Duval teachers union falls short of membership threshold, must hold election to get recertified

Jacksonville’s teachers union failed to meet a deadline Tuesday afternoon to meet a membership threshold that would have allowed it to keep its certification. Instead, Duval Teachers United is likely headed toward holding an election to earn its recertification — under a new state law that will make that more difficult.

This comes a week after the Duval County School Board, in a 4-3 vote, hired an attorney with a history of fighting against labor unions to represent the district. 

Duval Teachers United President Tammie Brooks-Evans says recent legislation has targeted teachers’ unions in an effort to make employees “at-will workers.”

“We can’t let that happen in Duval. We can’t,” Brooks-Evans says. “Nope, nope, not gonna happen.”

In 2023, lawmakers passed SB 256, requiring some Florida labor unions to maintain 60% membership to keep their state certification. If a union falls below that line, they have to petition the state and hold an election to keep their certification. The law also put an end to the practice of allowing employees to pay union dues through payroll deductions. 

DTU’s three categories of membership for Duval Schools staff members  — teachers, paraprofessionals and office staff — must each meet the 60% membership threshold. By Tuesday’s processing deadline, Brooks-Evans said teachers stood at 57%, paraprofessionals at 52% and office staff at 44%. The state’s deadline to meet the membership thresholds is Thursday, Sept. 10.

DTU’s membership has fallen since its former president and vice president were sentenced to prison for embezzling $2.6 million by cashing in unearned sick leave. A membership drive was successful in recruiting 609 new members since July 1, Brooks-Evans says, but it isn’t enough.

This year, state lawmakers followed up with another law, SB 1296, which added new requirements for unions that have to recertify. They must now have a voter turnout of at least 50% of eligible employees. In DTU’s case, that means more than 4,500 Duval Schools employees must cast votes. 

Ballots must be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, and they must be sent to an employee’s address on file with the district. Brooks-Evans says she didn’t receive her own ballot for the last union election and had to request a replacement. She says DTU will have a phone bank of retirees who will try to call every employee to verify their address.

Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar tells Jacksonville Today state lawmakers have spent too much time “making it harder” for teachers to work with parents to give students “their constitutional right to a uniform, safe, secure and high-quality free public education.”

“Despite lawmaker attempts to take away their unions, educators throughout the state have voted repeatedly to keep their unions and their contracts,” Spar says.

The lawyer debate

The hiring of an attorney to represent the school board caps off a yearlong process that required state legislative action to change the city charter. 

The board offered the job to David R. Osborne, a Florida State University law school grad whose legal experience does not include education. He’s currently employed by a firm in Pennsylvania, though he lives in Jacksonville. He also lists on his resume four current appointments with nonprofits and free-market advocacy groups that oppose organized labor.

Board members Charlotte Joyce, April Carney, Melody Bolduc and Tony Ricardo supported hiring Osborne. Reggie Blount, Cindy Pearson and Darryl Willie voted against it. 

Osborne will not entirely replace the position of current board attorney, William Spillias, who works in the city’s Office of General Counsel. District spokesperson Laureen Ricks tells Jacksonville Today that Osborne will support the board, while Office of General Counsel staff will “continue to represent and support district staff.” It was unclear if Spillias will continue his full-time assignment to DCPS. 

Three OGC attorneys currently “support district operations,” Ricks said.

Budget is top-of-mind for many board members. Earlier this year, they voted down creating a new communications position, and they opted not to renew Duval’s membership in the Council of Great City Schools, which costs $60,000 annually.

“I really hope those of you who are watching every penny when it comes to Council of Great City Schools will be consistent with that, and not just rubber stamp because you get to hire your own attorney,” Pearson said at last week’s meeting before voting against hiring Osborne.

The board advertised its general counsel position with a salary range of $190,000 to $250,000.

Past advocacy work

Documents show Osborne was one of three applicants without education law experience. Five others did list experience in the education field — including the president of the Florida School Board Attorneys Association, Paul Gibbs, former City Council and Duval school board member Brenda Priestly Jackson, and the district’s current assistant attorney in the city’s Office of General Counsel, Shane McGrath.

Each board member individually interviewed the candidates and rated them on a scale of 1 to 5. They then voted whether to hire Osborne, the candidate with the most points.

District 7 rep Melody Bolduc said Osborne has “the experience necessary from the other side.” Bolduc said she’d asked each of the final three candidates what they would do in their first 100 days as board attorney, and she liked Osborne’s answer most.

“This gentleman’s answer to me was, ‘Well, I’ve sued a lot of school boards and won, and I’ve looked over your policies already, and I notice that you guys are really vulnerable. Some of the same things that I sued other districts over, I could sue you over,’” Bolduc said. “I want that kind of coverage.”

Osborne’s case history includes representing Moms for Liberty Brevard in its 2024 suit against Brevard Public Schools. In that case, Moms for Liberty sued for a free-speech violation over the board’s prohibition on “abusive” speech during public comment periods at board meetings.

Several Duval school board members and Moms for Liberty Duval are currently named defendants in a suit brought by Hope McMath, a teacher who says her right to free speech was violated by discipline she faced after a social media post about Charlie Kirk.

In 2023, Osborne helped represent 22 states who supported Florida’s motion to dismiss a challenge of the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender women and girls from playing on women’s teams.

Mostly, though, his litigation experience is in labor-related cases through his work with free-market organizations like the Commonwealth Foundation, Americans for Fair Treatment, and the Fairness Center.

He’s also published opinion columns and given a lecture in which he argues teachers unions are “roadblocks to education reform.”

Osborne did not respond to Jacksonville Today’s request for an interview by this story’s deadline.

Brooks-Evans says DTU negotiates directly with the school board on its contracts, and so doesn’t expect Osborne to be part of that process. Still, the selection of someone without experience as an education attorney confuses her — and she says the school board members she spoke with didn’t seem to be aware of his case history.

“’I’m baffled about their choice, and I’m baffled about the fact that they didn’t do their due diligence,” she said.