Update on ECE Stipend & Delegation
ECE Educators & Allies: Update on ECE Stipend & Delegation
Here’s where things stand currently on the ECE Teacher stipend:
- The $4,250 ECE Teacher Stipend expired in June. SDEA members proposed making it permanent back in February at the bargaining table, but the District has yet to respond. (Here’s SDEA members’ proposal from February - see section 5.03) Tomorrow, September 11, is our first bargaining session since Summer break, but negotiations could still take months.
- The District has agreed to separate side deals on other issues, but not on this stipend. (For example a recent agreement about Evaluations, which improves the system for administrators as well as for educators.) It’s clear that the District does not feel the same urgency as educators do about this stipend, which is a significant pay cut for some of our lowest paid educators.
- Dozens of TK teachers have been signed up to meet with Supt. Bagula, about both the stipend but also about toileting policies, where the District has stalled bargaining. SDEA leaders have requested September dates, but so far Supt. Bagula hasn’t responded. We’ll continue pushing and update you with next steps!
In the meantime, it’s clear that SDEA members need to keep up the pressure. That’s why at your September union meeting, you’ll be talking about a plan for strike readiness. Our students need fully staffed, stable schools… and We Can’t Wait!
Letters in Solidarity: Standing Up for Our Immigrant Students
Hoping everyone is having a great start to this school year with your students! This is a good time to reflect on our union’s mission:
“To protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education for all students; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all children, youth and adults are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.”
Every action we take in solidarity - wearing red, attending a union meeting, talking with families about what we’re fighting for together, encouraging a new colleague to join the union, picketing with your colleagues - helps build a stronger, more united SDEA.
The overarching demand in our We Can’t Wait bargaining platform is fully-staffed, stable and inclusive schools and we must get ready to ramp up our actions again to achieve our goals. Last school year, SDEA members developed our platform at bargaining input sessions, ratified our We Can’t Wait platform, organized walk-ins, passed out thousands of flyers to families, and picketed at 125 schools. Our collective power has already led to some progress at the bargaining table with a 1.5% retroactive raise, but we need to finish what we started and keep the pressure up to win all of our demands!
We also know that we will need to fight for more than our contract in the face of the threats to our students, our colleagues and our communities from the federal administration. Last month, near Linda Vista Elementary, a parent was kidnapped by masked ICE agents while waiting to pick up their child from school. With the recent massive increase in funding for immigration enforcement, this will be an ongoing reality for our school communities and our solidarity is now more important than ever.
As educators, we know that what happens beyond our classrooms and the doors of our schools impacts our students - and as union educators we know we have the power to come together to defend our schools and the communities we serve. Recently, SDEA members joined hundreds of labor and community allies at a Nonviolent Direct Action training hosted by the Labor Council and UCSD Labor Center. We’ve seen educators across the country standing up to ICE raids and we know we need to build our capacity to do the same here, alongside community partners.
Two weeks ago at Ibarra Elementary in City Heights, ICE vehicles were staged in the school parking lot in the morning before drop off. A Unión del Barrio Community Patrol was activated and they were able to get the vehicles to leave before any harm could be done. This shows us that when we mobilize as SDEA union educators together with families and community allies to defend our students, our combined pressure works because When We Fight, We Win!
What Do I Do If I Have A Problem At Work?
Use this updated flowchart to understand how you and your colleagues can work with your elected site rep and with SDEA staff to solve issues at work.
Time to Ratify: Evaluations
SDEA members have reached a tentative agreement with the District on Evaluations for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years.
SDEA representatives and the District have negotiated a tentative agreement on a clearer and more supportive evaluation procedure for this school year. Supporting educators so they can be successful is a part of keeping schools fully staffed, a key demand in our We Can’t Wait campaign. This agreement is one step in the ongoing efforts to streamline and improve the evaluation process. Negotiations are ongoing about what Article 14 and 18 should look like in our next contract (see what SDEA members proposed at our last bargaining session in May), but this most recent agreement was essential to set the stage for improved evaluations this school year.
