Chicago Public Schools and the union representing its principals have reached a tentative contract that would mark the first agreement of its kind for school leaders anywhere in Illinois. The deal covers roughly 1,100 CPS principals and assistant principals and comes after more than two years of on-and-off bargaining between the district and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.
CPS and CPAA announced the agreement in a joint statement, and according to the Chicago Tribune, the new contract would codify much of the interim agreement the two sides struck in August 2025. CPAA President Kia Banks said the tentative deal is headed to a member ratification vote next week, but she declined to share its specifics before members get to weigh in.
Banks, who leads the association, said she felt relief after more than two years of bargaining, and described the agreement as one that balances compromise while helping management understand what is needed for students’ experience, per the Tribune’s reporting. Once ratified by members, the contract would still need to go before the school board for approval.
A Years-Long Push Rooted in a 2023 State Law
Chicago principals lobbied for the 2023 Illinois law that first allowed them to unionize and bargain collectively, aligning them with school leaders in large urban districts including New York City and Los Angeles. CPAA began formal bargaining in 2024, and the union has been negotiating with the district since spring of that year, according to Chalkbeat. No other Illinois school district has a recognized principals union.
Those talks stalled for a stretch amid contentious negotiations between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union, before CPS and CPAA returned to the table to hammer out a formal contract. The two sides reached an interim agreement in August 2025 that included 4% cost-of-living adjustments and additional professional development, along with safety protections and expanded due process for principals facing discipline, per the Tribune. CPS’s own interim memorandum of understanding specifies that eligible principals and assistant principals received a 4% base-wage cost-of-living bump effective July 1, 2024, and another 4% adjustment effective July 1, 2025.
That same interim document, posted by the district, also laid out new notice and representation protections for formal investigations, requiring written notice to a member and the union at least three school days before an investigatory interview, except in exigent circumstances. The Chicago Principals’ Association described that interim MOU as the first contractual framework for CPS school leaders, with a more comprehensive collective bargaining agreement meant to follow it.
CPS Leadership Calls It a Milestone
CPS CEO Macquline King called the tentative agreement a historic milestone and a vital step in supporting school leaders, describing principals and assistant principals as steady anchors of school communities, according to the Tribune’s report. CPAA has argued that stronger support for school leaders will improve both principal retention and student achievement, a case the union has made against a backdrop of heavy turnover.
During the 2021-22 school year, 83 Chicago principals and assistant principals left their posts, a 43% increase from before the pandemic, Chalkbeat has reported. Before the pandemic, roughly half of the district’s elementary school principals and more than two-thirds of high school principals were leaving their jobs within five years, and of 57 new school leaders who started the previous fall, about 85% had previously served as assistant principals, the outlet found.
Deal Follows a Summer of Budget Cuts
The agreement arrives months after CPS, facing a $732 million deficit this summer, cut assistant principal positions at schools with fewer than 250 students in an effort to help close the gap. CPAA criticized those cuts as short-sighted, arguing that assistant principals were essential even at the smallest campuses. A majority of the schools affected by the cuts ultimately retained their assistant principal roles by using discretionary funding, according to the Tribune.
With the ratification vote now set for next week and school board approval still to come, the specifics of what the new contract changes or preserves from the interim deal remain unconfirmed until CPAA members see the full document.
