Dissent in the powerful San Francisco teachers union, United Educators of San Francisco, has spurred a push to recall the group’s top leaders, who have been in office less than a year.
A small batch of union members calling themselves San Francisco Educators Associated has posted a list of complaints against their leaders, with allegations that include abusive behavior, botched negotiations with the school district, and culpability in the ongoing payroll fiasco that has left teachers with missing pay and benefits. There is also a petition to gather recall signatures.
“We are current and former UESF leaders and members with years of advocacy and union work … who are deeply concerned about the serious issues facing SFUSD and also about the way that current UESF officers seem to be behaving in ways that encourage divisiveness, exclusion, disorganization, and a lack of transparency,” the recall site’s “About” page says.
The Frisc contacted the group via its website. Lowell High history teacher Rebecca Johnson, who has previously aired her displeasure with union leaders via an open letter, agreed to speak on the record as a supporter of the effort. Johnson described herself as “the organizer of the Lowell community” that opposed a contract extension negotiated by the leadership this winter, but she emphasized that the recall effort stretched beyond the high school.
Johnson says there were “seven to 10” teachers behind the effort. The Frisc confirmed two others, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
UESF president Cassondra Curiel, one of the seven leaders targeted by the recall, declined to speak on the record.
To move ahead, the petitioners must gather signatures from one-third of the roughly 6,000 union members. The petition went live two weekends ago and has tallied 103 signatures as of Tuesday night. Organizers say they have begun circulating it on a private Facebook page.
If the petition hits its mark, the union would call a special meeting at which two-thirds of members present would need to vote yes for the recall to succeed, according to the bylaws.
The Frisc reached out to the previous three union presidents. Dennis Kelly, president from 2003 to 2015, called the effort a “long shot.” Lita Blanc and Susan Solomon did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Johnson replied when asked about the number of signatures so far.
No sway
The move comes as SF public schools face a welter of difficulties. Citywide dissatisfaction resulted in a historic recall of three Board of Education members in February. The union came out against the recall but, unlike in previous elections, its endorsement held no sway with voters, who ousted the three members in a landslide.
Students have had a full school year of in-person learning since the pandemic shutdown, which was a major source of discontent leading to the recall votes. Also in some good news, hundreds of layoffs of teachers, administrators, and other staff were averted because of record state budget windfalls.
But the return to school has not stemmed declining enrollment, which in turn has exacerbated a budget deficit. What’s more, San Francisco’s demographics don’t point to more children anytime soon.
The new board members, appointed by Mayor London Breed, helped tap a new superintendent, Matt Wayne. He will cross the bay from Hayward to lead the district, taking over from outgoing Superintendent Vincent Matthews on July 1.
Union recall proponents think their labor organization can also benefit from new leadership. In the petition, they cite several grievances against seven top officials, led by Curiel and executive VP Frank Lara.
The range of alleged offenses include abusive behavior toward members and staff, running meetings and changing union rules improperly, and inadequate review of the district’s payroll switch, which has led to a still unresolved fiasco of missing pay and benefits and unexpected tax penalties. Teachers called into last night’s board meeting to report problems. The district is holding another help session in June.
Johnson says the paycheck problems have hurt teachers across the district, and that the leadership’s acquiescence to an extra paycheck in 2021, which disrupted taxes and benefits like subsidized child care, was a huge mistake. Johnson does give them credit for recently negotiating extra money for the upcoming July paycheck, which was slated to be much lower than normal. The deal, which will cost the district nearly $10 million extra, was ratified by the school board last night.
Contract anger
Tension has been building behind the scenes for months. One signal came in February, when union members voted on a one-year contract extension. The contract passed with 57 percent approval, a notably low tally for a contract. (In 2014, 78 percent of members ratified a new contract.)
It took $6.5 million allotted to high schools with Advanced Placement (AP) classes and spread it to teachers around the city in the form of one-time bonuses. It also canceled sabbaticals for one year.
“I thought it was abysmally handled,” says former union president Kelly. “It looked like it constituted giving away the money of one group in the union to feed another group.”
About 40 percent of that allotment was earmarked for Lowell, which has a high number of AP classes. Lowell and other schools typically spread that cash beyond AP teachers to other programs.
Another sign of union discontent came during recent internal debates over endorsements for the November school board elections. (All three new members are running for their seats.) Some members, citing the “unusual turmoil” of the past couple years, wanted to delay the endorsement process, which for years UESF has done in the spring, months before the deadline for candidates to step forward. The effort to delay failed, but only after a vote by a subset of members that required a tie-breaker, according to union sources.
Johnson says she has not heard any reaction from union leadership about the nascent recall effort. After a bruising, demoralizing couple of years for the city’s teachers, there might be little appetite for more activism on either side with summer vacation a few days away.
Come fall, as classrooms fill up again and the district works through its problems, Johnson hopes her union leadership will have gotten a new lesson plan: “I’d love it if nobody else signs this petition because the leadership starts to learn and be responsible. But option two is they continue to mislead and mismanage, and more people get fed up.”
Alex Lash is the editor in chief of The Frisc.
