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Tag: San Francisco Unified School District

  • San Francisco Unified teachers’ strike ends after tentative agreement reached

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    A tentative agreement has been reached between the San Francisco Unified School District and the United Educators of San Francisco, both sides announced Friday morning, ending a teachers’ strike that began earlier this week.

    The agreement on a two-year deal was reached around 5:30 a.m., following a 13-hour bargaining session. Campuses and administrative offices are open to staff on Friday, but remain closed for students.

    Classes are set to resume on Wednesday, following the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday and the start of Lunar New Year on Tuesday.

    “I know that this has been a really difficult week and I cannot wait to welcome all of our students, all of our families, back to school on Wednesday, February 18th,” superintendent Maria Su said at a news conference Friday morning.

    On Monday, about 6,000 teachers began walking the picket lines, after an agreement was not reached over the previous weekend. It was the district’s first teacher strike since a 1979 walkout that lasted six weeks.

    Sticking points on a deal were wages, healthcare for dependents, along with assistance for special education staff.

    The union said the agreement includes fully-funded healthcare that includes families and what they described as “immediate relief” for special education staff in the form of caseload reduction. Classified employees will also receive an 8.5% raise over two years, while teachers will receive a 5% raise over two years.

    Other terms of the agreement include sanctuary protections and limitations on the use of artificial intelligence.



    Teachers strike in San Francisco ends, tentative agreement reached

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    “By forcing SFUSD to invest in fully funded family healthcare, special education workloads, improved wages, sanctuary and housing protections for San Francisco families, we’ve made important progress towards the schools our students deserve,” union president Cassondra Curiel said in a statement. “This contract is a strong foundation for us to continue to build the safe and stable learning environments our students deserve.”

    At a briefing Friday morning, the superintendent said the addition of family healthcare was historic and was possible through the use of a special parcel tax.

    “We cannot bring down the cost of housing or the price of groceries. but we can do our part to honor our educators and staff and their families,” Su said.

    The superintendent also addressed the district’s path to fiscal stability, as the district remains under state oversight and is facing a $100 million budget deficit in the upcoming school year.

    “We stretched our resources to the limit to get this agreement done. We still have a long way ahead of us where difficult choices remain. So while we have a deal today, we still need more support in the future,” Su said, urging the state to change how it funds local public schools.

    Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement from his office, “Our kids deserve schools where they can thrive, with educators who have the tools and support they need to best serve our kids. And all of our families deserve a fiscally stable school district that will be able to do the same for generations to come. This agreement is evidence that when we work together, we can all get closer to that goal.”

    It was not immediately known when union members would hold a ratification vote on the agreement. The agreement would also need to be ratified by the Board of Education.

    SFUSD serves nearly 50,000 students in more than 120 campuses.

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    Tim Fang

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  • San Francisco parents hold virtual roundtable to talk about ongoing teachers’ strike

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    The teachers’ strike in the San Francisco Unified School District is about to go into its fourth day, and many parents are feeling frustrated about how their families are stuck in the middle of the contract negotiations.

    So, they held a virtual roundtable Wednesday night to share their frustrations.

    “Students shouldn’t have to bear the burden of all of these adult disagreements,” parent Alex Wong said. “Every person involved in these negotiations needs to be working at being at the bargaining table every hour of every day.”

    “We’re asking both sides to negotiate with the urgency that our kids deserve because every day matters to our kids’ education,” parent Meredith Dodson added.

    Some parents shared stories, such as Bridget Blounx, a grandmother and caregiver of three children, some with special needs.

    “Even though I’m working remote, I’m having to stop in between my client interviews and intakes to answer questions and to try to triage and help navigate the kiddos with their different work,” Blounx said.

    While parents say it’s imperative to get kids back in the classroom now, Wilbur Liu, a Lowell High School student, also agrees.

    He appreciated the break, but he feels it’s important to be back in school, at least by next week.

    “Hopefully, it doesn’t go on for too long. Obviously, no one likes losing out on too much learning,” he said. 

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    Andrea Nakano

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  • San Francisco teachers’ strike enters 3rd day as negotiations continue

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    The San Francisco Unified School District said it was holding a news conference Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. to give an update on the teacher strike, which has been going on since Monday.

    Teachers have been striking for three days over wages and benefits.

    At a news conference Wednesday morning, ahead of an expected meeting with the United Educators of San Francisco, Superintendent Maria Su made an urgent plea for an agreement to be reached.

    “We are prepared and committed to getting this agreement done today. We all must act with urgency, we all must get together to get this done,” Su said.

