OAKLAND — Oakland teachers went on strike Thursday — and are gearing up for another day out of the classroom on Friday — after union representatives and the Oakland Unified School District failed to agree on a deal at the bargaining table.
Representatives for both the district as well as the Oakland Educators Association, which bargains on behalf of about 3,000 of the city’s teachers and school staff, pointed fingers at the other side for the failure to reach a deal by Wednesday night. Union officials said the district had promised to present a new proposal by 5 p.m. but failed to show.
District officials said they gave a proposal to the union on Wednesday night, but union leaders said the offer was not comprehensive and didn’t address many of the issues that concerned them.
The walkout was announced by school officials at 9 p.m. and picketing began Thursday morning — the second work action by Oakland teachers in just over a year, after a one-day strike on April 29, 2022.
“This is the path the school board and superintendent has either chosen or been unable to avoid,” said James Barbuto, a bargaining representative who was picketing in front of Skyline High School — where he usually teaches — on Thursday morning. “We don’t want this — we’re happiest with our kids. But the superintendent just hasn’t been good at corralling her team and getting them to bargain in good faith.”
District officials, including OUSD School Board President Mike Hutchinson, in turn blamed the union for the lack of action at the negotiating table during a news conference Thursday.
“We want to continue negotiating. We don’t want a strike,” Hutchinson said. “But (the union) left the table and they’ve broken off discussions — not us.”
As he spoke, school board members Valerie Bachelor and Jennifer Brouhard turned their backs on Hutchinson. Brouhard later said that Hutchinson “didn’t speak for her.”
“I think that this situation should have been settled. I think it’s really on the board,” said Brouhard. “If we want to solve this, the board needs to step up.”
Hutchinson said he’s eager for both sides to return to the negotiating table.
“When I see messages that claim that OUSD has not been bargaining — has not shown up at the table — that is incorrect,” Hutchinson said. “We’re in a very difficult situation though now because negotiations have been broken off.”
OUSD Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell called for an improved “partnership” between the district and union, saying that the hang-up in negotiating was based on “common good” issues.
“We would have preferred to spend the last two days focused on how best to reach an agreement to retain our educators,” she said. “OEA’s vision of the common good is about us, the district, attempting to singularly solve complex societal realities, such as homelessness, that go far beyond the scope of what public schools can and should do alone.”
The impasse has drawn the attention of state Superintendent Tony Thurmond. On Thursday, he offered to step in as a mediator, just as he did in 2019.
The district announced in a news release that all of its schools would remain open Thursday. Office staff were instructed to “educate and supervise” the district’s approximately 34,000 students across more than 80 schools in classrooms, and principals would have access to “appropriate instructional plans,” the district said.
According to a document distributed by the district, lunches and after-school programs were supposed to continue during the strike. All students who do not attend classes would be given an excused absence, the district said.
“While we do not know how long the strike will last, we continue to bargain with OEA in an effort to reach an agreement,” the district said in a statement. “The end of the school year is always filled with milestone events for our students, so we want to ensure regular school resumes as soon as possible.”
Union representatives said they were also working with parents to come up with solutions for supervising children, such as using public libraries or parent houses.
During a live stream Thursday night, union representatives confirmed the strike would continue Friday.
“I am inviting you back to our picket lines tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.,” OEA Interim President Ismael Armendariz said. “United, we will win.”
Vilma Serrano, co-chair of the union’s bargaining team, also called on the community to pressure the school board into giving the district bargaining team “full authority to bargain.”
“It has been really deeply frustrating to get to this point after seven months of bargaining,” Serrano said. “We ask you, Oakland, to stand with us and to push the school board to have a meeting to give the OUSD bargaining team the authority to bargain.”
The strike clearly had an impact on parents and students — with only three weeks left in the school year.
As a union-sponsored rally unfolded at Frank Ogawa Plaza, several dozen parents arrived at Lincoln Elementary School just a few blocks away to pick up their kids. DC Pompey, a former teacher himself, was among them. He took his children, ages 6 and 8, to school because he had some in-person meetings. Pompey said he supports the strike and that his kids’ teachers are “really great.”
“I was where they are at not too long ago,” he said. “Teachers need to get paid more. … I hope that the teachers reach an agreement and do the best that they can for OUSD students.”
Geremew Ndesta was less enthusiastic about the strike, as he picked up his two daughters, in second and fourth grade.
