Battle lines drawn in Oakland teachers strike

OAKLAND — As the Oakland teachers strike bled into a second week Monday, the two sides have clearly drawn their lines in the sand.

District officials want to focus on pay and economic issues while the teachers want the negotiations to include social issues generally outside of traditional contract talks.

Union leaders issued an early morning statement declaring “the strike by educators is and has been about more than a livable wage…the ability of  educators to use their professional judgement to advocate for the needs of students also is subject to bargaining.”   

Included in the teachers proposals are community schools where state grant money is tied to a process called “shared decision-making.” 

Meanwhile, the school district issued a statement focusing entirely on economic issues,

“We’ve put all our money on the table to take care of our teachers and there is not much room to do anything else,” the late Sunday night release stated. “We continue to focus on finding common ground with OEA to get this deal done.”

The district outlined its four negotiating points:

• A retroactive 10% raise and a $5,000 one-time bonus that puts money in the pockets of all OEA members this year. 

• Provides a minimum salary increase compared to their current salary of at least 13% and as much as 22% for every classroom teacher beginning next year.

• Removes “frozen zones” in the existing salary schedule, which currently mean teachers can go up to 8 years without a raise. This problem has existed for decades, and we have now proposed a solution to fix it.

• Shortens the time our teachers take to move to the top of the pay scale from 32 years to 20 years.

More than 3,000 teachers and other workers in the Oakland Unified School District went on strike last Thursday, claiming the district failed to bargain in good faith on a new contract that asks for more resources for students and higher pay for employees.

The district’s 80 schools remain open for the roughly 34,000 students, and office staff were tapped to “educate and supervise” the students, 

The district is the second-largest school district in the Bay Area, where rents and housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland is more than $2,500 and the average cost for a house is more than $900,000.

“I grew up in Oakland. I went to school in Oakland, I graduated from Skyline High and I’m back to teaching at Skyline High. I’ve seen firsthand the turnover rates among teachers,” said Chris Huerta, a striking teacher at a rally outside Oakland City Hall.

“Teachers keep leaving as well, and it’s like it has a lot to do with pay, but also a lot to do with resources for students,” he added.

District Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell said the breakdown in negotiations comes from the union expecting the district to solve societal issues that should be addressed by everyone in the community.

“OEA’s vision of the common good is about us, the district, attempting to singularly solve complex societal realities, such as homelessness, that go far beyond the scope of what public schools can and should do alone,” she said.

The district said in a statement schools will be open “but it will not be a typical school day.”