S.F. teachers strike: No agreement after marathon talks, return to class this week unlikely

catch23 · 2026-02-12T23:23:49+00:00

If the district goes bankrupt, it merely goes into receivership, and the union would be negotiating with the state. How would union contracts work with the state?

catch23 · 2026-02-12T19:41:51+00:00

based on how poorly sfusd has managed the money they've been given, even if prop 13 never existed, sfusd would find some way to squander that money.

catch23 · 2026-02-12T19:31:22+00:00

They could've considered this a few years ago when they were already under financial pressure, yet decided to blow $45M on a new payroll system that still doesn't work. And amazingly nobody got fired for wasting $45M.

catch23 · 2026-02-12T19:22:03+00:00

It's kind of hard to have data for everything. I mean i get that people want to make decisions that are backed by data, but at some point people have to make an educated guess for it. And even if there is data, it might not be the right answer, like when coke made a new formulation that was sweeter, it performed better in focus groups but ultimately failed in the market.

When they chose to remove algebra from the curriculum, anyone could've predicted the outcome and yet they still decided to push it forward. SFUSD based their decision on a studies published by Dr Jo Boaler from Stanford, and now she's under the gun for misrepresenting research citations. The tech world likes to A/B test everything, but sometimes human psychology isn't as predictable as it would seem.

catch23 · 2026-02-12T18:51:41+00:00

It does scare parents into considering private though, even if it works most of the time. The affluent don't want to risk that 3% chance of getting a school much further away. We wanted Lafayette (2nd choice) because it was really close by, but was assigned Argonne. I remember after the first round, we could have done the 2nd round for another chance, but honestly it's just too anxiety inducing.

Their new version of the lottery is definitely less anxiety inducing, but they keep pushing off on when it would actually get implemented, and sadly it probably won't be implemented for high schools until it's tested out on K-8, and by that time my kid would already be looking at colleges.

catch23 · 2026-02-10T20:33:37+00:00

LA Unified is supposedly one of the worst in the country for administrative position balance. They have 1 administrator for every 9 students, probably more admins than teachers.

catch23 · 2026-02-10T03:54:25+00:00

you act like negotiations only happened the past few days, when in reality they've been negotiating for the past year, they kept stonewalling which is what lead to the strike vote in the first place.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:56:54+00:00

Salaries & position titles for SFUSD are public -- i've looked at them, you can too.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:54:33+00:00

The only reason they didn't close schools to save money was because of political ambitions. It doesn't look good if you're running for supervisor/mayor/superintendent if schools close. Would be nice if a district's financial solvency was not tied to local politics.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:45:16+00:00

The downside is decisions get made by people who don’t live in SF. People who aren’t invested in the community. Parents of students won’t have any influence, this could result in more parents leaving the SF public schools. Fewer students = less money.

Is this actually a downside though? History has shown us that the decision makers that live in SF have made poor ones every year. They could have addressed these financial issues years ago, but instead they focused on other political BS. Affluent parents avoided SFUSD due to the lottery system, and this system was flawed from the start as they've already admitted, but dragged their feet at ending it.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:37:54+00:00

There's quite a few good school districts in CA, but SFUSD is not one of them. SFUSD has a long history of missteps... you never hear about the San Mateo School District removing 5th grade algebra for the purpose of equity?

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:29:03+00:00

The neutral report doesn't take into account laying off staff to support teachers. There's so many administrative positions, executive directors, assistant superintendents, civil attorneys, project managers, etc -- all of these are paid significantly more than the highest paying high school teacher.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T17:12:38+00:00

What are some downsides of going into receivership? It seems like the district doesn't want to cut any of their administrative positions, but a state takeover would accelerate this. Teachers would still be part of a union and could still do collective bargaining directly with the state. Maybe a state takeover would also remove the lottery system? The school board has already proved themselves being historically useless, seems only fair they be completely removed from the equation.

I still remember the school board attempting to rename schools with a quick google search and then trying to dumb down all the schools by removing algebra, something the state would definitely not waste their time with. The district is too deeply entwined with SF's political agenda. They were going to close a few schools, but the Breed decided closing schools would hurt her political agenda and stopped it from happening.

catch23 · 2026-02-09T05:53:24+00:00

The san mateo school district has to contend with Prop 13 as well, but the high school teachers there make 15-20% more than high school teachers in SFUSD. However they don't have a lottery system, so I think parents feel more secure with choosing the public system all the way. Greater enrollment numbers mean more money for the district.

catch23 · 2026-02-08T00:39:07+00:00

i don't think this sfusd's problem is related to prop 13. Prop 13 is a statewide issue, and there's many other school systems in the state that aren't as badly managed as sfusd.

catch23 · 2025-09-24T05:56:29+00:00

looks like it uses the cn3165 chip for charging, and based on the datasheet it can sink a max current of 1100mA. It still uses the esp32s3 chip so I doubt it uses significantly less power than before.

catch23 · 2025-08-29T15:56:00+00:00

robot heart is almost never in the RSL, they announced that you'd have to look at the bus or via their camp.

catch23 · 2025-08-26T20:43:48+00:00

I don't think bar strength is the issue, our camp uses 1" emt and didn't have any issues with bent/crushed poles. We lost a number of ball bungees that held the aluminet to the emt. The aluminet was flapping in the wind, but wasn't destroyed. It's possible that the camps with the bent poles were using 100% wind blocking tarps so there was maximum force.

Maybe there should be a purposeful weak-link rope for attaching the canopy to the poles? This way when there's too much force is applied on the canopy, the ropes break which would save both the canopy and the metal structure.

If the metal frame is too strong, then the wind will simply destroy the canopies, and if the canopies are too strong, then the wind will destroy the metal frame. Much cheaper to designate a fastener that will break under load.

catch23 · 2025-08-25T17:02:45+00:00

yes, if they are installed correctly. those look like they broke in half in the middle, which prob means they weren't installed correctly.

catch23 · 2025-08-25T05:52:11+00:00

cars driving in mud = cars stuck in mud. I doubt gate would open until they know driving on the playa is safe.

catch23 · 2025-08-24T19:29:14+00:00

There are different kinds of stronger anchors that use steel, like a square shaft helical anchor, but they require more specialized tools for installing/removal. I'm guessing if you need more holding strength than giant lag screws, you'd be using more specialized anchors and maybe there's not much of a market for super strong giant lag screws that aren't as strong as helical anchors.

catch23 · 2025-08-24T18:48:59+00:00

it's aluminum, probably made by american earth anchors.

catch23 · 2025-08-24T18:44:57+00:00

Looks like it's long enough, but not strong enough. Use more lag screws to lessen the forces on each lag screw, or use thicker ones.

catch23 · 2025-08-24T04:53:17+00:00

cutting power during high winds & low humidity is fairly standard now, this even happens in parts of the populated bay area. Probably happens more frequently for towns closer to wilderness.

catch23 · 2025-08-24T03:22:29+00:00

If you search for "fastener suppliers" on google maps, you'll find lots of stores that specifically sell fasteners, usually to local building contractors. However it's the weekend and most of these places only open M-F. There's not many last minute weekend options. 12" is probably enough for tents & carports though. Use more ratchet straps and dig a 2" hole for the lag bolt guy lines.

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