Teacher Strike: New Haven Unified plans to calculate students' final grades, not teachers

UNION CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- Joe Ku'e Angeles, president of the New Haven Teachers Association, made it clear on Monday that the strike won't stop until teachers get what they want.

"We said when we started this, we knew that it was not an easy path," Ku'e Angeles said. "But, we knew we had to stay in solidarity."

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The union is calling for a 6 percent raise, 3 percent each year. The number is down from the 10 percent they initially asked for.

"NHTA has moved a lot, but they started way high," John Mattos, spokesperson for the New Haven School District, said.

In a surprise move Monday, the district offered to go back to the table. Talks weren't scheduled to continue until Tuesday.

RELATED: New Haven teachers strike continues despite State Superintendent's visit

"When there's talk we're always hopeful," Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association, said. "But you know from what I've been hearing about how the superintendent has been behaving, and the games the district has been playing, it's really kind of sad."

It seems like no one expected the strike to last this long. Monday was day 10. The strike has become the longest in California this school year.

"It's really a troubling time at the moment," Matthew Lam, a senior at James Logan High School, said. "We're really trying to figure out exactly what the plan is."

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Lam should have taken his finals on Monday. He's scheduled to have his last day of school on Wednesday. In case he and his classmates never return to school, the district plans to calculate grades using three different data points.

"We're going to look at the current grade sitting in the student information system right now, we're going to look at the fourth quarter deficiency grades, and we're going to look at their third quarter grades," Mattos said.

The highest of the three numbers will be used as the grade for second semester.