SFUSD Recommends Extending School Year Five Days After Teachers Strike

Superintendent Maria Su notified SFUSD families Friday that the district's Academic Calendar Committee has recommended extending the 2025-26 school year by five days, moving the last day of instruction from June 3 to June 10, 2026. The proposal goes before the Board of Education at its March 24 meeting, and Su was direct in her message: no changes take effect until the board votes.

The extension follows February's educators' walkout, which the district's Academic Calendar Committee described as causing "5 missed instructional days due to the strike." Several news outlets characterized the labor action as a four-day walkout that closed campuses across San Francisco for a week. Either way, the calendar shortfall puts the district at risk of falling below California's state-mandated 180 instructional days, the compliance floor driving the push to add time before summer.

The Academic Calendar Committee, which includes representatives from multiple labor groups, met Feb. 27 to draft the recommendation. The February walkout was the first such educator action in San Francisco since 1979, according to Mission Local.

The extension carries stakes beyond the school calendar. According to the United Educators of San Francisco, the added days would help restore lost wages for "classified" employees, including paraeducators and technical staff, who are paid hourly and received nothing for the four days they walked off the job. Full-time certificated teachers, who are salaried, will be paid in full regardless. The union has been in ongoing talks with the district about the classified pay gap since the strike ended, and the calendar extension has emerged as one piece of that discussion.

Su's announcement included a direct assurance to seniors and their families: high school finals week and graduation plans for the Class of 2026 will remain unchanged. The district said it is still working with partners to assess the impact on other end-of-year activities and summer programming and will share details when available.

Not everyone is relieved. Meredith Dodson, executive director of the SF Parents Coalition and mother of two elementary school students, acknowledged the intent behind the move while flagging real-world friction. "It's great they're trying to prioritize those missed learning days for kids," she said, but pointed out that many families had already locked in summer plans or submitted vacation requests to employers months ago. "We'll see a mixed bag of how many families are sending kids to schools and how many teachers are able to show up," Dodson said.

The Board of Education's March 24 vote will determine whether the revised calendar becomes official. If approved, San Francisco public school students will spend their summer break starting June 11 instead of June 4.