Choice Questions and Answers

How has the teachers union, focused on the issue of the teacher housing in the past?

"It hasn't been a big issue up until, I would say, the last 15-20 years, when gaps in pay and benefits began affecting retaining teachers. We have a lot of teachers who come here, teach here, love it here, meet someone, marry and go 'I cant stay here'. Now, that being said, the archdiocese has done nothing to address it, and the Union hasn't done anything to address it because we are just physically incapable of [for example] building an apartment." 

A lot of teachers, have to find housing over an hour away, if not two hours away, and thenthey have to commute to school every day. Does this happen at Serra? 
Is it common? 

"We lost a Spanish teacher last year because she commuted from like, Milpitas, and so that was a difficult thing. [...] There was a guy, English teacher, and student activities director a few years ago, got married while he was at Serra, great teacher, real popular, and had to move off to Oakley [...]  We have lost people. 
It is an issue. We see it." 

Do you think the high cost and complexity of developing affordable housing in the Bay Area is the main reason teacher housing is unaffordable, or are there other major factors?

"Sure. It's the high rents, I get it. It is an issue.. 
But it's also an issue that my pay is far low. People would look at what I make and for what I do and laugh. Like, my God, like you do what? [...] yes, there is a lack of affordable housing, but it's especially apparent that teachers are underpaid. " 

"I'll also say that the archdiocese San Francisco's the largest real estate holder in the Bay Area, and there are empty convents and rectories up and down the peninsula in the San Francisco. 
They rent them out to other schools, other agencies, other businesses, to fill their own coffers, not to pay teachers, not to build housing, not to do anything. So it's not the union's fault. It's a lack of leadership, vision, accountability, on the entire of the archdiocese."  

Thats an interesting point because UCLA CityLab found that public school districts own tens of thousands of acres of unused land, and some have started building teacher housing complexes on it. Do you think developing housing on district-owned land, or in this case archdiocese owned land, is a good way to address the issue?

"I think so, but then I also worry about the entrapment, like, okay, I'm in an affordable housing unit that's provided to me by the school. 
I'm somewhat trapped there, right? So it's not like I can, if I start making more money as I get older, I'm going to term out of that, and I still might not be able to afford it."

"So there's that issue, but also it's kind of insulting as a teacher to say, we're going to give you housing because it's you're poor. It's like, really? 
You know? When you're parking next to kids that drive Rivians and Teslas, there's an issue of equity for what I'm being paid. And so it's a little frustrating that the largest property holder in the Bay Area threatens war on the Union every three years."

"So, I mean, between here, I've counted once. There's on the way up El Camino, you hit St. 
Tim's. There's an empty convent at St. Timothy's. 
There's an empty convent at St. Dunstan. There's an empty convent at St. 
Robert's. There's an empty convent at St. Veronica's. 
There's an empty convent at Moder del la Rosa, also rents their school. out somewhere else. I haven't hit San Francisco yet. That's six buildings that are sitting there empty that could be used for any kind of housing, or they could rent them out to any other entity, and take that money and they then fund a project. 
And that takes, like I said, vision leadership, accountability, which is sorely lacking."

Instead of renting, do you think a model where teachers would actually own the home with an agreement to sell it back if they leave would be a better long-term solution?

"I do. I know Stanford has a policy where they help you buy the house and then when you sell, they get either portion of the proceeds or they have the option to buy it from you to reuse it [...]  I also think, maybe offering tuition remission, saying, the Hollisters have an ADU on their property. It's fully private. Yeah. 
Let Serra use it for one of their teachers and then Justin's tuition will be five grand less. I
like that kind of idea. I think those kind of solutions are better than us looking for plots to partner with a nonprofit to build" 

One idea we heard was having an alumni donor help fund  a teacher housingproject —maybe even naming the complex after them—alongside the archdiocese. Do you think that’s a realistic or effective approach?

" The archdiocese would say no. They would say no, yeah. It's the most archaic corporate structure in the history of mankind [...]  For serra High School to get a loan right now [...] they would have to raise 50% of the money before they even did anything. 
They could not go to an outside vendor for the loan. They have to go to the Arch Diocese. If the archdiocese does not have the capital, if they don't have the liquidity to loan it to them, it's no, you have to wait or you have to raise it 100% yourself. 
If they do get a loan, it's called a bridge loan, it's typically an interest rate that's triple what would be going at any other bank. So it actually punishes the school for having the loan and the arch makes money off their own endeavors. It'd be like me. 
You want to take this test, Kanzaki? You got to buy this pencil from me. You got to pay $1,000, and if you don't, you know, it's punitive, it's horrible." 

"We had several two Serra presidents come in and say, I could have this project financed with 0% and guarantee the money. We could start building now, and I can pay it back over 20 years as long as I put that company's name all over the stadium." And the archdiose said no? "Said no. So we could have a new roof, we could have that bridge they talk about between the two buildings, we could have all the new windows, AC in all the hot classrooms that don't have it yet, [...] but the archdiocese says no." 

I’ve seen you and others wearing pins like 'United for a Fair Wage'—do teachers at other schools wear them too, and how effective do you think they are in pushing for better pay?

"Yeah, so it was a campaign. We came up with our contract, their future, and we had flyers that were distributed at other campuses at drop-off and pick-up for parents. It was effective. Every school was wearing the buttons. We actually got a finger waving at a recent meeting with the archdiocese because we had a big teacher meeting on a Friday and we were all wearing red. It's all solidarity."

"Last contract, we had to rally in front of the Chancery office in San Francisco, and we were on Channel 2 News, waving signs with our bullhorn, screaming with our picket signs outside, 'We want a fair rate.' People were honking their horns, and it hit the news, and next thing, they came back and said, 'Okay, we'll deal with you.' So we have to rattle their cage in order for it to happen."

"And yeah, it's very effective. I had to talk teachers off—they wanted to protest outside the Fund a Dream. They raised a million dollars that night in cash—no problem, 'Here you go'—and we weren't even getting a 1% raise. We had to fight for that, and they were jacking up Kaiser rates 13%. And my retirement is beer money—not even good beer. Bad beer." Budweiser?" Yeah. No, that's good beer compared to it—it's terrible. We were fighting for these basic things when they raised all this cash. I told Mr. Fadelli that they wanted to protest outside Fund a Dream, and that would have been bad for the school. But that's the power—that kind of stuff does happen. So it was a very good campaign."

Is there anything parents and students and just people around Serra should know? Is there any way they can help? Is there anything else you want to talk about?

"I would say that we do so much to fund a dream for a student to attend Serra. We do too much for athletes. We do too much for football. It's an absolute animal. We do anything we can to ensure those programs, but we don't with teachers. If every school had a Fund a Dream for a teacher—because so many teachers now [...] I'm kind of stuck here now because I've been here 20 years. They're not hiring white male history teachers right now in the Bay, but I'm pretty much stuck. But I've had teachers who come here and say, 'I'd love to stay here. It's my dream, but I can't afford it. There's no retirement. The benefits are terrible.' And I'd love to Fund a Dream for teachers. That's what I would love to see. And that doesn't have to be a Serra endeavor. That would be a great archdiocesan [initiative]. " 

What We Learned

Works Cited

"408305373.png." HSE University, 2025, https://gsb.hse.ru/pubs/share/direct/408305373.png.

Kanzaki,Adam. Google maps screenshot.2025

Kanzaki, Adam. United For a Common Wage Pin. 2025.

Kevin Carey. Personal Interview. May 9, 2025.