Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spoke last Saturday at the 47th Council of School Supervisors and Administrators Conference, also announced last week that the city and the CSA had reached a tentative contract agreement.
Photo Courtesy Of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
A little more than seven months after striking a pact with the city’s largest teachers’ union, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina last Saturday announced a tentative contract agreement with the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the union that represents over 6,000 public school principals, assistant principals, supervisors and education administrators.
The proposed nine-year, one-month, 15-day contract would begin, retroactively, on March 6, 2010 and expire on April 20, 2019, and include an average of 2 percent per year in raises over the life of the contract.
Under the tentative agreements announced over the weekend, CSA employees would receive the same restructured payments in lieu of the raises that had been granted by the Bloomberg administration to much of the municipal workforce: 4 percent for 2010 and 4 percent for 2011, provided in increments from 2015 through 2021. CSA employees, including those who had been promoted to supervisory positions since 2009, will receive the full restructured payments; the cost of these payments will be shared between CSA and the city, so that the cost of the contract remains affordable.
All employees would also receive raises of approximately 2 percent a year, each year from 2015 through 2018.
According to the de Blasio administration, the pattern of the tentative agreement is consistent with the pattern established with the United Federation of Teachers contract earlier this year. The agreements also include the health care savings agreed upon with the Municipal Labor Committee.
“As a former member of CSA, I believe strongly that principals make a major difference in the lives of children, families, teachers and everyone they come into contact with,” Farina said. “Being able to work collaboratively towards this contract ensures that the children of New York City will come first in many different ways.”
Additionally, de Blasio said, as part the new tentative contract, which must be approved by the union’s full in-service membership, the city and the CSA have agreed to deepen the commitment to improving struggling schools. Ambassador teams will go to targeted struggling schools, including Renewal Schools, across the city to support and reinvigorate leadership. The Master and Model positions combine for leaders who excel and take on substantial additional roles and responsibilities outside their usual roles and, in many cases, extend their reach to other schools.
“This agreement with CSA means that all of our school administrators will get the fair wages they deserve in a way that protects the city’s long-term fiscal health,” de Blasio said. “Our administration has made it a priority to restore a productive and respectful dynamic between the city and its employees—and, as a result, we’ve reached agreements with 67 percent of our workforce that are consistent with the pattern we established earlier this year, including the unprecedented and guaranteed health care savings. But above all else, this is an education contract that will spur innovation and help us ensure the best educators are leading our schools.”
By Michael V. Cusenza
