Sara Kennedy

Local & Statewide Solidarity: We Can’t Wait!

SDEA members are spreading the word!

In January, SDEA members passed out multilingual flyers to families to let them know about what we are bargaining for, and to ask for their support!

We let the SDUSD Board know: We can’t wait to fully staff our schools!

At the SDUSD Board Meeting on January 28 , SDEA members, classified colleagues, and community supporters showed up to demand two things:

• Settle caseload grievances fairly
• Finally bargain concrete solutions to our Special Education staffing crisis

SDEA and CSEA members spoke up about the daily student impact of understaffed Special Education programs, and then walked into the board meeting in solidarity chanting “We Can’t Wait!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYyVMC1sXmY

We officially shared our “Sunshine” proposal: We’re ready to bargain!

Along with a rally to specifically highlight the Special Education staffing crisis, this was the meeting where SDEA presented a “Sunshine” proposal - the official beginning of bargaining our next contract, where we share which parts of the contract we intend to bargain over.

While a “Sunshine” is designed for bargaining teams to plan out their negotiations, this document can also help SDEA members connect our bargaining platform (built by members through our input across our sites and programs!) to specific articles of our existing contract.

We aren’t alone in our fight!

While SDEA has a history of solidarity among our members, we know that what educators are facing today is bigger than just San Diego. So often when we ask for what our students and educators need, we’re told there isn’t enough money in the budget. Schools already lack the staff and resources they need, and are now facing additional threats to federal funding. SDEA members need to continue urging San Diego Unified to invest every available resource to support our students, but the reality is that we need to pressure the state, too. Even with the largest economy in the country, California spends less per student than most other states - and it’s our students who are suffering the consequences.

That’s why SDEA is joining over 77,000 union educators in over 30 districts across California to say: We Can’t Wait! It’s time to finally invest in the schools our students deserve.

While each union will negotiate with their individual districts, we are all aligning our proposals in three shared categories:

• Fully staff our schools
• Improve educator pay
• Stability for students & communities

On Tuesday, unions held press conferences and actions across the state to announce the statewide campaign:

SDEA educators were joined by classified colleagues, National City educators, CTA board members, and community partners for a press conference on Tuesday to announce our statewide “We Can’t Wait” campaign.

Local news coverage of SDEA’s press conference at Perkins:

• ▶️ NBC 7
• 📰 Times of San Diego
• 📰 Voice of SD 
• 📰 Union Tribune 

See all the unions involved in the We Can’t Wait campaign, and check out the #WeCantWaitCA hashtag on social media to see more!

More resources for our statewide campaign:

• See & share CTA’s We Can’t Wait video and the new statewide We Can’t Wait website.
• Read the results of CTA’s report on teacher pay: CA Teacher Pay: Decades of Falling Behind
• How has the teacher pay gap impacted you and your family? Add your story.

by Sara Kennedy

10-Point Program To Support Our Students & Communities

The new federal administration is threatening the well-being of our most vulnerable students (and the funding our schools rely on to support them.)

Read the 10-point policy recently adopted by the SDEA Board and representatives.

by Sara Kennedy

Letters in Solidarity: 2025 Brings An Urgent Need for Solidarity

Wishing everyone a 2025 packed with joy and fulfillment for you and your students. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by the still unfolding wildfire disaster in Los Angeles. So many educator families and communities are facing terrible losses. During this difficult time, our union will come together to support one another. Please consider making a donation to the Disaster Relief Fund of our state union, CTA. This fund exists thanks to the generosity of CTA members who have made contributions to help colleagues in need.

Sadly, the incoming federal administration has politicized the wildfires and threatened to cut off support for disaster relief along with the rest of federal funding to California that represents a third of the state budget. This continues President-elect Trump’s push to retaliate against our state and our district for committing to support vulnerable students and families that will be targeted by the inhumane policies he has proposed.

As union educators, we must be prepared to defend our students, public education, and our rights against any attack whether at the local, state or national level. We solidified this commitment last month through the ratification of our We Can’t Wait contract campaign platform by an overwhelming 98% of the 4000+ SDEA members who voted in the election. The platform establishes three top priorities that will guide our bargaining and organizing in 2025: fully-staffed schools, improved educator pay and stability for our students and communities.

