would be the first time the Sacramento City Teachers Association has gone on strike since 2019, when the union went on strike for one day. SEIU Local 1021, which represents staff without teaching credentials, is striking alongside the teachers union for the first time in its history.

Union leaders announced the strike date at a rally Thursday afternoon, a week after the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021 announced that over 90% of their respective memberships voted to authorize a strike without an additional vote. District employees have been raising concerns around unsafe work conditions during COVID-19 and the ongoing staffing shortage.

SCTA president David Fisher called the strike “a last resort” for teachers, but said it was necessary.

"The crisis in Sacramento is a daily crisis for our students," Fisher told CapRadio before Thursday’s rally. "Imagine coming to school, day after day. And not only not having a teacher, but not even having a substitute teacher, and having to spend the day often corralled in the cafeteria with potentially dozens of other classes, or having to be shuffled around to a classroom that actually has a teacher.”

In response to last week’s vote to authorize the strike, district superintendent Jorge Aguilar said a strike would be “heartbreaking.”

“Taking away students’ access to learning time and the support services that our schools provide is inappropriate,” Aguilar said. “This is especially hurtful and harmful to our most vulnerable students who count on our schools as safe havens, and families who are unable to keep their children unsupervised at home.”

Substitute teachers in the district are represented by SCTA, meaning that the district cannot hire substitutes to fill in for teachers who are on strike. The district announced March 11 its decision not to lay off any teachers for the 2022-23 school year.

The district’s board held an emergency meeting and press conference on Thursday morning to address the potential of a strike.

Board President Christina Pritchett said that the district’s struggle to balance its budget has been ongoing and spanned many boards and superintendents.

“I want to emphasize our concern and compassion for the students in our district who lose valuable time in the classroom if a strike takes place,” Pritchett said. “Our families will suffer from uncertainty and lack of stability in the event that our schools are forced to close due to the strikes. The concern for our students is matched by concern for our teachers and our frontline staff who are caught in the middle of these situations.”

The announcement comes on the same day that a fact-finding committee released recommendations on how to move forward with the labor stalemate between the teachers’ union and the district. The district declared an impasse over the COVID-19 policy negotiations in December.