This is a developing story. Check back for more photos and highlights from the first day of school.
The backpacks are packed, the bells are ringing and WCCUSD is back in session.
With the exception of concerns about a chemical found in the soil at Kennedy High, which appeared mostly resolved as of late last week, this August there’s markedly less chaos looming.
After a tumultuous year of frustrated teachers, culminating in a four-day strike that was followed by major budget cuts and a shuffling of students to new schools, the West Contra Costa Unified School District is starting this academic year, officials say, with only 2.6% of its teaching positions unfilled.
The district has also seen gains in academic achievement and is hoping to focus more on improving literacy this year.
District starting year with fewer unfilled teaching jobs
The district hired 89 new teachers for the start of the school year and closed its number of vacancies to 37 positions — the lowest it has been at this time of year in recent history. Last year, the district started the year with roughly 70 vacancies and the year before there were about 100.
Francisco Ortiz, president of United Teachers of Richmond, which represents the roughly 1,400 teachers in the district, credits the improvement in teacher retention and recruitment to the new contract, which increased wages by about 8% and promises to provide fully paid healthcare coverage by the end of this calendar year.
“We are much more competitive than we were two years ago,” Ortiz told Richmondside. “Teachers are telling us that they want to come here because they heard what happened last year.”
Of the 37 vacancies, 12 are at elementary schools, 13.4 are at middle and high schools and the remainder are special education positions. This means each school in the district is starting with only one to two vacant positions.
“Some are still getting filled as we start the year,” Ortiz said.
He said there is still room for improvement, saying that Mt. Diablo Unified started last year with 15 vacancies.
“We always have improvements to make like speeding up the HR process, calling people back as quickly as possible and ensuring that they don’t sit around waiting when there’s other districts who are also looking for teachers,” Ortiz continued. “But it’s moving in the right direction for sure.”
Richmond mom Maria Hernandez said she is happy that the district prioritized hiring teachers and hopes that continues. She has four children attending WCCUSD schools and one who recently graduated from De Anza High and said throughout the years she has seen many good teachers leave the district.
“My oldest had really good teachers, and they ended up moving to the Alameda school district,” Hernandez told Richmondside outside of the Stege temporary campus at DeJean Middle. “But I’ve met other teachers that are really awesome too. They really care about their students.”
She said the teachers at Stege have been a bright spot for her. Her sixth-grade daughter transferred last year to the temporary campus from Bayview Elementary and she said it has been a great experience.
Hernandez also dropped off her daughter, Natalia Chavez, to her first day of kindergarten at Stege.
“I like it because it’s a smaller school right now, so they (my children) get a little bit more attention,” Hernandez said.
Superintendent said this year is about “being a courageous scholar”
Superintendent Cheryl Cotton’s back-to-school sentiment this year is about being “courageous scholars.”
“I’m feeling extremely hopeful, very excited about the direction that West Contra Costa is moving in,” Cotton told Richmondside outside of King Elementary School. “We’ve established a new vision and mission focused on fostering courageous scholars throughout our schools, making sure they have the skills and the knowledge and the experiences to go out and change their community and change the world.”
To her, that means making sure students have a solid understanding of math and reading — and that they have unique opportunities to learn something new and work with different groups — so that they can figure out what they want to do after high school.
WCCUSD has hired a new chief academic officer and Cotton is hoping to focus more on improving literacy districtwide. Some schools have already seen notable gains, such as Stege Elementary, where students improved their English language arts state standardized test scores by 111 points.
“(Even though it’s a) temporary campus, they are making gains because of consistent leadership, consistent educators,” Cotton said. “We’re retaining teachers there with a very clear curricular focus. Those are the things that make a difference.”
The district is assessing its literacy gains to better understand what works and how to replicate it.. Over the summer, the district partnered with Fulcrum Literacy, a local nonprofit that will support administrators and teachers by training them on how to best teach reading and writing through science-based approaches, and providing ideas to improve curriculum.
The superintendent also hopes to build out the career technical education pathways at local middle and high schools to better prepare students who may not be college-bound. With a tight budget, that means partnering with local businesses, trades and organizations to fill those gaps and expand students’ horizons.
WCCUSD school board Trustee Jamela Smith-Folds, who also visited King Elementary on the first day of school, said her focus this year is making the student experience better. She wants to close equity gaps and support parents as they navigate the school system.
“The only special interest group I work for are kids. That’s my union,” Smith-Folds told Richmondside. “My focus has always been student experience, exposure, achievement. That’s our job. That’s our whole job.”
To Smith-Folds, that means funding programs that support students and breaking down barriers so that every student has equal access to programs and education.
“I believe that we have to continuously be focused on the fact that we are a zip-coded district,” Smith-Folds said, in reference to the fact that many of the district’s students live in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods while others do not. “You can get one experience in one zip code versus another experience in another zip code, and we have to constantly work on that. We need to constantly ask the questions: How are we creating barriers, and how are we impacting students?”
Betty Reid Soskin begins new era at Pinole Middle
As part of last year’s budget cuts, the school board voted to merge two middle schools together, moving Betty Reid Soskin in El Sobrante to Pinole Middle, located 1.6 miles away. The change was met with sadness and concern, but educators are optimistic that the transition will be smooth.
The new school is temporarily being called Betty Reid Soskin at Pinole Middle — which already has a Facebook page — until the district, with input from the school community, picks a new name. WCCUSD officials said they want the name to still honor Betty Reid Soskin, the former National Park ranger who died at age 104 last December.
“…It’s gonna be a lot more collaboration with teachers, a lot more opportunities with preps and with kids. I think it’s really cool.”
— Jason Lau, former Betty Reid Middle School principal
The Pinole middle school campus population will double to about 850 students and 37 staff. Students will have seven different electives to choose from: art, music, college and career readiness, drama, the Fab Lab, yearbook and Spanish 1, which can count for high school language credit.
“People are worried about large numbers of students. Are we going to go into one lunch together? How are we getting kids engaged?,” said Jason Lau, the former Betty Reid Soskin principal, who is now the assistant principal at the merged middle school. “But I think the flip side of that also means we have more resources for students. We have multiple elective options now. We have actual departments for content areas instead of just having one teacher (in that subject), so it’s gonna be a lot more collaboration with teachers, a lot more opportunities with preps and with kids. I think it’s really cool.”
At a meet-and-greet event hosted last week, administrators shared drop off details, school rules and other important information.
They also warned that police will be around the school and warned families to abide by traffic laws.
They also shared the school’s new logo. The emblem incorporates the logos from four different schools, including the feeder schools: Betty Reid Soskin Bears, Pinole Middle Knights, Stewart Elementary Seals and Montalvin Lions.
“This is just for this year … but there were four schools that were impacted by this (merger),” assistant principal Ryan Kolb said., “So the students actually created this logo, which is kinda like a shield, representing all four schools that came together and their mascots.”
This headline and details that follow are extraordinary misleading. Perhaps you could report on how many positions were CUT as a result of the strike before implying that the 37 vacancies are an improvement over last year’s 70…. I recall hearing that well over 100 positions were going to be cut as a result of the strike….
We have covered the budget cuts following the strike and that some of the planned reductions ended up not happening. More details here: https://richmondside.org/2026/06/25/wccusd-approves-budget-using-state-surplus/
I want to see more for Special Needs children,my grandson is Autistic,and at his school , Murphy,they’re are no lay structures at all…that is not acceptable,even no structures for Regular Education children,but excellent school so far..