SAN DIEGO (CNS) — The San Diego Unified School District announced Thursday that it will close schools on Feb. 26 to honor a strike by the San Diego Educator Association over pay and statewide special education staffing issues.
The one-day strike, scheduled for a Thursday, is the SDEA standing in solidarity with the California Teachers' Association as it seeks an increase in educator pay and benefits.
"We will honor the SDEA strike and close schools on February 26, 2026. Families should begin to find alternative arrangements for their children for that day," said SDUSD Superintendent Fabi Bagula. "Closing schools for one day will ensure that students are not placed in situations where adequate supervision, instructional continuity, and campus safety cannot be reliably maintained. I am deeply committed to protecting instructional time and will ensure that this learning is fully recovered."
The makeup date for classes is March 9.
Before winter break, SDEA members voted to go on a one-day strike, the district said. The union has filed claims against some of SDUSD's practices, and SDUSD has responded to those claims.
"At yesterday's marathon session, the district presented 22 proposals in total," a SDEA newsletter read on Dec. 18. "Almost none of them are acceptable. Most reflect priorities that are deeply out of touch with the realities that educators and students face every day. After months of waiting, what we received was not progress -- it was insulting. We know budgets are tight, but we also know that there are significant unallocated reserves."
SDEA is asking for a raise (the district has proposed no raise for the 2025-26 school year and a raise next year contingent on state and federal funding) and better pay and protections for special education teachers, among other issues.
"Basically, the district's counterproposal is to reject anything that might fill Special Education vacancies and keep exhausted and drowning Ed
Specialists from quitting mid-year," the union newsletter reads. Bagula said the district would continue to work in good faith with the union, but that compromise was being left on the table.
"Our educators are among the highest paid in the region, receive comprehensive benefits fully funded by the district, and work in classrooms with some of the lowest class size ratios in the region," she said. "We have put concrete solutions on the table that remain under consideration, and we remain committed to bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that keeps students at the center."
According to Bagula, SDUSD's salaries are 10% higher than the state average, and special education teacher caseloads are less than the state maximum.
SDUSD also says 90% of the District budget goes to salaries and benefits, and that 97% of full-time special education teacher positions are filled.
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