Posts tagged principals
Commentary LAUSD avoided a strike and now wants a state taxpayer bailout to avoid fiscal disaster
May 1, 2026 // Caving to union demands is easy, but paying for them might prove difficult. LAUSD spends more money than it receives each year from federal, state, and local governments. They project a $1.3 billion budget deficit this year and a $1.5 billion hole in fiscal year 2027. A big reason for the deficits is that the district has too many non-teachers on its payroll. Despite losing about 75,0000 students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAUSD has reduced staff by only 321 employees. Birth rates are down, families are moving out of the region, and parents are seeking other options, such as private and charter schools.
Commentary: A teacher strike would hurt kids, but LAUSD can’t afford to give in to the union’s demands
April 13, 2026 // The bottom line is that LAUSD can’t afford the union’s demands. A lengthy teachers’ strike would harm students, but giving in to UTLA risks weakening the district’s ability to serve those students for years to come. For their part, teachers and other union employees could come to regret whatever concessions UTLA manages to squeeze out of the district. LAUSD has already approved a plan to lay off 3,200 employees, and they’ll need to cut more if UTLA gets its way.
SLPS employee unions demand a seat at the table regarding school consolidations
July 11, 2025 // “The No. 1 cause of injuries to the people 420 represents is breaking up fights,” Cummings said. “This is a safety issue … and I can't stand for my members to be put in that situation.” Cummings cited Article I, Section 29 of the Missouri Constitution, which states employees have a right to bargain collectively with their employer through a union representative of their choosing. Jane McWilliams-Sykes, a registered nurse who works at Dewey Elementary School, said nurses and medical staff within schools are critical for students’ safety and well-being. The end of next month will mark 40 years that she has worked as a nurse in the district, she said.
Principal, administrator unions rising steadily since COVID
January 15, 2025 // AFSA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Meanwhile, school systems in cities like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City created supplemental COVID agreements during negotiations with principals and alongside their school leader unions, he said. “In those supplemental COVID agreements, the principals were able to work out a number of issues, very similar to what the teachers were able to work out,” Treibitz said. “So post-COVID, we started getting a lot more calls” from school administrators from a wide variety of districts inquiring how to unionize, he said.
A Bandage Approach: Teaching after Retirement
July 26, 2023 // The problem is that allowing retired teachers to come back to the classroom does nothing to address the problem. Let me be clear on what I mean by “the problem.” I am not talking about the problem of teacher recruitment and the number of people entering the profession. I’m talking about the teacher pipeline problem caused by the retirement system itself. It is a system that pushes people out. It incentivizes teachers, principals, and superintendents to retire in their mid-50s. This new provision does not address that issue; instead, it makes it worse. Researchers have long known that defined-benefit pensions, such as those used in the Missouri teaching profession, have two key effects on the labor market. They provide a pull for workers to stay until the peak benefit period, then they push workers out. If a teacher begins working in Missouri right out of college around the age of 22, they will likely hit their peak benefit period around the age of 53. If lawmakers truly want to keep great late-career teachers in the profession, they should revise the system that pushes them out in the first place. The best way to do this would be to move to a new type of pension system where teachers’ retirement plans would continue to accrue wealth as they continue to work through their 50s.
Chicago School Principals Average $157K, Unionizing
June 13, 2023 // The already-high pay averages are both substantially higher than other principals and assistant principals in Illinois, which average $116,400 and $100,000, respectively. Median household income in Chicago is $65,781. This movement is likely to succeed. Mayor Brandon Johnson has already signaled support for this unionization attempt during his campaign, and has created a deputy mayor for labor relations position that will “foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of Chicago” and “assure work-related benefits and rights.”
VIRGINIA: Richmond Public Schools principals unionize
February 28, 2023 // More than 150 Richmond Public Schools administrative staff members, including principals, assistant principals and directors, will now be represented during labor negotiations over pay, benefits and more. According to a Monday press release, 98% of the school district’s administrative staff who voted in the union election approved joining the Teamsters Local 592 union to become one of the first groups of Virginia public school principals to unionize. Virginia’s longstanding ban on unions for public sector workers, which include teachers, law enforcement and firefighters, was lifted when state lawmakers passed legislation in 2020.
PRITZKER SIGNS BILL ALLOWING CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS TO UNIONIZE
February 13, 2023 // Chicago Public Schools principals already make nearly 30% more than their peers in the rest of the state. A newly signed law allows them to unionize and push for even more. Gov. J.B. Pritzker just signed a bill allowing principals within Chicago Public Schools to unionize and bargain. While supervisory employees have not traditionally had a right to unionize, House Bill 5107 redefines who constitutes a “managerial employee” within CPS. Under the new language, only those who negotiate with unions or formulate district-wide policies are prohibited from unionizing.
ILLINOIS HOUSE BILL WOULD GIVE MORE POWER TO CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIONS
January 13, 2023 // Principals and other important administrative staff within the district will now be able to join a union. The average salary for a principal in Illinois is $116,398, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2021 annual report. But ISBE’s data on principals’ salaries statewide shows CPS principals average $149,628 – nearly 30% more than their peers in the rest of the state. Yet they are pushing to unionize. CTU has a history of keeping kids out of school to get what it wants CTU has caused five work stoppages in just the past 11 years.
CPS could face another union at the bargaining table if principals get law changed
February 18, 2022 // A bill allowing Chicago Public Schools principals to unionize passed an Illinois House committee Wednesday.