How will this agreement impact evaluations?
This evaluation process is modeled from the Alternative Evaluation that currently exists in Section 14.7. of the union contract. The intention is to shift away from the former evaluation model (commonly known as the “Stull”). Instead of the often punitive Stull, the intention is an evaluation system that allows educator support in areas of self-determined need. Evaluations should be a tool to support educators, not to punish them. In the rare occasion that an educator receives a less-than-satisfactory evaluation during their on-cycle evaluation year, educators will receive support from their peers through a new Advisory model.
More information:
- Read the full MOU
- Summary of what this MOU will mean for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, if ratified
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
SDEA members will need to vote to ratify this agreement.
SDEA members can vote online via SimplyVoting starting Monday, September 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM. The voting window will close on Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM.
Note:
You may have received a ballot Monday morning with the incorrect name, due to a data error, and then a corrected email with your correct name. Simply Voting links to your email, so there is not a danger of voting twice. When you click the link in your most recent email, you will see either your current ballot (to vote) or a list of your voting receipts (if you already voted.)
If you did not get any ballot yet, try searching your District (sandi.net) email and spam folder for “vote@simplyvoting.com.” If you still do not see your ballot or have other issues with your ballot, please reach out to the SDEA Elections Committee immediately: sdeaelections@sdea.net
Update: Voting Results
See ratification vote results here
Which Side Are You On? Our Fight For Safe, Welcoming Schools
We’re seeing a wide gap between federal priorities and educator realities.
Educators in San Diego are experiencing the daily consequences of underfunded public schools: An ongoing Special Education staffing crisis, pay cuts to our lowest-paid educators, and a cost of living that makes educators and families alike struggle to stay in our communities. Yet the most recent federal budget included further cuts to education while shifting massive funding increases to immigration enforcement. With billionaire tech companies making money off the deportation machine, this is all part of a growing pattern of diverting resources away from schools and working families to line the pockets of billionaires.
This Labor Day, SDEA members and thousands of other San Diegans asked: Which side are YOU on?
SDEA educators are on the side of our students.
Stability for students and communities is one of the three pillars that SDEA and thousands of other educators across the state are fighting for. In January 2025, at the very beginning of this administration’s immigration crackdown, SDEA representatives voted to explicitly clarify that safe and welcoming schools mean protecting our immigrant students. Since SDEA educators have fought hard for District leadership that shares their priorities, SDUSD leaders have also been clear about their commitment to protecting students on campus. California State Law, our SDEA contract, and District policy do provide some overlapping protections to prevent ICE from accessing schools, if they operate within the law.
The reality: ICE raids are getting closer and closer to our schools.
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On August 14, a parent at Linda Vista Elementary was kidnapped while waiting to pick up their child - less than a block away from the school. Read local coverage here, and SDEA’s statement here.
- While there has been only one documented ICE arrest at an SDUSD school, similar detainments have happened across the region and beyond. iNewsSource is mapping ICE arrests of parents at schools in San Diego here.
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In the early hours of August 22, community members identified ICE vehicles in the parking lot of Herbert Ibarra Elementary. The community raised the alarm and shouted at the agents until they left. Read coverage here, and see video from Unión del Barrio below:
https://youtu.be/9f523dc1XTA
As union educators, we have the power to stand up with our communities.
“We’ve been talking a lot about keeping ICE off campus - that’s important, but that’s not enough. It doesn’t matter whether these kidnappings are happening on campus or during the day… when ICE is staging in our school parking lots, and when they’re kidnapping parents around the corner, up the street, or in our communities, this is a direct attack on our students. We stand in unity with all workers everywhere, and we demand that our communities, and especially our schools, be free of ICE terror. As labor activists standing in resistance to growing fascism in our country, we ask workers everywhere, which side are you on? Do you stand with our students, families and the workers that make up the backbone of our community or not? The time for labor to unite in defense of students is now! Schools need to be safe places to teach and to learn, and that’s something worth fighting for.” - SDEA Board Member Mary Ann Belmontez, August 22 press conference at Ibarra.
