PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia is negotiating two key labor contracts, as Tuesday’s start of the new in-person school year approaches.
The first day of school, August 31, is also the last day of the current contracts for Philadelphia’s teachers and principals.
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers represents 13,000 teachers and school staffers. The PFT agreed to a one-year contract last year during the pandemic.
Schools Superintendent William Hite, at a back-to-school event Thursday, said negotiations toward a new deal were “active.”
“We know we’re in talks with them. I would characterize those talks as productive,” Hite said.
“It could spill over [beyond Tuesday] or it could be resolved. We don’t know.”
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The district is also negotiating with school principals, represented by Teamsters Local 502. The principals’ five-year deal is also expiring.
In addition to the labor contracts, the district is also talking with all five of its unions about the terms for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
120,000 district students are scheduled to resume classes in-person Tuesday.
“It’s been a while since our young people have been in schools,” Hite said.
“There have been a lot of things that we’ve had to do to make sure that we were meeting or exceeding CDC standards, PDPH [Philadelphia Department of Public Health] standards, all of the mitigation strategies, all of the technology all of the development and training, all of the strategies that we put in place to keep people safe. All of that has been a Herculean effort.”