At 2:24 a.m. Monday morning, the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California reached a tentative agreement with the Oakland Education Association, putting a lid on the weeks-long strike that left most of its 34,000 students out of school and parents scrambling to find child care.
The strike, which began May 4, sought pay increases and increased focus on homelessness, environmental issues and much-needed upgrades to school facilities. The district’s 80 schools have been open since then offering meals and child supervision, but nearly 1,200 students opted to show up, CBS News reports.
On Friday, Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell asked the union to put an end to the strikes over fears that high school students’ graduation would be affected.
“There are just nine school days left in the school year and our first graduation ceremony for Oakland High School is scheduled to happen on May 22,” she said in a recorded statement to the community. “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.”
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Saturday evening, the union announced it had reached an agreement with the district on four “common good” topics, which include “Black Thriving Community Schools,” its “Community Schools Grant,” “Housing and Transportations” and “School Closures.”
The union, however, called upon the district to produce an “accurate document that reflects the agreement that we reached with the district” by 11 p.m. Sunday, or else the strike would continue. Now that an attentive agreement has been made, the union said that students will return to class on Tuesday, just six days before the district’s first graduation ceremony.
“Our collective power forced OUSD to commit to living wages for educators, more resources in our schools, enforceable working conditions and common good issues for our students and their families,” the union said in a Facebook post.
The 2.5-year agreement calls for a 15.5% salary increase for most teachers with an even larger bump for those at the bottom of the pay scale. It also includes retroactive pay and stipends for bilingual educators.
The OEA strike comes off the heels of the three-day strike in the Los Angeles Unified School District in March, which kept more than 400,000 students out of school as district workers fought for substantial wage increases.
Oakland teachers are awaiting votes from its full membership before agreements are ratified.
