Mark Cannizzaro, the new president of the American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA), is not someone who easily gives into doom and gloom.
When the Supreme Court struck down agency fees for public sector unions with the Janus decision, Cannizzaro saw it as an organizing opportunity. Now with threats to education funding at the federal level, he said that his members’ issues have largely stayed consistent, and he sees AFSA growing in the near future.
“I see the union’s role all over the country, and not just in education, but in all fields as expanding,” Cannizzaro told LaborPress.
Cannizzaro recently took the reins of the union as part of a new national leadership team, with a focus on organizing and policy at the national level, after succeeding the previous president, Leonard Pugliese. AFSA is a national labor union representing school administrators, supervisors and other school leaders, which grew out of the New York City-based Council of School Supervisors and Administrators that Cannizzaro previously led for around 10 years first as executive vice president and then president.
Cannizzaro’s approach to union leadership is deeply rooted in his three decades of experience within New York City’s public school system, where he rose from a teacher to a principal and eventually to a full-time union leader. His experience, he said, is what shapes his perspective on the support that school supervisors need most.
“I think the biggest thing nationally is just retention and recruitment,” Cannizzaro said. “That’s the key nationally because [for] school leaders, their average tenure is like three to five years. Having been a school principal for 10, I can tell you that you are just getting started after three or four years.”
As a new principal, Cannizzaro found himself getting more involved in union work. He recalled a pivotal meeting where he questioned a district policy that he felt was “nonsensical,” and his willingness to speak up caught the attention of a local district representative, Karina Cosentino.
After serving in various voluntary union roles, he was asked in 2012 by then-president Ernest Logan to serve as the executive vice president.
“That was an extremely difficult decision for me to make because I loved my school,” he said.
However, he ultimately chose to join the union full-time, eventually assuming the presidency of the CSA, and navigating the extremely volatile and challenging period of Covid lockdowns. During his tenure, he negotiated several contracts and focused on critical issues like school safety, advocating for the policy that front doors of schools be locked.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m most proud of and would love to continue to do is just to put a spotlight on the work that school leaders and central administrators do on a day-in and day-out basis,” he said.
Now as the head of the union’s national arm, Cannizzaro’s main priorities for AFSA revolve around recruitment and retention of school leaders and organizing new locals. He sees a need for a boom in organizing. In an era where interest in labor organizing is surging, he noted that states like Virginia and Illinois are now allowing school leaders to collectively bargain, creating opportunities for AFSA to grow its national footprint.
Cannizzaro sees advocacy as a key role for AFSA, but he said that he believes AFSA’s role is not to be oppositional but to find common ground with policymakers and offer insights from the perspective of people on the ground. The stability and resources provided by a strong union, he said, like job security and a secure retirement, are crucial for attracting and retaining the best talent in school leadership.
Beside the perennial issue of protecting school budgets, Cannizzaro mentioned that paid parental leave and wellness benefits for members are big ticket issues that he wants to organize around.
He said that a continuous fight for AFSA is to ensure that federal funding, such as Title I and Title II, reaches the school level to directly benefit students and provide professional development for school leaders.
“Education, whether people agree on the policies or not, is a bipartisan issue…” he said, “Agree or don’t agree with everything that our leaders state about education, our job is to find common ground and see if we can make things better for kids.”
Credit: Photo courtesy AFSA
