Oakland Teachers Strike Update February 26th, 2019
The Oakland Education Association posted a video of its press conference livestream held 14 hours ago and on the third working day of the Oakland Teachers Strike. The OEA wrote “On day three we were strong, joyful, loud and proud. We held our lines and showed our bargaining team support by marching to the state building and making some noise! Tomorrow — stronger picket lines, louder and bigger rallies. Let’s win this. #OUSDstrike”
Oakland Unified School District’s Proposal Summary
This is the summary of the OUSD Proposal that was presented on February 21st. OUSD claims its coming more in line with what OEA wants, but the Oakland Education Association has walked away from the negotiating table, as of Sunday. OUSD says “OUSD’s updated proposal either meets or exceeds the recommendations provided by the Fact-finding report. The District presented creative solutions to addressing all issues including compensation, class size, evaluations, caseloads, and hours of work.”
The summary:
– Compensation: The District has now offered a 8.5% raise (7% ongoing raise and 1.5% one-time bonus). This is a higher offer than the neutral Fact-finding report suggests.
– Class size reduction: The District’s proposal on class size includes a reduction of 1 student for all schools and 2 students in schools with a high concentration of our most vulnerable students.
– Evaluation: The District is proud of its homegrown evaluation rubric and teaching standards called The Oakland Effective Teaching Framework. We are proposing to incorporate this framework developed by Oakland teachers and principals in the new contract with OEA after an extensive pilot using the framework.
– Caseloads: Overall, the District is proposing to memorialize current legal or customary standards in our teaching contract. To go beyond these standard caseloads would be an unrealistic goal at this time, as certain positions like speech and language pathologist and school nurse are hard to fill statewide. There is a split decision in the Fact-finding report related to caseloads.
– Hours of work: We are proposing more flexibility in scheduling hours of work for teachers – which will be key in creating cost efficient transportation routes. We can potentially save up to $2.5 million annually and we are proposing to invest these savings in our teachers. The Fact-finding report agrees with the District’s proposal on this item.