These three pillars of our platform are our statewide coordinated response to the crisis we are facing with the underfunding of public education in California and the uncertainty that accompanies the new federal administration. We teach in the wealthiest state in the country, yet we are failing to fully staff schools, pay educators wages that allow us to live in the communities we serve and secure resources and protections that all students need to thrive.

With the national and state political climates in mind, elected educator leaders from 180+ schools and programs from across the district voted at the January 2025 SDEA Representative Council to adopt the Ten Point Program to Support Our Students and Communities that will guide the development of bargaining proposals for our contract campaign. The Ten Point Program lays out our values around establishing welcoming, safe and nurturing schools where all students can focus on learning. We are ready as SDEA leaders to join our fellow union educators, families, students, staff and community organizations to generate the combined power needed to fight for and win the transformational priorities in the Ten Point Program and the rest of our platform. We Can’t Wait!

by Sara Kennedy

Organizing to support students at Alcott Elementary

The power of having a union contract is the power to advocate for our shared priorities and ultimately to have what we need to support our students. This takes a variety of forms:

• We make sure our union contract meets current needs by identifying collective priorities each time we come to the bargaining table to bargain our next contract. SDEA members are ready to go to the bargaining table this month with a platform built and ratified by members.
• We assert our contractual rights through the grievance process when necessary.
• Most importantly, we build daily solidarity within our communities!

Successfully addressing violations of our contractual rights is essential, even when the process takes time! Ideally, union members can also meet urgent needs quickly by organizing with their colleagues. See some examples of how fellow SDEA members used site-based organizing to solve immediate needs in their schools:

Alcott Elementary organized to get the prep time necessary to support their students!

This Fall, SDEA members at Alcott Elementary flexed their union muscle to support students with IEPs, and they came out stronger than before.

Alcott is a small school with just ten classroom teachers, nine of whom had more than 20% of students in the classes with IEPs. According to section 29.7.2.1 of the SDEA contract, they tried to create a support plan with the principal. They proposed multiple support plans but could not get the principal to agree to any of them. Some might have given up, but not these educators.

One option was to file a grievance over a violation of section 29.7.2.1 of the union contract. But Alcott SDEA members didn’t want to wait for the grievance process to run its course. Instead, they organized for a speedy solution.

First, union members had a union meeting to build consensus on a solution. They decided they wanted 15 prep days shared among the ten teachers.

Then they created a petition to the principal very clearly calling for 15 preparation days. 100% of the union members signed it. Instead of just putting the petition in the principal’s mailbox, all the union members marched up to the principal to deliver the petition as a group.

The principal couldn’t ignore them. He reacted by offering 2 of the requested 15 prep days (with the possibility of more, he said.) He said that was as much as the site budget would allow. 2 out of 15 didn’t sound good, so they didn’t back down.

A small group created a simple paper survey that asked one question: “Are you satisfied with the principal’s response?” It invited members to a union meeting on December 4, explaining, “If this problem isn’t resolved by then, we will review the survey results and make a plan of action.”

Guess what happened the day before the union meeting? The principal announced that he’d found the money in the budget to pay for 15 release preparation days! So instead of using the union meeting to plan the next action on the principal, they used it to celebrate.

Grievances vs. Organizing

While grievances are a formal way to remedy violations of our contractual rights and strengthen our contract in the long term, Alcott is an example of how organizing around shared priorities got results without waiting for the grievance process.

Have an urgent issue at your site that you hope to solve? Talk to your colleagues and bring it up at your next union meeting!

by Sara Kennedy

Want to join the SDEA Communications Team?

Are you interested in being more involved in union communications? Consider joining the SDEA Communications Team. This member-driven group will brainstorm ways to improve outreach, share site stories, and create content highlighting member voices.

The idea is to hold regular meetings and involve members and community partners based on their interests and capacity, even if busy educators cannot attend every meeting.

Our initial meeting for 2025 will be on Zoom on Tuesday, Jan 14, 2025 at 4:00pm to...

• Review results of the Fall 2024 Communications Survey
• Plan for upcoming actions
• Brainstorm for the future!

Invites with Zoom Link have been sent to everyone who expressed interest via the Fall Communications Survey, but you can still sign up! 

Sign up for the SDEA Communications Team here!

by Sara Kennedy