{"id":40201,"date":"2025-11-21T01:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/40201\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T01:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:15:07","slug":"philadelphia-principals-push-for-new-contract-but-dont-threaten-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/40201\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia principals push for new contract but don’t threaten strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia principals are ramping up public pressure on school district officials to secure a new contract. But they\u2019re not threatening to strike. <\/p>\n

District principals, climate workers, and school safety supervisors packed the standing-room-only Board of Education meeting on Thursday in navy and gold Commonwealth Association of School Administrators Teamsters Local 502, or CASA, T-shirts. Union members have been working without a contract since their previous agreement expired in August.<\/p>\n

CASA President Robin Cooper had strong words for Superintendent Tony Watlington and the district, saying contract negotiations have been \u201cone-sided.\u201d The union\u2019s bargaining team has presented several counter proposals to end what Cooper calls \u201cwage compression\u201d and address increasing health premiums, but has been stonewalled by the district\u2019s negotiators, according to Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to fight our own district to properly support our needs,\u201d Cooper said. <\/p>\n

\"AUnder their prior contract agreement, members of the CASA union agreed not to strike or stop work. (Carly Sitrin \/ Chalkbeat) <\/p>\n

But she stopped short of calling a strike. Under the union\u2019s prior contract<\/a>, members agreed they would not \u201cengage in, instigate, or condone any strike, work stoppage or any concerted refusal to perform normal work duties.\u201d That commitment still holds, Cooper told reporters outside of the meeting room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our district and we\u2019re gonna take care of it,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe\u2019re still going to stand by our schools because this is who we are, and this is what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watlington told City Council members earlier this week<\/a> he is optimistic about reaching a contract deal in the \u201cnear term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value you and we\u2019re gonna get this done,\u201d Watlington told the union members Thursday. <\/p>\n

We’re here to help.<\/p>\n

Every day, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reporters are answering your questions, following the money, and digging into what’s happening in the city’s public schools. Keep up with our free newsletter, delivered every Wednesday and Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several parents, advocates, and community members also testified at Thursday\u2019s meeting demanding the district reconsider its plan to close some public schools. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true that some neighborhoods face real enrollment challenges, but those neighborhoods call for support, not closure,\u201d education researcher Ryan Pfleger told Watlington and school board members at Thursday\u2019s meeting. \u201cIf a building is crumbling, repair it.\u201d <\/p>\n

District officials have said the highly-anticipated plan \u2014 originally slated to drop at Thursday\u2019s board meeting before being delayed<\/a> \u2014 will include proposals for every school building across the city. Some will be closed and their buildings repurposed, others colocated, and the rest either renovated or left as-is. <\/p>\n

The district pushed back releasing a draft of that plan to an unspecified date, in order to gather more community responses through a survey it launched this week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Watlington said Thursday the goal of the survey, which will be open through Dec. 11<\/a>, is to solicit big-picture feedback from parents about four main themes: how to better use building space, reduce \u201cunnecessary\u201d school transitions,<\/a> reinvest in neighborhood high schools, and expand access to selective-admission schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to just step back and just dream a bit,\u201d Watlington said. \u201cWe\u2019re committed to not fumbling the football at the two-yard line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board members approve school security contracts<\/p>\n

While the facilities plan was not on Thursday\u2019s agenda, board members did vote on several contracts for school security efforts, including:<\/p>\n

\u2014 $195,000 to expand the district\u2019s existing student-run \u201cyouth court\u201d program<\/a> which helps young people mediate conflicts in school. During the 2025-26 school year, the district plans to add new program sites at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, William L. Sayre High School, and West Philadelphia High School. The three additional youth court program sites will all be active \u201cno later than June 2026,\u201d according to the district.<\/p>\n

\u2014 $321,178 to GXC Inc. for walkthrough weapons detection devices and metal detectors at district high schools and middle schools. <\/p>\n

\u2014 $732,094 to Safe at School Consulting LLC for state-mandated security assessments at all schools by the end of the 2025-26 school year. The assessments will \u201cevaluate current safety measures, identify any vulnerabilities, and provide guidance for any enhancements to physical safety and security needed at each school,\u201d according to the district.<\/p>\n

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7623,69,71,70,7625,24303],"class_list":{"0":"post-40201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-chalkbeat","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news","12":"tag-philly","13":"tag-principals-with-the-commonwealth-association-of-school-administrators-philadelphia-public-school-district"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}