New York, NY – Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza has announced that staff with
“Never underestimate the power of great teachers and their ability to shape the lives of our students,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The Bronx Plan is about upending the status quo and building a fairer school system. With these hard-to-staff salary differentials, we’ll be able to recruit and retain excellent teachers to ensure that all students across the city, no matter their zip code, will get the education they deserve. This is equity and excellence in action.”
The $7,200 “hard-to-staff” salary differential is part of the Mayor and Chancellor’s Bronx Plan. The plan is designed to add resources, improve teacher retention and recruitment, reduce teacher vacancies and reduce teacher turnover. Titles include bilingual teachers, bilingual special education teachers, bilingual guidance counselors, bilingual social workers, and bilingual school psychologists; and middle and high school science and math teachers.
“Great teaching is the foundation of great schools, and this innovative approach will encourage our teachers to take jobs and stay in historically underserved schools,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “In particular, the Bronx Plan hard-to-staff differentials will help support our multilingual learners and students with disabilities, including in ten Bronx District 75 schools.”
The Bronx Plan, launched in October 2018 as part of the UFT contract agreement, will support a total of up to 180 historically underserved schools citywide, with an additional 120 Collaborative Schools and Hard-to-Staff Only schools to join the initiative next year. Through collaborative decision-making, teachers and principals will create specific solutions tailored to the needs of their school communities to increase student achievement.
“The Bronx plan is designed to help schools find their own answers to the challenges they face, and then provides the resources to help make that happen,” said Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers. “Schools will now have a chance to use hard-to-staff differentials to help them recruit and retain teachers.”
