The San Francisco teachers’ strike ended 12 days ago, students returned to schools last week, and union members are voting this week to approve the deal their leaders struck with the San Francisco Unified School District.
The union, United Educators of San Francisco, won many key demands, including fully funded family health benefits. Those benefits, plus pay raises and other items, will cost $183 million, according to the district.
To cover those costs and avoid adding to the district’s budget deficit, there’s been talk of deep layoffs. They haven’t materialized yet. At last night’s Board of Education meeting, the board approved a worst-case scenario of 42 school staff pink slips, mostly classroom aides — a much lower number than in previous years, and which could improve in the next few months.
“It is up to the district to figure out how to continue funding these ongoing, permanent wins,” said Jodie Sheffels, a George Washington High math teacher and union bargaining team member.
Update, 2/27/26: The union announced that its members approved the contract with 92 percent of the vote.
Update, 3/11/26: The Board of Education approved the contract.
Despite the deal, the two sides still don’t see eye to eye about the bottom line. Through the long months of bargaining, the union and its allies, like school board member Matt Alexander, have insisted the district has much more money to spend than it says. The district has countered those claims, saying that at least half of what looks like a $400 million surplus is in fact dedicated to areas like special education and can’t be moved around. But the district has also decreed other funds off-limits, like its $111 million rainy day reserves, only to dip into it to get this contract deal done.
To cover the contract costs, SFUSD has publicly identified only two pots of money so far, both of which are already in the district’s accounts: the rainy day fund and a city parcel tax stream that SF voters approved in 2008. It’s not clear how they add up to $183 million.
SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su said last night that in two weeks the district will release its formal funding plan.
“The plan will depend on multiple factors including final enrollment numbers, other labor agreements, and updates to the state budget,” said spokesperson Laura Dudnick.
Given the union’s suspicion about SFUSD’s ledger, those details aren’t likely to settle longer-term disputes — and those disputes are coming back around in a year when the two sides start negotiating the next contract, which starts in the summer of 2027.
When asked how much emergency money it would use, or whether there are other reserves to draw from, Dudnick said the answer is pending.
SFUSD can’t craft the plan without oversight from the California Department of Education, whose advisers have veto power over district fiscal decisions. Here’s a deeper look at the district’s options.
Where cuts could come from
Personnel accounts for more than 80 percent of SFUSD’s budget. While announcing the deal on Feb. 13, Su said cuts to staff have “always been on the table,” because the district is supposed to reduce a $100 million deficit over three years — a projection that came before the strike and the new contract. SFUSD wants to prove to state education officials that it can balance its budget and take back full control of its finances.
But for now, school staff cuts don’t seem to be a major piece of the puzzle. With the school board vote last night, SFUSD began its yearly ritual of sending out pink slips that may or may not be real. The state requires potential layoff notifications by March 15 for the following school year, with final tallies coming in May. Many staff often keep their jobs, in part because the state budget outlook improves through the spring.
“This is unfortunately something we’ve come to expect from this very dysfunctional state budgeting system,” said Guadalupe Elementary social worker Maggie Furey.
Even if the 42 layoffs on last night’s agenda come to pass, they’re not enough to cover a $183 million tab. They are meant to address a different shortfall — the loss of state dollars connected to SFUSD’s shrinking student body.
State funds, which account for most of the district’s revenue, are tied to enrollment. And according to the Chronicle, this year’s enrollment is 48,306, more than a thousand fewer than expected. It continues a years-long decline; last year the district had 48,902 non-charter students, according to state data.
As soon as someone resigns, that’s one less person to issue a layoff notice.
sfusd associate superintendent of human resources amy buster baer
SFUSD says it’s paying to fully cover premiums for union members’ families starting in January 2027 with city tax money it receives every year. (These taxes and other city funds make up about 25 percent of the district’s budget.)
The tax originated with a 2008 ballot measure known as QTEA meant to bolster teacher pay. Union bargaining team members say that their paychecks won’t change. “The QTEA going towards health care is what the district called ‘excess from previous years,’” said Sheffels.
