We Ratified Our New Contract: Now We Must Organize

Fellow SDEA members, did you hear the news? The votes are in and our 2025-2027 contract has been ratified! An overwhelming 93% of SDEA members voted to ratify our tentative agreement, with over 5000 SDEA members participating. The contract will go into effect as soon as the District signs off at next Tuesday’s school board meeting.

This contract includes improvements to staffing, pay, and stability including:

• 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
• Protections for immigrant and LGBTQ+ educators and students
• …and more! 

See more details of what has changed and answers to frequently asked questions in our 2025-2027 Contract Resources.

This historic new contract did not come without a fight. Each collective action we took together, from walk-ins, to pickets, to rallies, built solidarity and pushed district leadership closer to saying “yes” to the union contract we wanted. SDEA members participated in every step of this contract process, and the improvements that we won are because members showed up to fight for them, including getting strike-ready for the first time in 30 years in our district!

So what’s next? Once the SDUSD board signs off on our new contract, all of the improvements that we won can be implemented. The key piece that will be on hold, however, is our 5% salary increase that we need to be able to remain competitive with surrounding districts and staff hard-to-fill positions like Special Education (not to mention afford to live near our schools in one of the most expensive cities in the country). Our 5% raise is being delayed because it’s tied to the Prop 98 funding that our district receives from the state. With Governor Newsom playing hardball in negotiations with the state legislature over the education budget and holding hostage $5.6 billion in Prop 98 funds (including about $80M from San Diego Unified), our 5% raise might not be paid until NEXT year.

But this is bigger than just our raises: our schools need these funds! In the wealthiest state in the country, we can and should invest in our future by investing in our public schools. Just as we demonstrated with our contract campaign, by mobilizing as SDEA union educators, together with families and community allies, we can leave the powers that be with no other choice but to do the right thing for our students and our schools. Sign and share our SDEA school funding petition today to be part of this movement as we take our first steps toward advancing education justice in our district!