Organize with your community: Community Organizing Training

Effectively organize with your school community! 

The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and SDEA are holding their first joint training this month! Are you or someone else at your school interested in getting more involved in connecting with families and community members as we build up to the first strike in 30 years in our district?

  • WHAT: Get tips and tricks for community organizing, see a community meeting modeled, access resources and get individual support for what your site needs!
  • WHO: Anyone interested in organizing families & communities at your site! This could be a SDEA member, classified staff, or a community member.
  • WHEN: Wednesday, January 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM
  • WHERE: In person at the SDEA office
  • HOW: RSVP here or share the flyer with someone else at your school who you think would be interested!

A new partnership to support community organizing

Recently SDEA leaders collaborated on a grant with one of our community partners, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). ACCE has been a partner through the Education Justice Coalition, fighting alongside SDEA members for shared priorities like community schools and housing supports. Through a Community Organizing Grant from the CTA Institute For Teaching (IFT), ACCE has designated funding to support SDEA with community organizing. This is a great opportunity to learn from ACCE organizers who’ve successfully engaged with communities to identify shared goals and turn them into action.

 

by Sara Kennedy

Re: Strike Date & Makeup Day

Fellow SDEA union educators,

After over 90% of SDEA members voted to authorize a 1-day unfair labor practice strike, SDEA leaders set a strike date: February 26. This date was announced to site reps at Wednesday’s SDEA Rep Council, and to the whole community at a Thursday press conference at Encanto Elementary. As you may have seen, the District reacted to the strike date announcement by announcing that schools will be closed on strike day, but then went a step further to say that the District is declaring a make-up instructional day on March 9. 

By declaring a make-up day on March 9, the District is trampling on union members’ right under the law to bargain over work days. The only legal way to decide whether SDEA members' will make up the strike day and on what terms is by bargaining with SDEA members to reach a written agreement, which then — because SDEA is a democratic union — must be ratified by union members.

It's an unfair labor practice for the District to unilaterally add a workday for SDEA members on March 9 — just like it's an unfair labor practice for the District to continually violate and ignore the District’s special ed. staffing obligations in the union contract. 

SDEA staff, leaders and attorneys are working right now on a legal challenge to this unlawful action. You can read the letter SDEA’s Executive Director sent to SDUSD today to demand the District cease and desist and honor union members’ right to bargain over whether there’ll be a make-up day and on what terms.

The most powerful challenge to this action is using our strength in numbers — by showing up to the Time’s Up rally at the school board on Jan. 27 at 4 pm and getting your school ready to hit the strike line on Feb. 26!

In the coming weeks, there’ll be time and opportunity for SDEA members to weigh in on the question of a make-up day, but here is some information to consider in the meantime.

If the day is made up:

  • No loss of instruction or attendance days
  • District keeps full annual funding
  • Our full annual salary is maintained
  • Pension credit is unaffected

If the day is not made up:

  • One day of instruction and attendance lost
  • District loses one day of state and federal funding
  • You may lose one day of pension credit (for example, .99 years instead of 1.0)

Six thousand SDEA educators just shut down the second largest school district in the state of California – that’s our power. The way to make this shutdown meaningful – to create change from it – is for 6000 of us to show out on the strike line on Feb. 26 and put the eyes of the city on our fight to stop the understaffing of special education! 

In Solidarity,

Kyle Weinberg

SDEA President

Today’s press conference at Encanto Elementary, announcing our strike date.

 

by Sara Kennedy

We’ve set a strike date: Feb 26!

SDEA members have a strike date!

SDEA members have spoken loudly and clearly! More than 90% of participating members voted to authorize a one-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike if San Diego Unified continues violating our contract on Special Education staffing. After reviewing this overwhelming YES vote, the SDEA Board of Directors has set a strike date: Thursday, February 26! 

SDEA Members, your upcoming union meetings will be a chance to discuss lots more information, so make sure to stay plugged in and connected to your site rep and your colleagues! Now, it’s time to make sure we’re ready: Getting the word out, building community support, and making sure every school is ready for their first strike in decades.

