The union came out swinging during the Orange County Public Schools healthcare impasse hearing, threatening an unfair labor practice allegation against the district.
With that potential legal liability looming, the School Board voted to postpone Wednesday's hearing until November, pushing a decision on the district’s healthcare dispute further down the road. That left a $20 million-a-month question hanging over the board: Where would the unbudgeted money come from?
The district says rising healthcare costs, declining enrollment and insufficient state funding mean employees need to pay more for coverage to keep its insurance plans financially sustainable. The unions argue the proposed premium and deductible increases would put too much of a burden on employees and their families, potentially offsetting raises and making health care harder to afford.
The labor dispute is between the board and the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association (CTA) and the Orange Education Support Professionals Association (OESPA), which represent teachers and education support employees.
About 40 minutes into the hearing, as the parties discussed how much time each side would have to make its case, union attorney Mark Richard raised a legal objection to the proceedings. He argued the district had left the unions with too little time to respond after rejecting a state-appointed special magistrate’s recommendations Monday afternoon.
The magistrate’s recommendations came last Friday, following about a month of review, which the district said took longer than expected. That left the unions less than a day to respond before the hearing, which Richard argued violated the state’s required bargaining process.
The union also accused the district of using the financial consequences of delaying a resolution as leverage, raising concerns that the costs could ultimately come at the expense of employees.
“We had a gun put to our head,” Richard said, referring to the roughly $20 million a month the district says it would cost to maintain current health benefits.
School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs responded, saying: “The public is entitled to an answer about the accusation that you've made now twice that the district is holding its employees hostage.”
The exchange set the tone for a hearing marked by repeated breaks and a lengthy debate over whether proceeding could expose the district to further legal action, or whether postponing the hearing would leave it scrambling to cover mounting healthcare costs.
At the heart of that decision is about $20 million a month.
The district said that is how much it costs to maintain employees’ current healthcare benefits while the dispute remains unresolved. It had budgeted for those expenses through December, meaning another month of delay could force the district to find additional money or make cuts elsewhere from the budget.
That left the board weighing two risks: moving forward and potentially facing an unfair labor practice charge that could delay an approved healthcare contract by several months and add up to $140 million in costs, or postponing a resolution and paying another $20 million a month to maintain current benefits.
The financial stakes are particularly high for a district already grappling with a shortfall in its declining enrollment and what it says is insufficient state funding. The district has warned that continued costs could lead to further budget reductions and personnel impacts.
“This is not money that we are sitting on,” Jacobs said. “This is money that either pays for your health insurance, or it pays for your salary, or it pays for your jobs.”
The start of the district dispute
The district declared an impasse in April after negotiations with the unions didn’t produce an agreement on compensation and health insurance.
The dispute is about how much employees should contribute toward health insurance as the district faces rising medical costs and financial pressure on its employee benefits trust.
Declining student enrollment has added to the district’s budget challenges. OCPS has lost nearly 12,000 students over the past two years and closed seven school campuses. Because state funding is tied in part to enrollment, those losses also affect district revenue.
The unions have argued that the district’s proposed insurance changes would place too much of the financial burden on employees, potentially offsetting raises and making health care more difficult to afford.
Magistrate recommendation and district rejection
Special Magistrate James Mastriani reviewed evidence and testimony from the district and unions before issuing his recommendations Oct. 16.
Under the OA Plus Hybrid Plan, the current family deductible is $800. The district proposes raising it to $6,000. while the Classroom Teachers Association’s counterproposal would increase it to $1,600.
Under the SureFit plan, the current family deductible is $600. The district proposes raising it to $4,000, while CTA’s counterproposal would increase it to $1,200.
For teachers, the magistrate recommended a 2.5% raise for those rated “Effective” and a 3.5% raise for those rated “Highly Effective.” The district had proposed raises of 1.98% and 2.65%, while the union sought 3% and 4%.
The recommendations also include a 2% non-base salary supplement for eligible teachers who do not qualify for the regular performance-based increases.
For education support employees represented by OESPA, the magistrate recommended raises calculated through a formula tied to teacher increases. OESPA represents about 7,300 employees, including bus operators, paraprofessionals, custodians and food service workers.
The recommendations would also allow OCPS to restructure its health insurance offerings and increase some employee costs, but with limits on the proposed changes.
The magistrate recommended capping premium increases for employees covering dependents at 20% above 2025-26 levels. Employee-only premiums would remain at their current levels.
He also recommended lower deductibles than the district proposed and rejected a requirement that employees meet their medical deductibles before accessing regular copayments and coinsurance.
McCracken said the deductible requirement was a major concern for union members.
“The district's deductible proposals were just outrageous, and probably would have led to an avoidance of care just because people wouldn't have been able to afford to go to the doctor,” he said.
On Oct.19, OESPA and the CTA accepted the special magistrate’s recommendations.
Ultimately, the district rejected the recommendations in a memo stating they “would add $105.1 million in costs to a budget already under significant pressure from declining enrollment and insufficient state funding.”
The district broke down the costs:
- $57 million in additional health insurance costs.
- $11.5 million in additional compensation costs across employee groups.
- $36.6 million net cost of insurance concessions already made by the district.
The unions’ point of view
The health insurance dispute has drawn criticism from teachers and their supporters, both at the School Board’s Oct. 13 meeting and Wednesday’s impasse hearing.
At the earlier meeting, OCPS teachers told board members that the proposed insurance changes could force them to take on additional work, pay more out of pocket or leave the district.
Ashley Modesto, who has taught in the district for more than a decade, said she was weighing whether to take a third job or accept a pay cut to cover insurance costs.
“We have tough decisions to make, but you guys also have tough decisions to make,” Modesto said. “And I think the priority should be keeping good teachers in the classroom instead of seeing us leave.”
Middle school teacher Jeffery Miller warned that higher costs could keep employees from seeking medical care.
“Insurance that you cannot afford to use is not insurance; it's a bill,” Miller said. “When care becomes unaffordable, people get sick, and then what happens? Sick teachers can't teach. Sick kids cannot learn.”
But the comments also prompted a tense exchange with board members, including Chair Teresa Jacobs, who urged employees who disagreed with its decisions to run for office themselves.
“Nobody runs for office to hurt our employees. How can you honestly believe that that's what we came here to do?” Jacobs said.
Jacobs also warned that paying more for health care could mean cutting employees.
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Orange County Classroom Teachers Association President Clinton McCracken said some teachers felt their concerns had been dismissed after speaking to the board following a full day of work.
“Our teachers work every day to support the students in Orange County, and they felt that they were being berated,” McCracken said.
He said the union wants the district to consider how higher premiums and deductibles could affect employees and their families, particularly those who may already struggle to afford health care.
That frustration was visible again Wednesday, when dozens of people wearing red shirts attended the hearing to show support for the unions. Some, like Tiffany Sanjurjo, weren't members of either bargaining group.
Sanjurjo belongs to Local 362, which represents workers across North America. She said she came out to support teachers in part because her three children attend OCPS schools. Her oldest daughter has a learning disability.
“She has an IEP in place, and it was the teachers that helped her,” Sanjurjo said. “What they're doing is wrong. I came here to support the teachers."
