COVID-19 has left many San Francisco educators mentally and physically drained. For two years, they’ve continued to work through the pandemic, while at the same time demanding that the district provide proper protections needed to face COVID-19.
Now, educators are facing yet another problem. They aren’t getting paid.
On March 14, 2022, educators finally had enough. Following several months of withheld paychecks, layoffs and unmet demands, educators and members of United Educators of San Francisco packed up supplies, organized catering and occupied the third floor of the San Francisco Unified School District offices at 555 Franklin Street. After four days and three nights, the educators ended their sit-in and went home with a new deal.
“It is quite simply a travesty that we educators are disrespected in this way, constantly all day, every day,” said Leslie Hu, a social worker and community school coordinator at Martin Luther King middle school.
Hu is also the secretary of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) and she participated in the occupation because her union has possibly more than a thousand members who have not been paid on time or accurately. She says that some educators are having to pay for their own sick days because the district has not implemented a Covid-19 sick code that had been agreed on since January.
“We remain committed to ensuring every staff member receives all of the pay they are owed. I want to again extend my deepest apologies to every employee who has been impacted in any way as a result of our transition to a new payroll system,” said Superintendent, Dr. Vincent Matthews in a statement.
For some educators, the payment error impacted them deeply.
“Trying to live off of 40 percent of my salary…that’s rent and a sandwich,” said Patricia Wallinga, an SFUSD substitute teacher.
Wallinga primarily substitutes in middle schools and high schools. Her last pay check was cut by 60 percent and says that the speed with which the district was moving to fix the payroll problem was not enough. The payroll issue began when the district switched from its old payroll system, which had been in place for 17 years. The new system, EMPowerSF, was put in place Jan. 3, 2022. The company behind the payroll system EMPowerSF is called Infosys.
“Our bills are due now, rent is due now. Fridge is empty now. It needs to be immediate,” said Wallinga.
Hector Pineda is a social studies teacher at Martin Luther King middle school. He received partial payment along with about a dozen other teachers at his school who did not receive payment or received partial payment. Pineda says that school morale has been low at MLK middle school and that teachers not getting paid has created a dent in teachers and other staff members’ ability to perform.
“Because teachers are in such a scram to make up for funds, some of them have taken additional days off in order to either go to the clinic or just to take care of their own mental health,” said Pineda, who is also a union representative for his school.
“It’s taken up some of my time as a teacher to hear out my fellow colleagues and staff members who have issues with their pay and to follow up with the school district to ensure that everyone gets paid,” said Pineda.
The president of UESF Cassondra Curiel stated that they would be working on restitutions for educators who had been impacted by lack of payment. On March 17, they achieved a new agreement with SFUSD, in which the district agrees to not only pay the teachers the salary that they are due but also cover late fee charges on credit cards, mortgages and bank overdraft fees; starting March 21, allowing the input of Covid-19 sick leave including days already taken; Offer 10 more days of sick leave; and offering 15 percent interest per annum if the employee is not paid whole within three days.
“I think the action that we carried out while raising the demands around payroll also showed that there’s a lot of hope and unity. People want SFUSD to actually serve students, to serve families and educators,” said Frank Lara, who is the Executive Vice President of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF).
Members of UESF gathered on March 18 for a “victory rally” in the parking lot of the district’s offices to celebrate their new agreement. Present at the rally was Matt Alexander, who is the chair of the budget committee. He says that he will be conducting an autopsy of what happened during the implementation of the new payroll system that led to this problem at the next budget committee, April 6 at 5 p.m.
“I’m feeling grateful for our educators and their courage and for standing up for their rights, forcing the school district to do the right thing. To me that’s the lesson of community organizing, the lesson of democracy,” said Alexander.
The organization that had been supplying food to those participating in the occupation was also present at the rally. The San Francisco Latino Task Force set up a small table and served those attending the rally fresh fruit cups. Nancy Pili Hernandez is part of the Latino Task Force and was at 555 Franklin Street from the beginning to show support for the educators.
“I came the day that they got here and brought them tacos, burritos, breakfast and snacks because I know that some tactics that have been tried have been hunger strikes and actions that discomfort us,” said Pili Hernandez. “We’ve got to make the people in power feel uncomfortable, not make ourselves feel uncomfortable.”