The Oakland Education Association (OEA) agreed to a tentative deal with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) on Friday, February 27. In this agreement, all salaries will be increased by 11%, and educators at the top step of the salary schedule (24+ years teaching, with an associate’s degree and 90 additional semester units) will get a salary raise of 13%.
Teachers in OUSD receive raises yearly, either because they have moved up on the salary schedule for teaching in the district longer or because they have gained more experience by taking more classes. A new contract is created to make sure the salary schedule adjusts for higher cost of living.
“One thing I’m always fighting for is information on where the salary schedule has moved over the years and how inflation has moved,” explained Oakland Tech teacher and site union representative Franco DeMarinis.
Other unions in the Bay Area have recently reached contract agreements with their districts, but similarly to Oakland, these processes are often challenging due to severe budget deficits and mismanaged budgets. Parallel situations across California allude to systemic issues including decreased enrollment and overspending. Some states, including Washington, Nevada, and Michigan, have taxes that are specifically for base funding on yearly enrollment, instead of students’ daily presence, and these states tend to spend more money on education.
OUSD has recently come out of state receivership, where financial decisions must be approved by a state official, and excess spending means the district may risk falling back into state receivership in the future. State receivership is challenging for districts because they have less control over budgeting, and often decisions don’t represent the best interest of schools. Despite this uncertainty, many teachers, including DeMarinis, are pleased with the progress that has been made in the recent contract, although they hope to see more changes in the future.
“I’d like to see classes up through 2nd grade, capped at 20 kids, and then every class has a full-time teacher and a full-time teacher’s assistant,” said DeMarinis, noting that class sizes for kindergarten and 1st grade have been reduced to 24 students.
The union has been advocating for reduced funding to the Central Administration, an increased focus on services and staff at school campuses, and less of a reliance on outsourced teachers that are often temporary and more expensive for the district.
“They’re making progress to have more of the district budget [be] student facing,” DeMarinis added.
Last year, a strike almost occurred, but a tentative deal was made between the union and the district shortly before. This year, the agreement was made at 3:00 a.m., after a bargaining meeting lasting the entire previous day.
The budget contract must be approved by the school board and Alameda County Superintendent before it goes into effect. The approved contract applies to salaries from July 1, 2025 until June 30, 2027. Increases will be added retroactively for the passed time period, and portions of the 11% salary increase will be applied yearly.