Clarification: On Thursday, WCCUSD made its first public offer to give a 2% raise to the United Teachers of Richmond. The update has been reflected in the story.
In defiance of county and district leadership, the West Contra Costa Unified School District board on Wednesday voted 3-to-2 against a resolution meant to affirm that the district plans to fix its finances.
Board clerk Guadalupe Enllana and trustees Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy and Cinthia Hernandez cast the no votes against a resolution requested by the county Office of Education. The resolution stated that the district was committed to either making cuts or increasing revenue to balance its budget.
This doesn’t mean the board won’t approve changes necessary to balance the budget — it’s legally obligated to do so, regardless of the county-requested resolution. But it does mean that the county’s conditional approval of WCCUSD’s budget could be at risk and the district could fall under county education office oversight.
In 2024, the WCCUSD school board failed to approve the district’s budget on time and was at “great risk” of insolvency. To address this the board approved a $19.7 budget cut this year and agreed to cut an additional $13 million over the next two years. With that plan in place, the county gave WCCUSD a “positive certification” on its budget.
This year, WCCUSD entered the 2025-26 fiscal year with a $7.7 million deficit, despite receiving an additional $9.1 million in funding (from state and local sources) and transferring $11.5 million from its reserves to offset the deficit.
The Contra Costa County Office of Education’s conditional approval meant it approved the budget in principle but established specific requirements for it to be fully approved.
Those conditions included: Submitting a board-approved resolution that “addresses the deficiencies in the 2025-26 budget and multiyear projections” by Oct. 10 and having a more thorough timeline for implementing those cuts by Oct. 31, according to a letter sent from the county to WCCUSD.
The resolution rejected by the board did not articulate which cuts would have to be made. It simply reaffirmed that the district has a “fiduciary duty to meet its financial obligations” in the next three years and will have to make cuts to do so.
“It seemed like a pretty standard thing,” board President Leslie Reckler told Richmondside Thursday. (She and board member Jamela Smith-Folds cast the two yes votes.) “The way I read it is this is just an intent you’re signaling to the county office that we heard you. We read your letter. We’re committing to doing this work, and this is the timeline.”
The proposed timeline calls for the district to hold public meetings (which it is doing now through the superintendent’s Fiscal Stabilization Plan meetings) for community members to share input, as well as meetings with other stakeholders to determine which cuts to make by January/February. The board would need to approve the cuts in early 2026, before it submits its second state-required interim financial report in March.
Board member said county resolution requirement felt like a threat
But the county’s request for a resolution was interpreted differently by Gonzalez-Hoy. He said regardless of the resolution, that is the process WCCUSD would follow.
“I feel like we’re getting ahead of the process, and in my opinion, this is the county overstepping and kind of saying: ‘We don’t trust that you’re going to make the cuts, so we’re forcing you to pass this resolution,’ ” Gonzalez-Hoy told Richmondside Thursday. “So later, no matter what the cuts are, we’re going to have to do it. And to me, that’s unacceptable.”
He said although he understands and agrees WCCUSD will have to make cuts, he voted against the resolution to send the county a message: “We need a real partnership..not threats.”
Contra Costa County Office of Education Superintendent Lynn Mackey said it’s standard practice for the office to send letters to all school districts.
“They are either letters of approval, disapproval, or conditional. With conditional letters, we stipulate some conditions and then the district has some time to respond. We will then spend some time reviewing the response to make a determination of next steps,” Mackey told Richmondside via email. “That is where we are with (WCCUSD). We have until November 8th to determine next steps.”
Gonzalez-Hoy also said he isn’t worried about county oversight, because unlike state oversight, the district still maintains its decision-making power. WCCUSD has fallen under county oversight two times in the past five years.
If the county decides to assign a fiscal advisor, costs would fall on the county office of education.
However, Reckler noted that in the past, advisors from the county have had the power to “stay and rescind,” which means they could halt and then annul decisions made by the board if it deems those decisions to be fiscally irresponsible.