Click here for all strike information, including resources and how to take action!

by Sara Kennedy

Bargaining Update - December 18

Yesterday marked our tenth bargaining session, and the District finally brought some proposals with price tags. From the very beginning, our SDEA bargaining team has put all our cards on the table. In our first few sessions, we presented proposals for nearly every open article in our contract, because we wanted the District to have all the information they needed to meaningfully respond even amid tight budgets. For months, we got excuses, especially on the issues educators feel most strongly about, like wages and Special Education staffing. 

At yesterday’s marathon session, the District presented 22 proposals in total. Almost none of them are acceptable. Most reflect priorities that are deeply out of touch with the realities that educators and students face every day. After months of waiting, what we received was not progress… it was insulting. We know budgets are tight, but we also know that there are significant unallocated reserves. The District can use reserves to fund solutions for this year and at the same time continue to advocate for increased funding at the state and federal levels. Instead, the District continues to show up with recycled excuses and proposals that ignore practical, experience-based solutions that we’ve shared as educators. We deserve better. Our students deserve better.

What do you call no raise and an increase in copays? A pay cut!

Back in the Spring, we proposed an 8% raise over the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years. The District finally responded to that proposal and countered with… 0% this year, and some complicated contingency language for raises next year IF they get more funding. That’s no pay raise this year for educators living in one of the most expensive cities in the country… even when SDUSD is getting a 2.3% funding increase in COLA. 

(Remember, the 1.5% raise that we recently saw on our paychecks and as retroactive checks was a raise we bargained retroactively going back to the 2024-25 school year, since we agreed to put off bargaining that raise until the District had more budget information, so we could get the best raise possible. Now, we need to agree on raises for this school year and next school year.)

Along with a 0% raise, the District also proposed getting rid of the $10 copay limit for Kaiser. 41% of our members are on Kaiser (as the most affordable option) and upping copays would be a significant cost for members. 

Keep in mind that when we bargain for our pay and benefits, we are also bargaining for other District employees since other unions have clauses in their contract that tie their raises to ours, meaning that this kind of cut will impact classified employees as well. Even small increases in copays can be catastrophic for anyone who requires frequent medical appointments, or for families already struggling to get by.

Read the full counterproposals from the District below:

No expanded leave

The District refused to expand leaves that would give educators the professional discretion and flexibility necessary to navigate family and health challenges without leaving the District. In particular, they are doubling down on not allowing members on unpaid leave to work at all. (For example, if a member had to temporarily leave to care for a family member or to follow a deployed partner, they would have to resign if they wanted to get any employment - even while on unpaid leave.) Read the District’s full counterproposal on Article 10: Leave Policies

Visiting Teachers: More work for the same pay

The District rejected our proposal for higher pay rates for long-term VTs and for VTs in Special Education positions, and for a new “Contracted VT” position. Remember, VTs and all unit members will get any raise bargained in the wages articles. (And the District has proposed that the raise for this school year should be zero.) Along with no pay increases for our lowest paid unit members, the District also proposed language that would allow VTs to be forced to stay on campus longer and work through preps.

See all the District’s suggested changes to Article 32: Visiting Teachers and Appendix D: Visiting Teacher Salary Schedule & Rules. (You can see our initial suggestions in our February 27 proposals on those articles.)

Special Education: Go ahead and leave it broken

We proposed a package of Special Education solutions, and after waiting months for any response the answer is: Nope. The District countered our suggestions with the status quo plus an excuse about funding.

  • No automatic stipend for ed specialists who are over the caseload cap (which would be more enforceable than the current language that has allowed the District to ignore caseload limits and then ignore grievances for years)
  • No caps on 504s
  • No proportional SLP caseloads
  • No monthly case management days for Ed Specialists (our idea based on what is offered in Temecula)
  • No improved ECSE instructional model
  • No improved caseloads for School Psychs
  • No reimbursement for SPED credentials for employees seeking to get SpEd credentials in order to fill vacant SpEd positions
  • An increased stipend only for ESN teachers (rather than an increased stipend for all SpEd teachers, to hire and retain in these hard to fill positions.)

