New Haven district teachers to strike

Teachers in the New Haven Unified School District, which includes 12 schools across Hayward and Union City, plan to go on strike Monday after contract negotiations failed this week, officials said.

The New Haven Teachers Association will become the latest group of educators in California to stop working in an effort to improve their conditions, following a oneday Sacramento teachers strike last month, a seven-day Oakland teachers strike in February and a weeklong strike in Los Angeles in January.

Unlike some of the other groups, New Haven teachers’ demands relate only to salary and have nothing to do with class sizes or student support. It will be the first strike in district history.

“We have been frustrated that using just our voices, we haven’t been heard, but we’re inspired that other places have used this kind of action for attention and it got very positive results for students, teachers and the education community,” said Joe Ku’e Angeles, president of the New Haven Teachers Association.

The teachers union is asking for a 10% raise over two years, while the school district’s last offer was a onetime 3% raise for the 2018-19 school year and a 1% ongoing raise beginning during the 2019-20 school year.

“The NHTA Bargaining Team’s last, best, and final offer of a 10% on-the-schedule raise over two years would bankrupt New Haven, lead to negative certification and a possible state takeover,” Superintendent Arlando Smith said in a statement.

New Haven teachers have the highest starting salary of comparable Alameda County school districts at $72,886, according to the school district. Teachers argue that their wages have not kept up with cost-of-living increases, especially when they are required to pay their full health care premiums.

“It seems like teachers and students are the last priority in the budget. We need to impress that that needs to change,” Ku’e Angeles said.

A neutral fact-finding report issued in April found that New Haven’s spending on manager and administrator salaries increased from 5.5% to 7.65% of the budget between 2010 and 2019, while the budget for teachers’ salaries dropped from 54.5% to 44.17%.

Superintendent Smith, who is scheduled to retire in June, noted in a statement that the school district has to make $4 million in cuts to its budget next year and a 10% increase in teacher salaries could put other student services, like after-school programs, on the chopping block.

“This proposal from the district represented approximately $5 million for NHTA over a three-year period,” Smith wrote. “NHTA’s last, best and final offer ... would cost the district at least $20 million over a three-year period and is unsustainable.”

Schools will remain open throughout the strike, and the district posted a hiring notice to its website for substitutes.

New Haven serves about 11,000 students. The union includes 585 teachers, school counselors, nurses, psychologists and speech therapists.