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UFT, city agree on 55/25 retirement option, voluntary schoolwide bonus pilot program

by Deidre McFadyen

Oct 18, 2007 3:18 PM

In a landmark accord, the UFT, the city and the Department of Education on Oct. 17 agreed on mechanisms to implement two outstanding provisions of the 2005 contract: an option to allow educators with 25 years of service to retire at age 55, and a pilot program offering schoolwide bonuses in approximately 200 high-needs schools.

“Using the terms of the 2005 collective-bargaining agreement, we have closed the door on individual merit pay by agreeing to negotiate a voluntary schoolwide bonus program, and we also got as a result of that a 55/25 retirement plan,” UFT President Randi Weingarten reported at the Delegate Assembly to enthusiastic applause from delegates hearing the news for the first time.

At the meeting’s end, the delegates voted overwhelmingly to support the union’s decision to enter into the implementation agreement and gave Weingarten a standing ovation.

55/25

Under the agreement, in-service educators on Tiers II, III and IV will be able to retire at age 55 with their full pensions after 25 years of service. Currently, these members have to wait until age 62 to receive an unreduced pension or have 30 years of service at age 55. Future hires will be entitled to retire at age 55 with 27 years of service without a reduction in benefits.

Pending the expected passage of state legislation and the governor’s signature, in-service members will have six months to decide whether or not to opt in to this enhanced pension program at a cost of a 1.85 percent pre-tax pension contribution. Future hires will pay 1.85 percent more than the current pension contribution, which is 3 percent for the first 10 years of service.

The negotiated program is “cost-neutral” to the city over the long haul on terms that are comparable to what other unions have negotiated over the past 15 years.

“We have been trying for years to secure pensions for Tiers II, III and IV members that are comparable to Tier I,” said Weingarten. “I have been trying to obtain this piece — 55/25 — since 1995.

Members on Tier I (who began working in city schools in 1973 or earlier) have a 55/25 retirement plan. They contributed an average of at least 5 percent toward their pensions for their first 20 years of service.

Weingarten told the delegates that she had fought to get a “placeholder” on 55/25 in the 2005 agreement in light of the growing attack on pensions at both the national and local levels. Since then she had worked almost daily to secure it.

Schoolwide bonuses

With the agreement, a two-year pilot program will award bonuses to the entire UFT-represented staff in participating schools that meet benchmarks for achievement gains. In this school year, $20 million in bonus money will be offered to 200 high-needs schools that have high concentrations of poor children, English language learners and other special-needs students. The following school year, the program will be extended to at least 30 percent of the schools if funds are available.

“The schoolwide bonus plan reflects our core philosophy that students achieve when all the educators in a school work together,” Weingarten said.

Weingarten said schoolwide bonuses promote cooperation; acknowledge the contribution every school staff member makes to students’ success; and motivate principals to provide the support and conditions required for all the success of all students.

“This schoolwide plan generates the kind of spirit and partnership within the school community that make a school great,” Weingarten said.

The bonus program is completely voluntary. UFT members of the school chapter must vote to opt in by a 55 percent majority before a school will participate.

The criteria for awarding bonus money to a school will be aligned with the Department of Education’s new School Progress Reports and entail various benchmarks, more than just standardized test.

Each school’s award will be equal to approximately $3,000 multiplied by the number of UFT members in the school. The agreement stipulates that the bonuses, which will be privately funded in the first year, will not reduce the amount of money available for collective bargaining in any given year. Each school will have a compensation committee of four, made up of the principal and another administrator along with two UFT-represented educators elected by their colleagues, who will decide by consensus how to divide the bonus. If the committee is unable to decide on the division of the bonus, the money will be forfeited. Members of the school may use an appeals process to challenge the committee’s decision, but only if no ratification vote by the members was conducted.

Since 1999, principals have received bonuses for gains and student achievement; this plan extends that opportunity to UFT members in the school.

Weingarten noted that the new program was superior to the pilot schoolwide bonus program in Brooklyn Districts 19 and 23 in the late 1990s because it empowers school-based staff to decide whether to participate each year, to vote to elect representatives to the compensation committee and to determine the division of the bonus money. These checks and balances, she said, meant principals will not have unilateral decision-making authority.

“We’ve taken something that was contentious and negative and turned it into something that is collaborative and promotes real teacher voice,” said Weingarten. “This is transformative. This system has never recognized teachers as real school-based partners.”

At the City Hall press conference earlier that afternoon, Bloomberg made the same point. “Empowerment means share effective leadership at the school level,” he said.

Weingarten said the schoolwide bonus program will shut the door on any further push for individual merit pay, where teacher is pitted against teacher, for the remainder of the Bloomberg administration.

At the press conference, Bloomberg distanced himself from individual performance pay, saying a schoolwide system made more sense.

“In some cases, it’s very easy to measure whether you do a better job than the person sitting to your left or right,” the mayor said. “In the schools, it is much more a collaborative effort. It’s really hard to tell whether it is just you or whether it is other teachers in the schools that support you. They, in fact, may have kids for parts of the day that you don’t have them.”

The bonus plan is contingent on the 55/25 legislation being enacted in Albany.

Summing up the thematic link between the agreement’s two components, Weingarten said, “We have come up with creative solutions to two major issues facing our schools — making the profession economically viable and fostering collaborative learning environments where teachers have real voice.”

Pension agreement at a glance

Who: In-service educators on Tiers II, III and IV.

What: Can retire at 55 after 25 years of service.

How: Educators must opt in within six months and pay 1.85 percent of their salary before taxes. Future hires will pay 1.85 percent more than the current pension contribution to be able to retire at 55 with 27 years of service.

Schoolwide bonuses at a glance

Who: 200 of the city’s high needs public schools that volunteer to participate.

What: Each school receives an award equal to approximately $3,000 multiplied by the number of educators in the school.

How: Each school will determine how the money is distributed among UFT members. A compensation committee of four — made up of the principal and another administrator along with two UFT-represented educators elected by their colleagues — will decide by consensus how to divide the bonus.