District wants up to 13% salary cut, other big changes
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
District wants up to 13% salary cut, other big changes
Kristen Graham
It's going to be a long summer.
The Philadelphia School District wants its teachers to lengthen their workdays, give back up to 13 perent of their salaries, and forego pay raises at least until 2017. It wants to reduce the money paid out to departing employees, weaken seniority and give principals full authority over hiring and firing teachers.
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers officials on Tuesday confirmed some details of the district’s initial contract proposal, which the Inquirer has obtained. School officials have been saying for months that they need up to $180 million in labor givebacks annually to avert a five-year deficit of more than $1 billion.
The teachers' contract expires in August.
“These are not demands that my members would support, nor would they ratify them,” Jordan said in an interview. “And these demands clearly indicate that the district does not have an interest in attracting and retaining teachers.
Teachers who have experience will certainly leave to go to other districts, where they will be compensated fairly for what they do.”
Deputy Superintendent Paul Kihn said he could not comment on ongoing labor talks, but said that the school system “actually values teachers as the most important resource in our district. We are committed to providing teachers with a set of working conditions…that will actually in the long run make Philadelphia a place that people will want to come and work.”
Under the district’s opening proposal, issued Friday, the PFT’s 15,000 members — 10,000 teachers, plus nurses, counselors, secretaries, aides and others — would take pay cuts ranging from 5 percent for those who make under $25,000 to 13 percent for those who make over $55,000.
On top of the smaller paychecks, employees would also have longer workdays. Teachers, whose current official workday is just over seven hours, would be required to be at work for eight hours.
The district is also seeking massive changes to how teachers are assigned and to the strict rules that govern the work they’re asked to perform outside of their regular classroom duties. Seniority now determines how many teachers get jobs; under the district’s new proposal, principals would have the authority to hire and move teachers. (Teachers would still be eligible for due process in firings.)
Principals would also be able to assign teachers to tasks like hall monitoring and lunch duty at will. Currently, teachers’ time is carefully governed by union rules.
Now, the top-paid tier of educators are considered “senior career teachers” — those with 10 years of experience or more, plus other qualifications. That category would disappear. (A senior career teacher makes about $90,000.)
Instead of being paid at their daily rate for unused personal leave, employees who retire or leave for another job would earn a flat $160 per day.
And the district would retain the right to outsource any job.
When he first heard the district’s demands, PFT President Jerry Jordan, said he was incredulous.
“I thought it was a joke,” Jordan said.
His members’ household bills have been getting bigger, and they are already earning less and working in more challenging circumstances than their counterparts in suburban districts, he said.
Jordan also scorned the attempt to give principals more say in assigning teachers. “Another example of the district’s overall plan to command and control teachers and other employees — you see nothing that addresses teaching and learning and making schools better for kids.”
Kihn said the district’s aim was actually to treat teachers as professionals, and to “make sure that we have the right teachers with the right sets of students, and make sure that we’re rewarding and retaining our most effective teachers.”
Though the contract is important, “we are overall and in parallel working on a set of initiatives to try to improve the quality of teachers’ experiences,” Kihn said.
Kihn stressed that the fiscal situation is grim, and pointed to concessions by other unions and pay cuts recently taken by non-unionized employees. Those cuts, however, were less than what the district is asking from the PFT.
“This is an incredibly challenging set of circumstances,” Kihn said. The financial part of the district’s request “should come as no surprise.”
Talks are in the earliest stages. But the demands are huge, and could spur a flurry of retirements and departures from the PFT’s ranks.
That’s crucial to a system preparing to close 29 schools and hand three more over to charters. District officials have said they don’t believe they’ll need to lay off teachers — though other employees will be let go — and high numbers of retirements and other departures are key to that calculus.
Comments (75)
Wait until Gendres gets a load of this....— Wiseman6- Philly should wait to see the reaction of the parents who care and who have the salary and the means to move from the city hear this!
There won't much much growth left in the city when all the good teachers are gone!
I have a child at a public school and I am very happy with his teachers.
Mr. Hite's proposal would have had more conviction and persuasion if he had NOT already given OBSCENE raise to a number of central administration personnel (some of whom were reportedly incompetents maybe ready to retire) and had not hired a new controller with a questionable ETHICS with a high salary!