Basically, the District’s counterproposal is to reject anything that might fill Special Education vacancies and keep exhausted and drowning Ed Specialists from quitting mid-year. 

Read the District’s entire counterproposal for Article 29: Special Education, and the connected stipend proposal for Appendix A (see Section 8)

Early Education: Doubling down on a pay cut

While we agreed to put in the contract a TK class size cap of 20, the District still hasn’t come through on the most urgently felt issue for ECE Teachers: A pay cut of $4250 when the District let the ECE Teacher Stipend expire in June, and a refusal to negotiate over extending this stipend. ECE Teachers are the lowest paid contracted teachers in the District, and they’ve been advocating for this to be fixed for months, including meeting as a delegation with the Superintendent. At their union meeting this week, ECE teachers took photos to hang up in our union hall, so the District bargaining team would have to see the faces of the educators (primarily women of color) who are impacted by this pay cut, as they’ve ignored this issue, session after session. The District is hinting that they’ll only re-add the stipend if TK teachers give in and start changing diapers.

See the District’s counterproposals on Article 13: Class Size and Appendix B: Early Childhood Education Programs Salary Schedule & Rules.

Other staffing counterproposals from the District:

Maintaining the right to layoffs.

We had proposed no layoffs during the term of this contract, since our schools are already understaffed, but the District won’t commit to that, as a declining enrollment district. See their counterproposal on Article 19: Layoff & Reemployment. 

Scared of putting Equity on paper.

The District entirely rejected our addition of an Equity article, which we had proposed to repurpose Article 35, which addressed the now-discontinued Parent Home Visits Project. It’s not really worth reading their counterproposal since they completely left out everything we suggested, but you can see what we proposed back in February - Article 35: Equity and Support for Students and Communities. This included language related to housing supports, protections for students, staff, and students in the face of increased immigration enforcement, LGBTQ+ safe schools, and more. We will continue to push for the Equity article, together with our allies in the Education Justice Coalition, as our communities continue to be targeted.

Other stability conversations:

  • We are still trying to get rid of the unnecessary chaos of Fall Excessing and tweak our transfer policies. The District only wants to limit Fall excessing at the highest need schools, and they’ve rejected our proposed change to how “indispensable services” currently is a loophole for administrators to play favorites. They also refused to create a clear process for assigning extended day assignments - opportunities for up to several thousands of additional dollars. See the District’s full counterproposal on Article 12: Transfer Policies.
  • Still inching toward agreement on Article 36: Community Schools

Stay Informed:

Our next bargaining sessions are scheduled for January 15 and January 29. Yesterday’s session included a LOT of proposals! See our tracker for all proposals exchanged so far and all tentative agreements, with links to read the full text of each.

Stay Organized:

Considering that the responses from the district yesterday were so pathetic, it’s clear that we need to keep showing up. Whenever we show up to fight for ourselves and our students, we are flexing our muscles and our potential to demonstrate our power in the future. Our students and educators deserve so much more than what we were offered yesterday, and we need to make sure the District knows that we’re serious when we say: We Can’t Wait!

In Solidarity,

SDEA’s Bargaining Team

Kyle Weinberg, SDEA President, Ed. Specialist: Mild/Moderate, English and History Teacher; Laurie Bailon, Restorative Justice Teacher, Bell MS; Carly Bresee, Ed. Specialist: Moderate/Severe, Lafayette ES, Sarah Darr, SDEA Secretary, WCW Campaign Organizer & SLP; Christina Gallegos, ECSE Teacher, Rodriguez ES; Candace Gyure, School Nurse; Stacy Hernandez, SDEA Bargaining Chair & 2nd Grade Teacher, Dailard El.; Andrew Melia, School Psychologist, Riley School; Elizabeth Miller, Ed. Specialist: Mild/Moderate, Lewis MS; Eri Nall, Head Counselor; Kiki Ochoa, History and Ethnic Studies Lead Teacher, Lincoln HS; Lori Schmersal, PE Teacher & Coach, Clairemont HS; plus SDEA staff Anthony Saavedra, Executive Director,  Sara Holerud, Organizer, and Rafal Dobrowolski, Contract Specialist

 

by Sara Kennedy

The votes are in: SDEA members are ready to strike!

