FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 27, 2020 • KIDS & EDUCATION • THE QUEENS COURIER 41
kids & education
New contract to give NYC principals
and assistant principals higher pay
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
LIC fi lm studio invites local students into
facility as part of Career Discovery Week
BY BENJAMIN MANDILE
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Many have been to job fairs at high
schools, but groups of teens this year
attended the job fair of their life when
they had the opportunity to visit various
businesses around New York City in the
fi rst-ever Career Discovery Week.
As part of a newly formed partnership
between the New York City Department
of Education and the Partnership for New
York City, thousands of local 10th-graders
visited one of 180 companies from Feb. 10
to 14 that joined forces to off er kids a fi rsthand
look into the work that they do.
Silvercup Studios, the largest full-production
television studio in the northeast
region of the United States, opened its
doors in Long Island City as part of this
new partnership to let the students peek
behind the green screen.
A group toured the set of the upcoming
show Prodigal Son and talked with
the director, producers and designers of
the new crime drama to learn about how
their experiences in the industry led them
up to working on the show.
“Being an executive producer is like
being a conductor in the orchestra,” said
Adam Kane, the show’s executive producer.
“Early in my career I was shooting
news broadcasts, weddings, bar mitzvahs
and even depositions to get the experience
I needed before moving over to television.”
Other companies that are part of the
collaboration include Fortune 500 names
including JetBlue, JP Morgan Chase and
AT&T, among others that gave local teens
the chance to put a face to these companies
and learn about the varied job opportunities
available.
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools
Chancellor Richard Carranza came to a
tentative agreement on a contract with
the Council of School Supervisors and
Administrators (CSA) that includes
increased pay and paid parental leave, the
city announced.
“Th ose who protect and educate the
city’s children deserve the time necessary
to welcome their own children into
the world,” said CSA President Mark
Cannizzaro.
Th e union, which represents over 6,400
public school principals, assistant principals
and other education administrators,
has been without a contract since April of
last year. Under the new contract, union
members will receive a retroactive salary
increase of 2 percent and are set to get
a 2.5 percent pay raise in July of this year
and a 3 percent raise in September of 2021.
“Our school leaders put their students
fi rst each and every day, and
this historic deal will deliver on key
reforms,” said Carranza in a statement.
“With this agreement, we are
ensuring our schools retain top talent
and our employees get the fair
wages and benefi ts they
deserve,” de Blasio
said in the same
statement.
Prior to the
new contract,
union members
who
became parents
had
to use their
sick or vacation
days
in order to
spend time
with their
new arrivals.
Now, CSA members
are allowed up to 25
workdays of paid leave in
order to spend time with
the newborns or newly
adopted or foster children.
Also as part of the contract,
middle school and elementary
school principals will
get a salary increase in order
to close the pay gap
with high school
principals, who
have traditionally
been paid more
than their middle
school and elementary
school
counterparts.
A spokesperson
for the
union boasted
that under
the new contract
CSA principals
have the right to
hire an assistant principal
tasked with assessing
the school’s climate and culture in
order to increase safety. According to
the spokesperson, there are 100 schools
in the city with no assistant principal.
In January, CSA sent a letter to
the Department of Education asking that
school administrators be given more freedom
of discretion in handling school
misconduct.
In the letter, CSA wrote that only 20
percent of principals were satisfi ed with
the tools they had been given to ensure
school safety. Th e letter continues on to
say that although administrators were
supportive of the administration’s restorative
practices, recent changes to the
school disciplinary code was detrimental
to schools.
“Assistant principals are particularly
necessary given that our system is deeply
committed to using restorative approaches
to student missteps, which understandably
take time and care,” said Cannizzaro
in the letter.
CSA’s new contract with the city will
expire in 2023.
Courtesy of Silvercup Studios
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