San Francisco Teachers' Union Reaches Tentative Contract With School District
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— San Francisco Unified School District announced a major breakthrough in contract negotiations on Tuesday when they said they and the teachers' union reached a tentative contract agreement.
The agreement offers a 12-percent across the board raise over three years and would be retroactive as teachers have been working without a contract since June.
Teachers, paraprofessionals and other educators represented by United Educators of San Francisco fall under the agreement. Union President Dennis Kelly said while it's a good raise –it puts things in perspective.
"In the two previous contracts we had given up work time. We had taken furlough days. We had cut back bonuses; we had cut back all kinds of things. This was the time to come back from that," Kelly said.
With San Francisco's tech-boom economy firing on all cylinders there are other concerns.
"It's a double-edged sword," said schools Superintendent Richard Carranza. "Because as the city recovers financially, it creates pressure on our employees in terms of the cost of living, and where they can live with [raising] rents and housing."
Negotiations had been underway since February.