San Francisco officials said schools would remain closed Wednesday in anticipation of the third day of teachers striking across the city.
Mayor Daniel Lurie was seen ascending the elevators of the War Memorial Veterans Building on Tuesday around 5 p.m. on his way to join the school district’s bargaining team. It was his first time attending the negotiations. He left around 7 p.m.
California’s superintendent of education, Tony Thurmond, was also present today in the first sign of the state’s direct involvement in negotiations. San Francisco Superintendent Maria Su attended the talks over the weekend and yesterday.
The two sides were at the bargaining table from early Tuesday morning into the evening and were likely to remain for several more hours. They made progress on several issues, but major sticking points remained. Teachers picketed across San Francisco on Tuesday and rallied at Dolores Park.
Mission Local is out across the city with live updates.
Lurie leaves the building
At approximately 7 p.m., Mayor Daniel Lurie came down into the lobby of the War Memorial Veterans Building after speaking with the district’s bargaining team and filming a social media video giving his daily update. He then walked to his City Hall office across the street.
He said he will be available “throughout the night if they need me.” Lurie said that “progress has been made,” but didn’t share any details of the bargaining process.
When asked if he will use city funds to pay for some of the union’s demands, Lurie said that he and his team have “looked at many options.”
Mission Local caught a glimpse of Lurie filming his video from outside, in the rain.
—Marina Newman
Schools to remain shuttered Wednesday
On Tuesday evening, district spokesperson Laura Dudnick announced that schools would remain closed come Wednesday morning.
At 5 p.m. Dudnick called for a press conference just minutes after Mayor Daniel Lurie was seen going up the elevators of the War Memorial Veterans Building, where union and district officials have met since Thursday to hash out a deal.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who has oversight over the school district, was also present on Tuesday. Thurmond has been in “consistent communication with all parties involved, including Mayor Lurie, to encourage a deal,” said his representative. “There’s still complex issues to be addressed.”
Though the district did not confirm the details of the negotiations, it said that it presented a “package deal” to the union minutes after noon, and that the union is currently working on a counter proposal.
The union and the district’s bargaining team will likely stay at the bargaining table late into the night.
—Marina Newman
Major sticking points: Wages, healthcare, special education
The San Francisco educators’ union and the district were back at the table early Tuesday morning. The two sides negotiated for about nine hours on Monday from noon to roughly 9 p.m., coming to an agreement on several issues.
But the three big sticking points remained early today: Wages, family healthcare, and the workload and staffing of special-education programs.
By Tuesday afternoon, the union said the district offered to cover 80 percent of family healthcare costs, but that it is still seeking full coverage.
What they accomplished on Monday: Progress on the district’s artificial intelligence policy. The district said it would strengthen its Stay Over Program, which provides emergency shelter inside school buildings for students and families experiencing homelessness.
Earlier, they reached an agreement on protections for undocumented students.
The district presented one counteroffer on pay for “classified” employees, offering a 10-percent wage increase for paraeducators, clerical workers, technicians and other non-credentialed staff over two years.
The district has yet to present a counteroffer on teacher wages. Its prior offer on Saturday, a 6-percent increase (3 percent over two years), was rejected by the union. Two days earlier, the district had offered a 2 percent increase over the course of three years.
To the frustration of union members, the district failed last night to present a counteroffer on healthcare. The district previously offered partially funded family healthcare, proffering a benefits allowance of $24,000 per employee.
But late Monday night, the district’s bargaining team announced that the mayor’s health and human services department, led by policy chief Kunal Modi, would be stepping in to support the district in making a counteroffer. Modi was seen walking around the War Memorial Building on Tuesday morning, where negotiations are taking place.
Members of the bargaining team were surprised and disappointed that queries about dependent healthcare were deflected to Modi and his team to assess their costs.
Negotiations between the district and the union commenced in March 2025, and this last-minute cost-check struck the teachers as akin to a student struggling to complete a major homework assignment in the hallway.
The union and the district will continue bargaining throughout the day. When schools will open is yet to be determined.
—Marina Newman and Joe Eskenazi
Teachers, supervisors brave (light) rain for rally at Dolores Park
More than 1,000 educators and their supporters huddled under umbrellas and handed out plastic ponchos at Dolores Park at noon on Tuesday. It was the second mass rally of the teacher’s strike, after many thousands came to San Francisco City Hall the day before.
“This is the sky opening up and telling us that money is coming,” Michelle Cody, a United Educators of San Francisco member, shouted into a megaphone, to cheers from the crowd. “Rain or shine, we will be out here!”
The two sides did not come to an agreement on Monday night, but the union was still celebrating. “After 11 months of stonewalling, ignoring us, and rejection we finally had a productive day with the district last night,” said Cody. “But they are still not ready.”
Cody said the district offered to cover 80 percent of educators’ family health insurance plan this afternoon, a 5-percent increase from past negotiations. The offer has yet to be announced by the district.
“We will hold the line until it is 100 percent,” bellowed Cody, to applause from crowd.
Supervisors Connie Chan and Shamann Walton stood among the crowd, posing for pictures and cheering along.
“Teachers need better pay, and they need healthcare,” said Walton. “The district needs to come to an agreement — families will not be able to sustain this much longer.”
At 1 p.m., the crowd marched to Civic Center, where negotiations were underway.
—Marina Newman
Bayview teachers walk out, shouting, ‘We are the union!’
Teachers and paraeducators from George Washington Carver Elementary School and Leola M. Havard Early Education School in Bayview gathered on the corner of Oakdale Avenue and Third Street on Tuesday morning.
They held yellow, red and black signs reading, “Students need fully staffed, stable schools” and chanted “U-E-S-F!” and “We are the union, the mighty mighty union!”
