At SFUSD’s First Day of School After Strike, Families Are Happy Teachers Got a Deal

Despite gray skies and heavy showers, San Francisco families were all smiles as they headed to school for the first time in more than a week on Wednesday morning, following the public school district’s teachers strike.

At Jean Parker Elementary School in Chinatown, crossing guards waved at parents rushing their students through the front gates, and teachers and students enthusiastically greeted each other as they gathered in the courtyard for a morning assembly.

Nital Timbadia said her daughter, who’s in first grade, was excited to be back.

“She wanted to be with her friends, with her teachers. She loves her school,” Timbadia said.

Her daughter told KQED she was sad to stay home last week while schools were closed and couldn’t wait to return to her classroom. She said she’s most looking forward to “doing new things and learning new things.”

She is among nearly 50,000 San Francisco Unified School District students who will be back to just that this week after the city’s first school strike in nearly 50 years.

The walkout shuttered 111 campuses and lasted four days before coming to an end early Friday morning ahead of a long holiday weekend, after the district and United Educators of San Francisco signed a tentative agreement on a new two-year contract.

The deal will fully fund health care coverage for educators with dependents and significantly raise wages for paraeducators.

It was reached after nearly a year of negotiations and a week of major disruptions to the city’s school system.

“I’m glad they gave the teachers what they deserve,” said Timbadia, who said she and her daughter walked Jean Parker’s picket lines each morning of the strike. “I wish it was resolved earlier, because teachers and students, they all suffer. Parents suffer.

“I’m glad it got resolved as fast as it could, but I wish they could have been in school and [teachers] didn’t have to fight.”

At both Jean Parker and nearby Yick Wo Alternative Elementary in North Beach, parents’ support for teachers was strong — as it was during the strike, when thousands joined picket lines and rallies across the city.

Jean Parker parent Alejandro, who declined to give his last name, said he was happy that the union had gotten a deal, but he was left with “more questions than answers with the school district.”

“I think the biggest concern I have is that the budgeting from the district still is quite opaque in my opinion,” he told KQED, adding that he felt that annual cuts in SFUSD “aren’t really occurring where they should.”

Alejandro pointed to Superintendent Maria Su’s salary, which is $385,000 a year, and drew criticism from some during the teachers’ contract negotiations. “That’s five credentialed classroom teachers,” he said. “I would rather have five credentialed classroom teachers than have her keep her job.”

Yick Wo parent Juliana Egley said she was feeling more trusting of the district than she was a little over a year ago, when Su was appointed in October 2024 after embattled Superintendent Matt Wayne resigned amid a botched plan to close some schools. Yick Wo was one of more than a dozen campuses that could have been affected by the closures and mergers.

Still, Egley said, “I do feel like the district was unreasonable in a few things where they were refusing to bend,” adding that she also brought her daughter to walk picket lines with teachers last week. “I just want the teachers and the educators and everybody to get paid more, to get paid what they’re worth, and to feel secure and safe both financially and physically, and emotionally.”

Throughout the week, her daughter had been able to attend all-day programming through the Salesian Boys and Girls Club, which runs Yick Wo’s after-school care program.

During the strike, the city and district worked with the Boys and Girls Club and other community organizations that run those programs to expand services for students who were already enrolled.

Egley said her daughter was happy to be back to regular school drop-off on Wednesday.

“She loves coming to Yick Wo,” Egley said. “She loves the school. She loves hanging out with her friends, and she loves learning. The district was great about putting out independent study things and we do have, like, the little workbooks, but she also just likes being in class.”

And it wasn’t just the students who were excited: “Thank God,” Donald Tucker said after dropping off his daughter at Yick Wo.

She’d also attended the all-day programming through the Boys and Girls Club — with the exception of her birthday, when Tucker said she had gotten to stay home.

Not all kids were so lucky. Lidia Rojas said that when her son was out of school last week, she brought him along to her classes at City College. “Sometimes he [came] with me and takes my classes, too,” she said.