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Cheryl Brown, president of the administrators union.
Principals newly tasked with running the district’s summer school programs are looking for a bump in their six-figure salaries. The new schools superintendent argues they already have year-round jobs.
The School Administrators Association filed a formal grievance against the district in late June, arguing that Superintendent Carol Birks shouldn’t have forced eight principals to oversee summer sessions within their buildings without extra pay.
This month, behind closed doors, Birks debriefed the Board of Education about the grievance and other “mid-term negotiations” with the administrators union. Once returning from the executive session, the board did not disclose what was discussed or whether they’d given Birks any direction about how to proceed.
According to the grievance, which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Cheryl Brown, the union president, complained that Birks had “unilaterally imposed duties and responsibilities” on the principals without their input. Brown considered that to be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, which says that principals can’t be given extra work “without prior negotiations.”
The grievance asks that the district “cease and desist” from “misinterpreting or misapplying” from the agreed-upon rules for salaries and enter into another round of negotiations with the union to ensure that.
In the district’s view, the principals weren’t being given extra work.
The collective bargaining agreement states that administrators with a 12-month work year, who can earn up to $156,255, “are required to be on duty at all times.” The contract makes an exception for administrators to take a four-week break and two weeklong recesses, but it adds that the superintendent, “in [her] sole discretion,” decides when they’re off.
From July 5 to Aug. 1, the district offered a variety of summer programming at all grade levels: literacy and math support at seven schools for kindergarteners through fourth graders; a science and technology camp at Hill Central and Fair Haven Schools for fifth through seventh graders; and credit recovery at Metropolitan Business Academy for any high schooler who failed a class.
In total, the district budgeted about $625,000 for the part-time personnel who staffed summer school. Shifting administrative costs onto principals this year was estimated to save about $64,000.
Brown did not respond to multiple email messages and phone calls requesting comment. Will Clark, the chief operating officer, said that the district does not comment on “pending negotiations and grievances.”
As the district works to close a projected $19.3 million budget deficit this year, many have asked why administrators have been spared from the deep cuts that have already led to the closure of three schools and the layoff of 15 school counselors, 5 library media specialists and 4 physical education teachers.
Reached by phone on Thursday afternoon, Dave Cicarella, the teachers union president, said that everyone in the district needs to do their part to mitigate the budget deficit.
“I do understand that this is something that they have not had to do before, but we are all being asked to do more, considering the circumstances,” he said. “The fact is that savings could pay for another teacher.”
Cicarella has also pressed Birks to uphold a pledge she made this spring to evenly distribute staffing reductions, matching the loss of 135 educators with 25 fewer administrators.
Before Monday’s vote to finalize two dozen layoffs, Birks said that the district had eliminated 134 teaching positions and 14 administrative positions.
Would 11 more administrators be cut? “We’re still looking at it,” Birks said earlier this month. “Right now, those proposed administrative reductions weren’t just at the Central Office. They were throughout the district.” Was she referring to school sites? “Possibly,” Birks said. “We’re still exploring everything.”