A Commitment to Equity in our Tentative Agreement: 

Preparing to negotiate our next contract, SDEA members identified priorities in three main categories: Staffing, Pay, and Stability. Even in the time between identifying priorities and negotiating agreements, destabilizing threats to our students and communities have only increased. Our tentative agreement includes a new article focused on protections for educators, students, and communities. Article 35: Safe and Supportive Communities contains a variety of measures that make our schools more equitable for everyone, including:

• Release days for staff to attend immigration appointments if needed
• An immigrant family legal clinic and other supports for immigrant communities, in partnership with community organizations
• Protections for the use of educators’ preferred name and pronouns
• Gender neutral bathrooms at each school
• Free menstrual supplies in all bathrooms and locker rooms
• More support for District’s Restorative Justice Practices 
• Improved implementation of Ethnic Studies

This new article continues SDEA members’ history of bargaining beyond just the basics. Our collective power can improve our own pay, benefits, and working conditions… but it is also a tool we can use to fight for the rights of our entire communities, and to advance a more just and equitable world.

Read more in the full Tentative Agreement on Article 35: Safe and Supportive Communities.

Other key wins in our tentative agreement:

• Concrete fixes for Special Education staffing
• 5% pay raise over 2 years – see what that looks like for you with this calculator 
• Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay)
• Side Letter for no layoffs 
• No fall excessing at Title I schools – that’s 150 out of 175 schools!
• Restored Early Childhood Education Teacher stipend
• Seniority for summer school hiring
• …and more! See lots more information here.