Update: Pay increase & Retro Pay

The District has updated SDEA leadership about the retroactive pay raise that SDEA members won and ratified in May 2025: 

  • The 1.5% increase will be included starting with the October 2025 monthly payroll.
  • Retroactive payments will be issued on November 20, 2025.

Be sure to check your next paycheck to verify! See more information about this retroactive pay raise that SDEA members won and ratified in May, including a FAQ and a spreadsheet to calculate your retroactive pay check.

by Sara Kennedy

Letters in Solidarity: Vote Yes on Prop 50 to Defend Public Education

It was so inspiring to see all the pictures of SDEA union educators wearing red and stickers with our demands during our last bargaining session with the District on October 2! Make sure to go to your school’s October union meeting so you are ready to participate in this month’s collective action as we continue to escalate our We Can’t Wait contract campaign for safe, stable and fully-staffed schools.

As we fight for the priorities in our bargaining platform, we can’t ignore the threats to our students who are being targeted by a federal administration that seeks to destroy public education and terrify our vulnerable immigrant and LGBTQ communities. This week we all got our mail-in ballots for the November 4 election with one item on it: Prop 50.

Prop 50 is California’s bold response to unprecedented redistricting efforts led by Texas and other states working with the Trump administration. These efforts are designed to consolidate power and maintain control of Congress after the 2026 midterm elections—all to slash funding for public education, healthcare, and essential services while providing tax cuts for billionaires.

In July 2025, nine members of Congress in California, including Darrell Issa in East County, threw our students under the bus and voted to eviscerate funding for special education, school meals for hungry children, and other critical programs.

We’ve seen the federal administration freeze more than $6 billion in previously appropriated education funding for afterschool care, teacher training, and support for multilingual learners– including over $13 million for San Diego Unified – just weeks before the start of the school year, destabilizing our district budget and jeopardizing vital equity initiatives. They’ve cut healthcare for millions of our students and their families, attempted to dismantle the Department of Education, and passed a new voucher program designed to undermine our public schools.

At the same time, the White House rescinded protections against immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as schools and dramatically increased funding for its reign of terror by armed, masked federal agents who seize parents as they drop off and pick up our students and tear families apart.

Given these extreme threats, our statewide union CTA, alongside district leadership and labor and community allies is fighting back and supporting Prop 50. Now is the time for all of us to stand up together against Trump’s election rigging and to defend the students and communities we serve. Vote YES on Prop 50, and join our local labor siblings in weekly events to Get Out The Vote!

by Sara Kennedy

SDEA Members are Seeing Red!

On Thursday, October 2, SDEA members in over 120+ sites & programs participated in the first union-wide action of the school year: Seeing Red! As the bargaining team continued negotiations, members showed their solidarity by wearing union red and sporting stickers highlighting our three central bargaining demands: fully staffed schools, improved pay, and stability for students and communities. While the district simply is not feeling the urgency to address the critical support that educators and their students are missing, educators are ready to turn up the heat in our righteous fight for the schools our students deserve!

https://youtu.be/4WcaAeMBcGw

Stay up to date on our local & statewide fight:

Share your story:

Why are staffed, stable, and safe schools important to you? SDEA members are united with educators, parents, students, and school communities across California to fight for fully staffed schools, competitive wages and benefits for educators, and safe and stable schools where our students and communities can thrive. It won’t be easy to win funding for everything our students need, and we need community support. That means sharing our stories with those who aren’t in our schools every day and who might not see the urgent needs of underfunded, understaffed, and destabilized schools. Do you have a personal testimonial about what you are fighting for? What are the urgent needs that you see in your classroom, school, and community?

 

by Sara Kennedy

2025 SDEA Awards

At the October Rep Council, 2025 SDEA Awards were presented to recognize some of the members and allies who helped build our union power this year.

President’s Award: SDEA Election Committee

Awarded to:

  • Peter Oskin, Point Loma High School
  • Kristin Brown, Silver Gate Elementary
  • Trace Cimins, Hancock Elementary
  • Mickey Sullivan, Longfellow K-8

 

"The Election Committee shall be responsible for conducting all Association elections:

  • Ensure that all Association/CTA/NEA election codes and timelines are followed
  • Establish election timelines
  • Develop and carry out timelines and procedures for paper and online elections
  • Prepare ballots for election of officers, board of directors and such other elections as may be necessary
  • Count the ballots and certify the results
  • Handle initial challenges.

Your countless hours of work and resolute commitment to our collective cause have made our SDEA democracy stronger and made us a more powerful union.”

