{"id":174132,"date":"2026-02-11T23:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:23:07","slug":"san-francisco-teachers-strike-day-3-citys-schools-stay-closed-as-negotiations-drag-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174132\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Teachers\u2019 Strike Day 3: City\u2019s Schools Stay Closed as Negotiations Drag On"},"content":{"rendered":"

The district had originally proposed a 2% raise for all educators \u2014 which is less than the state\u2019s cost-of-living adjustment for the year. It came up to offer a 6% raise over two years for certificated staff last weekend.<\/p>\n

Still, the stalemate surrounding special education and health care remains. SFUSD has repeatedly said it cannot meet the union\u2019s asks because of its current budget crisis.<\/p>\n

The district is predicting a budget deficit of about $100 million next year, and is currently under state oversight. It has maintained that if it makes an offer beyond its financial means could be rejected by fiscal advisors. Su said Wednesday that the district still has a negative budget certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re slowly inching out of that,\u201d Su said Wednesday. \u201cWe are on the right path to fiscal solvency, and so we need to be responsible with the deals \u2026 it\u2019s not just this year, it\u2019s just next year. It\u2019s about setting up this school district for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the amount of funding the district really has at its disposal has been another point of contention with the union. UESF has pointed to a financial reserve of about $110 million that the district recently set aside as a rainy-day fund as money that could \u2014 and it argues, should \u2014 be spent now. California requires districts to maintain a reserve equivalent to 2% of its general fund, which for SFUSD would equal about $28 million.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s suggested the same of the district\u2019s significant fund balance, which is made up of money that the district has left over at the end of a budget year \u2014 usually because it made more in revenue than it expected. At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, that balance <\/a>was almost $430 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that they have a reserve of almost $400 million. We believe that today\u2019s dollars are for today\u2019s students,\u201d union president Cassondra Curiel said at a rally Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, speaks during a press conference at Mission High School on Feb. 9, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

But the district says both of those pools of money serve different purposes, and are not to be used for ongoing expenses like salaries and benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing one-time fund balance for permanent raises creates a funding cliff,\u201d it says in a statement on its website. \u201cOnce the one-time money runs out, the district would be forced to make even deeper cuts to classrooms and lay off more staff to cover the ongoing cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district proposed earlier in negotiations contract language that would direct general fund balance money beyond $50 million at the end of the year toward educator bonuses. Su said the union rejected that offer.<\/p>\n

Negotiations are planned to continue on throughout the day Wednesday. As pressure mounts from parents struggling to manage days with their children home from school, and after Mayor Daniel Lurie and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond joined negotiators in the War Memorial Veterans building Tuesday evening, Su has said her team is prepared to make a deal today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here. We are ready. We want to get this done,\u201d Su said. \u201cWe need UESF to join us so that we can sign this agreement today and get our kids back into the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The district had originally proposed a 2% raise for all educators \u2014 which is less than the state\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-174132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}