Our power: Solidarity with families, community members, and workers
On August 19, SDEA joined labor and community partners at a Nonviolent Direct Action Training to teach hundreds of San Diegans how to exercise their legal rights and flex their collective power. At the September 3 Rep Council, SDEA representatives heard from Unión del Barrio about how to identify ICE vehicles in their communities, and about their community patrols like the one that identified ICE at Ibarra recently.
Continued partnerships with labor and community will be essential in our ongoing fight for safe schools and communities. When our communities are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!
What can YOU do?
Attend your next union meetings, and keep showing up! This is essential in building to our peak collective power as a union, which we can use to stand up for our students and our communities. Here are three other things you can do today to specifically build capacity and solidarity with immigrant communities.
- Follow community organizations like Unión del Barrio or ARE who are offering local trainings.
- Check out this resource from NEA (particularly page 7-8) for key legal parameters when engaging in immigration advocacy.
- Build shared solidarity with union siblings with these urgent calls to action from Labor Day 2025 - it’s time to stand with all workers!
SDEA Members are Getting Strike Ready!
Last school year, SDEA members developed a bargaining platform and showed up in support: holding walk-ins, passing out thousands of flyers to families, and picketing at 125 schools. Our collective power has already led to some progress at the bargaining table with a 1.5% retroactive raise and progress on evaluations, but as SDEA members return to the bargaining table next week on September 11th, we know we need to keep up the collective pressure:
- For fully staffed schools, including Special Education staff who are already over caseload while still waiting on two years of grievance settlement checks.
- For improved educator pay, including a critical ECE stipend which the District allowed to expire for our already lowest-paid educators in some of our hardest-to-staff programs.
- For stability for our students and communities, who are impacted by the unnecessary chaos of transfers and by even higher-stakes threats of ICE raids inching closer to the doors of our schools.
To win all the things we’re still fighting for, we need to build on the momentum of last year and get ready for our peak power as a union: Strike readiness!
SDEA is getting strike-ready!
In August, site and program leaders attended a full-day Union Academy focused on Strike Readiness and what that would look like at their site. SDEA hasn’t held a strike vote in decades, so leaders invited experienced voices to share concrete examples: Georgia Flowers-Lee, who shared insight from UTLA’s recent strike, and Nate Gunderson, NEA organizer and “Strike Doula” who has supported striking educators nationwide. Their concrete examples helped leaders begin drafting their own plans to start the year strong.
What’s the next step?
Attend your September union meeting to work on your local strike readiness plan together (and learn more about the details of the first union-wide action of the year!)
- Not sure when your union meeting is? Ask your site or program representative!
- Not sure who your rep is? Reach out to the SDEA office!
Special Education Caseload Overages: Time to go beyond grievances
Special Education Caseload overages are impacting us all.
Many SDEA educators are already over caseload, and according to Sections 29.1.2. and 29.1.3. in the contract, once an educator is over caseload for 10 consecutive workdays, the District must increase Special Education staffing allocation at their site.
👍The good news: SDEA members bargained a pathway to a free Special Education credential into the SERP agreement last year, as a way to fill SpEd vacancies and offset retirements. Today, the District communicated to SDEA leaders that almost all SpEd vacancies have been filled by SDEA members taking advantage of this pathway program. This is exactly why SDEA members bargained this agreement, and why members on the bargaining team have proposed this as a permanent pathway in Article 29 of our next contract. Offering free credentials for members interested in filling critical Special Education vacancies is a win for everyone involved!
👎The bad news: It’s too soon to tell if filling these vacancies will be enough to balance caseloads, and the District has yet to settle the last two years of caseload grievances.