SDEA Board Award: SDEA Organizing Committee

Awarded to:

  • Monique Barrett
  • Sarah Darr
  • Lisa Morris
  • Amy Childs
  • Jessica Arreguin
  • Maria Romano
  • Mary Ann Belmontez
  • Whitney Chase
  • Rickeena Kamei-Boyd
  • Kelsey Miranda
  • Tomas Morales
  • Rahel Gottlieb
  • Jay Tran

“We won our 1.5% salary increase for this school year because we mobilized as SDEA union educators through our escalating collective actions at schools throughout the district.

These advances are a testament to the power of our grassroots organizing led by SDEA union educators on our organizing committee:

  • Developed our demands at Bargaining Input Sessions in the fall
  • Ratified our We Can’t Wait Contract demands at union meetings
  • Rallied at the Ed Center to launch our contract campaign
  • Passed out thousands of flyers to families to get them on our side in January
  • Held walk-ins in February
  • Picketed at 125 schools in April

This was the organizing that moved the Superintendent and School Board to agree to the pay increase to fully staff our schools.

You build our union's power to win the schools students and educators deserve.”

Executive Director’s Award: David Solnit

“We Can’t Wait is the boldest and most ambitious bargaining campaign SDEA members have embarked on in decades. David’s expertise in organizing and creating art to match the boldness of our campaign has led our members building capacity and evident by the multiple art builds conducted this year. David’s leadership has helped our members channel our power through art that meets the historic moment.”

David was not in person to accept his award this month, but will be joining us for an Art Build Weekend from January 24-25, 2026! Stay tuned for more information next month!

by Sara Kennedy

Report: Community Schools pay off for students!

An important recent study shows the positive student impact of the Community Schools model, which SDEA educators and allies fought hard for here in San Diego.

Press conference at Encanto Elementary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x97DphTOd7M

by Sara Kennedy

Youth v. Oil: Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act & Campaign

At the October Rep Council, SDEA representatives heard from Youth v. Oil representatives and voted to endorse a resolution supporting the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act and Campaign.

How can educators & their students get more involved?

Youth4Climate is a youth-led program under climate action non-profit SanDiego350. Our mission is to empower youth to become climate leaders working together for an equitable, sustainable, and resilient future. We have weekly zoom planning calls, a Youth4Climate Summit every March, an annual trip to Sacramento, paid internships, volunteer leadership roles, and much more. All students can get community service hours. Our Youth v. Oil team works on climate legislation and policy, meets with elected officials, passes city council resolutions, and writes their own legislation proposals. Any youth in middle school and high school in San Diego County are welcome to join, just sign up here. You can also email our Youth Program Manager mcgarrah@sandiego350.org if you have any questions.

by Sara Kennedy

Bargaining Update - October 2, 2025

Yesterday, while you were all showing up in solidarity, your bargaining team met with the District to continue negotiating our next contract. This was our sixth bargaining session and we are now deep in the mix of our fight for a contract that ensures safety, stability, staffing, and the funding that makes this all possible.

A lot of the discussion yesterday focused on what our schools need to be safe, and how to continue strengthening our Community Schools.

Article 11: Safety Conditions of Employment

We shared a counterproposal on Article 11, revisiting the need for ongoing maintenance of air filters in our classrooms. Conversations about HVAC systems included the current reality of broken air conditioning and frustrating repair delays, particularly now that more of our school year is during the hottest months. We communicated the need for clearer communication to educators and other improvements to the PPO request system, since the current language in Article 11 leaves room for a frustrating lack of information on top of dangerous temperatures.

Other safety improvements we suggested:

  • Ensuring everyone can request a walkie-talkie even with the District’s shift to new communication tools. (A recent District-wide internet outage and District phones going down just yesterday are examples of why we need other tools in an emergency!)
  • Clarifying contract language around in-school suspensions for defiance and disruption. Recent changes to state law mean that students cannot be suspended from school for these two reasons, but they can be suspended from class (referred to as “classroom suspension” in the new Restorative Discipline Policy) to get the support they need.
  • Read all of SDEA’s proposed changes to Article 11: Safety Conditions of Employment.

Article 36: Community Schools

SDEA union educators and our community allies fought hard to get Community Schools written into our union contract, and a recent study is showing just how impactful this model is for our students! Yesterday, the District accepted some of our proposal to further empower Site Governance Teams at Community Schools and advance community-based learning through teacher-leader site coach positions. This is important progress since shared decision-making is a key part of the Community School model and an important right to protect and expand in our union contract. Read all of the District’s proposed changes to Article 36: Community Schools.

