In the early hours of October 20, after a 13-hour marathon bargaining session, our big bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with District management. Our union used our collective power to fight for and win our number one bargaining survey priority: meaningful and equitable raises for all, as well as wins in every area of our platform demands.
Major highlights for the two-year agreement include:
-
Certificated educators receive a permanent raise on the salary schedule of $9,000 the 1st year and a 5% increase the 2nd year.
-
The average increase to annual salary for certificated educators for this agreement is 19.4%.
-
Classified educators would receive a minimum salary of $30 per hour or an 8% increase (whichever is greater) in the 1st year and a 5% increase in the 2nd year.
-
SFUSD district management tried to remove any steps, and UESF kept them entirely. Longevity will no longer be 30 cents an hour at ten years. We now have percentage wins starting at five years, with 1 percent at five years, 2 percent at 10, 3 percent at 15, and 4 percent at 20 years.
-
The average increase to hourly wage of this agreement for classified staff including longevity is 39%.
-
Substitute educators would see a 15% raise over two years, and Prop A substitutes would make $80 more than the day-to-day sub rate. There will no longer be a two-tiered pay rate for subs.
-
Additional wins include gains for fully staffed schools, improved working conditions, student support, protections from poor management decisions, community schools, and special education.
For paraeducators, we are talking about potentially life changing increases. All classified educators will now receive a minimum of $30 an hour or an 8% increase, whichever is greater, in the first year. The second year, all classified educators will see a raise totalling 5%, split with 3% in July 2024 and 2% in January 2025. On average, our paraeducators will see a 27.0% increase, which amounts to an average wage increase from $28.28 to $35.92. This is applied to the base pay and doesn’t include the new longevity formula. The new longevity formula means that instead of 30 cents an hour increase at 10 years, paraeducators will now receive a 1 percent increase at 5 years, 2 percent at 10 years, 3 percent at 15 years, and 4 percent at 20 years.
Certificated members will also see historic raises. All certificated educators will receive a $9000 increase year one. In year two, certificated will see a 5% increase, split with 3% in July 2024 and 2% in January 2025. The average increase to annual salary for certificated educators for this agreement is 19.4%. New and veteran educators would receive equitable raises over the two years. For example, a Pre-K teacher in their 5th year would get a $15,400 increase, and a TK-12 general education teacher in their 20th year would get a $14,526 increase over the life of this two-year contract.
On top of the 6% raise we won last year, these increases mean huge gains for every member of our union. Every raise we have ever won until now was a straight percentage across the board that, for decades, meant a lot more for the people at the top. With this deal, members will see equitable increases.
This equitable approach will help everyone deal with inflation and the ever-increasing cost of living in the Bay Area while also helping to recruit and retain educators that we desperately need to stabilize our schools.
TA Resources
We have created many resources for members to use to inform their vote. If you still have additional questions, please email ask-uesf@uesf.org.
- Full TA Language
- TA Slide Deck
- TA Platform Wins
- Certificated Salary Chart
- Classified Salary Chart
- TA FAQ
- Compensation TA Language
Site Visits
We encourage you to reach out to your site leadership (UBC Leaders, Bargaining Team Members, and Contract Action Team Members) and engage in discussion in the coming weeks. If you would like an officer from UESF to visit your site, you can contact us at ask-uesf@uesf.org to schedule a visit.
Voting
Voting will occur online from Friday, November 3, through Wednesday, November 8, and the results will be released on November 9. The vote will be managed by the same vendor who does our internal union elections, Big Pulse.
Where is my ballot?
All members should have received an email entitled “Tentative Agreement Ratification Vote” from our voting platform, Big Pulse. They emailed the personal email you had on file with the union. If you did not have a personal email listed, they emailed your SFUSD email. Please search your personal and SFUSD email for “Tentative Agreement Ratification Vote” to locate your unique email to vote. Be sure to check your spam folders as well.
What do I do if I can’t find my ballot?
Do not forward your email to any other member, as the link has information that is unique to you and will not allow others to vote. If you or any other member at your site cannot find their email to vote, please fill out this form, and someone from UESF will resend the link to the email indicated in the form. If you still need help locating the email after you have filled out that form or have any other questions, please email us at ask-uesf@uesf.org.