District-wide caseload grievances: An annual tradition that impacts everyone.
When the contract is violated, SDEA members can file grievances - individually, in groups, or as an entire union. For the past six years SDEA members have filed union-wide grievances to get stipends for educators over caseload. However, the grievances from 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years still remain unsettled.
Keep in mind that grievances are only one way to solve problems, and that the muscle behind them is always organizing. SDEA members have already been organizing in support of Special Education staffing: Rallying at a January SDUSD Board Meeting alongside CSEA colleagues to highlight the urgency of Special Education staffing, and forming delegations to meet with individual board members to personally share how this staffing crisis impacts students. The District had another chance to address staffing at the bargaining table, when SDEA members on the bargaining team proposed changes to Article 29 to ensure more concrete, enforceable caseload limits. The District has yet to respond to that proposal and has continued to offer lowball settlements to grievances that are now years old. It’s clear that grievances and negotiations aren’t enough: Educators are still overloaded, students are still underserved, and real solutions are long overdue. We can’t wait!
SDEA members proved last year that we are ready to show up and fight. Now it’s time to STAY ready.
We’ve been gradually escalating our actions, and we need to be prepared for something bigger.
Special Education staffing was identified as a key part of our We Can’t Wait campaign for our next contract: It’s the very top issue on our platform, and educators and community members have been showing up strong in support! While Special Education staffing isn’t the only urgent issue facing educators right now, it is one where SDEA members have already exhausted their other options. If caseload language continues to be violated, the next step in escalation will be strike readiness. Just before the school year started, SDEA site and program representatives spent the day at Union Academy learning about strike readiness and seeing examples of effective strategies. They started conversations that will continue with you at union meetings in September. Make sure you attend your union meetings to find out more and get involved!
Not sure who your union rep is? Reach out to the SDEA office!
What if I am over caseload?
If you are already over caseload, it is a good idea to start keeping records of your weekly caseloads. This documentation will be important to get settlements for existing or future grievances, especially if there is a discrepancy in the District data.
Ed. Specialists over caseload should download or print weekly caseload reports directly from PowerSchool IEP (PSIEP) and ensure there is a date and timestamp on each report. In addition to that, download or print your caseload report on any day your caseload increases or decreases.
Latino/a/x Rising: Building Community Together
All San Diego County CTA Educators are invited to this FREE CTA San Diego County Service Center Event on Saturday, September 6! Click here to download a flyer to share, and RSVP here by September 4.
Progress on 2025-26 and 2026-27 Evaluation models
SDEA members have reached an agreement with the District on Evaluations for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years. This evaluation process is modeled from the Alternative Evaluation that currently exists in Section 14.7. of the union contract.
This evaluation model change is intended to shift away from the former evaluation model (commonly known as the “Stull”). Instead of the often punitive Stull, the intention is an evaluation system that allows educator support in areas of self-determined need. In the rare occasion that an educator receives a less-than-satisfactory evaluation during their on-cycle evaluation year, educators will receive support from their peers through a new Advisory model. Supporting educators so they can be successful is a part of our We Can’t Wait campaign, and this agreement is one step in the ongoing effort to streamline and improve the evaluation process.
In the upcoming weeks, look for more information, including a more detailed summary, FAQ, and resource documents on the SDEA website. In the meantime, read the full Memorandum of Understanding on the Educator Evaluation Plan for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years here:
MOU: Educator Evaluation Plan 2025-26 & 2026-27 (8/19/25)
September 1, 2025: March with your union on Labor Day!
On Monday, September 1, join fellow SDEA members as we march alongside our labor and community partners to fight for the rights of working people.
We will meet up at 9:45 am at the Center on Policy Initiatives' (CPI's) table in front of the San Diego County Admin Building. See the approximate location here and what the table looks like:
Wear your SDEA shirt so we can find one another in the crowd!
See more information and RSVP if you want updates from event organizers!