Article 28 & Article 24: A revamped joint committee

The District also proposed revamping a joint SDEA-SDUSD committee and shifting its focus to solely curriculum and assessment. See all the District’s proposed changes to Article 28: Joint Committees and Article 24: Education Reform and Shared Decision-Making.

 

Article 17: Summer School/Intersession Hours & Conditions of Employment

We are continuing to advocate for improved Summer School rights in our contract. The District’s proposal accepted our language that ensures educators can use any available sick leave during Summer School. They also made movement toward our proposal to make the summer school staffing process more fair by prioritizing those with seniority. See all of the District’s proposed changes to Article 17: Summer School/Intersession Hours & Conditions of Employment.

We shared other counterproposals that would improve staffing:

Once again, the District did not respond to any proposals with a price tag, citing the lack of funds. Based on SDUSD unaudited actuals, the District has over $87 million in available reserves that can be spent on urgent needs in our schools. We need a commitment from the District to invest every available dollar in our schools now, and to join us in fighting for more resources in the wealthiest state in the country! To this end, we shared a counterproposal to Article 34: Revenue for Public Education, clarifying that we’ll need to advocate together at the local, state, and national levels for the funding that our students deserve. We shouldn’t be fighting for crumbs in the state with the 4th largest economy in the world. Critical resources are being hoarded by billionaires and corporations who don’t contribute equitably to fund our public schools. We Can’t Wait!

Read full proposals:

See a bargaining tracker for all proposals exchanged so far and all tentative agreements, with links to read the full text of each. You can access past bargaining updates, a community hub with multilingual family flyers, and more on this section of our website.

What's next?

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for October 23. As a bargaining team we loved seeing the photos shared of your solidarity yesterday, and District leadership took notice as well. Our collective action demonstrates that they’re not just negotiating with those of us at the bargaining table - they’re facing all of us. Next week at Rep Council, SDEA site and program leaders will debrief and strategize for our next solidarity action as we continue escalating our contract campaign for fully staffed schools, improved pay, and stability for students and communities. Attend your next union meeting to find out more!

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

Reminder: Safety Plans & Discipline Plans

Your union contract includes the right to:

  • A School Safety Plan developed by your supervisor with the input of unit members (11.6.1.)
  • A Site Restorative Discipline Plan aligned with District policy and developed with the SGT, and reviewed annually. (11.7.1.)

All SDEA members should have received a copy of both these plans within the first 10 workdays of reporting to their sites (per 11.6.7. and 11.7.1 respectively.) Especially since the District Restorative Discipline Policy was recently updated, your administrator should have provided access to this important information! Connect with your site rep if you have not received these plans.

See more information in these Know Your Rights flyers:

by Sara Kennedy

Letter to SDUSD Board re: 4x4 Schedules

The following was emailed to SDUSD Board Members on September 29, 2025, ahead of the September 30 Board Meeting.

SDUSD School Board Members,

I am writing to express the concerns and frustrations that educators have with the recent discussions around transitioning high schools to a 4x4 schedule.

As SDEA union educators, we strongly believe that important decisions about the instructional program at our schools are best made by those closest to those decisions – families, staff and students. This is why our members have fought so hard for nearly 30 years to strengthen Site Governance Teams at every school and why our union contract requires that sites deciding to shift from a traditional 6-period day schedule must do so from the ground up with the support of a supermajority of staff.

As educators, we realize that a 4x4 schedule has been implemented successfully at many of our schools. A key component of this success is our collective commitment to fully implement this model that is generated through our critical voice in the decision-making process. A failure to recognize this will lead to animosity and division that will detract from our core mission of providing the best possible education for our students.

This is also why our bargaining team proposed in March to strengthen protections in the contract around moving to block schedules. Our proposal brings all voices of school communities to the table for this decision. We have yet to receive a response from the District, and our members are concerned that the School Board is taking a top-down approach to 4x4 schedules that runs counter to our shared goal of advancing democracy in our schools.

The decision to move to 4x4 schedules at high schools should be a site-based process that gives us the opportunity to have open and honest discussions on how to best address the needs of our school communities together. This means that some schools may ultimately elect to remain on a 6-period day, but it will result in more cohesive teams that will drive better outcomes for the students we serve.

Kyle Weinberg
SDEA President

by Sara Kennedy

Bargaining Update - September 11, 2025

Yesterday, your SDEA Bargaining Team met with the District to continue successor contract negotiations where we left off before Summer break. This session focused on discipline and safety, with only one SDEA counterproposal since we already presented over 30 proposals in our first four sessions. Unfortunately, the District did not respond to any proposals with a price tag. They did, however, present counterproposals on safety, organizational rights, reduced workload, and revenue for public education.

