according to the Florida Department of Education.

At the same time, many of the over 170 district and school-based administrators made above state averages for their positions including superintendent Tim Forson whose $165,000 salary was nearly $11,000 more than the average pay for a school superintendent in Florida. The average salary for the seven high school principals in St. Johns County last year were just over $114,000, more than $13,000 higher than the state average. Middle school, junior high and elementary school principals in the district also made about $1,000 more than the state average.

The higher-than-average pay for administrators didn’t stop at the top. District employees working as accountants (+$2,600 more than the state average), staff services (+$6,000), technology staff (+$15,600) finance employees (+$4,800), bookkeepers (+$8,500), school board members (+$1,200), student services (+$22,000), exceptional education (+$22,000), transportation (+$20,300), data entry operators (+$6,100) and secretaries (+$6,600) all made above average pay for their positions. But not all key administrators in the district make more than the average. The district deputy superintendent (-$355), heads of facilities (-$3,800), and many assistant principals were paid right at or below the state average.

Average Florida Teacher and Administrator Salaries for 2017-18 School Year by Travis Gibson on Scribd


“When you do see these numbers in black and white, it does have a visual punch,” said Michelle Dillon, St. Johns Education Association president. “But honestly our job isn’t to compare job titles. My main focus, and our negotiating team’s main focus, is our teachers. We are focused on them so that we can get a pay increase so they can actually buy homes in this county and stay in St. Johns County.”

Dillon said at current pay levels it’s difficult for many teachers, especially those who aren’t living in dual-income households, to afford to live in St. Johns County with it’s high cost of living. In St. Johns County, for example, the median sales price for a home is around $319,000.

St. Johns County teachers did negotiate a performance-based pay raise of about $1,000 — their biggest raise in eight years — at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year, but when salary figures are released by the state later this year it’s likely that district teachers will still be below state averages for pay.



In a Friday phone interview, Forson said that some of the administrator pay can be misleading. For example, superintendents who are appointed, as Forson is, tend to make more on average than those who are elected, he said.

“Pay for district positions are not consistent from one district to the next,” Forson said. “We pay [our administrators] well, but they don’t have the support around them that a lot of districts do. We are among the leanest districts in terms of money spent outside the classroom.”

Forson also pointed out that Florida school board members are paid based on the size of the school district they serve, which explains why school board members in St. Johns County, a distinct with more than 42,000 students, make slightly more than average.

Many local teachers, school board members and administrators have argued that the state legislature needs increase per-student funding to provide more money for things like supplies, new schools and teacher raises. State and local unions argue increasing pay will help recruit and retain teachers and help deal with the ongoing teacher shortage in St. Johns County and around the state.

In Northeast Florida, teachers making less than the state average isn’t all that uncommon. Teachers in Duval ($46,143), Clay ($44,226), Volusia ($45,584), Putnam ($45,636) and Nassau ($45, 851) counties all made below the Florida average for teachers last school year. Flagler County ($51,032) is the only nearby county that paid its teachers above the state average last year.

Teacher pay continues to be a hot topic in Florida and around the nation. Pay was part of the reason behind teacher strikes in Los Angeles, Denver and West Virginia this year. In Florida, which ranked 36th in the nation in average teacher salary for the 2016-17 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, teacher pay took center stage when former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum proposed raising the starting teacher salary to $50,000 during his unsuccessful bid for governor.

The Florida legislature is currently divided on education funding with House and Senate proposing budgets that differ by $600 million. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Florida House proposed increasing the base-student allocation by $38.34 while the Senate proposed raising it by $149. Last year, the BSA went up 47 cents, but much of the money towards security and safety requirements. In February, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recommended increasing per-student funding by $224, the Miami Herald reported.

The budget recommendations are currently under further review by appropriations committees. The legislature, which is in its final two weeks of the 2019 legislative session, is scheduled to end May 3.