If this were a sacrifice, it should have been shared.
How about this Mr. Hite himself MATCHES whatever cuts in salary and benefits and others he is proposing for the teachers. 13% salary cut to start with or may be 15% since he has a much higher salary than the teachers????????
I do not want to lose the good teachers to the suburbs!!!!— EIK - This comment has been deleted.— bil,l atkin,s
- bill
you are consistent.— the lopez! - Hey Bil? WORK! Try it once in your lifetime and see how it feels. — Kolitz
- The only thing missing from this contract offer is that the School District cannot send anyone over to the teachers house to spit on their family.— Thelonius Monk
- 13% pay cut? Didn't the big wigs in the administration just give themselves raises a couple months ago? Doesn't seem equitable to me.
And will Dr. Hite be taking a 13% cut from his $300,000 salary?— 57xl - he wouldnt miss that not one bit after taxes. Not even relevant — Lyrra
- Share the pain of the private sector.— TetVet
- What private sector employer ever asked it's employees to take a 13% across the board pay cut? Moron! — Kolitz
- So will the administrators take a similar pay cut including the new superintendant who signed a contract that pays him $300,000 (not counting his perks) or the 25 administrators that received raises last year?— catnameddomino
- Ha, good luck with this one! Never happen, but good starting point for bargaining.— dogman5
- so we always use the metaphor of the people on the front lines to describe teachers, yet the people who do NONE of the educating of students keep getting paid as they hide in their offices.— high water
- Great start for the school district. Don't let up.— BillMcG
- You could not pay me to work in some Philadelphia school districts. They are more like zoos than schools.— Wednesday
- Best of luck getting the Communist leaders of the teacher's union on board.— hawk
- overdue across Pa to salvage our school districts. the time for action is now. the taxpayers are tapped out.— jstash
- What an insult. That's really the way to run a school system that has to service some of America's poorest neighborhoods. Longer days and less pay for those in the trenches. I'd love to see if the new superintendent is willing to take the same pay cut. Joke.— slanted and enchanted
- I have the utmost respect for teachers of this city, the work they do, and what they endure. So this proposal states that teachers are going to take huge pay cuts because money was mismanaged by administration for years?
Good luck.
If this is forced upon the educators, see if there are enough teachers for the children of this city. Insulting to teachers and an embarrassing proposal from 440.— omseeker - I missed the part where Hite cuts 13% from his $300K salary.— brinsley
- I quit that crappy industry 15 years ago and recommend EVERY teacher do the same. Worst job ever. Rather flip burgers.— maldorer
- Principals will have the sole authority to hire and fire? They are the ones who run the schools into the ground. Aren't they the academic leaders of a school? Shouldn't the buck stop with them? Where is the procedure to fire them? They rotate from school to school due to incompetence, leaving a mess for the next failure to clean up.— brio
- shhh! or they'll have the teachers flipping the burgers "at will" too!
— hmmm - Jordan??? Who's Jordan??? No first name???— bford823
- I worked more than 8 hours a day until today. sHite just wants to dismantle the system.— fubar-philly
- Most teachers wouldn't mind longer hours.. its the pay cut that hurts.— teachnphilly
- The big problem with "allowing" principals to hire and fire teachers, order them to work lunch duty (when? Instead of teaching?) is that the principals are much farther under the district's thumb than teachers are at the moment. In other words, principals won't really be making the decisions. They'll simply be forced to obey the administrators (non-educators) at 440, then take responsibility for the fallout.
It's time the PFT looked to Chicago for the kind of leadership and courage necessary to fight off this sort of oppression. Teachers should not take any sort of pay cut - none have had a raise in years. As others have pointed out, when Arlene Ackerman and Michael Masch drove the district into the ground, it was only the teachers that kept it going. Meanwhile, a 32-year-old parent liason at 440 makes double the salary of a teacher while doing a fraction of the work. She just got a raise (as did a bunch of other non-educators at district HQ).
A warning to Jerry Jordan - there must be NO pay cut for teachers. You won't be a hero if you present the PFT a 5 percent pay cut instead of a 13 percent one. You'll be a failure.
— Stand for Something - Philadelphia has become Detroit. Soon you will see more blighted areas and abandoned houses on every block. That is, except for center city. The taxpayers are leaving Philly and soon the teachers will leave.