Article 33: Discipline

SDEA members are advocating for discipline that is fair, transparent, and focused on supporting educators rather than punishing them. Our counterproposal on Article 33 includes:

  • Reaffirmation that discipline must be for just cause, a right that the six other SDUSD bargaining units already have.
  • Clearer progressive steps and criteria for skipping steps (for example, student safety or legal compliance).
  • Fixing problematic language that allows unsubstantiated complaints to be placed in personnel files, even if they were never investigated.
  • Clarification that discipline should address conduct, not performance (which should be addressed through evaluations).

Read all of SDEA’s proposed changes to Article 33: Discipline.

Article 11: Safety Conditions of Employment

The District rejected our initial proposal to keep and maintain standalone air filters in classrooms without HVAC units. They also proposed:

  • Providing walkie-talkies only upon request, since all school sites now have 2-way communication systems.
  • Language requiring implementation of a new District Restorative Discipline Policy aligned with Ed Code, but without ensuring educators are trained or re-trained on this updated policy.

Read all the District’s proposed changes to Article 11: Safety Conditions of Employment.

Tentative Agreement Ratified: Evaluations

While the District has not yet responded to our last proposal on Evaluations, SDEA members did ratify a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") on improved evaluation procedures for this school year and next. 

  • This agreement phases out the punitive “Stull” model and is a step toward educator-driven evaluations that prioritize our growth and support.
  • If an educator receives a less-than-satisfactory evaluation rating during their on-cycle year, they may now receive peer support through a new Advisory model.

Read the full agreement on Educator Evaluation Plan 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 and a summary of what this means. You can also see the ratification vote results and access answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Article 5: Employee Organizational Rights

The District submitted a counterproposal that would eliminate the option for new hires to attend a New Educator Orientation before prep days. This orientation at the beginning of the year is a critical opportunity for new hires to meet SDEA colleagues, learn about their contractual rights, and join their union! Read all the District’s proposed changes to Article 5: Employee Organization Rights.

Article 34: Revenue for Public Education & Article 31: Reduced Workload

Part of our We Can’t Wait campaign is advocating beyond the District for more public school funding from the State and Federal levels, and SDEA has used Article 34 in our contract as a place to draft a shared commitment to advocate for more funding, which will benefit everyone. The District accepted most of our proposed changes to Article 34, with some minor revisions. They also added a note at the top expressing that they have “no available reserves.” Read all the District’s proposed changes to Article 34: Revenue for Public Education, and their counter on Article 31: Reduced Workload.

The fact is: There are reserves available.

Based on the SDUSD unaudited actuals released this week, the District’s available reserves increased to more than $87 million. This is on top of the 2.3% cost of living increase to districts in this year’s California budget. District leadership can counter proposals with financial costs, but don’t yet feel the urgency to do so. Educators, students, and their families are the ones with urgent needs:

  • Early Childhood Education co-teachers in TK classes, some of the lowest-paid educators in our District, got a $4,250 pay cut this past Summer because the District allowed their stipend to expire. Our SDEA bargaining team pushed to solve this problem with our Appendix B proposal in February. While the District has been more motivated in areas like improved evaluations and transfers (which positively impact both administrators and educators), ECE teachers are being treated as an afterthought.
  • Special Education Case Managers are already over caseload caps while still waiting on two years of grievance settlements. A unionwide grievance has already been filed this school year, which is becoming an annual tradition: For the past six years, SDEA members have filed unionwide grievances to win stipends for educators over caseload. However, the grievances from 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years still remain unsettled, and the District has not responded to our proposal from March with a package of solutions to tackle the ongoing special education staffing crisis head-on. This is more than just delayed checks: Students are not getting the services they need and deserve.


For years, SDEA union educators have successfully worked with the District to center students and educators, and others are taking notice. In fact, United Teachers of Richmond (union siblings in our statewide We Can’t Wait campaign) recently pointed to San Diego Unified as an example. Now, as the District is overly cautious in maintaining extra reserves for a rainy day, we’ll need to pressure them to address the crisis we are in today. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again: We demand that San Diego Unified invest in our students and our schools, not just in our reserves.

What's next?

It’s clear that the time is NOW for all of us to turn up the heat across the District! That’s why at your September union meeting, you’ll be talking about a plan for strike readiness. For our next bargaining session on Thursday, October 2, SDEA members are wearing red because we are SEEING RED! 

Our students need fully staffed, stable, safe schools… and We Can’t Wait!

Read full proposals:

See a bargaining tracker for all proposals exchanged so far and all tentative agreements, with links to read the full text of each. You can access past bargaining updates, a community hub with multilingual family flyers, and more on this section of our website.

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