While Oakland teachers enter their 7th day of a strike, teachers in another East Bay school district could join the picket lines. 

Teachers in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District voted to authorize a strike as contract negotiations are entering their final stage. 

Dozens of teachers in the district didn’t head directly to their classrooms Friday morning. 

Instead, they went to the picket lines hoping to send a message to the school district to give them the deal they’re looking for. 

“We’ve just been going to the table all year and not getting any movement and we are frustrated.  We don’t want to go on strike but we are going through the process of getting there,” said teacher Kristin Pelham. 

The teachers started voting on Monday and wrapped up Friday night. 

The 98-percent vote will give their union the power to eventually call a strike if they don’t reach a deal in the near future. 

The district says so far, the two sides are friendly — there’s no bad blood — but it hopes the teachers understand that the San Ramon School District, like the teachers, also have money issues. 

“We are the fourth lowest funded district in the state of California and a lot of people don’t know that, but we have a great relationship with our teachers, but we have our challenges,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich. “The teachers want a pay raise but they also want smaller class sizes and more school nurses… things they say that will help not just them, but more importantly the students.”

Both sides are hoping to avoid a strike, but the teachers say if there’s no deal in place, they could be out of the classrooms and on the picket lines as early as April.

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