Maria Su, San Francisco Unified School District superintendent, has said there could be school closures if the teachers go on strike.
Lea Suzuki/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Unified School District is close to witnessing its first teachers strike in nearly 50 years.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco teachers appeared on the verge of launching their first strike in almost 50 years unless an 11th-hour deal could be reached after nearly a year of unsuccessful negotiations.
Labor leaders for the district’s 6,000 educators, classroom aides, counselors, nurses, social workers and other members scheduled a press conference for Thursday morning to discuss “next steps” after receiving a neutral fact-finding report offering suggestions for resolving disputed contract terms.
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The union said the bargaining team was prepared to return to negotiations Thursday and Friday evenings.
“The report does not go far enough — and the recommendations here alone will not solve the stability crisis in our district,” said union President Cassondra Curiel. “Now is the time for the district to come to the table with real solutions and show the community that they are fully committed to funding the classrooms and schools our students and communities deserve.”
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The report, written by neutral parties that participated in a fact-finding panel with district and labor representatives, largely sided with the district’s arguments of financial constraints, while acknowledging the need for raises and fully funded health care.
The last time city teachers walked picket lines was in 1979, when the strike lasted seven weeks as educators and district officials battled over hundreds of teacher layoffs and pay raises in the wake of massive cuts to education following Proposition 13.
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School board President Phil Kim held out hope that a resolution could be reached before Monday.
“It is in everyone’s best interest — most importantly, our students’ — that we reach a solution and ratify a contract as soon as possible, before a strike becomes a reality,” he said in a social media post Wednesday. The fact-finding report “is a critical milestone in our ability to resume negotiations.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie released a video message Wednesday afternoon saying that it was crucial city schools remain open.
“I have been in regular contact with both the school district and the teachers union, and I am urging them to keep talking so kids can keep learning,” he said. “Our working parents can’t afford to stay home if schools are closed. Our special needs students can’t afford to lose access to vital services that help them succeed.”
Lurie said he was also working with city departments in the event of a strike and schools are closed.
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“But I want to make one thing clear: What is best for our students is for the adults to continue discussions at the table so we can keep kids in the classroom,” he said. “I will continue pushing for solutions that keep our schools open and our students learning.”
The ongoing labor dispute revolves largely around raises, special education support as well as health care costs, specifically the burden on teachers who pay for family medical plans, which currently run from about $1,200 per month and could increase to $1,500.
The union, the United Educators of San Francisco, has demanded the district pay for all medical care coverage for all members without any concessions as well as a 9% raise over two years.
The district’s estimate of the cost of the union’s demands is $161.4 million in the first year and up to $240 million by the third year.
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The district has been battling a budget deficit for several years, requiring $114 million in cuts this year, but continues to overspend. This year, city schools are expected to spend $52 million more than they are getting in revenue and next year officials anticipate a deficit of $32 million.
District officials said they would pay for all medical coverage for the three-year contract term, but the source of the voter-approved tax funding would expire after that. They would have to find another way to pay for health plans after that, but there were no guarantees.
The district also offered a 2% raise for each of the next three years.
The union argued its educators are among the lowest paid in the region, while district officials claimed they were among the highest.
The fact-finding report acknowledged the district’s financial constraints, which include state oversight to ensure the city’s schools remain solvent.
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“There is no dispute,” the fact finders wrote in the report, that the district remains in a “precarious financial position.”
The report recommended a 3% raise this year and again next year, saying a 9% raise over two years “is simply not an option.”
The authors also recommended the two sides agree to the three-year plan to cover family health care plans using the temporary funds in a separate agreement outside the contract, which would provide not only the ultimate goal of providing the critical benefits, but also a “framework for any ongoing ask of the community.”
The report did not address the district’s continued lifetime health coverage of retirees, which costs more than $37 million annually — and is a rare benefit among labor groups.
Superintendent Maria Su said Wednesday she believes they are close to a deal and that the district and union were expected to meet at 5 p.m Thursday to go over the report.
“This is a credible, fair report that offers transparency and affirms the District’s financial position,” she said in a statement. “We do not want a strike. Our goal continues to be to keep our children in classrooms.”
But that meeting won’t include a “last and final offer,” which typically follows the release of the fact-finding recommendations, she said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, adding it will be more about “what our labor partners feel” about the report.
“We are not far,” Su said. “I really don’t believe that we are far. We need to come back. Let’s continue to hash out these last few issues.”
The fact-finding report rejected the union’s demands for changes to special education workloads, use of artificial intelligence and limits on class sizes. It also rejected new contract clauses on requirements for student and immigrant housing as well as sanctuary district policies, which it said were “not appropriate” to include in a labor agreement, imposing “onerous responsibilities” on the district to be landlord, job trainer and legal advocate.
The union representative on the fact-finding panel, Angela Su, objected to several of the recommendations in the report, citing a crisis of affordability, attacks on immigrant communities, need for artificial intelligence guardrails and vacancies in special education, among other issues, while rejecting a temporary solution to health care costs.
“With recent increases, high rents, and Bay Area cost of living being taken into account, SFUSD must provide fully funded family healthcare to UESF members,” she said. “The district will see further destabilizing of staffing if they do not prioritize this issue.”
The fact-finding report, however, emphasized the district does not have full financial control given its precarious budget status, with state trustees able to veto school board spending decisions they believe are not fiscally responsible, including labor contracts.
Officials have been using one-time funds, including pandemic recovery cash, to backfill its deficit, but that money is now gone.
The district does have a large balance in its accounts leftover from previous years, but much of it is restricted, meaning it can only be spent on whatever the grant or state earmark it was meant to buy or, in some cases, the funding is for bills not yet paid or projects stretched over multiple years.
While the beginning balances in those funds this year reached more than $400 million at the beginning of this school year, officials expect that amount to be about $215 million by the end of this school year, $131 million next year and $81 million the year after, with another $111 million in a rainy day fund for emergencies.
“It’s been super challenging, super frustrating,” Curiel said Wednesday, prior to the strike announcement during a KQED radio interview.
Superintendent Maria Su has already started planning for a strike given the tense negotiations, asking the school board for emergency powers, including expenditures and contracts for temporary personnel needed to keep schools open.
It remained unclear whether any or all schools would close during a strike. Su said it would depend on whether there would be enough staffing at each site to ensure students would be safe.
“The reality is, if I determine that I cannot open schools safely because we do not have the staff to open schools safely, then we cannot,” Su said prior to the strike announcement.
City teachers overwhelmingly supported the strike, with nearly 98% support from the 5,200 members who voted.
Curiel, union president, said the bargaining team has not received any formal offer in writing from the district about the raises or the medical coverage, which many teachers and including those involved in negotiations have said was a big sticking point.
Su has, however, in media appearances and in writing to community members, outlined the offer several times and asked the union to come back to the table before calling a strike to work out the deal.
The district was expected to submit a “last and final offer” to the union following the receipt of the fact-finding report.
