SF teachers offered 12 percent raise

Educators in the San Francisco Unified School District are looking forward to a 12 percent raise in their salaries over the next three years following the announcement of a tentative contract agreement Tuesday.

The tentative contract agreement between the school district and the teachers union, United Educators of San Francisco, will allow teachers, paraprofessionals, and other educators represented by UESF, to receive the salary increase that will help them afford the sky-high cost of living in San Francisco.

The tentative agreement also provides paraprofessionals, who work directly with students with special needs, an additional 3 percent raise if they have worked at least eight years in the district, bringing their three-year salary increase to 15 percent.

Elementary teachers will receive an increase in preparation time that will allow for increased collaborate and development of personalized instruction for every student.

Preparation time for elementary school teachers within the workday will go from 60 minutes per week to 150 minutes per week, according to UESF communications director Matthew Hardy.

San Francisco Public Schools Superintendent Richard Carranza said the educators’ contract expired at the end of June and that educators have been working without a contract since then. The contract is retroactive to July 1, Carranza said.

Carranza said he is optimistic that the contract will be ratified by both union members and the Board of Education in the coming weeks. He said this agreement is a far cry from years past when the school district has instead had to cut budgets:

“We’re actually in a place where we can give raises.”

However, Carranza said the agreement is “a financial stretch for the school district given that state funding is still not even back to 2007 funding levels.”