The good days are over for this city.— Ralph 1 - Yes, insult your "most valued resource". More management genius from the city,— carl and sons
- Or the District could manage their money better, not hire criminals like the Queen who give no-bids to her chums then pay her a million to go away. And how about not paying criminals like Carl Greene to harrass women?— Phils_World_Champs
- Finally some sanity. Ive never understood how private sector philadelphians,nearly all of whom have had their pay cut since 2008 ,have had their property taxes increased 3 years in a row so that teachers and other public sector workers wouldn't have their pay cut too. Doesn't make sense. Public sector workers have to share the pain of their private sector brothers.— ian
- Well, the 3 % raise I get when I quit teaching in the city will nice.— fubar-philly
- Did anyone read the document on the notebook? We'd have to work unlimited evenings, meet with parents outside of school, do curriculum work, and tutor for free. Wow, so, they think we're slaves? I think 440 needs to rethink this if they want decent teachers in the district.— gtown_teach
- This comment has been deleted. — bil,l atkin,s
- lol... go back to your cave, troll. Professionals get paid for the work they do, slaves don't. — gtown_teach
- So you never leave work before a project is done? I love how everyone on these message boards always is such a hard worker — catnameddomino
- Cat, I actually have a pretty good source that tells me that Bill Atkins does not leave his job until he has 100% totally mopped the floor of the champagne room. — AreaMan
- Grossly overpaid and vastly under worked !!!!!— WCJRJR
- Just have all the students lay their heads down on the desk...I'm waiting for the tv ads with a bunch of kids pleading out loud to the PSD to just "keep our teachers!" Seriously, being is Public school teacher is no joke and a thankless job I wouldn't want. I can understand needing to tighten belts, but longer hours coupled with a 13% pay cut for those with over 10 years experience? Gotta bargain in good faith, PSD!— kjuggs77
- If we want schools that work in our city we have to pay our teachers a reasonable wage. NOT one person working in a school is getting rich from a SDP pay check. To ask middle wage earners to take that kind of cut is absurd.
The tax payers are tapped out? Philadelphians pay very little in taxes compared to other major metro areas.
I am SURE that the PFT is willing to work on a reasonable solution. Most teachers are hard working and dedicated to teaching and learning. The teacher who punches a clock and waits for a pension is mostly mythological. Its about time that the AFT/PFT remind the SRC who holds all the cards.— GregTomaki - The thugs are the morons amongst you who have never been in a Philly school and would not last 3 days given the kids, families,lack of resources,heat and a totally unappreciative population in the city. Try it bill Atkins..see how long you last..— bull****meter
- Once again, a significant part of the public shows their meanness and ignorance. Obviously, the school district has no intention of bargaining in good faith because the goal of those in charge is to privatize education in Philadelphia. Opening positions in labor negotiations are always extreme, but these demands of the school district show an administration that cares nothing about education of children. The moron who accused the union leaders of being communists is typical of the cultural values of meanness, jealousy, and anti-intellecualism thathave permeated our society.— Drumgoole
- It is disheartening to read the teacher bashing comments. We work hard. We buy a great of what we need for our classes because itnis not supplied. We have student loan payments, mortgages, families, bills and taxes like everyone else. We are constantly under fire from idiots on this site. Some of you sit and spew negative comments on every article. We treat prisoners in philly better than students. This is an overdue overhaul, this is criminal behavior by administrators. Half of their plans will bring ruin to this city and the other half has been tried and didnt work. The only thing that has not been tried is properly funding and supporting education. The schools are being blamed for raising your taxes and the teacher are villainized. Why don't you ask were the money is going? Why dont you ask the governor to give back the money he took from education. The internet is a wonderful place for small inded negative indivduals to spew hate. The real issue is blind leadership in harrisburg and city hall.— iteachinphilly
- Hallelujah!!! Now we Democrats need to get behind Republicans in Bucks county on this (one) topic. Bloated salaries for 7-8 months of work and a pension is unnecessary, wasteful, and detrimental to class size/student learning. Public jobs with pensions are supposed to pay the average or less.— KINGOFZED
- Ouch. Being a teacher is just not worth it. These kids are morons and self-indulged to boot. Their parents side with them. Thinking a career in teaching? Think about a career in education administration...apparently there you can receive a raise for no apparent reason while teachers continue to struggle against these scumbags masquerading as school children AND fight their bosses. Yikes.— sobjoe24