There’s another catch: QTEA expires soon. To renew the funding, voters must approve an extension at the ballot in 2028. At least a few teachers aren’t happy about the arrangement. “It’s committed us to more bargaining and legal maneuvers, and using our health care as a justification to do other cuts,” said AJ Johnstone, who teaches social studies at Independence High.
Central office cuts?
For years, the union has decried central office expenses as out of proportion to what similar sized districts spend. In April, the district slashed 205 administrative positions, including 75 vacant jobs. The district will announce central office cuts, if any, next week.
Another savings route could be early retirement. Nearly 400 teachers took that option last year.
“We haven’t accounted for any resignations or retirements for next year,” the district’s head of human resources Amy Buster Baer said last night. “So as soon as someone resigns, that’s one less person to issue a layoff notice.”
Temporary staff and contractors might also be a target. The new teachers contract calls for less reliance on non-union special education contractors, which KQED projected would cost the district $42 million this year.
“It’s really expensive to have contractors instead of full-time employees,” said Furey. “We want to make sure that we’re all being good stewards of these public dollars.”
However, SFUSD must provide services to disabled kids by federal law, and outside contracts supplement the gaps that SFUSD can’t fill.
Temps and closures
In a closed session before last night’s public meeting, the school board also approved 328 potential “releases” of certificated employees — mainly temporary classroom teachers. But officials hinted that many of the positions are safe. Nearly 300 of the positions are temporary, often filling in for teachers on leave, and many work in special education, jobs the district needs and that the board voted to protect from cuts last night. “In the case of temps, we have to notify … the whole class of employees,” said deputy superintendent of business operations Chris Mount-Benites.
District staff and school board members insist that school closures won’t yield short-term savings. But closures and mergers are almost certainly coming back to the table after a failed attempt in 2024.
“We’re seeing a consistent decline in enrollment year after year,” said Su at Visitacion Valley Elementary last week. “We can’t provide that high quality education that our students deserve if we do not have enough students to make a school community successful.”
In a plan released in December, Su proposed $3.2 million in savings from “site consolidations” by the 2027-28 school year, with “three sites/programs per year for three years.”
Where could SFUSD find more money?
According to the Chronicle, the new teachers contract will add roughly 15 percent to the budget in the first year, with no extra revenue on the horizon.
Funds from the city’s Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, which supports SFUSD with afterschool programs and more, are already spoken for. “I haven’t been in conversations with the school district about supporting their overall budget,” said DCYF director Sherrice Dorsey-Smith. The agency is already paying extra to reimburse its nonprofit contractors for extra work they did during the four-day strike.
Longer-term, SFUSD might get more flexibility in how it spends its city funds. But it will require City Charter reform, which Mayor Daniel Lurie and allies want to put on the November ballot.
There’s also likely to be less state funding this year, not more, given SFUSD’s enrollment drop. For future years, Su and other superintendents are lobbying Sacramento to change how it funds school districts based on attendance and poverty levels. Any changes will take time — not in time to fund the current contract.
Doubting the figure
Many union members say the need for cuts or more revenue is a red herring; they think the district is inflating the $183 million price tag for the contract. “It’s not that we believe they have a magical pot of money,” said Rebecca Johnson, a Lowell High social studies teacher and UESF bargaining team member. “We just don’t believe the financial situation is as dire as they make it sound.”
It’s not just union members. SFUSD parent Paul Gardiner and data analyst Philippe Marchand, who write about district data on the SFEDUp Substack, also question the figure.
Union members acknowledge they didn’t get everything they’d asked for. Some, including AJ Johnstone and others at Independence High, say they won’t vote for the agreement because the bargaining process “wasn’t democratic enough.” It’s unclear how many others will join them, although they recognize the rank and file will likely approve it by a wide margin.
“No one person or group is going to have everything solved by this one contract,” said UESF bargaining team member Furey. “It is about building each time.”
Correction 2/28/26: A previous version misstated when SFUSD will start to fully cover premiums for union members’ families.