Since kids came back from summer break in August, San Francisco public school teachers, working under an expired contract, have ramped up the threat of a strike. “Strike ready” has been the subject of the union’s newsletter for more than a month. They’ve been selling T-shirts that say “If provoked we will strike,” with the union’s letters in the shape of coiled snakes.
Before next week’s Board of Education meeting, union leaders will present a “strike ready” petition that more than 75 percent of members have signed.
But in an interview, the union president said a strike isn’t imminent and that a big across-the-board raise isn’t the main issue this time.
“We’re still pretty far away, at least from the likelihood,” said United Educators of San Francisco president Cassondra Curiel. She said a strike would be the school district’s fault — “if the district makes us.”
The San Francisco Unified School District is working through a series of post-pandemic problems, including budget cuts, a years-long enrollment decline, academic reforms, and more.
In 2023, the union and SFUSD struck a deal that gave teachers a $9,000 raise in year one and a 5 percent raise in year two. That contract expired at the end of June this year. Curiel and her colleagues say SFUSD officials have not yet bargained seriously, and the strike rhetoric of the past month or so is necessary to get the district to focus.
SFUSD spokesperson Laura Dudnick responded via an email statement: “We remain committed to negotiating in good faith. Any proposal for raises must be approved by the [California Department of Education] and must be financially sustainable.” The district has faced extra state oversight of its finances for the last year and a half.
Curiel said SFUSD’s most recent offer of a 2 percent raise in exchange for cuts to AP preparation time, sabbatical leave, and class size limits is insulting. “That’s not a raise,” said Curiel. “That’s ‘how do you rob Peter to pay Paul?’ And Peter and Paul are on our bargaining team together.”
The union is asking for a 4.5 percent raise in each year of the two-year contract for its certificated members — classroom teachers and others whose job requires a credential.
But teacher pay isn’t the main sticking point this time, according to Curiel and others. They say their priorities are more support for special education staff, more overnight shelters on school campuses for homeless families, and healthcare benefits for dependents.
Special demands
Like all California public school districts, SFUSD is legally required to provide special education services. But staff and families have long said the money available doesn’t match the level of service needed to make a difference.
SFUSD currently has more than 6,800 special education students, about 14 percent of the student body. But staff shortages have left substitutes, paraprofessionals, and aides like Alex Schmaus to fill classroom gaps when fully credentialed teachers aren’t available. “You have mostly instructional aides trying to provide education, which is not entirely legal,” said Schmaus, who works at Francisco Middle School and is on UESF’s bargaining team and executive board.
For special-ed aides like Schmaus and other “classified” employees, UESF wants a 7 percent raise each year of the contract, plus 3 to 5 percent more for a subset who do specialized work. Aides like Schmaus earn earn between $31.52 and $36.87 an hour — very low income by Bay Area standards, according to state calculations. Beyond the dollars, the union also wants new rules to lighten special educator workloads and more support and training.
She has difficulty speaking and difficulties walking as well as for concentration…This is the result of not having enough special education teachers.
Rosa Mendoza, parent of a former Glen Park Elementary student with special needs
Many special-ed students with individualized education plans (IEPs) also spend time in general classrooms. The shortage of staff to accompany those kids is affecting the broader school population. George Washington math teacher Jodie Sheffels says her two blended classes should be about 33 percent special-ed students, but “because of how strained the special-ed system is,” they’re up to about two-thirds special-needs kids.
The district has faced multiple lawsuits over alleged IEP failures, including three cases before the school board next week.
Rosa Mendoza, a parent of a former Glen Park Elementary School student, said at a recent board meeting that her special-needs daughter injured herself “almost daily” after her physical therapy was cut. The district’s inability to provide a doctor-ordered paraprofessional had hurt her daughter’s development, she said. “Now my daughter is in sixth grade. She doesn’t know how to read or write in English and [knows only] a little bit in Spanish,” said Mendoza. “She has difficulty speaking and difficulties walking as well as for concentration. A year ago she was diagnosed with ADHD. This is the result of not having enough special education teachers.”
SFUSD’s Dudnick did not respond to specific questions about special education and the union’s demands.
More for homeless families
For nearly seven years, SFUSD has hosted an overnight shelter for homeless families on the campus of Buena Vista Horace Mann (BVHM), a K-8 school in the Mission District. The shelter was serving roughly two dozen families as of May.
