Teaching Profession

Philadelphia Teachers Reach Settlement

By Julie Blair — November 01, 2000 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A teachers’ strike in Philadelphia that began after school ended last Friday was over before classes resumed Monday morning.

Union leaders and officials from the school district and the city hammered out a tentative contract early on Oct. 30 and required all teachers and other staff members to return to work.

The announcement was made at 5:45 a.m., after a marathon bargaining session that ended before dawn, said Milton McGriff, a spokesman for the 210,000-student district. He said details of the contract were not yet known.

The pact must be ratified by union members and the district before becoming official, Mr. McGriff said. The union will vote on the contract Thursday, Nov. 2. “We are thrilled,” said Barbara Goodman, a spokeswoman for the union. “The leadership will recommend ratification.”

Union members walked off the job at 3 p.m. on Oct. 27 to protest an interim, five-year contract imposed by the district in late September. The old contract had expired Aug. 31 and, by state law, could not be extended.

At issue were the length of the school day, salaries, and the district’s demand for a pay-for-performance system for teachers.

The interim contract was to have taken effect next fall. Until then, union members were working under the old salary schedule.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Too Many Initiatives, Not Enough Alignment: A Change Management Playbook for Leaders
Learn how leadership teams can increase alignment and evaluate every program, practice, and purchase against a clear strategic plan.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Beyond Teacher Tools: Exploring AI for Student Success
Teacher AI tools only show assigned work. See how TrekAi's student-facing approach reveals authentic learning needs and drives real success.
Content provided by TrekAi
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
Building for the Future: Igniting Middle Schoolers’ Interest in Skilled Trades & Future-Ready Skills
Ignite middle schoolers’ interest in skilled trades with hands-on learning and real-world projects that build future-ready skills.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Why Are Teachers in This Region So Miserable?
It's not clear why New England and Mid-Atlantic teachers feel so burned out. But some fixes could help.
9 min read
Winter in Lowville, N.Y. on Nov. 29, 2025. “There’s a lot of things here in our area that would certainly impact teacher morale if you let it,” said Zippel Principal Christopher Hallett. “We are very conscious of it here in our region. We are isolated in many, many ways: It’s a low-income population in a very rural area, so as you can imagine, there’s not a lot to do. Getting people to think outside the box about their own mental health and self-care is pretty important up here.”
Winter in Lowville, N.Y. on Nov. 29, 2025. For the past three years, teachers in the Northeast—including New York state—have reported significantly poorer morale than teachers in the West, Midwest, and South, according to the EdWeek Research Center’s annual survey. Said one Maine principal, Christopher Hallett: “There’s a lot of things here in our area that would certainly impact teacher morale if you let it."
Cara Anna/AP
Teaching Profession Download Insights for School Leaders: How to Better Support Teachers
EdWeek's downloadable guide offers tips to principals on how to improve the morale and working conditions of educators.
1 min read
Teaching Profession Generation Z Is Transforming Teaching. Are Districts Ready for Them?
The youngest cohort of teachers have been shaped by technological and educational disruption.
16 min read
tk
Gen Z teachers like Katrina Sacurom, a 5th grade teacher in Frisco, Texas, are bringing passion and fresh ideas to the profession—but also want supports and a reasonable work-life balance. Districts leaders, experts say, need to think about how to meet those needs in order to retain them. Sacurom chats with students during recess at Shawnee Trail Elementary School on Feb. 3, 2026.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Teaching Profession A State-by-State Breakdown of Teacher Job Satisfaction in 2026
See the states that have the highest and lowest morale—and factors that might be shaping those numbers.
4 min read
SOT States data Illustration promo
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva