Grade A

There were plenty of winners last week as the Franklin County School Board agreed to a new contract and pay structure for teachers.

In agreeing to an immediate pay increase of 10 percent, retroactive to July 1, and increases over the next two years of 8 and 6 percent, in addition to annual "step" increases teachers receive based on experience, the School Board acted appropriately.

Teacher compensation is an integral part of education in this increasingly competitive environment and the district had to address statistics which showed Franklin below the mean.

One of the most challenging issues before public education officials in the future will be the recruitment and retention of good teachers.

Teachers who not only educate to the "test" - the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test - but go beyond, searching further than the Sunshine State Standards to mold all-around good citizens and thinkers.

A state study conducted earlier this decade predicted that the gap between education graduates from Florida universities and the actual need for teachers in the public schools was widening.

The study concluded that the chasm would be in the tens of thousands in 10 years.

And this has been seen this year, with school budgets tightening around the state, as districts and neighboring states put together salary and benefit packages to lure teachers to their schools.

Further, there was little sense in not addressing at some point the pay package for teachers in the district.

Having implemented consolidation, constructing a school campus and facility that stands with any in the region, district officials had to tackle what was happening inside those gleaming bricks and mortars and apply money to the classroom dynamics.

Teacher pay, teacher morale, teacher well-being should be paramount for any education system.

The teacher whose passion is captured in the phrase, "2 Teach is Two Touch Young Lives 4 Ever," well, there isn't enough money available to compensate those folks.

And the district should thank the voters profusely for providing the opportunity to do just that.

Therein is maybe the most positive aspect of this entire scenario.

The voters decided in the spring that even though they were being asked to keep their taxes at a specific level when the opportunity to lower school tax bills was at hand - a tax increase by any other name - they chose their children's future.

They decided that it was critical that those charged with caring for and educating their children 180 days out of the year were worth the extra money, had earned a boost in the wallet.

Voters decided that in this case successful schools were a higher priority than taxes and in this day and age that is a rare thing indeed, one to be taken seriously.

And in turn the school board members' decision to follow through on their promise is the other side of this positive public engagement coin.

For reality is that the concept of a binding referendum in government is a mirage.

Slapping binding or non-binding in front of a referendum question is like choosing the color of the ballot, in the long run it doesn't truly matter, unless government, the elected officials with the votes to apply the answer to the question, cast with the majority of voters.

Look no further than the referendum on county-wide voting. Whether it was binding or non-binding, only county commissioners can really decide.

So, school board members should be applauded for living up to what they said in the run-up to the spring election and making a generous and fair offer to the teachers without any drawn out negotiations.

Now, the only fair thing is to meet with the folks at the ABC School and see how the district might be able to use those levied funds to assist that school and its mission.

This isn't about union or non-union, the voters weren't voting for the teachers' union, they were voting for teachers and education.

If the argument is that a teacher has to be a member of the union to be effective and valuable; that is a losing argument.

And there is no argument that the charter school is a public school.

Mandated by the Florida Department of Education to operate differently from other public schools does not eclipse its status as a public school, it enhances it.

Dissent to that central proposition is properly directed at Tallahassee - where the charter school law was created, as one candidate for superintendent can attest - not at the ABC School.

District officials should be applauded and loudly for listening to the voters, following through and taking care of the good folks in the trenches. Maybe tardy, but that it happened is the point.

But there is still work to be done.

The parents, teachers and administrators of the charter school publicly rallied behind the referendum and the district should adhere to its pledge to consider some assistance with money gleaned from the referendum.

In the end, nobody is truly going to win unless everybody wins.