After a historic four-day strike, the San Francisco teachers union has been celebrating reaching a deal with the school district, but not everyone in the union is joining those celebrations.
The tentative agreement includes a 5% raise over two years for teachers and an 8.5% raise for classified staff, plus family health benefits: 100% coverage by 2027.
District and union leadership have said it’s a win.
“I don't think it's their job to decide if it's a win,” said AJ Johnstone, a teacher at Independence High School in the Inner Sunset.
KALW spoke with Johnstone and three of her colleagues on Feb. 18. They say the deal leaves social workers, counsellors, and nurses unprotected.
“It felt like we're abandoning a few people,” said teacher Joseph Machado.
Originally, the union asked for what it called “fully staffed schools.” That meant, among other things, requiring one full-time social worker at all schools and one full-time nurse at all secondary schools. A neutral fact-finding report, which came out in January, said this demand would cost $82 million. It does not appear in the tentative agreement.
Machado says these roles are particularly important at Independence, an alternative school where students receive more individualized support and can design flexible schedules.
“We get an influx of students who have very high mental health needs,” Machado said. “We have three social workers, a wellness center with a nurse and a chow” — a C.H.O.W. is a community health outreach worker — “and students really utilize those resources.”
Independence staff are also concerned about how their family healthcare benefits will be funded — the district is relying on a parcel tax that expires in 2028.
“I think it’s an extremely shortsighted and limited way to continue funding public schools,” Johnstone said.
She’s worried about what these concessions might mean.
“Ultimately I think we've made it easier for them to continue to chisel away at the number of unionized workers that are in the schools,” she said.
This group and their colleagues at Independence — nine people total — have signed a statement explaining why they plan to vote "no" on the tentative agreement.
And they’re urging UESF members to join them.
“Join us in voting NO on this agreement that leaves SFUSD structures fundamentally unchanged and hangs a section of our membership out to dry. An injury to one is an injury to all,” the statement reads.
“We are starting to send it out to people we know at other sites,” Johnstone said. “ I know the people on the bargaining team went through hell that week, but they did it for 6,000 people, not just for themselves. So it should be up to us.”
The agreement won’t be finalized until the union membership, school board, and California Department of Education sign off on it.