“They were not calling the shots, but they did have the power and did not execute it to say, ‘Nope, you’re going to go back and you’re going to revisit that,’ ” Reckler said.
After the resolution failed, the board took a five-minute break. When it returned, Superintendent Cheryl Cotton and Associate Superintendent of Business Services Kim Moses asked the board to formally reconsider its decision.
“We would be in the same situation that we were in when we failed to pass an LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan) and budget expenditures were halted. I’m not quite sure if our budget would be paused, but I am sure that oversight would then shift to the county (by not passing the) resolution this evening,” Moses told the board. “There would be a budget review committee established. The county could assume the budget and assign a fiscal advisor to advise as to how we should create and implement a budget.”
The school board’s governing laws allow a member of the prevailing majority to reopen a discussion and reverse their vote if they change their mind, but Gonzalez-Hoy, Hernandez and Enllana stayed silent.
After the vote, Moses said she is unclear what the next steps for WCCUSD look like and the district is awaiting additional direction from the county.
“The purpose of this resolution was to demonstrate and document the board’s commitment to address the structural budget deficit by creating a plan to address the district’s inability to meet the 3% state reserve requirement in 2026-27 and 2027-28,” Moses told Richmondside via email. “By not passing this resolution, the assumption would be that the board is not committed to making these reductions.”
District says cutting expenses is only way to balance budget
Gonzalez-Hoy said his vote also sends a message to WCCUSD staff: Don’t be callous or quick to make cuts.
He noted that the staff has done a great job of rebalancing the budget, especially after past more financially risky years, but there needs to be a more critical look at where the district may be overspending before it proposes cutting programs or laying off staff.
Last February, for example, the board voted to cut 1.6% of educator positions and sent letters warning employees that they may be laid off.
“A majority of those people ended up leaving our district because they had uncertainty for their job, and then we ended up not having to cut any because of people retiring or leaving,” Gonzalez-Hoy said.
He also said that the teachers union, United Teachers of Richmond, has raised valid concerns about the district’s decisions to hire outside contractors to fill legally-mandated special education positions, as opposed to attracting and investing in permanent teachers.
Special education costs have increased from $38.7 million in 2020-21 to $107 million now, despite no significant increase in the number of students being served.
“That increase of (roughly $68 million) includes some salaries, but it also includes other things and the cost of doing business is just rising,” Moses told Richmondside in an interview last week.
Still, the district is stuck between a rock and a hard place, Moses said. While WCCUSD wants to attract and retain educators, it simply does not have the resources to do so, without putting itself into more debt.
The teachers union’s proposed 10% pay raise would cost WCCUSD an additional $20.8 million, but the district has four other unions, which have a “me too” clause, meaning they could demand the same raise — bringing the cost up of salary increases up to roughly $36 million over the next two years, according to Moses.
“We’re fighting so hard to compromise so that we can both be in a better position and still retain those quality programs for our students,” Moses said. “We’re trying to address the structural deficit, and we’re trying to find a way to increase our total compensation package. Any way you look at that, the only way to do that is to cut expenses.”
Since March, WCCUSD has countered UTR’s 10% raise ask with a 0% raise — a move that has been taken as an insult by the union. On Thursday afternoon, WCCUSD made its first public offer of a 2% raise, which the union rejected.
In September, the union declared an impasse, prompting the state to intervene in mediation, but it has not moved the needle enough. The state mediator has now released UTR and the district to the final step of the statutory impasse process: a hearing before a state-appointed panel. The date for the panel hasn’t been determined yet.
At last night’s board meeting, the UTR President Francisco Ortiz said the union is holding a strike vote this week. That means by November, the teachers could go on strike.
“Educators across our district are engaging in a strike authorization vote. Every member, every voice, united in the belief that we can and must fight for the schools that our students deserve,” Ortiz told the board. “Our fight is not just about wages. It’s about justice, dignity and stability. It’s about ensuring that students have fully staffed schools, specialists and educators who can afford to stay in this district.”
