Oakland teachers poised to strike
Barring last-minute accord, district officials warn parents not to expect ‘school as usual’
OAKLAND >> After protracted negotiations that ended Wednesday with union officials rejecting a last-minute pay raise offer, Oakland’s public school teachers were poised to strike today for the third time in 23 years.
Through that action, the Oakland Education Association will become the latest union to ride a nationwide wave in the battle for higher teacher pay. The weeklong teachers strike in Los Angeles that ended last month brought the issue into the national spotlight, prompting government leaders to take a hard look at how education is funded and governed. Teachers also went on strike in Denver for three days earlier this month.
Oakland Unified’s last strike took place in 2010 and lasted a day. The previous one, in 1996, went on for 26 days.
School principals this week have been warning parents about what to expect during the strike: consolidated classes, suspended sports programs except for teams in the playoffs, and other extracurricular disruptions.
One thing parents shouldn’t expect, district officials said, is “school as usual.”
The Oakland Education Association and the district have been skirmishing over a teachers contract since the last one expired about two years ago, with salaries being the main stake in what a state-appointed arbitrator has described as a “teacher retention crisis.”
The union contends that all of the district’s offers to date don’t leave teachers with enough money to keep pace with the Bay Area’s soaring housing costs. The average annual salary for Oakland teachers was $63,149 during the 2017-18 school year, according to a report from the state’s Department of Education. Salaries range from $46,570 to $83,724.
Before talks broke off Wednesday, Oakland Unified offered an across-theboard raise of about 8.5 percent over four years, according to union officials. That’s up from the district’s original offer of 5 percent over three years but far short of the union’s demand of 12 percent over three years.
The union — which represents nurses, counselors, psychologists and other faculty members as well as teachers — wants smaller class sizes and the hiring of additional counselors and nurses.
“It isn’t a great increase, it isn’t a great raise, it’s just stretching things out, and it does not address the high cost of living that’s driving educators out of Oakland,” Oakland Education Association president Keith Brown said at a news conference Wednesday.
District spokesman John Sasaki would not say
whether the district upped its offer ahead of the strike but did confirm that both parties met again at the bargaining table Wednesday morning following the release of an independent fact-finding report.
According to the report, the district can’t afford the union’s demand for a 12 percent raise across three years, not when it faces a budget shortfall estimated to reach $56.6 million by the 2020-21 school year. The deficit stems in part from a sharp decline in student enrollment over the past 15 years, from 54,000 to 37,000, and the district’s failure to budget accordingly. Union officials and other critics say that’s a result of the district’s fiscal mismanagement.
The report also shed light on the state’s “complicated and flawed” education funding system and how it leaves districts such as Oakland’s in arrears. On Wednesday, dozens of Oakland Unified principals went to Sacramento to lobby lawmakers to boost
funding for education, forgive the district’s remaining $36 million debt after falling into state receivership in 2003, and to revise charter school laws.
The district and the union have agreed to resume negotiations at 9 a.m. Friday, Brown said. But unless a better offer is made before then, the strike will continue through the day. Brown said the teachers are prepared to strike beyond that, though he hopes that won’t be necessary.
“This strike is a crisis that the district has created, and what we are doing as educators is responding to make sure that our students are a priority,” Brown said.
Teachers plan to set up picket lines as early as 6:30 a.m. at all schools, according to social media posts from the Oakland Education Association. The picket lines will continue until 10:30 a.m., after which teachers intend to gather at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland and march to the nearby Oakland Unified central office
on Broadway. The picket lines will resume from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Sasaki said the district has prepared for the strike by lining up substitutes and administrators to teach classes. He said he did not know how many subs had been hired.
Sasaki also couldn’t say how much teaching is likely to occur in the classrooms today. Principals will have access to “appropriate instructional plans” that can be implemented, according to a district news release. District officials did not elaborate.
According to a statement on the district’s website, central office employees will be deployed to work at school sites and hire emergency temporary teachers.
“Many of our central office employees are former administrators and teachers and are well equipped to support our schools,” the statement reads.
The district is advising parents to take their children to school as usual or drop them off at one of
the 15 recreation centers throughout the city that the Oakland Education Association will have opened. The centers will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and staffed by union members as well as volunteers.
All city public libraries also will be open during regular operating hours. Children 7 and younger must be accompanied by an adult, however.
The Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, at 1188 12th St., also will be available for up to 250 students, and children will be offered lunch.
Students who do not show up to school will have an unexcused absence, unless a parent/guardian has called in to excuse them.
A message posted on Oakland Tech High School’s website said students who attend class today will be supervised in a larger group, and part of the campus will be closed. The school asks ninth-grade students to report to the library by 8 a.m., then move to the auditorium an hour
later to join the other students. Sophomores, juniors and seniors are supposed to report to the auditorium at 9 a.m.
Students at Oakland Tech won’t be able to enter and exit the school at will, the message said. Though parents can pick up their students at any point throughout the day, the office will not call home to seek parents’ permission for students to leave. Parents are encouraged to bring identification if they wish to pick up their students before the end of day.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided to students at all district schools today.
The Oakland Athletic League — the district’s sports branch — has canceled all spring sports across the district. But all winter sports playoffs and finals games will continue as scheduled.