On Feb. 10, 2026, San Francisco public school teachers began voting on a tentative contract agreement that includes fully funded family health care but does not meet all salary demands for classroom teachers and other credentialed staff.
The contract, reached after a week-long strike that shut down city schools, is being described by the United Educators of San Francisco as a significant achievement, particularly in securing health care coverage for educators and their families. However, some union members have expressed reservations about the deal’s wage provisions.
Ryan Alias, a Balboa High School teacher who was part of the bargaining team, said, “I broke down. A good friend of mine who’s a teacher who’s also on the bargaining team, we just kind of held each other, hugged each other and realized that there’s stability for our families.” Alias explained that about 15% of his annual pay previously went toward health care coverage. “That money represented an inability to save for retirement, an inability to put much away for college for my kids,” he told KQED.
Union President Cassondra Curiel said, “What we were able to achieve in this bargain with this contract is truly the ability for us to stabilize our school staffing and for our members to be able to improve our ability to afford living and working in San Francisco.” The agreement will save some educators with families up to $1,500 per month in health care costs.
For paraeducators—among the lowest-paid district employees—the contract includes a 9% raise over two years and an additional 5% wage increase for those working in special education. Teanna Tillery, a paraeducator in SFUSD’s central office, said many paras pay nearly 40% of their take-home pay toward premiums. “Being able to recoup that money is going to change their lives… Some paraeducators are talking about possibly going on vacation for the first time,” Tillery said.
However, classroom teachers like Todd Albert at Buena Vista Horace Mann Middle School noted that while classified staff received significant raises and improved benefits, credentialed staff will receive only a 5% raise over two years—less than their initial request. “We are not keeping up with the cost of living, and I think ‘raise’ is a misleading term,” Albert said. He added: “At the end of the day, you can’t make everybody happy. This time, I think we really focused on health care. When the [next] contract is due in two years, I really hope that they focus on a raise.”
Following announcement of the tentative agreement, SFUSD revealed plans to issue more than 40 preliminary layoff notices—a lower number than previous years but still reflecting ongoing budget challenges. Superintendent Maria Su said: “We stretched our resources to the limit to get this agreement done. We still have a long way ahead of us where difficult choices remain. So while we have a deal today, we still need more support in the future.” The tentative contract awaits ratification by union members before moving forward for school board approval.