The votes are in: SDEA members are ready to strike!

Yesterday, SDEA union educators finished up our first strike vote in decades. Members voted whether or not to give our elected board members the power to call a 1-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike if SDUSD continues to violate the union contract related to Special Education understaffing. An overwhelming 90.09% of SDEA members voted YES. 178 schools and programs submitted votes, representing participation from 88% of dues-paying members. After reviewing these results, the SDEA educator leaders on the Board of Directors voted to move forward with a 1-day strike in February, if the District does not fix their violations of Special Education caseload caps.

The turnout for this strike vote is just as significant as the yes votes. When we have the numbers, we have the power! A significant supermajority of SDEA members are ready to strike.

We’ve officially filed our Unfair Labor Practice over caseload overages.

SDEA leaders know educators are over caseload, because we hear it from our fellow educators every day! What we don’t know is exactly how over they are at this moment in time. In the process of trying to settle caseload grievances, SDEA staff and leaders have tried to get access to caseload numbers. It’s become clear that at this point not even the District knows exactly how overloaded Ed Specialists are. It is educators who know how overloaded we are, and it is educators who have voted overwhelmingly that we’re ready to do something about it.

 

With the difficulties of even getting access to caseload data, SDEA leaders have filed an Unfair Practice Charge over two big ways the District is violating our contract:

  • Repeatedly ignoring Special Education caseload limits
  • Not even providing SDEA members access to caseload data

The District is already preparing for our potential strike by getting out the message that we need more funding at the State and Federal level. Their main message so far is: We’re doing what we can. We need more funding. As educators and community members, we’ll need to keep asking: While we continue advocating for more funding… is the District really doing everything in their power? How are they investing our resources in the students we have NOW?  

One thing is clear: Violating labor law and overloading educators is doing nothing to get our students the support they need and deserve.

Educators and their students have waited long enough. Time’s up!

We’ll be showing up at the January 27 School Board Meeting to demand that District leadership stop violating our contract, and giving them one last chance to fix this before we go on strike in February.

Lots more information to come in January - including a February strike date! - but mark your calendars now:

✊Rally at the School Board

🗓️Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 4:00 PM

📍San Diego Unified Ed Center - 4100 Normal Street

 

by Sara Kennedy

Educator Strikes 101 (& other clarification)

We don’t have what we need to do our jobs. How do we respond?

Teaching isn’t the same job that it was decades ago. Educators are asked to do more with fewer resources, and here in San Diego, they’re trying to live in an expensive city on wages that have stagnated over the past decades. California has underfunded public education for years, and federal threats and cuts don’t help. As educators we struggle to give our students what they need when we don’t have what we need. Things feel urgent… so educators are considering urgent actions. It’s been decades since SDEA members even proposed a strike, and we’re also doing something that hasn’t been done before in California… participating in a statewide coordinated bargaining campaign to:

  • Pressure individual Districts to do whatever they can to invest every dollar in staffing, competitive pay for educators, and safe, stable schools. Here in San Diego, that pressure includes (but isn’t limited to) addressing the District’s violation of our contract when it comes to Special Education staffing.
  • Make it clear that the State and Federal governments need to invest more in public education, which is critically underfunded even here in the wealthiest state in the country.

This week, the District held a press conference about Special Education. A lot of their message is exactly what union educators are saying across the state: We need more State and Federal funding, for Special Education and in general. It makes sense that they didn’t invite teachers to speak up at that press conference, because even with a strike vote still underway the message from educators has been clear: San Diego Unified isn’t doing their part when it comes to staffing Special Education. We need them to do better! That will be easier with more funding, but in the meantime we need to invest every dollar we have on today’s students.