- The war on the middle class continues. Can't wait til this country becomes Mexico.— AreaMan
- This proposal also calls for eliminating water fountains, and the requirement that teachers receive a desk and filing cabinet. It also changes the ratio from 1 counselor for every 1000 kids to unlimited. God help those kids and those teachers. I got out when I could.— radicaleducator
- not sure where the experienced teachers are going to go to since the surrounding school districts are cutting back and not hiring teachers, if the suburban districts do post a job opening they are getting 100's of applications.— workin365
- Teachers need more $ not less.. make it attractive to get the best talent— Nezhy
- Teachers in Philly don't even get the opportunity to teach anymore. Instead they are 1 person trying to manage a class of thirty wild animals! I know...my wife does it everyday...and in one of the BETTER neighborhoods!— guysbigbutt
- So it's official: the policy of the future in education for Philly is to discourage quality people going into the teaching profession from going to Philadelphia. The ignorance of many of these postings is shocking. You should all try to learn some of the realities of teaching in Philly schools and understand that it is already a mystery why so many people are still teaching here.— prenestino
- STOP THE PRESSES! The pay cut percentages are the same as the percentages teachers are being asked to contribute to their benefits according to the documents printed in another news source. So, does this actually mean that the pay cut is simply the fact that employees will have to pay into their benefits or is it really a double pay deduction? I think Kristen should clarify this. If it's the latter, that's extreme. If it's the idea of paying for benefits, that's fair and Kristen has reported misleading information.— northeastnaysayer
- "Teachers who have experience will certainly leave to go to other districts, where they will be compensated fairly for what they do.” LOL, Nobody in the suburbs wants inferior lackies who cant even spell or write.— CD75
- Why don't the politicians take a pay cut. Everyone in charge are greedy and only want to fatten their wallets.— grimm39
- welcome to reality, teachers.— Tyrone Biggums
- You all voted, didn't you?
- om seeker, you said it perfectly. and to make matters worse, they are trying to get a school choir to sing at Ackerman's memorial service.— joegrink
- Like most Philly Institutions the District has become top heavy. Take away 13 percent of the bloated management structure and the problems should fix themselves. Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Switch to recycled toilet paper in the executive restrooms to save even more money.— bad joe s
- bill Atkins wouldn't last a day teaching. He has no idea of what goes on but yet he's quick to disparage a profession that he knows little about. Thugs, really?? Cheap shots seem to be your bread and butter. Didn't your teachers help mold your character and intellect?? Ah, well; some do fall between the cracks of literacy and rationality.— joegrink
- In response to Kihn's assertion that the school district "actually values teachers as the most important resource in our district," then why are teachers being asked to take pay cuts when higher paid employees at the district headquarters received pay increases?— Boru
- district leaders should take a pay cut and pay teachers more -— mikey5432
- The district also wants to eliminate having to provide sufficient teaching materials and copiers??!!!
Oh right, it's all about the kids.— nikki1231 - The way to avoid a deficit is for the state to provide sufficient funds to the school district instead of giving more tax cuts to corporations that are reporting record profits. The focus should be on providing the resources that the school district needs to meet their mission. We have a bunch of politically motivated bean counters who hate public education making decision based on the fact that Corbett has targeted funding cuts on minority schools. Corbett found the funds for vouchers but can't find funds for the school district.— MikeP
- This is not a surprise. Corporate America rules, and lining the pockets of the higher-ups at the expense of teachers, counselors, and nurses is just a parallel to what is going on in the rest of the working universe that is modern-day America. Cutting a salary by of $55K by over $7K will cause immense harm to educators who work in pretty miserable conditions already. In my case, as a single homeowner, it would lose me my (very modest) house. Are the posters who cheer over this serious? Really? I invite you to spend one day in my mold-encrusted, mouse-ridden workplace dealing with the challenges of children who have little support from their outside environment. Come home as wiped out as I do, and talk to me about a longer workday. Stop being sheep and baaahing loudly for this latest attempts to bust unions and shame dedicated workers.— Mayday
- This is what happens when the Public Employees Unions support of the Democrats, I think this is actually hilarious. Vote Republican.— Faadoogled
- This is incredible!!! Teachers should forgo salary AND work a longer day?
