Ernest A. Logan was elected AFSA president by acclamation during the 15th Triennial Constitutional Convention in July 2018 and presented the title President Emeritus in July 2022 by the AFSA Executive Board-.
He was elected vice-president of the AFL-CIO in September 2018 and re-elected in June 2022 and sits on its Executive Council.
For nearly 25 years Mr. Logan worked in the New York City public schools before joining the staff of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, AFSA Local 1, in 1997 as a field service representative.
CSA represents more than 6,200 school and central office leaders, including principals, assistant principals and education administrators who work in the more than 1,200 New York City public schools, as well as the early childhood directors and supervisors.
Rising through the CSA ranks, he was elected president in November 2006 and held the position until he retired in 2017.
Mr. Logan, the 11th of 13 children, was born in Harlem and raised in East New York, in a family that valued education. His father, a college graduate and trained engineer, died when Mr. Logan was 8—a huge loss for the Logan family emotionally but not spiritually. The older Mr. Logan and his wife had imbued their son with the importance of a college degree, family and faith, and his mother kept those values alive for her children despite the hardships they faced.
Mr. Logan remained focused on the future, graduating from Franklin K. Lane High School in 1969 and SUNY Cortland in 1973. He attended Baruch College/CUNY and received his master’s degree in education.
He began teaching English at PS 224, D-19, Brooklyn, soon after graduating from SUNY Cortland, and within five years, he was a curriculum writer for the Office of Curriculum and Development. In 1983, he became the assistant principal at JHS 263, D-23, Brooklyn, and in 1991, he was appointed as principal of I.S. 55, D-23.
As principal, he represented his CSA colleagues as the District 23 chair from 1993 until the fall of 1997, when he became CSA’s director of Community School Districts and worked in the field enforcing the contract and protecting his colleagues’ legal rights.
In March 2000, Mr. Logan became CSA first vice president and later executive vice president, a position he retained until he won the presidency in an unopposed election.
As CSA president, he secured a contract for his Department of Education members that provided substantial salary increases and numerous reforms, including a rating system for principals that is tied into school performance and specific leadership competencies. Mr. Logan repeatedly has called for high standards and accountability from his members, and does not accept complaints that “the job is too tough.” Mr. Logan has forged relationships with city and state officials, understanding the importance of “bridge building,” as he calls it, to secure legislation, resources and policies that enable CSA members to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities.
In addition to his responsibilities at the union, Mr. Logan is a board member for New Visions for Public Schools and the NY Research Alliance. He belongs to numerous organizations, including St. John’s University’s Phi Delta Kappa chapter, the NY Alliance of Black School Educators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the NY Academy of Public Education and 100 Black Men, and is a life member of the Association of Black Educators of NY.
He has served on the board of the Brownsville Community Development Corporation and is a deacon at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Harlem, where he also serves as the chairman of the Board of Trustees.
He has received numerous awards from labor, education and political organizations and recently servered as chair of the New York City Labor Day Parade.
Mr. Logan and his wife, Beatrice, a high school guidance counselor, have established the Ernest A. Logan Scholarship at SUNY Cortland, which provides tuition assistance for NYC public school students.