“I am working, and mom is working, so they have to stay somewhere for at least a couple of hours,” he said. The strike “hurts the parents and the kids, because they learn nothing,”
The district’s latest proposal included a 10% retroactive raise for OEA members, a one-time bonus of $5,000 and salary bumps ranging from 13% to 22% going into next school year. With such a raise, first-year teachers would see their salaries jump from $52,905 to $63,604, while veteran teachers’ salaries would increase from $94,314 to $109,746. Counselors, psychologists and school nurses would also see their salaries bumped, with increases of nearly $10,000, $13,000 and $8,000 respectively.
According to figures for the 2021-2022 school year compiled by the California Department of Education, Oakland teachers’ average annual salary is lower than other large Bay Area school districts. Average annual salary for Oakland teachers last year was $70,572, compared to $77,994 for West Contra Costa Unified, $84,881 for San Francisco Unified and $86,433 for San Jose Unified. The figure was $81,337 for Los Angeles Unified and $90,641 for San Diego Unified, the two largest California districts.
Nationally, California school teachers last year were on average among the highest paid in the U.S., with a statewide average of $87,275 behind only Massachusetts’ $88,903 and New York’s $92,222, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Union representatives said they insisted the district pay its employees a more suitable livable wage in a region with one of the nation’s most expensive costs of living. The union also wants more resources dedicated to students with special needs, mental health support and further investments in Historically Black Community Schools; leaders also told the district they seek a more “comprehensive” package in the new collective bargaining agreement.
“It’s a difference of what your definition of ‘comprehensive’ is,” said Jenine Lindsey, the district’s executive director of labor relations.
We are on the picket line at schools across the district, including here at Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community School. Join us on the line and tell OUSD to bargain in good faith for our students and our community! #Unite4OaklandStudents pic.twitter.com/znrtHaFTNM
— Oakland Education Association (@OaklandEA) May 4, 2023
Some students offered support for their teachers on the picket lines, including student activists for Youth Together, an organization at Skyline High School which strives to develop leadership skills for young people.
“I think it is unfair that the teachers have to go through what they go through, and they should strike,” said Jocelyn Bailey, a student in Youth Together’s “Black Girls Group.”
Under gray skies, the school’s longtime educators bundled up and hunched over coffee cups Thursday morning. The teachers, fresh off a lengthy battle last year to prevent several school closures, said they feel burned out and underequipped to help students whose struggles during the pandemic haven’t gone away.
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“They need mental-health support and counselors, but sometimes they just need a good breakfast,” said Fernando Mendez, an Oakland Unified teacher for three decades. “They don’t want to learn math when they’re (dealing) with homelessness.”
Some teachers said they’ve received broad support from parents whose teenagers experience the difficulties of large class sizes, plus lingering frustrations with oft-malfunctioning fire alarms and substandard restrooms that the district hasn’t fixed.
Oakland Unified has struggled for years to balance out a structural deficit, limping along on external state and federal funds in the meantime.
But those troubling forewarnings do not draw much sympathy from union members who portray the district’s central office as a bloated, bureaucratic environment where six-figure earners work comfortable desk jobs.
“It’s a class struggle,” said Harley Poston, a social sciences teacher for six years at Skyline. “When you peel back these neo-liberal school districts, you find leaders who are more interested in protecting their class insulation than doing what’s right for students.”
The last election did appear to indicate growing political will among Oakland’s voters, who elected pro-union candidates Jennifer Brouhard and Valerie Bachelor to the school board, though board President Hutchinson has shown the union less favor.
“People are waking up to what’s going on in the district and starting to vote accordingly,” said Barbuto, a Skyline teacher and bargaining representative. “We have analysts at OEA who understand the finances — we’re only asking for what the district has to give.”
Outside Manzanita Community School in Fruitvale, a group that included teachers, students and parents played drums and chanted in front of the school.Resource specialist Luz Chavez, a 15-year Oakland Unified employee who has participated in four strikes, spoke passionately about the needs of her school.
“I also went to Oakland Unified, and it hurts to see the same issues we were walking out for as students are still present,” she said. “And we’re still walking out as educators.”
“Obviously (teachers need) a raise, but I don’t think it’s so much the money part, but the retention part,” Chavez said. “We’re losing teachers every single year, so every year we start with a deficit.”
She said 30% of the staff at Manzanita drive more than 30 minutes to work, and higher pay at other Bay Area school districts is hard to compete with.
“They’re applying to Hayward, and they can get an extra $20,000-$30,000,” Chavez said.
Bay Area News Group staff writers John Woolfolk, Harriet Blair Rowan and Jason Green contributed to this report. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.