SDUSD and teachers union reach tentative deal on three-year contract including 15% raises over two years

The San Diego Unified School District and its teachers union have reached a tentative three-year contract agreement that would give teachers raises of 15 percent over two years and boost schools’ nurse and counselor staffing, the union announced late May 26 after months of negotiations.

Teachers would get 10 percent raises retroactive to July 1, 2022, with the retroactive wages paid in a lump sum later this year. A 5 percent raise would follow next year, and the 2024-25 school year would bring a wage reopener when possible new raises would be bargained.

The proposed contract also would double paid maternity leave to six weeks, allow more teachers to be paid for their work with schools’ after-school activities and have a specialized team again perform private-school assessments for students with disabilities. Schools’ special-education teachers had been performing those assessments in recent years, said Kyle Weinberg, the union president.

“We were able to have a very ambitious platform and achieve almost everything in that platform,” Weinberg said.

The proposed contract requires ratification by union membership. Voting will begin Thursday, June 1.

A representative of the district did not respond to a request for comment.

The contract also would require full-time nurses in every high school and full-time counselors at every elementary school with more than 500 students enrolled.

Nurse and counselor staffing had been a key bargaining goal of the union. Weinberg called the boost important to address the impact of trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic and students’ growing mental health needs.

Currently, dozens of San Diego Unified schools are still making do with a counselor or nurse on campus a few days a week, according to a recent San Diego Union-Tribune analysis. ◆