San Francisco Unified School District Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you for being here. My name is Laura Dudnik. I'm a spokesperson for the San Francisco Unified School District. Um, this briefing is to provide an update on the status of the operations for San Francisco Public Schools as well as an update on our labor negotiations. Our San Francisco Unified School District bargaining team comprised of veteran and expert professionals as well as our superintendent are about to sit back down with our labor partners right now to work together toward an agreement. We very much look forward to sitting down at the table with them and hearing their counter proposal and working together to come to solutions. And so now I'm going to share some updates on our school district operations for tomorrow. We have let families and students and staff know that all schools will be closed to students tomorrow, February 10th. We're continuing to pro provide independent study as well as resources for students and families during this time. We're sharing this news this afternoon in order to give our families and students time to plan. And we will continue to work closely with our city partners as well as our community partners to provide resources for our students and families. We have delivered over 2600 paper copies of our instructional packets to our students and they are also available on our website and we've been sending them out to our families and students since last week. As I said, we'll continue to work closely with our city and community partners for resources such as food and child care. Uh based on the numbers we have so far today from our afterchool community- based organizations, we know that approximately a thousand students attended our programs and there's more spaces available. So we expect that more families will want to access these programs tomorrow in the event of an extended strike situation. Our partners at DCYF have provided over

750 breakfast meals at 14 sites and over 1,600 lunches across 30 sites today and we expect that they will continue to provide these meals to our students tomorrow. Uh we are so grateful to our partners for their continued support during this time. We know that every day that students are not in school, it's a day of mislearning and misconnections with their peers and teachers. We want this strike to end. We are glad to sit back down at the table with our labor partners and we remain committed to finding an agreement that supports students, educators, and our school communities. We recognize the urgency of reaching a full agreement. We understand the strain and the difficulty that school closures place on students and families. Every day matters and we need to find a swift resolution. We are ready to work around the clock and we are working around the clock. Our team is working around the clock to come to an agreement that honors our educators and that is fiscally responsible. SFUSD is still under state oversight and we still have a structural deficit. We are grappling with these realities and we are still working very hard to find an agreement that honors our educators that is we can afford and is within our means. We have most recently proposed a package that is equivalent to a 6% salary increase over two years as well as a health benefits allowance of $24,000 a year. And this puts money directly into the pockets of our educators. Our proposal is aligned with the recommendations in the neutral

thirdparty factf finding report that was released last week. We really want to work together to find creative, responsible solutions that we can afford and that will avoid further cuts to schools. We want to put forward an agreement that increases salaries but does not cut critical resources for students. Protecting classrooms, protecting student services, and special education supports are at the center and the heart of our work. San Francisco's educators deserve to be paid fairly and competitively. We believe we can come together and we believe we can reach an agreement that is fair, responsible, and sustainable. So, now we'll take a few questions.

Joe, reportedly officials waiting for negotiators from the union's team to evaluate the proposals and it apparently took a while but at the same time at the civic center rally uh some of the union folks said on the loudspeakers we were waiting for the district people to just show up when when did the district people show up? Did they show up? What is this timeline? How does this make sense?

Sure. Um the district bargaining team has been here since this morning. Um, we understand that the union was planning to caucus around noon and that they would let the bargaining team know when there was a counter proposal ready to go over. And um, just a few moments ago, the our bargaining team heard from the union that they were ready and so our superintendent and our bargaining team immediately got up and wanted wanted to go sit back down at the table with them. So, we look forward to a productive conversation. Y question is tomorrow's closure meeting is are you still at 7 to10 million loss estimate as follows? Let me check on this grace and we can follow up with you on that.

Is there no money in the current budget to pay for this? Um so the proposal that we've put forward there are different uh places where the funding for the salary increases and the healthcare would come from. We're really trying to be creative and because we've presented multiple proposals and those have different um revenue sources connected to them. I would refer you to the most current proposal on our website which is posted so you can see um exactly what those proposals and the funding sources are. Yeah. Um board president Phil Kim and the vice president showed up at around 2:30. What's their role today?

Um so I don't want to speak on behalf of the board of education. Our superintendent has been you know in close communication with our board as well as our city partners to make sure that you know we can all work together to come to an agreement that is fair. Um there has there been any um confirmation of whether or not the um the funds that are being used for um potential healthcare dollars uh does that count as a takeback or a concession on the union side of previous ones?

