The North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education and the North Syracuse Principals’ Association have reached an agreement on the principals’ contracts from 2012-15.

The agreement came at a Dec. 26 special meeting of the board, following a much-publicized conflict between the North Syracuse Education Association, the district’s teachers’ union, and the Principals’ Association. The NSEA had accused the principals of holding that money hostage in an attempt to sweeten their contracts. The principals’ association fired back in a statement, alleging that the administration had put the teachers’ union negotiations — what it referred to as “a sweetheart deal’ — above all else, forcing the principals to wait six months to begin their contract negotiations.

“The district used the North Syracuse Education Association’s negotiations to dictate all of the other contract settlements in the district,” the statement said.

The statement also noted that principals in the district would take on a significant amount of work beyond what they had contractually agreed to — about 480 hours a year — to conduct the evaluations under the agreement reached with the NSEA.

“Unlike the teachers’ contract that is rich with opportunities for additional pay, such contractual provisions do not apply to the principals,” the statement read.

The issues were resolved with a memorandum of understanding signed on Dec. 19 and accepted by the board Dec. 26.

The provisions of the new contract include the following:

Additional personal and vacation days

Additional rollover vacation days

Salary increases as follows:

0 percent in 2012

 $2,500 added to each bargaining unit member’s base salary as of July 1, 2013

 Amount equivalent to 80 percent of the average of U.S. Cities Northeast and NY/Northern New Jersey, all Urban Consumers indices, as indicated in February 2014. The raise will not be less than 1 percent and not more than 3 percent. This will go into effect July 1, 2014.

Additional language pertaining to Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) language and procedures as they apply to building principals.

The principals’ agreement cleared the way for the submission of a teacher evaluation plan to the New York State Department of Education.

For more on the evaluation plan, see future editions of the Star-Review.