Your Voice Matters! Join an NEA DRI Discussion and receive $75!
Sent on behalf of the CTA Human Rights Committee:
If you have participated in a DRI activity this year or identify as disabled, sign up for a group meetup on Wednesday, June 18th at 3:30 PM (PST) or Monday, July 7th at 3:30 PM (PST) via this Calendly Link and receive a $75 gift card!
If you have already joined a focus group and received the $75 gift card, please share your individual story at the NEA DRI Survey or via a self-directed interview. Self-directed interviews submitted in writing or recording will be entered in a drawing to win a $50 or $75 gift card. Email hallo@asevaluation.com to sign up.
Click the image to access the flyer:
Interested in adding a free Special Education credential?
As part of our agreement with the District on a Supplemental Early Retirement Plan (SERP) in 2024-25, the District has agreed to pay for SDEA members to add a Special Education credential in exchange for working in a Special Education vacancy. For those who have already enrolled in a program or who are interested in participating, make sure to fill out the SDUSD SpEd Staffing Opportunity – Interest Form by June 30, 2025 to reserve your spot. (Note: You will need to be logged into your District email)
See more information & an updated FAQ on our information hub:
https://www.sdea.net/spedpath25/
Advocating for TK
Advocating for TK: Time to take it up the ladder!
San Diego Unified isn’t doing the right thing when it comes to our youngest learners or the educators who serve them. We’re taking it up the ladder by inviting Supt. Fabiola Bagula to meet with delegations of TK teachers and supporters!
We’ll invite Supt. Bagula to meet with SDEA members who will explain that we need SDUSD to:
- Agree to SDEA members’ bargaining proposal for a toileting policy that doesn’t force TK teachers to stop instruction to change soiled diapers or deal with accidents, and
- Agree to SDEA members’ bargaining proposal to continue the ECE Teacher stipend indefinitely, instead of cutting the pay of some of our lowest-paid educators.
Do you teach TK or are you an ally of TK teachers? Are you interested in joining the delegation to advocate for commonsense solutions on TK toileting policy and ECE Teacher pay? Tell us you’re interested so we can be in touch over the summer!
More assessments required = More time needed
Toileting policies aren’t the only changes impacting educators. With the rollout of Universal Pre-Kindergarten in California, expanding public education access means expanding educator responsibilities. Assessments like the DRDP are important tools, but they are time consuming. SDEA members have requested to bargain over the impact on educators administering this test, have proposed related protections for our next contract. (For example, proposed changes to Article 8.) With no response yet from the District, it’s crucial to stay connected with colleagues and site reps about how changes affect your time and your students.
Retroactive raise ratified! What’s next?
Votes are in: Our 1.5% retroactive raise for 2024-25 has been ratified!
SDEA members voted this week to ratify the tentative agreement reached in our last bargaining session. This means that the District can move forward with paying educators their retroactive raises. Our agreement says that all retroactive payments and salary schedule adjustments shall be paid and implemented no later than December 31, 2025.
- See certified election results here
- Read the full agreement here
- Read answers to Frequently Asked Questions about this tentative agreement. This is a living document that will continue to be updated.
- Click here to make a copy of a spreadsheet you can use to calculate your retroactive pay
Our ongoing fight for pay, staffing, and stability
This 1.5% raise is a result of our direct pressure, and we will need to keep up the pressure when negotiations resume after summer. We’re still waiting on responses to several key proposals which directly impact staffing for hard-to fill-positions, like Special Education and Early Childhood. We know that our demands are not isolated - pay, staffing, and stability for school communities is all connected. Especially when limited budgets are being stretched impossibly thin, it’s easy to get distracted by fighting over crumbs. We need more than crumbs.
The bigger picture: What’s at stake
Despite our statewide mobilization last weekend and national pressure from educators and others concerned about the impact to healthcare, immigrant communities, and more, the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” has passed the House and is on the way to the Senate. Read more from the NEA about what this means, and make sure your California Senators know how this would impact your students. CTA has a calculator to see exactly how much San Diego Unified stands to lose in cuts to school meals, Special Education funding, and supports for lower-income families.
Our school communities already lack resources even without these looming cuts. We’ll need to keep fighting:
- Locally, to make sure the District invests every dollar available in what our schools need most
- With educators across the state, to make sure California increases the funding available
- With educators nationwide, to protect public education itself
Two invites for BIPOC educators!
