Saturdays or Sundays? Two Ways to Earn Your SBL, SDL, and Master’s Without Quitting Your Job
You are not stalled on this because you doubt you can do the work. You have run a grade team, written the schedule nobody else wanted to write, and talked a family through a tough situation in the hallway before first period. You know you can lead a building.
You are stalled because you cannot picture where the classes could possibly fit into your busy life. Between a full teaching load, a commute, and whatever is left of your evenings, “go back to school” sounds like a promise you would have to break. And then there is the number at the bottom of the tuition page.
Those are the right things to worry about. Here is how the math actually works.
First, the part that is on a clock
New York State is restructuring how School Building Leader (SBL) and School District Leader (SDL) certifications are earned. The streamlined route that current programs use is being phased out in favor of a longer, more expensive model. Teachers who enroll now can still finish under today’s structure. Teachers who wait get routed into whatever replaces it—and that means more time and more money, not less.
That is the whole reason this decision has a deadline attached. Everything below is about making the next two years fit into a life you are already living.
Every class is on a weekend. That is the design, not a concession.
CITE’s administration programs do not ask you to find a free Tuesday night after a full day of teaching. Classes meet on weekends, live and instructor-led—not recorded lectures you watch alone at 11 p.m., and not a self-paced module that quietly becomes something you stopped doing in March.
Both programs let you pick your day: a Saturday track or a Sunday track. If your family protects Sundays, take Saturdays. If you coach on Saturdays, take Sundays. That single choice is what makes the difference between a program you finish and one you drop in month four.
Live matters more than it sounds. You are in the room with a cohort of other New York educators working through the same case studies, the same budget scenarios, the same difficult-parent role plays. You stay with that cohort from start to finish. A meaningful number of graduates say the network they built is worth as much as the certificate.
Two formats. Pick the one your calendar can absorb.
Hybrid with Russell Sage College — accelerated weekend courses on a Saturday or Sunday track. Most sessions are live online; two sessions per course meet in person, so you get real face time with your cohort and your professors without adding a weekly commute. Choose this if the in-person days are worth the travel to you. The next cohort starts Fall 2026.
Fully online with St. Joseph’s University, New York — the same SBL, SDL, and master’s outcome, on a Saturday or Sunday track, delivered entirely online. No campus, no travel, no parking, no gas. If you live far from a partner campus, have young kids at home, or cannot give up part of a weekend day to driving, this is the one. Fall 2026 is the first fully online cohort.
Both paths end in the same place: SBL certification, SDL certification, and a master’s degree in educational leadership. The difference is logistics, not rigor.
About the money
Cost is the objection we hear most, and it is a fair one. Teachers are being asked to invest in a credential before the raise that justifies it.
These are the lowest-cost administration programs in New York City. That is possible because CITE partners directly with accredited New York colleges and negotiates pricing specifically for working educators—not because anything has been trimmed out of the program. You still earn the same state certifications and the same accredited degree.
Worth checking before you decide: many districts offer tuition reimbursement, and moving into an administrative salary schedule typically changes your earnings well beyond the cost of the degree.
The proof is not a brochure claim
CITE has been doing this for years, and thousands of educators have completed our programs and moved into assistant principal, principal, and district-level roles across New York City and Long Island. They had the same full plates you have. The model works because it was built around teachers’ actual schedules from the beginning, rather than being adapted to them later.
What to do this month
Look at your next twelve weekends. If you can give up one day—Saturday or Sunday, your pick—on six of them, you can do this program. Then pick a format—hybrid with Russell Sage if you want in-person time, fully online with SJNY if you need every hour back or live outside of the NYC Metro area — and come to an open house. Ask about cost, ask about the phase-out timeline, ask a current student what their weekends actually look like.
Get the raise. Get the title.
Compare CITE’s administration programs and register for an upcoming open house →