    Su described the district’s latest offer as “generous” and at the same time “fiscally responsible.”  

    “With our current proposal, we are putting money back into pockets of our educators, with a significant increase in compensation and healthcare benefits. This is about putting real money back into the pockets of educators. This is an investment in educators and their families in San Francisco,” she added.

    At the news conference, Su said both State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Mayor Daniel Lurie urged both sides to get a deal reached.

    Union president Cassondra Curiel said in a statement Tuesday night that the district’s negotiators had moved on issues involving sanctuary schools, housing protections, classified compensation, artificial intelligence and contracting out services.

    “The administration told us for the past 11 months none of this was possible. Clearly it is — when we stand together,” Curiel said. “The time is now for SFUSD to fully funded family healthcare, address special education workloads and provide fair compensation for certificated staff  that will stabilize our schools and end this strike.”

    On Tuesday evening, Mayor Daniel Lurie said he met with the head of both the union and Su.

    “They gave me an update on the progress that has been made today, and I made it clear – they can and they need to get this done. Every day in the classroom matters for our children,” Lurie said in an update posted to his social media. “Getting our schools open is the top priority, and we can do that while supporting our educators and keeping the school district on the path to fiscal stability.”

    Lurie said the city would continue to provide support for impacted students.

    About 6,000 teachers represented by the United Educators of San Francisco began walking the picket lines Monday, after the district and union were unable to reach an agreement over the weekend. Sticking points on an agreement include wages, healthcare for dependents, along with assistance for special education staff.

    More than 50,000 students attend 122 schools in the SFUSD.

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    Tim Fang

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  • SFUSD, teachers union continue talks to avert strike as district cancels school Monday

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    San Francisco Unified School District officials and the union representing roughly 6,000 educators were locked in negotiations Saturday in an effort to avert a strike that could disrupt learning for tens of thousands of students across the city.

    Talks between district leaders and union representatives were taking place inside the War Memorial Building on Van Ness Avenue, directly across from City Hall. Negotiations began around 2 p.m. and continued into the evening, with no breakthrough announced.

    As negotiations stretched on, the district announced that schools would be closed on Monday, prompting families to scramble for childcare and alternative plans.

    Many parents expressed hope that the two sides could reach an agreement and avoid a strike altogether.

    “We think this is resolvable without a strike. We really believe in both sides’ ability to come together and negotiate something that will give our educators what they truly deserve, but also keep our kids in school, which is what they deserve,” said Emily de Ayora of the San Francisco Parents Coalition.

    De Ayora, who has three children in the district, said she has already made arrangements for the Monday closure.

    “I have a neighbor just a couple of doors down with two kids in SFUSD. And we will be co-watching our kids this week.  Mission Science Center, right over here on Mission Street, is going to be hosting open hours on Monday and Tuesday. So we’ll take the kids down there to make a musical instrument,” she said.

    Some families who are able to work from home are organizing informal childcare cooperatives, sharing responsibilities and creating safe spaces for children during the closure.

    “We’ve organized a bit with some parents in our community.  And so we have a play date scheduled. We actually also plan to join the picket with the teachers first thing in the morning and bring in some refreshments and snacks to support them,” said SFUSD parent Erica Collantes-Peter.

    However, not all parents have the flexibility to work remotely. For those families, the district has partnered with day camps to offer activities for students. One option, Rock Band Land, is already sold out.

    “They’ll have about an hour of playing the instruments, exploring the instruments that they’ve never played before. We have art activities, we have story writing and story listening activities. We have park time, we have free play, we have a bunch of games,” said Brian Gorman, founder and director of Rock Band Land.

    While many parents said they can manage a day or two of school closures, a prolonged strike would pose significant challenges for families.

    At the center of the dispute are wages and healthcare. The teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco, is seeking a 4.5 percent wage increase each year for two years. The district has offered a 2 percent raise each year for the next three years, citing ongoing budget constraints and a deficit.

    District officials and union leaders remained inside the building Saturday evening and did not provide any public updates on the status of the talks. Negotiators are expected to continue discussions in hopes of reaching an agreement.

    Parents like de Ayora said the stakes are high for families and students if the impasse continues.

    “There will be a moment where I will start pulling my hair out, I know this from past experience.  But right now, I’m just focused on hopefully getting it over as quickly as possible, getting our teachers what they deserve and getting kids back in school,” she said.

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    Da Lin

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  • San Francisco Unified educators nearing final days for vote on whether to strike

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    After months of back and forth between educators and the San Francisco school district, Georgie Gibbs is ready to strike. 

