For a second day, Oakland teachers walked picket lines, spent the afternoon at a rally instead of a classroom and marched the streets to demand the district return to the bargaining table this weekend and negotiate a new labor contract — or face the possibility of a protracted strike.
Oakland Unified School District’s elected leaders and bargaining officials, however, insist that they already have come to the table. They point the finger at the teachers’ union, saying it blew up negotiations when it declared a strike that has paused the education of roughly 34,000 students at a critical time.
Sandra Valencia, a ninth grader at Coliseum College Prep Academy, said that while she supports what the union is fighting for, she can’t ignore the lingering anxiety she feels about final grades and said it’s especially scary not knowing how — or if — she’ll be able to take her AP Spanish test. She said six units of college credit are on the line.
“While my grades are okay, at the same time, it’s not okay because we don’t have that academic support, even though we still have homework and assignments due,” Valencia said. “I feel bad pressuring my teachers during the strike, so it’s a little stressful.”
District leaders and representatives from the Oakland Education Association had been close to a deal Wednesday over 10% retroactive raises for OEA members, a one-time bonus of $5,000 and salary bumps ranging from 13% to 22% going into next school year.
But they are much farther apart when it comes to the union’s list of broader demands, called “Common Good” proposals.
Those include, among other initiatives, smaller class sizes, free student transportation, student housing, making campuses more hospitable against a changing climate and creating school-site committees to share decision-making among administrators, faculty and families. They are also asking for school safety improvements that include more staff trained to de-escalate mental health crises and school time dedicated to fostering a positive social climate.
The district’s latest offer — first reviewed by the union Thursday afternoon following day one of the strike — does not address these plans.
“We want a complete proposal, not bits and pieces,” said Michael Rodriguez, a bargaining representative for the union. “Because that’s how they divide us — they’re trying to force us to drop the rest of our demands.”
The bargaining teams had begun discussing separate agreements for other Common Good demands, such as pre-empting future school closures and reparations for Black students.
But talks came to a standstill after the school board, including President Mike Hutchinson, resisted authorizing the bargaining team to negotiate proposals that are not part of the district’s budget and would require grant money to fund.
Hutchinson insists that it would be inappropriate, even illegal, for those initiatives to be embedded in a labor contract instead of in policies approved by the voter-elected school board.
“We are aligned on all these issues philosophically, and they’re important,” he said in an interview. “The question is: Where is the appropriate place to address these things? We can’t cede our fiduciary duty to our bargaining partners.”
Striking teachers point out that their students have emerged from the pandemic struggling to readjust socially and academically to in-person schooling, and there aren’t enough staff members trained to break up or de-escalate fights that occur between students. Many campuses are run down and have malfunctioning equipment.
“Paying educators a living wage to work in a building that is rat infested or has sewage coming into classrooms just means there’s more work to be done,” said Nate Landry, the parent of a fourth-grader at United For Success Academy, as he joined teachers on the picket line.
The strike is just the latest strife at Oakland Unified after a long and painful war last year involving school closures and a similar seven-day faculty strike in 2019 over wage negotiations.
Although campuses remained open Thursday and Friday for children whose parents could not make other arrangements, the strike has upended learning and schedules with just three weeks remaining in the school year.
“Are our kids out of school because we need more mental health supports?” Lakisha Young, the CEO of Oakland REACH, an education advocacy organization, tweeted on Friday. “I wonder how being out of school is impacting the mental health of parents who need to work and need their kids to learn.”
But Rodriguez said the teachers’ union is prepared to continue the strike next week if a deal isn’t reached, although it has left the door open to negotiating through the weekend if the school board budges on the Common Good proposals. But they are prepared to stay out the rest of the school year, if need be, he said.
Parents already are scrambling to adjust their schedules to accommodate the strike. Even if they support higher pay for teachers, it hasn’t been easy.
Khosod Batdorg, who works as a carpenter, said he was working later into the evening so that he could remain home with his children.
“Inflation is so high now, and teachers are getting paid so little compared to what they’re doing,” said Batdorg, who kept his 9-year-old daughter, Olivia, home from Lincoln Elementary on Friday.