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

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 (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