The San Francisco Unified School District’s 120 schools remain closed for a fourth consecutive day Thursday, affecting at least 50,000 students.
Despite a negotiation session that went into the early hours of Thursday, district leaders and the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) have not reached an agreement.
The district and the teacher’s union are at an impasse on three remaining issues: wages, health care and special education.
At this point, there’s frustration from both sides.
“We need to keep our struggle; we need to go one day, one day longer, until we have the agreement for schools that our students deserve and that we know is possible. And that right now, the only things standing in the way are the district management and board of education that will not step up right and do what’s right by our families,” UESF said via Instagram Wednesday night.
The union added they were told the district was not ready to fully respond to their latest proposal.
Wednesday morning, Superintendent Dr. Maria Su spoke, pushing for urgency amid prolonged negotiations.
“We have been ready to negotiate this entire time. We are prepared and committed to getting this agreement done today. We all must act with urgency. We all must get together to get this done,” Su said Wednesday during a press conference.
Preliminary numbers from the district estimate a loss of up to $10 million each day the teachers’ strike continues, with much of it coming from a loss in state funding each day the district isn’t operating.
The district has reiterated it is fiscally constrained in these negotiations as it tries to stay the course to get out of state oversight.
Teachers will be back out on the picket lines as early as 8 a.m. Thursday morning, with a rally and march scheduled for 12 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza by Embarcadero Center.