Teachers in San Francisco announced Friday that their union overwhelmingly approved a labor contract with San Francisco Unified School District after ending a historic strike that shut down schools for a week.
Members of the United Educators of San Francisco union approved the contract with 92% of voters in favor of it.
“This is the direct result of thousands of educators, families, San Franciscans and community supporters who showed up on the picket lines and pushed the district to prioritize students and educators,” said UESF President Cassondra Curiel outside Francisco Middle School on Friday during the announcement.
The contract features a 5% salary raise for certificated employees, which includes teachers, over two years. Classified employees, which includes paraeducators, will get salary increases of 8.5% over two years.
The contract also includes full health care coverage for dependents of UESF employees, caseload reductions for special educators, limitations on use of artificial intelligence in schools, and sanctuary protections for immigrant students and staff.
‘A positive movement’
“Going on strike for the first time in half a century was not what our educators wanted, but they stepped up and did what had to be done for our public schools and for our students,” said SFUSD Board of Education President Matt Alexander at the briefing.
The agreement was reached after a bargaining battle that ended two weeks ago. One of the primary demands from the union was full coverage for family health insurance, which they achieved. Original requests for salary raises from UESF started at 14% for classified employees and 9% for teachers.
“It is a positive movement in the direction that many of us have been feeling we needed to go for a very long time,” Curiel said.
However, conflict between the union and the district has not subsided. The union is now fighting against potential layoffs, which the district floated as a possibility this year.
“Every year, the district threatens to layoff educators and cut programs to schools while classrooms are understaffed,” Curiel said. “We are committed to all efforts to retain and recruit quality educators, and we hope the district will join us in working toward the schools our students deserve.”
Throughout bargaining, Superintendent Maria Su maintained that the district must remain “fiscally responsible” since the district is facing a $100 million structural deficit, according to her.
Union says district can avoid layoffs
To compensate for the increased costs with the new contract, layoffs for 42 employees are on the table. The Board of Education approved a resolution Tuesday to allow the district to make the layoffs.
For layoffs, the district must issue preliminary notices to teachers by March 15, with final decisions made by May 15.
However, union leaders say the district has enough money. SF Propel, a progressive policy organization, conducted an analysis of SFUSD’s budget and found that it has a $429 million reserve fund that can be tapped into.
“SFUSD has actually built up a massive surplus, $400 million, and that’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money that was not spent on kids. That’s money that’s sitting in the bank.”
Matt Alexander, SFUSD Board of Education President
Alexander, who has been an ally with the union throughout negotiations, agreed that the district has enough reserve funding that can mitigate layoffs.
“When we look at the actual fiscal data, we can see that this has been fearmongering over the last five years,” Alexander said. “SFUSD has actually built up a massive surplus, $400 million, and that’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money that was not spent on kids. That’s money that’s sitting in the bank.”
The school board also has to approve the contract with UESF and plans to do so at its March 10 meeting.