    “But every year we have to figure out what staffing we’re going to have at our school, and every year there’s less money to staff our site, and that’s hard,” Gibbs said.

    Gibbs is an elementary school teacher and a member of the United Educators of San Francisco, a union for school staff. Since March, they’ve requested higher wages, stable health insurance, and more support for special education teachers.

    “At our site, we have special day classes which are self-contained, special education classrooms, and those, one of our classrooms has not had a full-time teacher for a whole entire year in three years,” Gibbs said.  

    In their latest offer in January, the district proposed the following three-year stabilization plan.

    The district proposed a path to fully funded family health benefits, a 6 percent raise over three years, along with addressing staffing shortages for special education. The union rejected it.

    • Identifying a fiscal pathway for the District to fully fund family health benefits
    • 6% raise over three years (2% each year for next three years)
    • Salary rate augmentations for hard-to-staff special education paraeducators
    • Solutions to address special education workload with a focused pilot program

    Union president Cassandra Curiel says members are casting their final round of votes for a strike. 

    “The district hasn’t changed their position since May of 2025. That is an untenable condition for us to be in,” Curiel said. 
    If both groups don’t come to an agreement, the union’s more than 6,000 members will strike for the first time in nearly 50 years. 

    “Being in our schools is the place we want to be, but working for San Francisco Unified can be complicated at best,” Curiel said. 

    Officials say the district is planning for more budget cuts in the next school year, which plays a role in negotiations.

    A spokesperson for the district wrote:

    “We know many of you are closely following the ongoing negotiations between our district and United Educators of San Francisco (UESF). 

    We are disappointed to share that we did not reach an agreement with UESF after today’s fact-finding session (part of the formal bargaining process). SFUSD remains committed to negotiating in good faith with our labor partners and to reaching an agreement that honors our educators while also balancing the need to be fiscally responsible.

    Our goal is to have a stable district. We want to reach an agreement that supports our valued educators. However, we must also be able to afford the agreement long-term so that we can continue serving students now and in the future.”

    Havah Kelley told CBS News Bay Area that her son, who has a learning disability, was transferred outside of the district because there aren’t enough special needs teachers. 

    “Especially since COVID, the high teacher turnover, the shortages, and just a myriad of other reasons, he was not getting the services that he needed,” Kelley said. 

    That experience makes her feel a strike is necessary, but she knows there would be real-life consequences.

    “It would be ideal if we could avoid a strike. That’s a definite, and I’m not going to say otherwise,” Kelly said. “Any type of disruption, for our kids, we have almost immediate regression.” 

    Union members are holding their final vote to authorize a strike. If the majority votes yes, it is likely SFUSD educators will strike for the first time since 1979. The last day to vote is Jan. 28.

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  • Some San Francisco Unified parents frustrated over lack of permanent TK teachers

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    San Francisco public school parents are demanding solutions from district officials after seeing their children attending school without a permanent teacher for months now. 

    Statewide mandates and requirements for transitional kindergarten classes are leaving some school districts like San Francisco in a difficult situation. 

    Pickup time at school has become a stress test for parents. It’s Paul Rivera’s daughter’s first year in the San Francisco Unified School District as a Transitional Kindergartner. 

    “I have never been more frustrated as a parent,” said Rivera. 

    Since the start of the school year, his daughter hasn’t had a permanent teacher she knows by name. 

    “She’s been rotating through a cast of about 10 or so substitute teachers at this point,” said Rivera. 

    Jennifer Bordner also has a child in TK at McCoppin Elementary in the Sunset District.  

    “Sometimes it’s like, ‘We watched Bluey in class today,’” said Bordner. 

    “They were just running around the classroom, and they were playing with the lights,” said parent Susan Zhang. 

    Parents say SFUSD hasn’t been able to permanently staff all 18 of its TK classes. 

    They’re critical SFUSD is receiving more state funding because of TK enrollment, but not offering solutions to fill a glaring gap – leading to what they call chaotic classrooms.   

    “Their pattern recognition is like, ‘I can kind of do what I want.  These teachers sort of know my name. Sometimes they don’t.’ The rules are different every day. They don’t know what to expect, and they’re setting foundations for how to learn. That’s a problem,” said Bordner. 

    “It just feels like there’s chaos in the classroom,” said Zhang. 

    Staffing TK classes in the midst of a mandated statewide expansion has become a challenge for school districts because of a “statewide shortage of credentialed TK teachers” according to SFUSD.  

    Wanzi Muruvi is with the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. She says new credentialing requirements by the California Department of Education are problematic. 

