Several hundred students, teachers and other WCCUSD supporters voiced their strong opposition to budget cuts this week, staging a walkout from classes on Tuesday, marching to the district offices Wednesday morning and showing up en masse at Wednesday night’s school board meeting.
Their battle cries were packed with emotion and made crystal clear via shouts and signs: “Save our schools.” “Save our dreams.” “Invest in our future.”
Wednesday morning dozens of Kennedy High School students staged a walkout to “stand up for our educators,” marching from the Cutting Boulevard high school to the district’s main office on Bissell Avenue. Wednesday night’s school board meeting was packed with about 215 people, many of them making emotional pleas to the board.
The walkouts were not sanctioned by the district, which warned staff by email that while they respect students’ rights to express themselves, they urged them to stay on campus for safety reasons and would not accept their absence as an excused one, encouraging them to instead have conversations on campus.
At least 60 people — representing parents, teachers and students — had signed up to speak to the school board as of 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the mood was rambunctious, with chanting, cheering, sign making and even tambourines putting a musical punctuation on every speaker’s comments. Teamsters also were there in solidarity.
After 90 minutes of public testimony, the board imposed a one-minute speaking limit so the crowd responded with a “one more minute” chant.
Some signs named interim superintendent Kim Moses, who has been leading the district while it searches for a new superintendent and tries to balance its budget.
One sign read: “Listen to your students, not Moses,” another: “The budget’s math is not mathing. Show your work. Or do you need a teacher’s help, Moses?”
Moses is an alumni of Kennedy High School.
“It’s the community I grew up in, so this is all very personal to me,” she told Richmondside after the meeting. “But at the end of the day, I have to separate emotions, because my job is to protect the district and its students.”
There were more than two dozen people representing Kennedy High School, according to Kaylee Geffken, a student who was keeping track in their notebook.
Another Kennedy High student, Jasmine Sanchez, attended the meeting after marching in the rain earlier in the day from school to the district offices.
“It just breaks my heart, because I’m so close to these teachers, and these programs have benefited me so much. I’m the center of the hurt, and it just feels wrong not to represent my hurt.”
At least three Richmond City Council members stayed true to their word and attended Wednesday’s meeting. Council members Sue Wilson and Doria Robinson were there in person, and Claudia Jimenez attended remotely. Wilson joined the teacher-student picket line that formed outside before the meeting started, she said.
Teachers’ union representatives last month, including United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz, deployed the unconventional tactic of making a formal plea for the city to intervene in. They attended the council’s Feb. 25 meeting, presenting a slide deck of what they said is evidence that the district is mismanaging its finances.
He told Richmondside Wednesday that he is calling for increased transparency and communication with the district. He said communication was better with the previous superintendent, who resigned last fall after about three years in the position.
“What I see right now is an unwillingness to really cooperate and to engage all the different folks who are part of the process,” Ortiz said.
Moses told Richmondside that the district and its labor partners were meeting regularly in the last quarter of 2024 but said union representatives had declined to attend December meetings when budget reductions were discussed.
“Our labor partners decided that they really didn’t want to weigh in on reductions, and so we didn’t complete the process,” she said. “They were uncomfortable being placed in a position to basically evaluate programs to see where we could trim.”
Richmond City Council member asks district to meet with city
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“Fund what you believe in.“
— Richmond City Council member Doria Robinson, speaking to the WCCUSD school board
“Fund what you believe in,” Robinson told the school board Wednesday, stating her opposition to budget cuts and telling the board that the city wants to meet with the district.
The last person to speak to the board Wednesday night was Promise Rose, a science teacher at Betty Reid Soskin Middle School. She said she chose to work for West Contra Costa Unified School District 10 years ago over another district that offered her double the salary.
“I came here because I was this student,” she said, referring to the large youth turnout. “And I wanted to stand strong for these students. These cuts are hideous.”
After the public comment period, the crowd cleared out. Budget cuts were not on the meeting agenda so the school board did not discuss it.
This story was updated Thursday to correct the number of city council members attending the meeting.
