District, Ackerman settled individual contract issue

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

After a flurry of controversy, it seems that the PFT and the Ackerman administration have resolved the the issue of whether teachers are required to sign individual professional contracts. The PFT Web site reported the terms here.

In short, teachers hired after 1982-83 who were never given such contracts will get them now to sign, which the PFT recommends they do. Those hired before that date — apparently when the District stopped providing them — will not be required to sign a contract unless none can be found in their files.

Teachers attaining tenure will also get such contracts, as the school code mandates.

Plus, non-tenured teachers — those with fewer than three years — "may" receive an employment contract that specifies they must give 60 days notice if they plan to leave. Apparently, concern over the failure of many teachers to adhere to that requirement is what spurred the administration to start sending out the contracts in the first place.

The settlement of this skirmish between union and District, however, has been overshadowed by a new one about the final agreement in the desegregation case.