{"id":350588,"date":"2026-09-18T21:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350588\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T21:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:54:17","slug":"nyc-unionized-principals-to-win-bonuses-up-to-10000-to-press-compliance-with-class-size-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350588\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC unionized principals to win bonuses up to $10,000 to press compliance with class size law"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City\u2019s public school system is paying unionized principals and assistant principals to bring more classrooms into compliance with the class size law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Principals in eligible schools will receive $500 this school year for each additional compliant class, up to a maximum of $10,000, according to a memo obtained by the Daily News. For assistant principals, it\u2019s $250 per class, up to $5,000 and subject to school-wide limits.<\/p>\n

Those dollar amounts increase the following school year to $570 and $11,400 for principals, and $285 and $5,700 for assistant principals, the memo said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest way New York\u2019s class size law is becoming even more expensive than its proponents intended, and reducing the savings Mayor Mamdani expected to realize by delaying the mandate.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased to share that a major part of this year\u2019s plan is the creation of a new Supervisory Programming Differential for eligible school leaders covering the 2026\u201327 and 2027\u201328 school years,\u201d read the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators\u2019 update to unionized members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe differential provides additional compensation to principals and assistant principals in eligible schools that make additional progress toward class size compliance beyond their established projection or baseline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the inception of the class size law, we have argued that if the city asks school leaders to take on the difficult work of reorganizing programs, staffing, and scheduling to meet the class size mandate, that work and responsibility must be acknowledged,\u201d the memo continued.<\/p>\n

The memo said assistant principals who are teaching classes exempted from the law \u2014 due to a shortage of space or licensed teachers \u2014 will also receive the extra pay. Eligible administrators will receive $850 this school year per class each term, up to $8,500. Those dollar figures jump next school year to $950 and $9,500.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is pictured at P.S\/I.S. 206 in Brooklyn on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, the first day back to school. (Cayla Bamberger \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

School officials previously reached a deal with the United Federation of Teachers in June that provides educators in classrooms that are not in compliance with the class size law with a bonus for more work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the class size law first passed, our school leaders have fully supported its goals and worked diligently to implement the city\u2019s plans for the benefit of all students,\u201d CSA President Henry Rubio said in a statement Friday. \u201cWe thank the Mayor and Chancellor for recognizing the leadership necessary to successfully lower class sizes across our entire system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the New York City public schools did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The 2022 state class size law imposed new caps on the city\u2019s classrooms of no more than 20 to 25 students per classroom, depending on their grade level.<\/p>\n

During the most recent state legislative session, Gov. Hochul and the Legislature, at Mamdani\u2019s request<\/a>, agreed to extend the timeline to fully implement the law. This school year, 70% of non-exempt classrooms must be in compliance. The full implementation of the law is due by the 2029-30 school year.<\/p>\n

At the time of the delay, Mamdani said he expected to save $500 million, helping to make headway on a historic New York City financial deficit.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear how much the CSA-represented principal bonuses will cost because the price tag is based on class size data to be reported later this fall.<\/p>\n

If all eligible UFT-represented teachers receive the maximum bonus of $8,500, the city\u2019s Independent Budget Office recently estimated the extra pay could cost an additional $21 million in the first year<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City\u2019s public school system is paying unionized principals and assistant principals to bring more classrooms into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,85,267,9,24,55,54,264,12,56],"class_list":["post-350588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}