Imagine a school district experiencing financial challenges. Its staff is contemplating cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. During contract negotiations, the teachers union offers the district a proposal: if teachers and staff agree to a certain number of furlough days, could layoffs be avoided?
To those of us in San Francisco, reemerging from a teachers’ strike, this may seem like pure fantasy. But this is a true story: it happened in ABC Unified, a Los Angeles County district with roughly 18,000 students in 30 schools.
In 2008, when the financial crisis hit district budgets hard, ABC Unified’s union and district leaned into strong relationships they had been cultivating for nearly a decade. The district invited the public to review and discuss various budget scenarios, and the union engaged in extensive discussions with district finance leaders and their members.
Ultimately, the union’s furlough proposal saved ABC Unified $6 million and prevented layoffs. The district and union found a solution that was good for kids, respected and valued teachers, and acknowledged financial realities.
This type of partnership may seem impossible in San Francisco right now. But collaborative relationships between districts and unions are not only possible — as ABC Unified has demonstrated for years — they are quite common across California, especially among districts that are part of the California Labor Management Initiative (CA LMI).
Since the private nonprofit CDE Foundation began this initiative in 2015, nearly 200 districts across the state have participated, with the goal of fostering positive union-district relationships that strengthen our public schools and better serve our students.
Several Bay Area districts have participated, including San Jose, where the teachers union president is a member of the superintendent’s cabinet; and St. Helena, where the union-district partnership helped the district navigate wildfires and other crises.
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When unions and districts join LMI, they learn collaboration strategies alongside peers from across the state and receive coaching. Perhaps most important, union and district leadership do this work in a room together — likely a rare opportunity outside of bargaining — engaging in dialogue and building trust.
Better outcomes for kids
Collaborative union-district relationships are not unique to California. Both major national teachers’ unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), have put out reports that encourage union-district partnership. NEA’s version even cites research that suggests better union-management relations lead to better outcomes for kids.
This makes intuitive sense: As former ABC Unified superintendent Gary Smuts told AFT researchers, “[We] all have a fixed amount of energy. We can use that energy to push together or pull apart.”
In other words, when the adults in charge no longer put so much energy into fighting, they can focus on the work that improves outcomes, like instruction, professional learning, attendance, and student safety.
No matter how you felt about the recent strike, we can all agree that the San Francisco Unified School District needs to improve student outcomes. So why not start by hitting the reset button on union-district relations? Lucky for SFUSD and UESF, registration is still open for CA LMI’s 2026 Summer Institute in June.
The union, the district, and the broader SFUSD community don’t have to agree on everything. But, as districts like ABC Unified, San Jose, and St. Helena demonstrate, we can disagree without resorting to personal attacks.
We can disagree without protesting outside the home of a public servant. We can disagree without misrepresenting or obscuring facts. We can disagree and still get to a strong contract without disrupting student learning.
Joining the CA LMI won’t immediately fix relations between the union and district. It will take time, as well as courage and commitment, to build trust between leaders of these two entities. After all, the vast majority of UESF members voted to strike.
But if Superintendent Maria Su and UESF president Cassondra Curiel are serious about serving kids, not just adult interests, then they should have no problem committing to a collaborative partnership through the CA LMI and beyond.
At the end of the day, we are all on the same team: Team Kid. Now is the time to show it.