    “They need to create a pathway that allows the preschool teachers to get the credentials without having to go through an onerous system when they already are already qualified to teach the four-year-olds,” Muruvi told CBS News Bay Area. 

    Muruvi said the credentialing system is creating a bottleneck and preventing tens of thousands of qualified pre-school educators from securing public school TK jobs.

    SFUSD has touted 97% of its classrooms having fully credentialed teachers. 

    “They’re all like pointing at each other, not my problem, not my problem.  At the end of the day, it’s the kids and their families taking a hit,” said Bordner. 

    “I love public schools, and I wanted to raise a public school child, but this has left me completely frustrated,” said Rivera. 

    The lack of TK teachers is pushing some parents to consider opting out and walking away. 

    CBS News Bay Area requested an interview with SFUSD but the district spokesperson sent us this statement instead, reading in part: 

    “SFUSD continues to actively recruit qualified teachers for a small number of remaining TK vacancies. These positions have been challenging to fill due to statewide shortages of credentialed TK teachers. In the meantime, we are ensuring that all classrooms have consistent coverage by qualified substitutes or long-term staff, with instructional coaches providing support across these sites to maintain continuity of instruction for students.” 

    Parents say the district initially ignored requests for updates but is now holding weekly meetings. 

    They say the district officials have even asked parents for help recruiting qualified teachers.

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    Kenny Choi

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  • SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne resigns, school closures on hold

    SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne resigns, school closures on hold

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    San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Matt Wayne resigned Friday, amid controversy over plans to close or merge more than a dozen schools amid a massive budget shortfall. The district also announced that the closures are on hold.

    At an emergency meeting, the city’s Board of Education accepted Wayne’s resignation.

    “The District is grateful for Dr. Wayne’s leadership during a challenging period for the SFUSD. Under Dr. Wayne’s leadership, the District has focused on student outcomes and teaching and learning,” the district said in a statement Friday night. “He has been an instructional leader with a deep commitment to our students’ success. The District agrees with Dr. Wayne that the time is right for new leadership in SFUSD.”

    In a separate statement, Wayne said, “I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served SFUSD and proud of all that has been accomplished during my almost two-and-a-half years leading the District.”

    The board announced that Maria Su, who has served as Executive Director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, would be nominated as the new Superintendent. Su was part of a “School Stabilization Team” of city officials appointed by Mayor London Breed last month to help the district.

    “I am excited to deepen the work we started three weeks ago to stabilize the school district,” Su said. “San Francisco public schools are the city’s greatest asset. We must come together as a community to take care of our school district. SFUSD students, families, and staff are counting on us.”

    Along with the change in leadership, the district announced that there would be no school closures in the 2025-26 school year.

    Wayne has faced heat following an Oct. 8 announcement which named 11 elementary schools and two high schools that would be impacted. At the time, the district said that the closures were needed to balance the budget by next school year, or risk a takeover by the California Department of Education.

    Under the proposal, three campuses would have closed, another eight schools would be merged with another school, while the remaining schools would be a welcoming school for a closed school.

    Earlier this week, Breed weighed in on the closures, saying she had “lost confidence” in the superintendent but stopped short of calling him to step down. Breed also called for a halt to the closures.

    “This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost,” the mayor said in a statement released Tuesday. “This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process.”

    At the same time, Breed said there would be “painful but necessary” decisions ahead to balance the budget and to avoid a state takeover.

    Karling Aguilera-Fort, who is currently the Senior Associate Superintendent of Education Services, has been named as Acting Superintendent in the meantime.  

    Tim Fang

    Tim Fang is a digital producer at CBS Bay Area. A Bay Area native, Tim has been a part of the CBS Bay Area newsroom for two decades and joined the digital staff in 2006.

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  • Report: Embattled San Francisco Unified Superintendent set to resign

    Report: Embattled San Francisco Unified Superintendent set to resign

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    Embattled San Francisco Unified Superintendent reportedly will resign Friday


    Embattled San Francisco Unified Superintendent reportedly will resign Friday

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    San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Matt Wayne could resign as soon as Friday, according to published reports.

    The San Francisco Chronicle and Mission Local are reporting that the embattled Wayne has agreed to his resignation Friday.

    While the school board hasn’t specifically confirmed Wayne’s planned resignation, it has scheduled an emergency meeting for Friday evening at 5 p.m. with one agenda item related to school district personnel.  

    Wayne has been getting a lot of heat since the release of a proposed school closure list last week forced by a massive budget shortfall.

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed weighed in on the issue earlier this week. On Tuesday, she said she no longer has confidence that Wayne could lead the district and demanded that it to halt the closing of schools.

