San Diego teachers plan first strike in 30 years

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San Diego teachers plan to strike for the first time in 30 years after a standoff with the school district over hiring and special education services.

More than 300 teachers demonstrated outside the San Diego Unified School Board meeting Tuesday in anticipation of a district-wide strike at 172 campuses scheduled for February 26. Teachers held signs reading “Respect our students, respect our contract” and marched through the boardroom at the start of the meeting.

Union leaders said it was the board’s last chance to meet the demands, which include more special education staff, better support for students and stipends for teachers.

The San Diego Unified School District sets a 20 student/teacher ratio for special education, below the state standard of 28 to one. Union officials said those ratios are a source of pride for teachers, but the district is not meeting its own standards, so many teachers have more special needs students than they can serve. This causes educational deficits for “the most vulnerable students with disabilities,” said Kyle Weinberg, president of the San Diego Education Association.

“Last school year, we ended with the majority of schools in the district having vacancies and an overflow of special education teachers,” Weinberg said. “And this school year, we’re seeing similar numbers grow and impact schools across the county.”

The San Diego Unified School District announced the closure of schools on the day of the strike and warned parents to find other alternatives for their children. District officials said 97 percent of special education positions are filled and that they are trying to reach an agreement with the union on other demands.

The San Diego Unified School District is the second largest school district in California, with approx 95,000 students second only to the Los Angeles Unified School District. The last teacher strike in San Diego was in 1996, when teachers walked out of class for a week to protest wages and school decision-making. The Faculty of San Francisco also voted on whether to authorize a strike for the first time in nearly half a century, in part because of concerns about special education.

“Our teachers are among the highest paid in the region, receive comprehensive benefits fully funded by the District, and work in classrooms with one of the lowest student-to-grade ratios in the region,” Superintendent Fabi Bagula said in a statement. “We have proposed specific solutions that remain under consideration, and we remain committed to negotiating in good faith and reaching an agreement that puts students first.”

According to the district, San Diego teachers earn an average of $104,898 with a median income of $20,620. That figure is higher than some neighboring districts and the state average salary of $100,245 and $16,919 in benefits, according to the district.

The union said that while compensation is part of their collective bargaining agreement, members voted to strike over grievances about special education staffing, not pay. Weinberg said San Diego teachers have been fighting for special education changes for seven years and have filed complaints against the district that have not been resolved.

The special education teachers who participated in the demonstration described working conditions that they say lead to teacher burnout and put instruction and even student safety at risk.

Kimberly Carpender, a special education teacher at Bell Middle School, said some of her students are not getting the academic support promised in their individualized education programs, the legally binding documents that detail the services students should receive. For example, she explained that students below grade level in reading can get support in that subject, but must do it on their own in history and science classes.

“They should be getting 16 hours of work a week and they’re only getting eight because there’s no staff to provide the other eight hours,” he said. “And it’s not just one kid. It’s several. And the result is that these kids are going home with bad grades because they’re not getting help.”

The San Diego Unified School District allows individual schools to determine how to schedule special education hours and encourages them to group students by grade level and need to maximize the amount of support they receive, said district spokesman James Canning.

Mike Hernandez, also a teacher at Bell, commented that his classes include students with very different cognitive abilities and some with aggressive behaviors. This makes it difficult to teach lessons that work for everyone, and it also forces you to divert your attention when a student misbehaves.

“I can be alone with him and get him out of the classroom when he explodes and knocks tables over, or I can support fourteen kids for 50 minutes teaching math,” Hernandez said. “No. I can’t do both.”

Weinberg said these challenges cause teachers to struggle to manage classes and students to fall behind in learning.

“These gaps are getting bigger and often become insurmountable,” he said.

The union is demanding that the district increase special education staffing, resolve existing complaints about overcrowding, schedule case management days that allow teachers to schedule and evaluate students, provide $4,000 stipends to special education teachers and cover the cost of special education certification for general education teachers. Canning said the county will not release its counterproposals.

The district will offer make-up classes on March 9 to make up for instructional time lost during the strike.