CTA's San Diego Service Center Council's REAC (Racial and Ethnic Affairs Committee) is composed of educators from African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, El Sol (Hispanic, Latina/o/x, Chicana/o/x) and Asian and Pacific Islander communities. They are hosting two upcoming events:
Brunch & Belonging
ℹ️ A welcoming space for BIPOC educators to network, share stories, and build solidarity
🗓️ Saturday, May 24, 2025
🕒 9:30 - 11:30 AM
Juneteenth Freedom Day Brunch
ℹ️ A celebration of resilience and excellence for all San Diego County Black educators
🗓️ Thursday, June 19, 2025
🕒 9:00 - 11:00 AM
Flyer - Please RSVP by June 10th!
Bargaining Follow Up: Ratification of our 1.5% Pay Increase
Last week members on the SDEA Bargaining Team provided a full bargaining update after our May 8 bargaining session, when we reached a tentative agreement on wages for the 2024-25 school year.
SDEA members still need to vote to ratify this tentative agreement.
All active SDEA members will get an electronic ballot from Simply Voting on Monday, May 19 at 6:00 AM, sent to your District email. Voting will be open until Thursday, May 22 at 5:00 PM.
If you do not get a ballot on Monday...
- Try searching your email and spam folder for "vote@simplyvoting.com"
- If you still do not find it, reach out to the elections committee via email (sdeaelections@sdea.net) or call the SDEA office (619-283-4411).
Additional resources:
Need help understanding the details of this tentative agreement and its impact on you?
- Read answers to Frequently Asked Questions about this tentative agreement. This is a living document that will continue to be updated.
- Click here to make a copy of a spreadsheet you can use to calculate your retroactive pay
- Read the full tentative agreement here
- See all bargaining information here, including a proposal tracker
Fighting for Pay: This is only the beginning
Our fight is far from over. Along with initially proposing 2% for 2024-25 wages, SDEA members on the bargaining team proposed an additional 8% over the next two school years. Winning 1.5% for 2024-25 (more than the state COLA) is directly tied to our collective actions across the district. However, we know that 1.5% is not enough. San Diego’s cost of living continues to rise and educator wages continue lagging. When we return from summer break, we’ll need to keep up the pressure for improved pay, and also for the staffing and stability our students deserve. This means our fight is bigger than just local negotiations. We need to demand investment in public schools in California, and we need to defend our students from the promised federal cuts to public education.
SDEA members from Field Elementary picketing two weeks ago. We need school funding to increase as quickly as gas prices, among other things!
Fighting for Schools: This Saturday!
We know that our local fight is connected to a bigger fight for public education itself. Right now San Diego schools are facing significant cuts to programs like school meals, Special Education, and supports for low income students and families, and educators are fighting back! Join educators and community allies in a statewide day of action:
Fight For Schools: San Diego
📅 Saturday, May 17 @ 11am
📍 Meet at Roosevelt Middle School & march together!
👟 Bring your walking shoes, union shirt, noisemakers, & signs!
🔗 More details here!
Letters in Solidarity: We Won a Pay Increase to Fully Staff Our Schools
Big news - we finally have a tentative agreement with the district on our pay for this school year! This came about after months of escalating collective actions by SDEA union educators in our contract campaign, most recently pickets at 125 schools. If SDEA members vote to ratify this agreement next week, we’ll all benefit from a much-needed salary increase of 0.5% retroactive to July 1, 2024, and an additional 1% increase retroactive to January 1, 2025, resulting in an total wage increase of 1.5% as we begin next school year.
This raise comes at a critical time as the impact of special education vacancies at the majority of schools are acutely felt by educators and students. In addition, 23 new TK classrooms are slated to open next school year and will need Early Childhood Educator co-teachers that the district has historically struggled to staff. While we have made progress on improving our pay and can enjoy a well-earned break this summer, we have to be ready to return in the fall ready to continue our fight for fully staffed, stable and inclusive schools. That starts with bargaining for our salaries moving forward and the district still has not responded to our proposal for an overall 8% increase over the 25-26 and 26-27 school years.
Improving our wages is the district’s most powerful tool to fully staff our schools, considering that San Diego has the fastest cost of living rise in the country and homeownership is out of reach for many educators who would need a family income of over $258,000 to afford the mortgage payment on the average home for sale in our region. More and more of us are unable to live anywhere near the schools where we teach and that is driving some educators to seriously consider leaving our district or the profession entirely.