    “This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost,” the mayor said. “This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process.”

    While she criticized Wayne, Breed did not call for him to step down.

    Dave Pehling

    Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He began his role with CBS Bay Area in 2015.

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  • Months later, Oakland teacher stands by objectives of pro-Palestinian

    Months later, Oakland teacher stands by objectives of pro-Palestinian

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    An Oakland teacher who participated in a controversial pro-Palestinian “teach-in” in December still stands by her actions, saying students deserved to know the details surrounding the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

    In December, dozens of teachers within the district participated in an unsanctioned teach-in highlighting pro-Palestinian lessons rather than material in the district-approved curriculum. 

    The event is believed to be one cause that has since triggered federal investigations by the U.S. Department of Education into alleged civil rights violations and religious discrimination into both the Oakland Unified School District and the San Francisco Unified School District. 

    One teacher who participated in the controversial “teach-in” told CBS News Bay Area that they stand by their participation to teach curious students the details surrounding the deadly and historic conflict. 

    “Students are exploring the connections between their own experience between what the U.S. government and why agents with the U.S. government do here and in other places, and just thinking about historical and current context for the situation unfolding in Gaza in the Middle East in general, so I’m proud of our students and staff,” the teacher said. 

    For the first time since the controversial demonstration, one participating teacher spoke to CBS News Bay Area on the condition of anonymity. She asked only to be identified as a high school teacher within the district. 

    We met in her classroom, where she says she observed students engaging with the proposed material written by a group of teachers within the teacher’s union named “OEA for Palestine.” The suggested curriculum was not approved by the district. 

    “It’s more for students to consider multiple perspectives and walk out maybe with some more questions,” the teacher explained. “So, in that sense, I absolutely think that the teacher can encourage that.”

    The proposed curriculum has come under fire for containing what Jewish parents and leaders say is antisemitic content. 

    CBS News reviewed the material that was recommended for grades T-K through high school and found some content that parents and community leaders consider to be antisemitic or offensive to Jewish students. It’s unclear how much of the material was taught during the teach-in.

    Jewish students within the Oakland Unified School District are beginning to be approved for transfers out of the district after claims of antisemitism stemming from the teach-in.   

    But the teacher said she did not see any instance of antisemitism take place the day of the demonstration. 

    “I did not see any evidence of a teacher or student engaging in any antisemitic comment or behavior on the day of the teach-in,” the teacher said. “We might have a difference of opinion on what is antisemitic and I think that yeah, I think criticism of Israel is not antisemitic.”

    OUSD did not respond to CBS News Bay Area’s request for comment. 

    Complaints of religious discrimination are being reported within the San Francisco Unified School District as well. 

    Tyler Gregory is the leader of the Jewish Community Relations Council. He says San Francisco parents have reported similar activity seen in Oakland of unsanctioned material regarding the ongoing conflict being taught in San Francisco schools where a handful of parents are applying to transfer out. 

    “The teachers union in San Francisco has said openly anti-Israel, things that make a lot of Jewish students feel unsafe,” he explained. “We’ve seen these Gaza walkouts that are in support of the Palestinians, but have resulted in Jewish students feeling unsafe, and there have been a couple incidents where teachers have participated or encouraged it.”

    In a statement, SFUSD told CBS News Bay Area “we are aware that the Department of Education opened a Civil Rights complaint. We are committed to fully cooperating with the investigation. SFUSD policies prohibit discrimination and we take any report of discrimination seriously.”

    So far at least 30 Jewish students have transferred out of the OUSD, according to district officials. Gregory says a handful of Jewish students are also planning leave San Francisco Unified.

    The Anti-Defamation League also filed a federal complaint against the Berkeley Unified School District in late February, alleging officials ignored the bullying and harassment of their Jewish students.

    The U.S. Department of Education and California Department of Education declined to comment on the active investigations. 

    In Oakland, Shira Avoth is a parent of a middle schooler within the OUSD. She says it was bittersweet when she found out in early March that her son was approved for a transfer into the Piedmont School district after experiencing antisemitism in the classroom. 

    “It’s heartbreaking and the fact that in 2024 I don’t feel like my son is safe,” she explained. 

    For this teacher, she feels justified in her participation in furthering the knowledge and education of her students. 

    “If transferring out was because of an allegation of antisemitism, that learning about Palestine or learning about what’s happening currently in Palestine, for learning about the pellet Palestinian freedom struggle if that is inherently antisemitic,” she explained, “then that would lead us to, I think, an ideological difference. And I think that that’s something that we could maybe continue to talk about and try to, to parse out.”

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    Lauren Toms

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