The Oakland Education Association and Oakland Unified School District bargained late into the night on Thursday and reached an agreement around 3 a.m. Friday morning, the union said.<\/p>\n
OUSD\u2019s most senior teachers will get a 13% pay increase over two years, while all other educators will see an 11% raise. The union\u2019s initial ask was a 14% raise for everyone. Special education teachers, early childhood educators, nurses, and social workers will get additional salary increases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis contract reflects a newfound commitment by the OUSD superintendent and school board to prioritize resources toward classrooms,\u201d Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, the president of OEA, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agreement also includes smaller caseloads for school counselors, a book allowance for teacher librarians, and improved workloads for school nurses. OEA represents about 2,600 teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, teacher librarians, and substitutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
School board president Jennifer Brouhard said the agreement reflected the conclusions of a fact-finding report released last week<\/a>, which recommended a 10% raise for the most experienced teachers and a 9% raise for all others, with an additional 2% raise for special education teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing community meetings for the last few weeks and what we\u2019ve heard over and over again is that parents and the community want to support our teachers and want to avoid a strike,\u201d Brouhard told The Oaklandside. \u201cI think we were able to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n Brouhard said she could not offer an exact estimate of how much the agreement will cost the district, but a district representative has previously said each 1% in raises costs the district around $5 million, which would put this package in the ballpark of $65 million. District officials and school board members have not said how the raises will be paid for.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district was facing a projected $102 million deficit for the next school year even before this deal was reached. Recently the school board approved layoffs of more than 400<\/a> roles to help close that gap.<\/p>\n OEA\u2019s previous contract expired in July 2025 and bargaining began last March. Last week, the union announced its members had voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n