ORLANDO, Fla. — The school district is not budging when it comes to pay raises for Orange County teacher as the teachers' union and district are back at the bargaining table on Thursday.

Fireworks inside the Orange County teachers union hall came after the school district said it has no interest in the teachers' wage and salary proposal.

The district is staying firm on its offer, which includes an average 4 percent salary increase and a one-time bonus.

However, the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association (CTA) is rejecting those one-time bonuses, instead pushing for pay raises for teachers.

Teachers want raises to their base pay, not one-time bonuses. They are also demanding better working conditions, with more planning time and breaks to use the restroom.

"The pay, it just goes up a little every year and the bills go up a lot every year. I have friends who are single -- they can't even afford to rent their own apartments," said Orange County teacher Albert Davies.

The district stated it could not commit to any more money for pay raises -- not until state lawmakers allocate more funding.

"Our teachers deserve raises, they deserve to make more money than they are now. We're offering the opportunity to get a 4 percent raise and $1,250 bonus, but we're hoping that next year the legislature along with the governor addresses the issue of teacher pay," said Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat for Orange County Public Schools.

However, the district is offering something else.

The district is offering salary increases. In its proposal, teachers rated as "highly effective" — and that is about 83 percent of teachers — would get a salary increase of $2,025.

Teachers rated as "effective" — about 12 percent of teachers — would get a $1,625 increase in pay.

Those figures are from the same deal teachers voted down this past summer.

What the district offered that was new last week was increasing the one-time bonus from $500 to $1,250 for all teachers.

The district would use $11.5 million from an unassigned reserve fund to pay for those bonuses.

However, the teachers' union says there is more money in that fund to pay for salary increases.

They have agreed to increase the end of year bonus for teachers from $500 to $1,250.

State and Local Leaders Weigh In

Orange County Public Schools Board Member Pam Gould explained why the district hasn’t offered any more money for salaries.

“Unless there’s something I don’t know about, the dollars are just not available to make up that gap in one year,” Gould said.

She reiterated how important it is for the legislature to put more funding towards public education.

State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, who sits on one of the State House’s education committees, agrees with Gould. She said she’s encouraged by what she’s heard come out of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office recently about teacher salaries.

“I was very happy to see that Gov. DeSantis said that he’s going to raise teachers’s salaries, and not a negligible raise, and not a bonus, but something that’s going to be impactful in terms of the quality of life,” Thompson said.

She said she’s ready to hold the governor accountable for those recent statements.

But that doesn’t help Orange County Teachers now. Classroom Teacher Association President Wendy Doromal said the $11 million the district is giving for bonuses might be better spent in other, more helpful ways.

“If we have money for $750 for bonuses, we certainly would have that money to offset any deficits in health insurance, so it’s not passed on to employees,” Doromal said.

Another bargaining session has been set for next Thursday.