Coming back from the November break is always a difficult transition because you already see the finish line after having only one week off! On top of finding the strength to give your best to our school communities this week, you also turned out to vote for the first strike authorization vote this past Wednesday! Thousands of you came out, and the vote results showed an almost unanimous YES outcome at 99.3%. It is absolutely clear that you are ready to cast our second vote to call for a strike if necessary.
The result lets leadership know that the membership is united around the demands of the big bargaining team for dependent health coverage, improved working conditions in Special Education, raises, and shelter and protections for immigrant educators, students, and families. We have been bargaining since March and reached an impasse in October. After an unsuccessful mediation in November, we were released to fact finding. Given the district management’s refusal to agree to even no cost protections and their continued commitment to a deficit narrative and cutting funding to student services, we anticipate the struggle for a fair contract will continue to escalate. Your level of enthusiasm and our collective unity is necessary as we move forward to the second vote, which will authorize a strike.
Your union has been clear that striking is not the goal. The goal is to win a contract that our members, students, and families deserve. It is the leadership of educators, your leadership, that is needed now more than ever. Today, SFUSD is led by a cabinet deeply disconnected from the work at school sites. The superintendent has no education experience or credentialing. Key management personnel are making decisions that undermine social emotional supports, lower class sizes, high school schedules that serve our most vulnerable populations, and proposing reductions in security and mental health support, just a week after a school shooting – these cuts impact students the most. Our school communities have fought hard to offer a unique vision for San Francisco. SFUSD management references the vision in words about values, but in practice, they are uninterested in ensuring our students have the schools they deserve.
Year after year, the district underestimates revenues and overestimates expenditures, creating the exact destabilizing approach we are being told is necessary. I want to repeat, year after year, district management underestimates revenues and overestimates expenditures. Their projections, mismanagement, and lack of understanding of their own budget are presented to the state as a doom and gloom scenario. For the past two years, families have flocked to SFUSD, with over 1000 families every year requesting more spaces in our schools. And year after year, the district doesn’t do the planning necessary to fulfill the need and to welcome families or retain them in later years.
We do have a vision for stable schools, fully staffed schools, and working and learning conditions that serve the needs of all students and educators. From the bargaining team to the safe schools committee, to the leaders at every site, we are working towards this vision daily. Let’s take the energy and commitment we expressed in the strike authorization vote to fuel our continued struggle for a fair contract. As we move through the holiday period and the bargaining team engages in fact finding as the next step of negotiations, let’s be ready to keep holding the district accountable to the vision. In January, if we continue to be unable to reach an agreement, we will hold our strike vote. Be ready!
