FREMONT — Upset over benefits and large classroom sizes, the Fremont teachers’ union is threatening to go on strike if the school district does not meet its demands.
A strike could begin next week, when the Fremont Unified District Teachers Association and Fremont Unified School District officials will meet for a fact-finding session, in what the union is calling a final chance to avoid a walk out. The union said its members voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a possible strike, beginning on April 7.
Union leaders say the officials must reduce classroom sizes and provide healthcare contributions and better overall compensation to help retain educators in the district with over 30,000 students.
“When healthcare costs are just rising every year, it’s getting harder and harder to keep our teachers in Fremont,” union president Victoria Chon said in an interview. “They’re forced to leave because they can’t sustain being an employee here anymore.”
Since 1997, Fremont teachers have paid their own way for medical and dental expenses, according to the district. Currently, Fremont teachers can make a yearly salary of $83,000 to $144,000, based on experience, with the highest salary requiring 29 years of teaching, according to the district’s latest pay schedule.
The union’s three-year contract expired in June 2024, and they have been negotiating a new one for over a year. An impasse was declared in November 2024, and in February a fourth mediation attempt again was unsuccessful.
Fremont Unified Superintendent Zack Larsen said in a statement that the district “values our educators.”
“However, like most districts throughout the state, the financial realities we face present significant challenges,” Larsen wrote. “Factors such as uncertainty in state funding, declining enrollment, the expiration of one-time COVID relief funds, rising pension costs, and ambiguity in federal funding, limit our ability to sustainably fund the compensation increases being proposed.”
In December, the district offered the union a 5% salary increase, which included a one-time 3.5% bump. But Chon said the union is instead asking the district to contribute up to $1,000 annually to employees’ healthcare expenses, which the district has refused. FUSD, she said, currently has no limits on class sizes and has been unwilling to budge on establishing one. The union wants the district to cap elementary class sizes at 30 students, and middle and high school classes at between 29 and 40 pupils, she said.
Larsen added that the district has offered to cover dental insurance expenses in negotiations, but said “we are currently unable to extend coverage to both medical and dental given our financial situation.” He also acknowledged the district “makes every effort to maintain reasonable class sizes within our budgetary and staffing constraints. However, addressing this issue further would place significant strain on the district’s already limited financial resources.”
The district is still deciding how to address a more than $30 million projected budget deficit this year, with some layoffs affecting non-credentialed employees, such as secretaries, expected to happen this year. No teachers were laid off by the March 15 deadline, union leaders said.
Larsen is “hopeful” the two parties can find “a resolution that avoids any disruption, supports our educators, maintains fiscal responsibility, and keeps students at the center of our work.”
But that may not be good enough for union members.
Chon said teachers are leaving Fremont schools because while Fremont appears on paper to pay higher wages than districts in San Jose and Oakland, other districts have better benefits packages.
In Fremont, some teachers are having to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars out of pocket every month to cover themselves and their families, Chon said. In San Jose Unified schools, by comparison, educators have full medical coverage and pay much smaller contributions for their family members, offering a more attractive overall compensation package, Chon added.
“We want to get a deal done. We are considerate of everything that is going on and the impact that we’ll have here,” Chon said. “It comes down to looking at what’s important, and that’s our students. We want to make sure that we’re spending today’s dollars on today’s kids and making sure that they are successful.”
Cara Coleman, a Fremont third grade teacher, said in an interview that overcrowded classrooms have forced teachers to make less-than-ideal adjustments to accommodate students during the day. During her 21 years teaching in Fremont, she has had anywhere between 21 and 28 students in a class.
“I know quite a few teachers that are kind of forced to clear their back tables for their students,” said Coleman, who grew up attending schools in the district. “These kids are sitting at tables and not desks, which is kind of a problem because they don’t have their own space. They’re just like little sardines in there.”