Budget Negotiations Hit Impasse In the Miami-Dade Schools

By Darcia Harris Bowman

Efforts to close an $81 million budget shortfall in Florida's Miami-Dade County schools stalled last week when Superintendent Merrett R. Stierheim declared an impasse in negotiations with the local teachers' union.

The announcement came two weeks after teachers, angry with union leadership and the school board, rejected an emergency pay-cut deal brokered by the superintendent and United Teachers of Dade President Pat Tornillo. The proposal, which failed by a vote of 8,767 to 7,909 on Feb. 7, would have saved the 335,700-student district $13 million by making nearly every employee take two days off without pay.

"The superintendent has made clear that cuts that would result in direct impact to schools ... were not acceptable," district spokesman Alberto M. Carvalho said. "When 85 percent of the budget is tied directly to personnel, where do you go...