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A state deal to make sure teacher-evaluation plans are put in place and stay in place could break the logjam between the city and its teachers union.
The deal ensures every expired teacher-evaluation plan remains in force until each district and teachers union agree on a new one, Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced yesterday.
Mayor Bloomberg has opposed any evaluation system that would expire before the city could use it to weed out bad teachers — one of his main concerns with reaching a deal with the union.
Bloomberg said yesterday he’s encouraged.
“I think it’s helpful. But we still have to negotiate with the teachers union,” Bloomberg said, adding that he and UFT president Michael Mulgrew “had smiles and hellos and that sort of thing” at the City Hall reporters’ annual “Inner Circle” show over the weekend.
Bloomberg said an earlier time limit on an evaluation plan “has been one of the problems” in getting to an agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, and he noted the Albany deal helps solve that.
Mulgrew said discussions with the city were taking place.
The city forfeited about $240 million in state aid this year because the Bloomberg administration and the UFT couldn’t agree on a state-approved evaluation plan by a Jan. 17 deadline.
The agreement unveiled yesterday, part of the new state budget, also requires the city and the other three districts that missed the Jan. 17 deadline to have state-approved evaluation plans in place by May 29 — or state Education Commissioner John King will impose plans on them by June 1.
In the meantime, state lawmakers added nearly $390 million in extra aid for city schools in the new budget, which the legislature is expected to finish voting on by Thursday.
The increase is part of about $1 billion in school aid lawmakers added statewide on top of a 4 percent increase Cuomo initially proposed for all districts with evaluation plans in place.
Cuomo and legislative leaders lauded their new agreement on teacher evaluations. “By guaranteeing that all our public schools have strong evaluations in place, we are putting the needs of students first,” Cuomo said.