A court has appointed Carl Cohn, a former superintendent and state Board of Education member, to ensure that WCCUSD complies with a requirement that it staff its classrooms with qualified teachers.
In March, a two-year court battle between the school district and a public advocacy law firm representing WCCUSD parents and teachers ended with a ruling from the California First District Court of Appeal requiring the district to provide all children in the district with a qualified teacher as required by state law.
Specifically, the court ordered WCCUSD to stop using 30- and 60-day substitutes to fill positions for longer than the state authorized time limit and to fill all teacher vacancies at Stege Elementary School, Helms Middle School and Kennedy High School.
Cohn, who was appointed by a Superior Court judge on Aug. 27, will make recommendations to West Contra Costa Unified on how to best comply with the court order and will mediate and resolve disputes over its compliance.
Cohn is professor emeritus and senior research fellow in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He served as superintendent for both Long Beach Unified and San Diego Unified before being appointed to the state Board of Education. He then launched the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, a legislative program to help schools meet their Local Control Accountability Program (LCAP) goals to help the most vulnerable students.
Lawsuit was first statewide to uphold state standards
Cleare v. West Contra Costa Unified School District, marked the first time a school district had been sued under the Williams Settlement Legislation, a 2004 agreement requiring that all California public school students have access to adequate textbooks, qualified teachers and safe, clean facilities.
The ruling set a precedent for districts statewide. No other district had argued that a teacher shortage was an excuse to use longterm subs, and now no other district can.
The ruling overturned a 2024 decision by the Contra Costa County Superior Court that ruled in favor of the school district.
WCCUSD has reduced the number of teaching vacancies this year. At the start of the year, there were 34 educator vacancies, according to United Teachers of Richmond (UTR). Last school year, there were more than 70 vacancies at this time of year, and the year before there was more than 100.
District spokesperson Liz Sanders said the district is “proud to have reduced vacancies” through stipends to attract and retain educators, “especially our homegrown educators.”
The district also increased salaries and health benefits (following a four-day teacher strike last year) and hosted events to engage prospective educators.
UTR President Francisco Ortiz said new teachers have said the salary increase is what attracted them most to WCCUSD.
EdSource writer Diana Lambert contributed to this report.