Cars and trucks honked horns in support. Passengers waved or threw their fists up. A UPS driver — UPS is a unionized workforce, represented by the Teamsters — joined in on the chants from his truck.
Children at the Joseph Lee Recreation Center across the street scaled the jungle gym and chanted alongside their teachers.
A paraeducator, who preferred to remain anonymous, said it feels like the district was prolonging bargaining.
“It’s nice to get validation from the community,” they said, waving at people honking their horns. “But they treat us like we’re invaluable.”
Adiela Martinez, also a paraeducator, said the strike was tough, but necessary.
“It is sad, but you know you have to do it,” she said of the walkout. “I love when the kids say, ‘Thank you, Ms. Martinez.’ You put a little bit of happiness into their day.”
—Sophia Rerucha
Marshall Elementary in the Mission
At Marshall Elementary at 15th and Capp streets, the energy was high. About 20 educators and parents walked the picket line, feeling wind in their sails.
“I think because we had an enormous rally yesterday, I’m feeling more optimistic, more energized and more ready to help fight this fight for a fair contract,” said Judy Viertel, school librarian at Marshall Elementary.
Thousands of educators and their supporters rallied outside San Francisco City Hall on Monday afternoon, streaming in from schools across the city.
Viertel felt negotiations with the school district have been “frustratingly slow.” The two sides have come to an agreement on non-economic issues, like sanctuary school policies and housing for homeless students, but not on wages, healthcare, or special education.
“I’m hopeful that today we can move forward towards finding an agreement,” she said, adding that the union will strike for “as long as it takes.”
—Béatrice Vallières
SFUSD has been wasting so much funding on an improper system, improper leadership, and improper hiring. It keeps hiring outside consultants who don’t meet SF City’s minimum qualifications as employees, while laying off many dedicated employees—a huge amount of money to be spent in places where it shouldn’t have been. The State and City agencies should investigate thoroughly if there is any corruption or unlawful practices. It’s a totally dysfunctional place.
AMEN! SFUSD should be taken over by the state. It’s interesting that the state superintendent of schools, Tony Thurmond, who is also running for governor of Calif.has not intervened or even made a comment about this strike.
The 3% salary increase was insulting and inadequate.
But, if the union can get the 4% per year raise, then the $24,000 per year district offer for dependent health care (which costs up to $27,000 from Kaiser), is not unreasonable.
It’s extremely rare to have 100% funded dependent health care. The State is unlikely to approve a deal with fully funded dependent health care.
Yes, for a teacher with two or more dependents, the $3000 or so per year they’d pay for dependent health care would wipe out most of a 4% raise, which is unfortunate.
I still don’t understand why SFUSD has to bear the cost of the SOP, even though it’s only around $2 million per year which is not enough to make much of a difference in terms of wage increases or health care coverage. The SOP should be fully funded by the City and County of San Francisco because the affordable housing crisis that has led to homelessness is a direct result of City and State laws, written by real estate and development interests, and YIMBYs, and carried by anti-affordable housing legislators like Scott Wiener, that essentially subsidize developers for building market-rate housing, increasing displacement and gentrification, and reducing the construction of affordable housing; see “Selling Out California: Scott Wiener’s Money Ties to Big Real Estate” at https://www.housingisahumanright.org/selling-out-california-scott-wiener-money-ties-to-big-real-estate/. The SOP is vitally important, but SFUSD should not be the ones funding it.
The union should also not compromise on Special Education funding.
Here’s the thing. 126 schools made sense back when we had ~90K students. Now that there are ~50K students, we probably need to cut the number of schools to ~75. Think how much money it would save. 75 well staffed schools with well paid teachers would be much better than 126 poorly staffed ones. Hell, just cut it to 100 to start. Stop spreading our (vast) resources so thin!
According to their own website, “SFUSD has maintained 102 schools since 2017. In our current number of schools, we have the capacity to serve more than 14,000 more students than we have now.” So you’re right about under-enrollment, just not the number of schools.
One thing to note is that this is mostly happening in elementary schools. High schools are roughly in line with state averages. SFUSD has far too many small elementary schools and too many classrooms for the number of students, but UESF wants you to believe otherwise.
Good faith question, what does SOP mean in this context? Excuse me if I missed something obvious.
I believe it’s the Stay Over Program, the emergency shelter
This strike could not have happened, without the custodians,who have the keys to the schools,and joined the teachers in solidarity.The school district was prepared to offer-Scabs,I mean sub $600 a day to man the classrooms, which is very interesting, since they say they can’t afford to pay a cost of living increase to it’s teachers.Anyway,since no one could access the schools,this plan to break the strike failed.
Our teacher deserve our support!!!!
I’m just utterly confused by the catchphrase “Justice for Students, not Profits for Billionaires”. None of it makes sense. First of all, “justice” has nothing to do with it as it’s not a matter of law, secondly, why for the students – I thought it’s the educators who are on strike, and finally, what do Billionaires have to do with any of it, and how do they make a profit on repressed teacher wages? Even ChatGPT could come up with better slogans than that nonsense.
“I’m just utterly confused by the catchphrase “Justice for Students, not Profits for Billionaires”. None of it makes sense.”
You’re not confused, hon.
Explain it to me like I’m 5, “hon”.
Teacher working conditions equal student learning conditions. It is a rather simple and accurate statement. As far as the billionaires go, they should be taxed much more progressively. With the incredible wealth that this city has, why should teachers be struggling to live in the city where they teach.
It’s the Educator’s union, not a parents or students interest group. The things they’re asking for are for the teachers. “Think of the kids” is a trope and a red herring. Regarding taxing billionaires, that’s hardly a thing the school district has anything to do with, so what’s the point of bringing that up?