Union educators are striking and getting strike-ready across the state:

As part of our coordinated statewide campaign, we’re seeing a wave of strike votes at educator unions, who are showing up to tell their Districts: We Can’t Wait!

  • After four days on strike and an outpouring of community support, fellow union educators at United Teachers of Richmond have won their next contract … announcing a tentative agreement with West Contra Costa Unified School District just before 3:00 AM yesterday morning! Read more here & see a visual (and joyful) overview here.
  • United Educators of San Francisco just voted to strike for the first time in decades.

Twin Rivers Unified and Madera Unified Teacher Association educators rallied at their District’s board meeting and picketed to show they are ready to strike if needed.

A large mural painted outside the District office in Richmond

A large mural painted outside the District office in Richmond (Photo from Jana Kadah, Richmondside)

Educator Strikes 101:

As public educators, there are legal rules about when and how we can go on strike. (This is because of just how important our jobs are to make entire economies function! Educator strikes impact the whole community.)

  • We can go on strike as a response to Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) when the District violates our existing contract.
  • We can also go on strike when bargaining a new contract, but only after we try our best to come to an agreement through the bargaining process. This includes declaring impasse after bargaining teams stop making progress, and going through a lengthy process of mediation and fact finding to get impartial third party opinions on whether we’ve been bargaining in good faith. This type of strike is also called an economic strike: Often educators will refuse to come back to work until they get their demands met, going without pay in the hopes of significant improvements. (This is what UTR just did.)

While strikes are the ultimate use of our collective power, preparing to strike involves strategic decisions so we can put the right kind of pressure on the right people at the right time. Right now, SDEA is deciding whether or not to use a 1-Day ULP strike to get the District to do the right thing when it comes to Special Education Staffing in our current contract… and to give them a preview of what we are capable of! They need to know that we are willing to show up and stand up for what our students need… no matter what.

Here’s the thing: Members need to decide!

We know we have power, and we’re seeing what could be possible when we use that power. The decision now is whether or not we’ll use that power. SDEA members across the District are voting on a 1-Day ULP strike over SpEd staffing. Next week, the members elected to the SDEA Board of Directors will review the results of the strike vote and decide if the support is strong enough to call a strike in February. Thousands have already voted YES, but votes are still being turned in from many schools where reps are making sure everyone has a chance to vote. Have you voted yet?

  • Hear from some members who have voted yes and share your voice here. Especially for members who have never been part of a strike, it’s natural to have questions and uncertainty. Hearing from your fellow educators is important!
  • Not sure where and how to vote? Reach out to your site rep or call the SDEA Office if you don’t know who your representative is!

by Sara Kennedy

Bargaining Update - December 4

In yesterday’s 9th bargaining session, we reached one tentative agreement but spent the majority of our time discussing the same handful of proposals we’ve been focusing on for the last few sessions - and hearing the same excuses about why we’re still waiting for responses on some of SDEA members’ most widely and urgently felt issues.

We finally reached a tentative agreement on Reduced Workload Plans. This means that more educators in our bargaining unit are eligible for this program, which allows certificated staff who are nearing retirement to work less than full time in the years before retirement while getting full-time pension credit and fully paid family health benefits. With this agreement, educators who are part of the CalPERS pension program are also eligible - mostly those who started in classified roles. Read the full Tentative Agreement on Article 31: Reduced Workload Plan.

The District presented a counterproposal on Article 33: Discipline. Unfortunately, the language they proposed is still unworkable for educators, so we will need to continue discussing how to strengthen this article to give educators the professional respect they deserve, particularly when it comes to clarifying verbal vs. written warnings and how these are stored in members’ personnel files. Read all of the District’s proposed changes to Article 33: Discipline.

At this point in bargaining we’re continuing to go back and forth on the details of each proposal, so both bargaining teams shared counterproposals on articles we’ve been discussing for several sessions. 

