By Nate Horrell and James Sword, HANC Board

HANC’s October General Membership meeting was held in person at Flywheel Coffee and on zoom on the topic of public education and labor, featuring representatives of SEIU 1021 who represent secretaries, janitorial and food service workers at SFUSD, and parents group San Francisco Education Alliance. The topic was timely as the teacher’s union United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) and SEIU 1021 had both previously voted nearly unanimously to authorize strikes the week before, and were entering the final heated stages of collective bargaining going into an election year. Teachers and paraprofessionals were pushing for wages to catch up with other public school districts in the Bay Area (SF lags far behind other Bay Area districts on teacher pay), and much needed support for paraprofessionals, who the district is struggling to attract and retain. With three public elementary schools which serve as community centers in our neighborhood (Grattan, Chinese Immersion, and New Traditions), HANC has a keen interest in supporting these vital public institutions. 

HANC board member and parent James Sword kicked off the meeting by framing the labor struggle in the context of a surge of labor militancy nationally coming out of the pandemic, of autoworkers,  Amazon, and Starbucks baristas organizing with renewed passion. Shellie Weiner, a school secretary at Alamo Elementary and member of SEIU 1021’s bargaining committee then gave an update on the stakes of the current bargaining with SFUSD in the context of a larger fight to bring resources to the schools and fight against school closures. SF Education Alliance’s Brandee Marckmann and Noah Sloss put local fights over public education in a political context, connecting the billionaire funders of the school board recall with Chesa Boudin recall and other efforts, as well as pointing out the personal business interests in school privatization of some of these funders.

Their presentation also sought to dispel myths around false problems with the district (algebra, trumped up culture war issues), and refocus the public on real problems facing the district (funding, payroll dysfunction, etc.). SFEA shared a petition for strike support, co-sponsored by the DSA. Another petition supporting teachers, shared by SFUSD Families, another self-organized group of parents, was also circulating. 

The following week, SFUSD Families delivered their petition, with over 1,000 parent signatures in English, Spanish and Chinese, to the school board, and school administration.  The petition told leadership, “In one of the wealthiest cities in the world, our students are not receiving the support and academic resources they need and deserve. Staff shortages fueled by low salaries and the broken payroll system mean that our teachers and other staff are working harder than ever, going beyond their responsibilities to fill gaps left by the unsustainable crisis our city’s schools are in. When one in four essential SFUSD staff positions is unfilled, our kids feel the impact of this every day, too.” The petition called on leadership to “commit the resources needed to deliver the contract our teachers and school staff deserve”. Parents wrote in dozens of personal stories of understaffed classrooms unable to hire teachers and support staff.

Later that week, the school district reached tentative agreements with UESF and SEIU 1021, feeling pressure from teachers, parents and likely wanting union support for the next school bond on the ballot in March, going into a big election year. Teachers won a $9,000 increase in year one and 5% in year two, with extra increases for paraeducators who need it most. The union members must vote on the tentative agreement for it to be finalized, but we are in a better position today in many ways than we were just weeks ago.