The Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) voting on the recent tentative agreement between BFT and Berkeley Unified School District closed on Friday, Mar. 6, 2026. 84 percent of members voted to approve the agreement, well surpassing the 50 percent needed to officially ratify it. This agreement was reached late in the evening on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. during a fact-finding meeting between the district and BFT. BUSD teachers have been working on an expired contract since June 30, 2025. This agreement comes after nearly eight months of negotiations.
Key points of this agreement include a six percent raise staggered between the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, an increase of health benefit coverage to 70 percent starting in January 2027, which will increase to 80 percent in January 2028, as well as adding consideration of the physical space of a classroom while making class sizes at the high school level.
Teacher Auer, a social studies teacher at Berkeley High School, talked about the significant impact that these salary increases will have on themself and other teachers. They talked about how the salary growth, on top of healthcare, will increase the amount of money teachers take home. “Those things really matter when it comes to my colleagues who shared stories about how they can’t pay for car services and repairs. So they’re weighing, ‘Do I spend my disposable income on this car repair, or do I not eat for the rest of the month?’” Auer said, “So my feeling about it is that, California as a state, does invest a lot in their education, but they could clearly do more (to) ease this problem of negotiating with our district about these funds.”
Justin Valencia, a history teacher at BHS, shared his thoughts about the increases in health benefits. “We’re going from a deal where previously about 56 percent of our health care was covered via district, and that number has been going down and down over the years. Now it’s contract language where we can have a plan to get to 70 percent and 80 percent health care coverage,” Valencia said.
Berkeley teachers making a mid-range salary pay 12 to 31 percent of their yearly salary on health insurance, according to numbers pulled from the 2022-25 union contract and 2024 report card. These increases to healthcare coverage would greatly reduce these numbers. Valencia also spoke on how some teachers may feel like these increases aren’t enough in comparison to neighboring districts. “I totally understand why people might be unhappy, especially if you’re looking at SF, Contra Costa, and Oakland. That being said, I think it puts us in a good spot for future negotiations to get on a path to 100 percent,” Valencia said.
Benjamin Nathan, a math teacher at BHS, commented on the change in language about physical space being considered for class sizes. While feeling very neutral about other changes in the tentative agreement, Nathan felt that this new change in language was a substantial gain for both teachers and students.“I’ve had large classes in small rooms, and it is very unpleasant. I’ve had that all last year. My smallest class was 29 people in a room that could comfortably hold 24, and I had classes as large as 34 in that room,” Nathan said. According to Nathan, individual teachers have to have class sizes that average 31 students or less. This new language is added to the already existing criteria for deciding class sizes based on available supplies, department recommendations, and the number of students signed up for a class.
