Wednesday, April 25, 2007

NY1: City Reaches Tentative Contract Agreement With Principals Union...Mike Meehan...

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The head of the principals union, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced Monday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement.

"Today's agreement will allow us to give school principals and supervisors the substantial raises that we all know they deserve while also making the reforms that will improve the education for our 1.1 million students,” said Bloomberg.

City principals have been working for nearly four years without a contract.

Under the agreement, retroactive to 2003, principals and assistant principals would get a $4,000 lump sum payment this summer, and a 23 percent raise across the board through 2010, with top salaries going up to around $150,000.

Serious incentives include a $25,000 bonus for principals who improve low-performing schools over three years, and another $25,000 for those principals who do a great overall job.

"In the private sector, financial incentives encourage actions that are good for the company, and there is no reason we shouldn't also use financial incentives in the public sector to encourage actions that are good to our schools,” said Bloomberg.

The deal also eliminates automatic bumping, where assistant principals with lots of time on the job could claim a position already held by someone with less seniority.

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