The District submitted counterproposals on the two related articles on Evaluations, bringing us closer to agreement on how to incorporate a clearer and more fair evaluation process in our next contract:

SDEA submitted counterproposals on: 

Delayed Conversations:

While we’ve made small steps toward solidifying our next contract and have come to agreement on some small pieces, the District has still not even responded to any of our proposals with a significant price tag, including proposals which critically impact educators across the District. In our first two sessions back in February and March of 2025, we proposed language to improve wages, address the crisis of Special Education staffing, end Fall excessing, and expand mental health supports. The District has yet to submit a single counterproposal on any of those articles. In the case of Special Education staffing, the District isn’t just stalling on discussing solutions - they’re violating our existing contract and have been for years. For a District that brags about supporting educators and being a “gold standard” for bargaining with us, things feel less than golden… not at the bargaining table, and certainly not in our schools and classrooms where our students don’t have what they need and deserve.

 

What’s Next?

Our next bargaining session is on December 18, just before Winter break. The day before, the SDEA board will review strike vote results and decide whether to set a strike date in February. 

It’s important to be clear about what this strike vote is for. SDEA members are voting on whether to authorize a 1-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike over the District’s ongoing violations of our current contract, specifically around Special Education staffing. A ULP strike is not the same as an open-ended economic strike like we are seeing from other union educators across California. Economic strikes happen only when bargaining reaches impasse and breaks down. That’s not where we are. We are making progress at the table… far slower than we want, and certainly not at a “gold standard” pace, but progress nonetheless.

Our ULP strike vote is about holding the District accountable for the contract we already have, and about showing our unity in defending our students’ right to fully staffed schools. And if SDEA members authorize a 1-day ULP strike, it sends a clear message: SDEA educators are prepared to take action!

Across California, other unions do point to San Diego as an example of investment in educators. That’s because for decades SDEA members have used their collective power to hold leadership accountable. It is our solidarity that is the real gold standard. Every action we take, from wearing SDEA shirts to standing on a picket line, shows that we are united and ready to fight for ourselves and our students. We Can’t Wait!

Stay engaged:

Attend your union meetings, and if you haven’t already, vote on our potential 1-day Unfair Labor Practice strike. (Learn more here about why SDEA’s Representatives are recommending a YES vote.)

Stay informed:

Use our tracker to see all proposals exchanged so far, all tentative agreements reached, and a legend to understand what all the formatting means!

In Solidarity,

SDEA’s Bargaining Team

Kyle Weinberg, SDEA President, Ed. Specialist: Mild/Moderate, English and History Teacher; Laurie Bailon, Restorative Justice Teacher, Bell MS; Carly Bresee, Ed. Specialist: Moderate/Severe, Lafayette ES, Sarah Darr, SDEA Secretary, WCW Campaign Organizer & SLP; Christina Gallegos, ECSE Teacher, Rodriguez ES; Candace Gyure, School Nurse; Stacy Hernandez, SDEA Bargaining Chair & 2nd Grade Teacher, Dailard El.; Andrew Melia, School Psychologist, Riley School; Elizabeth Miller, Ed. Specialist: Mild/Moderate, Lewis MS; Eri Nall, Head Counselor; Kiki Ochoa, History and Ethnic Studies Lead Teacher, Lincoln HS; Lori Schmersal, PE Teacher & Coach, Clairemont HS; plus SDEA staff Anthony Saavedra, Executive Director,  Sara Holerud, Organizer, and Rafal Dobrowolski, Contract Specialist

 

by Sara Kennedy

Letters in Solidarity: We’re Voting YES to Strike for Our Students

We’re Voting YES to Strike for Our Students

As we are already approaching the midpoint of our school year, wishing everyone a relaxing holiday season with family and friends. We were busy in October supporting schools with getting strike ready and it is so energizing to see our SDEA “I’m Ready to Fight for Special Education” signs up in classrooms all over the district.