So the San Francisco school district has limited funds and so we know that there is a certain amount that the district can afford in order to give raises and the healthcare benefits um to our educators. And so we're looking at different ways to be able to fund those. And we do understand that um some of them might mean that there would be some restructuring of other um other elements of what um is in the contract such as AP extended prep periods as well as sbaticals. So we know that these things are very important to our educators and we are glad to be able to provide them. But at the same time, we have to look creatively at solutions so that we can afford the raises and the healthcare benefits that we know are a priority to our educators. And as we're doing this work, we're looking at what's in the neutral factf finding report so that we can make sure that the proposals we're putting forward are consistent with what the experts are recommending as well as what we believe would be um in alignment with what the state guideline has for us. So because we are still under state oversight, we have to be very careful and very thoughtful about how we are allocating our resources.

Dan and then um did you say you were going to get back on what the deficit is for next year? Was that his question? Um I believe the question was around the cost of um when schools are closed to students. Yeah. So so my question is what what is the number for the current deficit for the next year or two and is it possible you come to some agreement with them. Does the state have to sign off on it? And if they don't, does that send you back to the table?

So, um, San Francisco Unified operates a $1.3 billion budget. Last year, we cut $114 million from our budget, which was very challenging, and we know we are feeling the impacts of those cuts on our students every day. For the next year, in our unrestricted and our restricted funds, it's a total of about a hundred million dollar deficit for next year. And for years, we have operated at a structural deficit similar to many other school districts around California where we are spending more money than we're bringing in. So we are under state oversight right now. We have stateapp appointed fiscal adviserss who have the authority to stay or rescend any budgetary decision by the board of education if they deem it to be council to our fiscal stability. So any raises that we put forward, any agreement that we put forward is something that we would need to make sure is in line with the with what the guidelines for the state that they have set. pass it through them.

Um, so they would need to approve any raises. Yes. Any agreement, Brad? So, I'm just going back to the timeline. So, were negotiations supposed to start at noon?

I I'm just curious when they actually started. There was a specific reason given because I know like the mayor talked about how he was frustrated that there was no talks going on on Sunday. I know you guys were waiting for a counter offer, but I'm just wanted to get more clarification on that. Mhm. Um, you know, so, you know, we're coming into this with good faith. We really want to, um, have good faith negotiations with our educators, and this is very complicated work. And so, we on Saturday met with our labor partners beginning at 2 until about 10:00. And we had presented a proposal to them and heard from our labor partners that they wanted to take some time and then present a counter proposal. And so, for today, um, our understanding was that they wanted to meet in caucus at noon and that they would let us know when they were ready to sit down and share a counter proposal. And so that is happening right now.

Eric follow the union proposing right now. Would that be rejected by We just want to make sure that any proposal that we put forward or any agreement that we come to is something that we can afford. We owe that to our educators. We owe that to our students as a school district to continue on the path to stability. We want to be able to stand on our own two feet. And so we need to make sure that any agreement we put forward we can afford. and we've been working closely with our fiscal adviserss um since we've been since they've been appointed by the state and so we know uh how we can operate efficiently and live within our means and so we just will continue working with them.

The rally that just took place across the way seem to have really big turnout a lot of strong support and you know educators have said they've rejected the proposal the most recent school district proposal. Does the district plan to move on wages and healthcare, potentially fully funded healthcare? We're sitting down with them right now and so they'll work through those details together at the bargaining table. Christian,

uh wondering if the education contracts that parents sign in San Francisco, does that help the district get funds from the state for those students who aren't physically in school? And if so, how much how does that how much money does that bring in? Does it equal or approximate what you've lost in terms of students not being?

So, um, as a school district, we're very concerned if students are not in school. We don't want a disruption to their learning. And so, when we knew last week when the board of education approved the resolution for the superintendent to begin planning in the event of a strike and making operational decisions in the event of a strike, um, we knew that we needed to start planning for how would students continue their learning if we did have to close schools. And so the independent study packets are optional. We do have more information online and we want to make sure that families have access to learning resources during this time. But again, we are focused on coming to an agreement. We really want to work with our labor partners, stay at the table, work out these remaining issues and come to an agreement so that uh we can end the strike and that we can reopen schools.

But does that bring in funds when the parents sign those contracts? Does that bring in funds? And if so, do you know that? I'll we'll check on that and we'll follow up with you on that. Taylor and then Joe, do you have any um estimate of how many students have or their parents have signed those contracts? Um I don't have that information. Yeah. Um there was some talk uh in prior months about uh layoffs being on the table. Uh has will these daily fines bring us closer to possible layoffs?

Um so every year all school districts in California have different deadlines and requirements they have to meet regarding preliminary layoff notices and then actual layoff notices. We follow those deadlines every year. It's a very challenging thing. Nobody wants to go through this because we've been really trying to live within our means and make changes to the way we operate and we have made a lot of progress in how we've stabilized. We're committed to being transparent and to letting people know when we have news to share about that. Okay. Thank you everyone. Thank you all.