Sacramento parent asks ‘what about the kids’ as school strike disrupts classes after COVID

Shavaun Diallo stayed home with her kids on Wednesday, trying to make sure they did the homework their teachers assigned to them before going on strike.

She, like many parents in the Sacramento City Unified School District, sympathizes with the teachers who want better working conditions and wage increases to catch up with the swiftly rising cost of living.

But Diallo is worried about her children, who attend Albert Einstein Middle School and James Marshall Elementary School. They navigated months of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and now have to manage another disruption to their learning routines.

“Is it a one day strike? Is it until negotiations are reached? Are they sending (homework) home for the kids to do? We have no information,” said Diallo. “I understand (the strike) but what are we supposed to do, as far as educating, what do they expect parents to do?” said Diallo.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021 are striking over an impasse in bargaining over the district’s plans for COVID-19 spending and health protocol. School district employees are especially frustrated by a substitute shortage that led to overworked staff and difficult working conditions.

The teachers union also is in negotiations for a full new contract. Educators have been working under and expired contract since July 1, 2019.

The district has offered a number of one-time pay bonuses and a 2% wage increase. The unions have not accepted the offers.

Sacramento parents on their own in strike

Schools closed because the district did not have sufficient staff to keep them open, leaving families on their own to make other arrangements.

Many families showed support for the teachers. Some parents joined teachers on picket lines, and many honked or waved at demonstrations around the city.

Sacramento mother Christina Thompson visited teachers at Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary School in Oak Park, where her two children attend school. She asked the teachers how her son can log in to do school work online. She was supportive of the cause.

“Teachers never get paid enough,” said Thompson, a state worker.

Her boyfriend took the day off work so he could watch the kids, but the couple is not sure what they will do if the strike drags on.

“I don’t have someone to watch them indefinitely,” she said.

Diallo said when her eighth grader came home from school Tuesday, he was told they wouldn’t be at school on Wednesday and they weren’t sure when they would return. She said her son, who just received his progress reports, is worried about his final grades.

Diallo respects the teachers’ right to strike, but she said it was “selfish” to plan the protest during the middle of the week, toward the end of school.

“It’s like these kids have been through so much over the last two years, with COVID and distance learning, and now you’re back in school and we have the strike,” said Diallo. “I just feel like it’s not being handled fairly or properly when it comes to the kids.”

Some families looks for new schools

Another Sacramento City Unified parent, Chi Chi Anyanwu, was unable to take off work but said she stood with the teachers. She felt a lack of accountability in the district that hurt students, parents and teachers alike..

“In my opinion, I believe Sacramento City Unified School District should honor and save its teachers by giving them oxygen, first,” said Anyanwu. “You cannot save the children until you save the teachers. You cannot foster a sense of trust and leadership unless you have teachers who feel safe and well-taken care of.

Anyanwu said she has many friends that are teachers and parents in city schools are feeling abandoned by the district. Some are considering moving their kids to other school districts, she said.

Her daughter, a high school sophomore, told her her teacher plans to find a new job, too.

“Coming off of one and a half school years of distance learning, watching teachers scramble to create a sense of normalcy for our children’s mental and emotional well-being while putting themselves last, then watching the district mistreat these same teachers is cause for concern and provides clarity to why so many students, teachers, and principals, are leaving SCUSD,” said Anyanwu.

Rayvn McCullough said child, a sophomore at C.K. McClatchy High School, is having a mental health day to deal with the effects of the teachers strike.

McCullough said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ that the school district and teachers union have not yet reached an agreement.

“Their inability to work toward a compromise while having the expectation of our students compromising on school sites, when they face disagreements or are threatened with suspension, is illuminating,” said McCullough. “The School district and SCTA are supposed to be the model of dealing with conflicts for our students and yet they are engaging in a mudslinging campaign, their actions are abhorrent.”

She works remotely and does not have to accommodate her schedule for the strike, but she knows parents had to adjust their plans. She empathizes with them, and has been offering to help.

This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 10:31 AM.