UESF wants more. “Housing insecurity is a huge problem in San Francisco, especially among SFUSD students,” said Schmaus, who added that the contract is “their most powerful tool” in securing additional shelters.
SFUSD counted nearly 2,500 of its students as homeless in 2024, according to city homelessness data. (More than half have homes but are living “doubled up” temporarily with friends or family.)
After cutting $113 million — nearly 10 percent of its budget — earlier this year, SFUSD says it must cut another $59 million by the end of this school year. The union argues that the shelter’s only cost to the district is a higher utility bill. City Hall pays for it via a tax-boosted fund that voters approved in 2022. (The shelter has moved temporarily to Downtown High while BVHM’s campus undergoes extensive renovation.)
The nonprofit Mission Action has the contract to run the BVHM shelter, but it’s unclear if it has capacity to expand to other sites. Mission Action did not respond to requests for comment. UESF wants at least two more sites; it’s asking to create an exploratory committee.
“There is money for it,” said Laurance Lee, a member of the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, which tracks how SFUSD spends money on facilities and other projects. He added that the political will to create shelters, competing with all the district’s other priorities, will be a challenge.
UESF also wants the district to “codify” support for the shelter to help safeguard it against any potential future political backlash.
More broadly, the union wants language in its bargaining agreement declaring SFUSD a “sanctuary district,” matching existing policy at the district and city levels. This would make the union contract another place that asserts that students in San Francisco are entitled to an education, regardless of immigration status, potentially safeguarding the norm if political pressures change district policy in the future.
SFUSD has pushed back against the request, saying it’s not a core issue for employee work conditions. “SFUSD recognizes that immigration issues affect our communities and is committed to working together with UESF, community organizations, and public agencies to find meaningful solutions,” said Dudnick. “While immigration issues are important, this issue falls outside the scope of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between SFUSD and UESF. Immigration is a broader societal and policy matter.”
“You’re standing in front of a room trying to convince kids to care about the Pythagorean theorem. Meanwhile, three of those kids in the back of their mind are wondering if, when they go home today, their parents will still be there,” said George Washington math teacher Sheffels. “Of course that’s part of my working conditions.”
The union also wants teacher training that prepares them for ICE encounters and an attorney to address immigration-related concerns, both of which could cost money. The ICE threat is also top of mind for school administrators, who would be responsible for turning away agents who show up at their schools.
The United Administrators of San Francisco (UASF), the union representing principals and other staff, is also in the midst of negotiations. UASF has cited the deal the teachers got in 2023 as their goal, but they’re at “an impasse,” UASF president Anna Klafter said at a recent school board meeting.
Like the teachers, UASF is asking state mediators to intervene in negotiations.
A better payroll?
Last month, UESF filed an unfair practice charge with the state when SFUSD’s new payroll and HR system, a long-awaited replacement for the previous disastrous version, was having some problems. But around that time, Superintendent Maria Su pledged that the glitches stemmed from old data and would soon be resolved.
Curiel said that as of this week, there were still a few lingering problems, but not at the previous scale.
A functioning system is crucial to getting all sorts of other things right — including better budget numbers that, in turn, influence labor negotiations.
Until recently, SFUSD’s budgeting process didn’t take into account differences between projected spending and actual spending, according to new deputy superintendent of business services and school operations Chris Mount-Benites. At the Sept. 30 school board meeting, he said, “Is there a real deficit? Yes. But are we following best practice and getting the most out of our budget that we should be? No. And that’s about improving the practice of the fiscal department.”
According to Curiel, the union’s initial proposals when bargaining began in March were based on older numbers from the district. She said the union would be happy to work with new numbers — if the district were to provide them.
SFUSD spokesperson Dudnick said that the district’s budget process must benefit students and ensure long-term financial stability. “The CDE continues to closely monitor our finances, and we must address deficit spending to meet our obligations,” she said in an emailed statement, adding that additional cuts for the upcoming school year are on the horizon.
Budget updates, along with UESF’s demonstration, are scheduled for Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
Correction, 10/10/25: This story initially misidentified the school where Alex Schmaus works. It is Francisco Middle School, not George Washington High.
Correction, 10/12/25: This story has been updated to correct UESF’s demands for pay raises, and to clarify the temporary relocation of Buena Vista Horace Mann.