It shouldn’t have to be this way in a state with the fourth largest economy in the world that nevertheless funds schools at less than the national average with our inequitable tax system that insulates billionaires and corporations from paying their fair share to fund the public good. That’s why we’re joining other education unions across California within the We Can’t Wait campaign to generate the collective power we need to take on the statewide school funding problem that we cannot fix alone in our districts.
The victory on our wage increase for this school year is the product of our organizing at schools throughout the district from the pickets to rallies at walk-ins in February, passing out thousands of flyers to families in January to share our demands for the schools our students deserve, ratifying our We Can’t Wait contract priorities at union meetings in November and developing our campaign platform at Bargaining Input Sessions at our schools as we began this school year. Let’s keep this momentum going with our Fight for Schools action on May 17 at 11 am at Roosevelt Middle School to protect federal funding for our schools and our students’ civil rights. See you there!
San Diego: Fight For Schools on May 17!
The Department of Education is under attack, putting funding for students with disabilities, low-income families, and school meals at immediate risk. San Diego Unified faces a $142.6 million loss when our schools are already urgently understaffed. On May 17, educators and communities across California are rising up and fighting back!
📅 Saturday, May 17 @ 11am
📍 Meet at Roosevelt Middle School & march together!
👟 Bring your walking shoes, union shirt, noisemakers, & signs!
🔗 More details: cta.org/ffssd
✊ Statewide actions & resources here
Celebrating 100% Union Membership!
At the May 2025 Rep Council, the following sites and programs were recognized for 100% Union Membership!
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." (Helen Keller)
- ALCOTT ELEMENTARY
- BALBOA ELEMENTARY
- BARNARD ASIAN PACIFIC LANGUAGE ACADEMY K-5
- BEHAVIOR SUPPORT RESOURCES
- BENCHLEY/WEINBERGER ELEMENTARY
- BETHUNE UTK-8
- BIRD ROCK ELEMENTARY
- BIRNEY ELEMENTARY
- CABRILLO ELEMENTARY
- CARVER ELEMENTARY
- CHESTERTON ELEMENTARY
- CLARK MIDDLE
- CORREIA MIDDLE
- CUBBERLEY ELEMENTARY
- CURIE ELEMENTARY
- DE PORTOLA MIDDLE
- EAST VILLAGE HIGH SCHOOL
- EDISON ELEMENTARY
- EMERSON ELEMENTARY
- ERICSON ELEMENTARY
- CLARK MIDDLE
- FARB MIDDLE
- FIELD ELEMENTARY
- FLETCHER ELEMENTARY
- FRANKLIN ELEMENTARY
- FULTON UTK-8
- GARFIELD ELEMENTARY
- GOLDEN HILL UTK-8
- GREEN ELEMENTARY
- HANCOCK ELEMENTARY
- HAWTHORNE ELEMENTARY
- HEARST ELEMENTARY
- IHIGH VIRTUAL ACADEMY
- IMC
- INNOVATION MIDDLE
- JERABEK ELEMENTARY
- JOHNSON ELEMENTARY
- JONES ELEMENTARY
- JUAREZ ELEMENTARY
- KUMEYAAY ELEMENTARY
- MADISON HIGH
- MARVIN ELEMENTARY
- MASON ELEMENTARY
- MCKINLEY ELEMENTARY
- MILLENNIAL TECH MIDDLE
- MIRAMAR RANCH ELEMENTARY
- MOUNTAIN VIEW
- MUIRLANDS MIDDLE
- NIPAQUAY ELEMENTARY
- NPS: NON-PUBLIC SCHOOLS & AGENCIES
- NORMAL HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY
- OCEAN BEACH ELEMENTARY
- PACIFIC BEACH ELEMENTARY
- PACIFIC VIEW LEADERSHIP ELEMENTARY
- PARADISE HILLS ELEMENTARY
- PENDLETON ELEMENTARY
- RODRIGUEZ ELEMENTARY
- ROOSEVELT INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE
- ROSS ELEMENTARY
- ROWAN ELEMENTARY
- SAN DIEGO M.E.T.
- SCRIPPS ELEMENTARY
- SESSIONS ELEMENTARY
- STANDLEY MIDDLE
- TEACHER PREP & STUDENT SUPPORT
- TOLER ELEMENTARY
- VALENCIA PARK ELEMENTARY
- WEGEFORTH ELEMENTARY
- WHITMAN K-5
Showing Up To Say: We Can't Wait!
During the week of April 28 to May 2, 125 schools across the District held pickets in support of our We Can't Wait campaign. See some highlights below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oARBYCdfrd8