San Francisco teachers ended their strike early Friday, allowing all public schools in the city to reopen next week for 50,000 students.
While staff will return to campuses on Friday, classes are not scheduled to resume until Wednesday morning because closures had already been announced for Friday and the district had holidays scheduled on Monday and Tuesday.
The teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco, formed picket lines on Monday for its first walkout since 1979 after a lengthy dispute with the San Francisco Unified School District over raises and health care costs. The union represents about 6,000 teachers, librarians, social workers and nurses who work in more than 100 schools in the city.
Unlike some strikes, the teachers’ walkout had no set end date, making parents anxious and frustrated at the prospect of a long shutdown. Teachers said they understood the hardships that families faced during the closures but felt that they needed to strike in pursuit of higher compensation in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
For four days, teachers donned red attire and rattled tambourines as they marched outside their schools across the city. They demanded that the district fully pay for medical premiums for the union’s members and their dependents, as well as provide a 9 percent raise over two years.
Union officials said that rising health care premiums had driven many employees to leave the school district, California’s sixth largest, resulting in vacancies that hurt student instruction. Maria Su, the district superintendent, said that she was trying to balance paying teachers competitively with the district’s ongoing structural deficit.
While the district had completely paid for individual coverage for educators, those with family coverage had been paying about $1,200 a month on average. Union officials said they expected that to increase to $1,500 a month.
The district initially offered to pay about 75 percent of family health care costs for three years, using funds from a local tax. After three years, the district could either stop paying the additional coverage or secure funding to extend it. The union initially rejected that offer.
The union wanted the district to use some of its reserves to pay higher wages and benefits now, which district officials resisted because they said they needed a healthy rainy-day fund in case revenues were to decline. That tension has been common in past California labor disputes, as school districts are required to maintain a certain level of reserves for budget stability, while unions have accused them of putting too much aside.
“We believe today’s dollars are for today’s students,” Cassondra Curiel, the president of the union, said at a rally this week.
Cindy Castillo, an ethnic studies teacher at Mission High School, said she went on strike to improve conditions for teachers so that there would be less turnover and disruption for students.
“I know what stability looks like in our schools, what it looks like for them and what it looks like for us,” Ms. Castillo said.
San Francisco’s closure could be a harbinger in California, as teachers’ unions have made a concerted effort to pressure districts for more compensation in recent months. Besides the walkout in San Francisco, educators in Los Angeles, San Diego and two Sacramento-area school districts have authorized strikes as part of their ongoing contract negotiations.
San Francisco parents said they empathized with teachers struggling to make ends meet in one of the nation’s most expensive cities. But they were frustrated that the two sides couldn’t reach a deal and that their children would pay the price.
Some said the strike brought back memories of closures during the Covid pandemic. San Francisco Unified had one of the nation’s longest shutdowns, and students did not have full in-person instruction for more than an entire school year.
Soumya Karlamangla is a Times reporter who covers California. She is based in the Bay Area.
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