Why SFUSD has asked for a declaration of Impasse

ETA: Apparently the budget isn't bad enough that any administrators or central office folk need to be laid off.  Of the one hundred and twenty-three possible layoffs loudly announced back in March, only eight administrative staff members will receive a letter before May 15th.


Also?  Voting for layoffs on the Day of the Teacher?  Stay classy, SFUSD!  Regardless of timelines and judges finding against you, this is just ugly.

Teachers,

We here at the District office do not understand your continued intransigence over your contract.  Really, we're not asking for much: just nine annual furlough days, a few extra kids in each class, and some radical changes to special education.  Why all the complaining?

Besides, we've shown you the numbers!  We are looking toward huge shortfalls and the threat of state takeover!  This is scary, guys!

Okay, okay.  While it's true that classroom teachers and their students took the brunt of the cuts two years ago - the ones you negotiated with us fairly easily, and for which we intend never to thank you - that was two years ago.  And yes, we have in the past shown budget scenarios predicting doom and state takeover.  Indeed, it's true that we tend to do that every year, and yet the apocalypse never occurs.

But this year we're totally serious.  The red numbers are for real this time.  We called a 900 number psychic to be sure.

So anyway, that's why we want impasse and mediation.  Eight meetings is enough.  Your bargaining team is so irritating anyway, refusing to choose cuts for us and wanting all these different scenarios.  Besides, it ends up the court didn't agree that uncredentialed Zone teachers are more important than credentialed senior non-Zone teachers with the same training.  We're still mad at you about that.

Best,

Your employers

...Honestly, the latest letter from our Superintendent was pretty offensive.  I think it was aimed at low-information teachers - the nine furlough day possibility was obscured, some District proposals weren't mentioned at all, and there was a lot of reminding us how good we have it (did you know in other districts they have 30 kids in a class?  The existence of these districts means we should agree to SFUSD moving toward equally problematic class sizes, apparently).

It would help a lot to see what cuts at the District level are going to happen.  I want to know too how many furlough days upper management will take if teachers take nine (the right answer: way more than nine).  How about staff cuts: did any real layoff letters get sent to employees at 555 Franklin?  And if SFUSD wants me to lose another seven thousand dollars this coming year, I want to know what the District will do when (if) the budget is better in future years - and I want that written down and signed.