What planet are the board members from? Asking for one of the other would be asking for then they board deserves, but to ask for both? How about executives giving up some salary and perks? You want good teachers, you get what you pay for. The best teachers will leave and work elsewhere, while the losers will stay. The teachers need bulletproof vests to work in the Philly schools, I don't see a proposal to give those? Teachers need bodyguards, where is the proposal for those? Now, the board figures that teachers will roll over and play dead...Nah!!! I hope that if the board imposes some severe contract on the teachers, that they all retire or resign. If the salaries are not competitive, no one will want to work here, or if they do you will have a revolving door. The loss is to the students because you will develop a teaching staff that just doesn't care.— RandiRN - I have a child at a public school and I am very happy with his teachers.
Mr. Hite's proposal would have had more conviction and persuasion if he had NOT already given OBSCENE raise to a number of central administration personnel (some of whom were reportedly incompetents maybe ready to retire) and had not hired a new controller with a questionable ETHICS with a high salary!
If this were a sacrifice, it should have been shared.
How about this Mr. Hite himself MATCHES whatever cuts in salary and benefits and others he is proposing for the teachers. 13% salary cut to start with or may be 15% since he has a much higher salary than the teachers????????
I do not want to lose the good teachers to the suburbs!!!!— EIK 
The district doesn't care about your expertise. Your years of experience. Your dedication. Your salary...whoops. That's what it's about. You could be God's gift to education, but you make too much. Please retire. Now.- This pay cut would literally be taking away the portion of my paycheck I use per year to buy supplies for my classroom and students. It would make it impossible for me to provide all of the extra supplies I purchase with my own money so that my students have everything they need on a daily basis. So now not only will the district not supply my kids with anything the need, but I won't be able to either.— 7thgradeteacher
- I taught for 40 years before retiring. I took 2 maternity leaves and returned as soon as I was able. I took PRIDE in the fact that I DID NOT ABUSE MY SICK LEAVE! Those were days I accumulated. If I had taken off too many days I would have been called on the carpet! MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!— shadjroe1
- This is mortifying. Philly schools are HORRIBLE. The dangerous neighborhoods, lazy students, and non-existent parents are enough to make any teacher quit. BUT these teachers continue to do it, day in and day out. HOW DARE 440 even suggest these things. What did it cost to renovate 440 anyway? MILLIONS! Not only do those people make 3-4x as much as most teachers, their working environment is posh, to say the least. How about selling 440 and making them work in North Philly with no desks or supplies? This is sickening!— realteacher
- Give it up, Jerry. The game is over. You can't say, "no givebacks" when everyone but the teacher's union is sacrificing. You're fighting to stay on the Titanic when it's obvious to everyone else that the ship is sinking.— djdekok
Meanwhile as the suburban MALE votes against anything associated with the word "PUBLIC" more and more of our professionals are born overseas where they are spending more and more on PUBLIC Education.— Cuddles- I just love how the article states that a senior teacher makes 90k a year..If you go to http://www.nctq.org/docs/7-08.pdf it will show what philly teachers really make with a masters plus 30 credits beyond their masters. Oh and forget about having a Doctorate, its just the same pay as a teacher with a masters. So folks take a look for yourself, the money isn't 90k for the majority of the teachers...About 75 if they are lucky enough to be able to get their masters, while trying to pay off their huge college loan bills.
If this ever goes through, these Philly teachers need to strike and go find other districts where they can get compensated for what they are really worth!! Today people feel educators get paid to much..Are you joking? They make no where near enough, they are teaching our future leaders, officers, businessman. They should make a heck of a lot more money then they do.— Bkroposky - How about just shutting down the brick & mortar h.s. and enroll all the kids in on-line h.s.. Yes, the school system will have to cover the costs of teachers' salaries, but the school district will save millions on the maintaining a brick and mortar schools, save on janitor salaries, save on busing and no more "free" lunches.— cadet
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Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham writes the Philly School Files blog, where she covers education in Philadelphia, both in and out of the classroom.
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
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