School & District Management

New Contract Settles Teacher Unrest In Philadelphia

By Julie Blair — November 08, 2000 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers overwhelmingly approved a four-year contract last week that increases teacher salaries, extends the school day, and requires the development of a new pay plan.

Union members agreed to the pact by a vote of 3,822 to 641 on Nov. 2, four days after their leaders and school district and city officials pounded out the deal. The negotiations, which began in January, were often contentious and were marked by a brief strike late last month.

“While we didn’t get everything we wanted, we do realize it was just short of a miracle to have so quickly gotten a contract,” said Barbara Goodman, a spokeswoman for the 21,000-member union. “People were relieved that we had the shortest strike in history and the most effective.”

The board of education planned to meet Nov. 3 to vote on the contract, which was expected to receive unanimous aproval.

Teachers had been working under an interim contract imposed by the city on Sept. 28. The old contract expired Aug. 31 and could not be extended under a Pennsylvania law called Act 46. Under that legislation, the state has authority to take over the 208,000-student district, a move that reportedly was under consideration during the strike held the weekend of Oct. 27-30.

The new pact provides employees with a $1,000 salary bonus this school year, a 6 percent raise next school year, and 4 percent raises during the next three school years, said Hal Moss, a spokesman for the union.

Beginning teachers in the district will make $35,962. Educators at the top of the salary schedule will be paid $74,691.

The contract requires teachers to spend an extra 30 minutes a day on instruction, for which teachers will be compensated, Mr. Moss said. District officials had proposed increasing the workday by one hour and did not want to pay teachers for that time.

In addition, the contract mandates the creation of an “enhanced compensation” system, Mr. Moss said. A team made up of union leaders and district officials will work to design a plan to pay teachers according to their specific roles in the district, an approach known as pay for performance.

The new pay program will be pilot-tested next fall and will be voluntary for teachers who are currently employed, Mr. Moss said. Newly hired educators will be required to participate in the program as of March 1 of next year.

In another pilot program, the district also gained more power over selecting teachers for 10 hard-to-staff middle schools.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the November 08, 2000 edition of Education Week as New Contract Settles Teacher Unrest In Philadelphia

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

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

School & District Management Q&A When This Principal Talks About Mental Health, People Listen. Here's Why
The NASSP Advocacy Champion of the year said he used stories from his school and community to speak with his state’s legislators.
6 min read
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, poses for a photo in front of a Senate office building in Washington, D.C.
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, stands in front of a Senate office building in Washington on March 13, 2024. Young was among the secondary principals to meet with legislators urging them to keep federal funding for schools stable.
Olina Banerji/Education Week
School & District Management Teacher Layoffs Are Mounting. How Districts Can Soften the Blow
Layoffs are coming in districts large and small. Here's how district leaders can handle them.
8 min read
Pencil Eraser Erasing Drawn Figure
AndreyPopov/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion 5 Strategies to Combat Student Disengagement
When principals get serious about building a more inclusive school community, it doesn’t just benefit students, but teachers as well.
Michelle Singh
5 min read
Illustration of a bright vibrant school where students feel welcomed. In the background the sky is filled with enthusiastic raised hands.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Advocacy or Electioneering? Education Leaders Walk Fine Line in School Voucher Debate
Texas is cracking down on district leaders' allegedly political speech—in what others see as a pretext for quashing anti-voucher sentiment.
5 min read
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away after announcing Texas' lawsuit to challenge President Obama's transgender bathroom order during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away following a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016. Paxton recently sued several Texas school districts for allegedly engaging in electioneering before the March 5 primaries.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP