This morning, San Francisco teachers and city officials applauded the end of the weeklong teachers’ strike. After a long holiday weekend, school will be back in session on Wednesday morning.
San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su was less enthusiastic, warning that in the coming years, San Francisco schools may suffer as a consequence of teachers’ successful push for better wages and healthcare.
At a morning press conference held by the district, Su thanked union president Cassondra Curiel and negotiators for “staying at the table,” and passing the tentative agreement. But Su also sounded a note of caution. “There is still a long way ahead where difficult choices remain,” she said. “We will need more support in the future.”
The agreement will need the ratification of the California Department of Education, which has fiscal oversight over the San Francisco Unified School District. The department has the authority to veto any labor agreement it deems fiscally irresponsible.
The agreement, which covers fully funded family healthcare, higher wages, and changes to special education, is estimated to cost $183 million over the next two years, according to the district. To pay for this, Su warned, the district may implement layoffs and budget cuts in the near future.
When asked if she is concerned that reaching an agreement could lead to future cuts, Curiel, the president of the United Educators of San Francisco, pointed to the district’s $400-plus million in reserve funds.
The district plans to use funding from these reserves to cover the cost of healthcare and higher wages — depleting the district’s $111 million emergency fund, and using the rest from funding from existing parcel tax funds from San Francisco’s 2018 Proposition G.
Covering ongoing expenses with one-time funds, like the proceeds of the parcel tax, may put the district in a precarious financial position. The district is expected to lose millions of dollars as a result of the strike, according to Su. This week Su stated that the district is losing $7 million to $10 million a day that schools across the city are shuttered — totalling at roughly $50 million.
The union, for its part, has said the district could have avoided the hefty costs of a strike by accepting at face-value its months-long preparations for a strike and bargaining earlier. Before a flurry of talks this week and last, the two sides had not seriously negotiated since October.
The district’s budget is tied to how the state distributes funding. The SFUSD is compensated by the state based on how many kids show up for classes. In the case of the strike, that meant a loss of over 48,000 student seats for five days, which was mitigated somewhat by the fact that the more than 6,000 educators and other district employees who walked out of their campuses this week were not paid by the district while on strike.
Su urged the California Department of Education this week to reconsider the way that the state allocates funding toward schools — specifically administering money based on student enrollment rather than student attendance. She also asked the department to waive fines that the district incurred for absenteeism during the strike.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has reportedly not been in contact with the superintendent, though State superintendent of public instruction Tony Thurmond on Tuesday briefly stopped by the War Memorial Opera House, where negotiations were taking place. Thurmond’s representative told Mission Local that Thurmond was not there to discuss Su’s requests to the California Department of Education, but rather to encourage the bargaining teams to come to an agreement.
It’s possible that money from the city budget could potentially be used to cover the agreement’s $183 million price tag. Past San Francisco mayors, including interim Mayor Mark Farrell and Mayor Ed Lee, have supported the school district using local funding, Farrell using behested payments, donations from organizations or people with city contracts, to cover for expenses like schoolyard, and Lee allocating millions of dollars towards affordable housing for teachers.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, joined by health and human services chief Kunal Modi and several other city officials, did not disclose to Mission Local whether the city is considering similar measures.
Modi, along with city controller Greg Wagner and city human resources director Carol Isen, contributed in helping the district to come to an agreement. Modi was among those openly celebrating the new contract. The agreement is “historic,” Modi said. Fully-funded family healthcare is a rare feat that few school districts, he said, have implemented.
“We have to make sure the district is on a path to fiscal stability,” said Lurie. “But today is a good day in San Francisco.”
Along with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who are all doing the same), Governor Newsom is in Munich, Germany attending an annual international security conference to promote US imperialist interests and his future political career.