At issue was whether to insulate school board members from being fired at will by the mayor by giving them fixed terms. The Citizens Union had supported fixed terms, but Duncan “made it known very clear that he did not support fixed terms and would like the organization to take a look at this position and we did,” CU’s executive director Dick Dadey.

At a press conference today in front of Tweed, the group announced its support for extending mayoral control without fixed terms.

The announcement came after the group received a letter from Duncan and a phone call from Mayor Bloomberg asking them not to endorse fixed terms. According to Dadey, after a year of discussing mayoral control, the group’s board members had reached a consensus to support fixed terms, but that was before the phone call and letters, at which point the board decided to reexamine the issue.

As a compromise, the group is advising that there be a mandatory 90-day notice period before any of the PEP appointees are fired. This, Dadey said, would allay the group’s fears of a Monday-night Massacre-repeat, which was the basis for their earlier support for fixed terms.

The report also suggests that the chancellor not sit on the panel, and that the panel’s size be reduced from 13 to 11, giving the mayor a slim majority of one appointee.

Throughout the presentation, members of the group reiterated their support for mayoral control, but listed objections to the current system’s limited parental involvement, nominal independent supervision, and the powerlessness of the PEP. They also emphasized the need for more racial and ethnic diversity on the PEP and the Community Education Councils.

“I thought it was disappointing,” said PEP member Patrick Sullivan. “They had a lot of recommendations, but on the key one they rolled over to the mayor, which is kind of disturbing.”

For his part, Dadey insists that though he was “flattered” to receive Duncan’s letter, the Education Secretary and Bloomberg’s outreach did not determine the group’s stance on fixed terms. “We were persuaded by a lot of information provided by any number of groups, from the very beginning to now. It wasn’t influenced by one individual.”

Asked whether he was surprised that Duncan had intervened in CU’s deliberations, Dadey said he wasn’t. “They clearly see the model that’s being established here in New York as a model to be followed in the rest of the country.”

The statement inserts President Obama’s top education official even deeper into New York City’s debate on school governance. Duncan first voiced his support for mayoral control in New York City to the New York Post editorial board in March. He argued that giving the mayor full control over urban public schools is the best way to turn them around.

Many education advocates here, including the teachers union, have pushed for fixed terms as a way to eliminate the mayor’s right to remove any school board member at his pleasure. But the issue is facing opposition from Bloomberg and, most recently, from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose latest proposal has school board members serving at the pleasure of the mayor.

Mayor Bloomberg fired three of his appointees on the board, known as the Panel for Education Policy, in 2004 after they said they would oppose a policy he supported. Critics of the mayor call the event the Monday Night Massacre.

Bloomberg has vigorously lobbied against the idea of fixed terms for school board members. Most recently, the mayor personally reached out to Citizens Union members to urge them to reconsider a proposal that would have recommended fixed terms. The watchdog group is set to announce a new proposal today that does not include fixed terms, but does force the mayor to give 90 days notice before firing a disagreeable appointee, according to sources familiar with the watchdog group’s position.

Sources told me that the change of position followed an endorsement from Duncan as well as Bloomberg. But curiously, spokesmen for Duncan have so far not been able to locate the letter that I reported he sent to the Citizens Union. I’ll keep searching for it.

Bloomberg has vigorously opposed fixed terms. He says he needs to be able to dismiss school board members at his pleasure in order to have real control over the public schools.

Members of the Citizens Union had previously voted to endorse fixed terms. But the position the Citizens Union, a nonprofit good-government group, will recommend tomorrow backs away from the fixed-terms power check. As a compromise, it would force the mayor to give 90 days’ notice before dismissing a board member, sources said.

Bloomberg reached out to the group after it briefed City Hall on the first proposal last week, urging board members to reconsider their stance. The group subsequently re-started its process of debating and voting on a position, sources said.

Duncan also weighed in during that period, writing a personal letter urging the group to preserve the mayor’s power over the schools, sources said. Duncan has previously said he supports mayoral control as a way to improve urban schools.

Teachers union president Randi Weingarten and the education historian Diane Ravitch, who has pushed for checking the mayor’s power with an independent school board, also made pitches to Citizens Union members, sources said. A member of the group who is a stronger critic of mayoral control recruited Ravitch to speak at a meeting yesterday in a last-minute pitch to counter the push by Bloomberg and Duncan.

The Citizens Union will announce the proposal at a press conference on the steps of Tweed Courthouse tomorrow at noon. The executive director of the Citizens Union, Dick Dadey, declined to comment in a telephone interview. “We’ll make that information available tomorrow at our press conference,” he said.

A spokesman for Bloomberg, Jason Post, also declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Duncan did not immediately have a response.