Impact Our District: Teacher Contract
OUSD, OEA approaching year anniversary of first multi-year contract in close to a decade
What happens when the Oakland Unified School District and the Oakland Education Association work together?
OUSD educators receive significant raises and Oakland’s first multi-year agreement in nearly a decade. OUSD and OEA worked together for 18 months to agree on the contract.
Among other things, the contract gives teacher their largest raise in over a decade, reduces class-size (in advance of a state mandate), increases teacher and parent voice in hiring, and addresses established “soft caps” for special education.
The agreement was praised by both parties with OEA saying, “This agreement is game changing in how we provide for salary increases. We have ensured that any increase in revenue experienced by the district automatically results in a salary increase for our members.”
And the District’s Superintendent Antwan Wilson said, “This progress is tremendously encouraging, but it’s not the end, it’s the beginning of a process that will transform Oakland’s school district into the Bay Area’s premier education employer.”
Throughout the process Oakland came together to make sure its educators were at the top of the contract discussions. GO’s policy team helped inform the Oakland community with salary and benefit comparisons from surrounding districts, and provided thoughtful analysis on the benefits of a new contract.
With more than half of the union’s 2,400 members voting, educators passed the three-year contract with nearly 70 percent approval. The agreement included:
- Improved compensation to help stem the unhealthy teacher turnover that impacts students
- Created Personnel Committees to empower teachers and school communities to make critical decisions for their schools and shift decision making to the individuals who work closest to students
- Increased counseling services to help keep students on track through early intervention
- Recognized that school communities have unique staffing needs and helped them work towards a common vision of education and excellence
- Created a three-year contract waiver process that allows school staff to innovate on behalf of students, and to work with certainty and stability
- Developed a system to address special education class sizes to help one of our most vulnerable populations and laid the groundwork for even stronger solutions in the future
To view the full contract agreement, please click here.