For the first time in 47 years, public school educators in San Francisco walked out of their jobs Monday, escalating contract negotiations between their union, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) which have been ongoing since last March.
Educators are demanding fully funded family healthcare, improvements to special education programs and salary increases. These demands, UESF says, have not been met. The strike is now headed into a second day, despite ongoing negotiations between the union and district and pressure from Mayor Daniel Lurie for both sides to reach an agreement..
Early Monday evening, SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su announced that schools would be closed Tuesday, while the union publicized a noon rally at Dolores Park Tuesday, to finish at City Hall. Educators are expected to rally outside their schools in the morning for a second day of pickets.
El Tecolote spent the first day of the strike covering actions across the city, as roughly 50,000 students were left out of classrooms while their teachers pressed for better working conditions.
Morning pickets
Across San Francisco, educators spent Monday morning picketing outside their closed schools, joined by some students and families — UESF said there were 120 pickets across the city. At several sites, teachers marched through their neighborhoods as passing cars honked in support. At other schools, teachers led chants on the front steps of school buildings.
“I am really excited,” said Carla Velazquez Flores, a transitional kindergarten (TK) teacher at Mission Education Center (MEC). “I have a lot of little ones who love coming to school and it’s heartbreaking not to see them. But I know that we are doing this for them. We’re fighting for our classroom to be equipped with staff, with personnel, and with people who are qualified to be in the classroom.”
Most pickets died down by 10:00 a.m. As crowds dispersed, students at San Francisco International High School (SFI) organized dances and shared donuts and snacks with their teachers and other school staff, reflecting on the union’s demands, which they said are deeply connected to San Francisco’s rising cost of living.
“I feel very thankful that I can live in the city and teach in the city,” said Paul McCarthy, teacher at SFI. “If I couldn’t afford to live here (I) would feel more disconnected from my students.”
Civic Center rally
In the afternoon, thousands of educators, families, labor leaders, local officials and community members gathered in front of City Hall for a rally featuring a surprise appearance by Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte.
“I’m frustrated it’s taking a full year to get to this point,” District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder told the crowd. “Our students are dealing with so much trauma since the pandemic, and it is (paraeducators) and teachers, it is you all, who have stepped up without commensurate wages.”
For many parents and teachers in attendance, increased support for special education students was a central motivator. Ruby Coote, a special education teacher and a mother to two SFUSD students, expressed concern over the way chronic staffing shortages can drastically limit the support more vulnerable students can get.
“For the most part, all of them have one-on-one paraeducators. And so if one falls out sick, what happens?” said Coote, who teaches at Francis Scott Key Elementary School. “Sometimes we’re working with the skeleton crew, trying to provide those services for our students, and it makes it really challenging.”
Some students also showed up to support their educators.
“This isn’t just about teachers. This directly impacts us as students and the education we receive,” said Margalo Teich, a high school junior at Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. “Teachers can’t properly teach if they don’t have the right amenities, [or] if they’re not paid enough.”
UESF leaders said educators will continue striking until their demands are met, even as rain is forecast. Negotiations between the district and the union continued throughout Monday while educators rallied outside City Hall.
“We remain hopeful and optimistic that continued good-faith negotiations will lead to an agreement that is fair, responsible and sustainable — one that supports educators while protecting classrooms and critical student services,” Su said in a press conference.
Both the district and union say they have agreed to designate SFUSD as a sanctuary school district for immigrant families. The district has also said it has agreed to the union’s housing proposal, which maintains school-based support for unhoused youth and resources for student families facing eviction, and to regulations on Artificial Intelligence.
While teachers rally, other community spaces step in
Left without district-provided lunches, many working-class families turned to community organizations for food and childcare. Several of these groups partnered with the city to provide meals.
One of the listed food distribution centers was Up on Top, a nonprofit in the Tenderloin that offers after-school programs to neighborhood kids. On Monday, it also became a space where kids could spend the day, welcoming around 40 children from nearby schools. Staff organized activities throughout the day, including walks to the park and an adventure to Stonestown mall.
If the strike continues past Tuesday, Belmont said the nonprofit will work on figuring out a more structured program for families.
“It almost feels like the first day of summer camp,” said program director Andrew Belmont. “We’re just very committed to making sure that the kids in our neighborhood just have everything that they need, and that we can maintain some kind of sense of normalcy while this is all going on.”
Pablo Unzueta and Emma Garcia contributed reporting
