The Facts

United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) members voted in favor of holding a strike vote after nearly nine months of contract talks with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), according to Mission Local. That vote happened among a subset of UESF members who attended a meeting at Balboa High School on Dec. 3, not UESF’s roughly 6,500 members; the union has not released turnout numbers.

This vote does not call a strike. It is the first of two required approvals before one may happen. The union is seeking dependent health coverage, raises of 14% for classified staff and 9% for certificated staff over two years, a new special‑education workload model, among other demands. SFUSD’s September “packaged proposal” offered a 2% raise over two years while cutting some benefits, though most of the cuts came from reducing administrative overhead, closing open but unfilled positions, and natural attrition from retirements.

The Context

After years of mounting deficits, the Board adopted a 2025–26 budget with at least $113.8 million in cuts and plans further reductions to close a projected $103 million gap in 2026–27, per the district’s budget overview.

This year, as part of the cuts, SFUSD was able to avoid laying off 151 teachers.

SFUSD is still subject to fiscal oversight by the California Department of Education, and is subject to state intervention until the state deems it financially fit. Until then, even if the district agrees to UESF’s demands, state regulators may determine the new expenses are unsustainable and reject the union's contract.

The GrowSF Take

Students should not pay the price for adults' failures. This is a dangerous gamble for UESF to make, risking a strike that would disrupt learning for over 50,000 students in a district already struggling to meet their needs, and their demands are likely to be rejected by state regulators anyway.