Striking Oakland teachers, district reach agreement on four common good issues

OAKLAND -- With the clock ticking down toward the end of the school year, striking Oakland teachers announced they have reached agreement with the district on four common good issues including housing for homeless students and school closures.

During the ongoing contract talks and eight-day strike, both sides have been at loggerheads over whether common goods issues should be included in the deal points of a new work agreement.

Teacher union officials were quick to point out in a Saturday night news release that the common good agreements --  reparations for Black students, resources for unhoused students, school closures and shared governance -- were reached away from the bargaining table.

With just nine days left in the school year, pressure is mounting on both sides to reach an agreement and return students to the classroom. The first high school graduation is tentatively scheduled for May 22, a week from Monday.

"We are still on strike, but momentum is on our side," the teachers tweeted Saturday night.

On Friday,  Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell urged both sides to hammer out a tentative deal so students could finish out the academic year.

"Without final grades, seniors may not be able to fully demonstrate that they qualify for admission, and, in some cases, their college admissions and financial aid could be at risk," she said.

The Oakland Education Association, representing about 3,000 teachers and other employees, has accused the district of 35,000 students of failing to bargain for seven months. 

"The bottom line is our students need to be back in school," Johnson-Trammell said.

KPIX talked to Franklin Elementary teacher/librarian Samia Khattab, who is on the bargaining team. She said there has been progress and was cautiously optimistic about reaching a deal.

"We are doing it every single day with our students at the forefront of our minds. And so as we are starting to get closer to reaching an agreement, there is nothing that we want more than to be back in our classrooms with our students," said Khattab.

Tensions were on the rise last week as the strike continued. Early Thursday morning, a contractor was confronted by a line of picketing Oakland teachers at a site where an OUSD administrative building is under construction.

The incident happened early during the sixth day of the ongoing Oakland teachers strike. Teachers were picketing outside the district's new $57 million administrative center being built at the Cole campus on Union Street. 

The district's 80 schools have remained open with meals being offered and office staff educating and supervising. Only about 1,200 students have shown up to school since the strike started May 4