|
### 02-AMC/216/jjr |
### 02-AMC/216/jjr
SCHOOL POLICE FORFEIT UNIFORMS ALLOWANCE TO HELP SOLVE
BUDGET CRISIS
March 6, 2002
To help make-up the Miami-Dade school district's budget
shortfall, school police have agreed to forego their annual
$400 uniforms allowances this year.
Members of the Florida State Lodge, Fraternal Order of
Police (FOP) unanimously approved the measure last week in a
Memorandum of Understanding with the school district. In
return, they would be exempt from any agreement for school
district employees to take a pay reduction equivalent to two
days unpaid leave.
The memorandum goes to the School Board for approval
Wednesday, March 13.
The school district and a coalition of labor unions,
including FOP, had tentatively agreed in January on a
budget-cutting plan calling for a pay reduction equivalent
to two days pay for most employees, to be repaid in dollars
or in paid leave next fiscal year. The agreement, which
would have met the last $13 million of the district's $81
million shortfall, hit an impasse when United Teachers of
Dade members rejected the plan last month.
The money saved in forfeiting the uniforms allowance would
cover the FOP's share in making up the shortfall, as
negotiated in the previous agreement.
“Our students' welfare is the top concern of our police
officers,” Superintendent Merrett R. Stierheim said.
“They made that clear when they approved this
Memorandum of Understanding.”