Teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified School District say they may go on strike this fall if the union’s contract negotiations with the district remain stalled.
The union declared an impasse on the first day of school, Aug. 19, accusing the district of stalling negotiations and failing to bargain in good faith. This move triggers an intervention by the California Public Employment Relations Board, which will assign a neutral mediator and a fact-finding panel to help both sides reach an agreement.
If no deal is reached by mid- to late- October, union members will vote on whether to authorize a strike. Union president Francisco Ortiz believes it’s likely the membership will approve it.
“There has been absolutely no movement, no sense of urgency to settle a contract,” Ortiz told Richmondside. “It’s more than a slap in the face. It’s a gut punch. It’s a complete devaluing of the educators and the student … and it’s getting a lot of people very upset and ready to move and fight.”
The United Teachers of Richmond, which represents 1,500 educators, has been in negotiations with WCCUSD for more than seven months. Its previous contract expired on June 30, and educators are currently governed by their 2023 contract, which gave them a 7% raise that year.
The union is asking for a 10% salary increase over the next two years and wants WCCUSD to cover all health insurance contributions. It says that WCCUSD ranks 18th out of the 19 school districts in Contra Costa County in terms of pay and that employees pay the most out of pocket for health benefits, according to a union-commissioned report from the School Services of California study.
WCCUSD’s bargaining team countered with a 0% raise, arguing that the district cannot afford to pay teachers more. District officials did not respond to Richmondside’s requests for interviews but sent an email at 5:24 p.m. that said the district “will continue to participate in good-faith discussions and, if required, in state-facilitated mediation.”
“Our responsibility is twofold: support classroom learning and student success, and ensure the District’s long-term fiscal health. We are reviewing proposals through that lens while prioritizing safe and supportive schools, and the services our students and families depend on every day,” WCCUSD Communications Director Raechelle Forrest wrote. “We value our educators and staff, and we appreciate their dedication to students. While we work through the next steps in the process, schools remain open and instructional programs continue as normal. We will keep our community informed with timely, accurate updates as new information becomes available.”
WCCUSD school board president Leslie Reckler said Friday she could not comment on the negotiations because the board is not directly involved but said she is hopeful an agreement can be reached.
In a previous interview with Richmondside, Superintendent Cheryl Cotton said she had met with the unions and had productive conversations around compromises and how to move forward.
“We’ve had a chance to really tap into and connect with our unions, but bringing back, kind of, our joint management meetings and really looking at what are some of the shared challenges that we’re facing and really working toward some solutions there,” Cotton said in an Aug. 7 interview.
Earlier this year, the district approved a budget that eliminated positions and drew from its Fund 17 reserve fund to skirt state receivership. WCCUSD plans to exhaust that particular reserve fund (which holds $37 million) by 2027.
But the union claims that the district projects it will have $76 million in unspent revenue by the end of the 25-26 school year, so there would be money to pay teachers more.
“This district’s budget makes clear that the money is there. What’s missing is the will to prioritize the classrooms where students learn,” Ortiz said. “Our educators cannot afford to live on 2023 wages, and our students cannot afford the instability caused by turnover and vacancies.”
Union attributes educator vacancies to salaries
Ortiz said when neighboring districts pay more, teachers leave or decide to retire. In the last three years, 546 teachers resigned, according to data shared by the district. Such attrition may be part of a growing trend of California teachers feeling burned out because they feel overworked and underpaid. Research and a review of surveys by Education Week concluded that the rate of teacher attrition did rise in 2021-22, but only by a few percentage points, to 7% nationally and to 10% in large urban and low-income districts.
The teachers union commissioned a report from the School Services of California that found that WCCUSD teachers, who on average make $91,375 a year, are paid less than teachers at most other East Bay school districts and less than the state average, which is $100,226. The report compares salaries from 2023-24, which is the most recent available data.
More than half of the respondents to WCCUSD’s exit survey of credentialed employees (excluding those who retired) said they are leaving the district for a job in a neighboring district.
The district has not been able to hire at a fast enough rate to keep up with resignations and retirements. It ended the 2024-25 school year with 123 vacancies and started the school year with 72 vacancies that it’s filling with temporary workers and/or staffers who aren’t credentialed for the role they’re serving in, according to data shared by the district and union.
“That means about 2,100 students in west Contra Costa don’t have a permanent certificated educator,” Ortiz said.
However, WCCUSD officials counts those vacancies as filled by a long-term substitute, so it says it has two vacancies at the elementary level, five at the middle/high school level, and six vacancies in special education.
It’s not just wages causing contract dispute
Ortiz said the salary dispute is only part of the frustration. He said the district has not responded to the union’s proposed changes to the special education program, changes that aim to decrease class sizes, and its proposals to lighten the workload for special education teachers, therapists and school nurses.
The union is proposing to create an avenue for special education teachers to be paid more if they work over their agreed-upon hours. Another proposal is for school psychologists to work remotely one day every two weeks for report writing and completing necessary paperwork.
It also proposes the district hire more nurses to reduce the student-to-nurse ratio from 3,000-to-1 down to 700-to-1. The union also wants to reduce the nurses’ student caseload from 100-per-nurse to 55.
Another point of contention is class sizes. The district is proposing to increase class sizes for TK from 20 to 22 students. For students in grades four through six, the district is proposing an increase from 24 students to 30 students per class.
This is something the union strongly opposes, and it has countered that the district should maintain its current class sizes and work to decrease them in the future.
Teachers filed unfair labor charge in May
In May, the teachers union filed an unfair labor charge with the state because of the stalled contract negotiations.
In the complaint, the union states that after it made 100 proposals on six contract articles, the district offered no proposals or counterproposals.
At a second meeting, the union said it made an additional contract article proposal, regarding salaries, while the district presented its first counterproposal in regards to employee benefits.
At a subsequent meeting, the union said, the district still had no proposals. According to the complaint, WCCUSD officials promised that by the next meeting it would return with its own proposals and counter proposals, but the next scheduled meeting in April was cancelled four hours before it was set to take place.
