This is a breaking story. We will update with details as soon as they are available.
As of 1 a.m. on Wednesday, WCCUSD district officials and the United Teachers of Richmond’s bargaining team are still engaging in contract negotiations.
The two sides have been meeting at Alvarado school since 3 p.m. on Tuesday — the fourth day of the WCCUSD teachers strike.
During a rally outside, at about 5:30 p.m., UTR President Francisco Ortiz, using a bullhorn, announced that they expect to sign a tentative agreement tonight, following an all-day closed session where the school board discussed the union’s most recent ask for a 9% raise.
However, until a tentative agreement is signed, the strike will continue. Several teachers told Richmondside they are preparing to picket tomorrow (Wednesday) unless otherwise specified by union leaders.
No details of the proposed tentative agreement have been released yet. The latest teachers union counterproposal called for a 9% salary increase, which the district said would cost $180 million — a steep price tag given that the district expects to need to make $7.7 million in budget cuts in the coming year.
“We’re bringing over our questions and cleaning things up, but we’re thinking that we’re going to be able to have a tentative agreement (tonight),” UTR President Francisco Ortiz told the crowd.
Richmondside asked Ortiz if that means the strike is off tomorrow, to which he responded, “If they sign the contract tonight.” The tentative agreement would suspend the strike, pending the contract’s ratification by union members.
The crowd erupted in cheers to Ortiz’s announcement but he said much work remains to be done to heal the deep divide that the strike revealed between district leadership and rank-and-file educators.
“Our superintendent never made it (to negotiation sessions). Our (special education) director, who is in charge of supporting our most needy students, never made it,” Ortiz said. “I don’t know how any of these high-level administrators are able to come back to our district and face us and face our students with the negligence that they have experienced through this whole process…We had to go out on strike for our students and for our educators. These people are not working in the best interest of our students and we need new leadership.”
However, Ortiz emphasized that the district’s movement on contract negotiations is a result of the WCCUSD school board’s advocacy.
It could still be a few hours before any announcement is made. At around 6:30 p.m. Ortiz told picketers to go home, sparing the remaining 30 or so people from having to wait in 47-degree weather.
UTR executive director Mark Mitchell told the crowd that the despite being close to signing a deal, the district still came unprepared.
“Their documents are full of errors. They have no explanation,” Mitchell said. “They don’t know what the hell they are doing.”
A DJ spun tunes; students played their instruments to keep spirits high
The gathering outside of the negotiations was like a party, even before Ortiz made his announcement, with a DJ spinning songs popular across generations, including a mash-up of “YMCA” and “Hot to Go” by Chappell Roan.
Two students from Korematsu school in El Cerrito, eighth-grader Vera Johnson and seventh-grader Vasha Nasralnick, brought their instruments to help lead chants.
Nasralnick said she hasn’t crossed the picket line and joined Tuesday’s rally because she has seen how much her teachers have given to students like her, particularly band director Tiffany Carrico.
“She is just really inspiring. She knows everything. You hand her any instrument and she’ll be able to play it,” Nasralnick told Richmondside, clarinet in hand. “I’ve learned so much.”
Johnson said she learned how to play Star War’s “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s Theme) because it felt like the right song to play as the district was inside negotiating with the teachers union.
“It’s used to introduce a villain,” Johnson said, wearing her baritone saxophone. “We want to support the teachers, we want to show our appreciation for them and we thought playing our instruments would be a good way to support them.”
Johnson said even before the teachers went on strike, she has felt resentful of the district because of her mother’s experience working as an art teacher at Madera Elementary School in El Cerrito. Rochelle Johnson, who is the district’s only certificated art teacher at the elementary level, said for the first two months of the school year she didn’t receive her full wages and only received $580 despite working fulltime. She was eventually paid the money owed in November, Rochelle Johnson told Richmondside.
She said she loves her job but having to navigate district funding formulas and advocate for herself to get paid fairly is demoralizing. Even if the district and union agree on a contract favorable to teachers, she is still thinking about leaving.
“I love it here. I think the kids know it, the school knows it, the community knows it, but the district …I don’t think they care,” Rochelle Johnson said. “This is not a priority for them and what happens when the district has to make budget cuts?”
In the meantime, she is hopeful that the district and union will settle soon because she has two exciting projects planned for her fifth-graders: a sewing lesson and then a glass fusing session.
You guys make it sound like 180 million is for one year. First of all the district’s over inflating those numbers. Second of all that is for 3 years. Third, that includes a me too contract where two other unions get what we got. The teachers don’t have a me2 contract so we have to fight for every penny.
Thank you for sharing 🙋🏽♀️
Many of the teachers have been standing outside schools for so many hours facing a very challenging weather for a better living for all the teachers. That’s enough. They are the educators, not the ones in the offices.
Big arithmetic mistake here: “9% salary increase, which the district said would cost $180 million…” Probably should be $18 million, as UTR says every 1% raise would cost $1.6million, and WCCUSD said it would cost $2+ million. Another big mistake: “… which would be a steep price tag!” $18 million/year could be funded by increasing taxes on Larry Ellison *alone* (wealth = $341 billion, growing ~10%/year = $34 billion) by 0.05%!!!!
Here is the exact email from the district, which is including the health care costs in the total amount:
The school District presented the Board’s counterproposal valued at over $100 million over the next three years to the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR), Saturday, December 6, at about 4:45 p.m. The Board’s proposal included a 3% ongoing salary increase for 2025-2026, retroactive to July, and a 4% salary increase for 2026-2027. The proposal also included increases to healthcare benefits, moving to 90% coverage effective this year, 95% beginning in 2027, and 100% coverage in 2028. The District and UTR negotiating teams discussed the proposal. UTR provided a counter proposal to the District team after 11:50 p.m.
With the aid of state financial experts, the District’s negotiating team worked through the night and the next morning and was able to discuss the preliminary financial impacts to the Board at a meeting held at 11:00 a.m. Sunday, December 7th. The Board discussed the counterproposal and preliminary impacts. Due to the potential magnitude of the UTR’s counter, estimated at over $180 million, the Board directed the superintendent to further examine its impacts on schools and students.
UTR represents “nearly 1,700 educators, including teachers, counselors, and nurses.” Average salary maybe $90,000/year. Cost to District of 1% raise = 0.01 x $90,000 x 1700 educators = $1,530,000/year. Cost of 9% raise = $1,530,000 x 9 =$13,770,000/year. So even LESS than $18million, but the increase to healthcare will bring it up. The total District income is ~$500 million. I have no idea where $180 million is coming from!
They mentioned it would apply to other workers or unions so perhaps there is that. Agree we need to dig way deeper and will do our best to explain more in the days to come.
It’s also not a percent right away. It’s 5% one year and 3% a different year.
It’s 8% not 9%.
It’s a bari (baritone) saxophone, not a Barry.
Good catch.