At our November SDEA Representative Council, over 150 SDEA leaders unanimously voted to endorse a YES on our strike authorization vote that is being conducted at union meetings at every school. We are fed up with 7 years of special education understaffing that have stretched us to the limit and hindered our ability to provide our students what they need to succeed. We Can’t Wait for the district to find the will to fairly settle our unionwide grievances going back 2 school years for special education caseload overages. We Can’t Wait for the district to prioritize following our contract and responding to SDEA proposed solutions to address the special education staffing crisis.

What will convince District leadership to share our urgency? Every action, from wearing red in support of our bargaining team to walk-ins or community rallies, shows our unity and determination. Escalating actions develop our organizing muscles, showing everyone (our fellow union educators, our school communities, district leadership) that we are getting stronger and we are ready to use that strength to fight for what matters to us: high-quality public education for ALL students.

Back in May 2025, our pickets across the District were a big enough flex to move the District to agree to a retroactive raise that we are now seeing on our paychecks - the first major progress in our contract campaign. With so much still to be won in our We Can’t Wait bargaining platform for fully staffed schools, improved pay and stability for our students and communities, it is going to take more collective strength to get the District to stop violating our contract when it comes to  Special Education staffing, and to show them that we are ready to keep fighting for the rest of our demands.

And we’re not the only union flexing our power! Over 30 other CTA locals across the state are also fighting for the same big contract demands and preparing for strikes if necessary. We’re all pressuring our individual Districts to invest every available dollar in our schools and over 98% of our We Can’t Wait siblings at United Teachers of Richmond recently voted to authorize a strike. Now is the Time for our union to take that same step alongside allies across the state and we will be voting YES to strike for our students!

by Sara Kennedy

Are YOU voting YES to strike for fully staffed Special Education?

The District continues to violate our contract by understaffing Special Education, creating a ripple effect felt across the entire district: Students struggle without the support they need, educators burn out, classroom environments become less safe, and whole school communities are destabilized. We’ve tried everything to respond to the crisis: Years of filing grievances, proposing improved contract language, rallying at Board meetings, organizing with families and colleagues, and even bargaining a free credentialing pathway to fill SpEd vacancies. After gradually escalating our actions over the past year, SDEA members are now voting on whether to address Special Education staffing with our ultimate collective power as a union: A strike!

SDEA members are voting on whether to authorize a one-day strike over Special Education Staffing. 

Voting is happening at union meetings across the District from November 6 through December 16, at school sites and at the SDEA union hall for members not assigned to a specific site. All SDEA members have the opportunity to vote on whether to authorize the SDEA Board to call a 1-day strike in February if the District continues to violate our union contract related to Special Education understaffing.

Your union meeting is an opportunity to learn more about this potential strike, ask questions, discuss with your colleagues, and VOTE! 

Not sure who your union rep is? Reach out to the SDEA office!

(Click here to see a strike vote flyer with Frequently Asked Questions.)

 

 

 

At November's Rep Council, SDEA Reps voted unanimously to recommend a YES vote!

Why are YOU voting Yes?

We haven’t faced a possible strike in our district in decades, so it’s natural to have questions and uncertainty! If you are voting YES to authorize a strike over Special Education staffing, can you share your reasons why? Sharing these reasons with fellow members and the wider community can help emphasize the urgency of what so many of our educators, students, and school communities are feeling!

Want to share your voice?

  • Post directly on social media, tag SDEA, and use the hashtag #WeCantWaitCA to amplify our voices
  • Or, share your reasons through this form to be included in SDEA communications!
  • Interested in other opportunities to share your voice? Reach out to kennedy_s@sdea.net! 

 

by Sara Kennedy

Art Build Weekend: January 24-25, 2026

Create art and build solidarity at an Art Build weekend! On Saturday, January 24, and Sunday, January 25, Bay Area Arts Organizer David Solnit & a team of artists will be at the SDEA office to help us paint, screenprint, and build picket signs as we prepare for upcoming campaign actions. No artistic experience required - bring your people and your paint clothes!

by Sara Kennedy