Still deadlocked on negotiations related to pay and proposed “common good” measures, the Oakland Education Association prepared to enter its second week on the picket lines, and planned to rally outside a now-canceled board meeting as its open-ended strike against the Oakland Unified School District heated up Wednesday.
Despite earlier indications that the two sides were close to an agreement on compensation, on Wednesday teachers alleged they were given misleading information by the district — and that only 44% of union members would receive the hoped-for 22% salary bump.
“We can’t afford to stay in this district if we don’t get a real, significant raise,” said Katie Tsuji, a third-grade teacher at Thornhill Elementary School, who walked the picket line outside the school Wednesday morning.
The teachers have been on strike since last Thursday, marking one full week since students have been in regular classes and with the school year winding to a close on May 25. There’s still no official word on how the strike could affect the last two weeks, including events like testing and graduation ceremonies, or whether the semester will be extended.
While the district has still provided childcare at the schools with its non-mandatory modified school days supervised by school office staff, some parents have opted for alternate means of child supervision, like dropping their kids off at Diamond Park to be watched by high schoolers.
“We’re willing to be out here until there’s a tentative agreement between both parties,” said Maureen Whalen, a second-grade teacher at Thornhill Elementary. “This is the fourth bargaining cycle in my educational career in Oakland, and history keeps repeating itself. I don’t feel we’re taken seriously until we’re pushed to something like this.”
Early Wednesday the union announced plans to hold its daily large rally at 4 p.m., outside of the regularly scheduled school board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary.
The school district later canceled the board meeting, saying in a statement that it “could not ensure a quorum of Board Directors or that the meeting would happen without disruption.” But the union said the rally would go on as planned.
The board’s agenda had included an update from Board President Mike Hutchinson, who has publicly denounced the union’s common good proposals, and a conference with labor negotiators.
The six-member school board is split on whether to negotiate the union’s common good proposals, which are designed to improve the working and learning conditions of staff and students. Among other things, they include shared decision-making at community school sites, a response to safety concerns ranging from gun violence to rat infestations, the repurposing of unused school buildings to house homeless students, and action toward the “Black thriving community schools” program.
“The common good (proposals) are for the common good,” Whalen said. “We’ve had no phones, no PA system, and no working clocks for over a month. It’s a safety issue.”
Teachers, parents, students and other school staff began picketing once again outside various Oakland Unified schools at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. At Thornhill, teachers, parents, students and other school staff gathered on the side of the road outside the school, where they were cheered on by honking cars and students dropping off baked goods.
Rebeca Lar, the mother of a first and fourth grader at the school, said she was there not just to support a rise in teachers’ salaries, but to demand better responses from the district related to increased safety, facilities and resources.
“We have one of the nicer campuses (within the school district), and that’s because the PTA raises over $300,000 a year to supplement. Even with that extra money, I still see the cracks,” she said. “The PTA ends up paying for really basic resources that the rest of us grew up with.”
Learn more: Our Common Good proposals reflect member survey priorities & OUSD parent/community input. Many CA districts, like LA, Natomas, Montebello, San Diego, West Contra Costa, & Jurupa, have bargained common good demands. #Unite4OaklandStudents pic.twitter.com/H1oYN3Lx3G
— Oakland Education Association (@OaklandEA) May 8, 2023