Factfinder Issues Report
- Livable El Cerrito
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
The West Contra Costa Unified School District should offer teachers a 6% raise over two years. The district’s share of health care costs should increase to 85% of Kaiser coverage effective Jan. 1, 2026, and to 90% on Jan. 1, 2027. The district should gradually address other concerns like working conditions and how district money is spent on special education.
These are recommendations made in a report released Nov. 28 by David Handsher, the chair and “neutral” member of the three-person fact-finding panel that held hearings earlier this month with WCCUSD and the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR). The panel also included a member appointed by WCCUSD and one from UTR.
Gradual Teacher Raises
Handsher's report recommends that teachers get raises in three steps:
Retroactive to 7/1/2025, increase UTR unit salary schedules by 2.5%.
Effective 1/1/2026 increase UTR unit salary schedules an additional 0.5%.
Effective 7/1/2026 increase UTR unit salary schedules by 3% or by the state-approved 2026-27 Local Control Funding Formula COLA, if that amount is higher than 3%.
Previously, the district had offered teachers 0%. In October, it offered a 2% raise and a health-care benefit increase from 80% to 85% of Kaiser cost.
Will Report Lead to Agreement?
Whether the report and its non-binding recommendations will avert a teacher strike was not clear as of Saturday (Nov. 29).
The hearings were the final phase of a state-mandated series of impasse procedures that must occur before the union can call a strike.
Strike Could Start Dec. 3
UTR members voted overwhelmingly in October to authorize a strike. State law requires that the union wait until hearings take place and a report is issued. At that point the union must give at least 48 hours’ notice before going on strike.
As of today, the earliest possible date that a strike could start is Wednesday, Dec. 3.
UTR President Francisco Ortiz emailed his perspective on Nov. 29.
District Not Recruiting and Retaining Teachers
Ortiz wrote: “The report acknowledges that WCCUSD is experiencing high resignations, high retirements, and a large number of vacant positions,” Ortiz wrote. “It acknowledges that compensation has not kept pace with inflation, especially because educators received a 0% raise this year and last year.”
“The report validates many of the problems we have been pointing out,” Ortiz wrote. “It does not solve them.”
District “Now Has the Choice”
“The district now has the choice to review this report, examine the data presented in their own financial documents, and decide whether they want meaningful stability or keep offering the minimal steps that have left our schools short-staffed year after year," Ortiz wrote. “We have spent ten months at the table. We have offered proposals backed by district numbers. We have shown how current conditions are impacting learning. We have presented alternatives that the district has the ability to fund.
“At this point, the next move is theirs,” Ortiz continued.
“But we also need to be clear with our members and our community: If the district chooses only to adopt the bare minimum from this report, it will not address vacancies, turnover, or the instability students are experiencing,” Ortiz wrote.
Reserves Decreased in 2024-25
Handsher’s report also said the district experienced deficit spending in 2024-25 with the unaudited actuals showing a deficit of $16,904,550.00. The state requirement for unrestricted budgetary reserves is 3%. The district’s unrestricted reserves decreased from11.56% to 8.3% in 2024-2025, Handsher said.
No District Comment
There was no response posted on the district’s website as of Nov. 29. Neither Superintendent Cheryl Cotton nor Board President Leslie Reckler could be reached for comment.
Start Gradual Changes Now
Handsher, the report’s author, also recommended making gradual changes over the next two years to address issues including class size and class arrangement along with teachers’ demand to have classrooms with working communication and alarm systems. He wrote that the district should act on union demands that classrooms should be adequately heated and cooled.
Use Union-Management Committees
Handsher recommends “more vigorous use of union-management committees” to address class size and class configuration issues.
His report called for a survey to identify all classrooms that are not properly heated and cooled or lack working communication and alarm systems. The survey should be completed by July 1, 2026, and the district should “address these issues as a priority matter, with a target date of June 30, 2027, for remedying found deficiencies.”
Subsidize Teachers Who Get Special Ed Credentials
The report called for a gradual, long-term approach responding to UTR’s complaint that contracting out for special education staff leads to higher costs for lower-quality service.
Handsher recommended that the district subsidize the cost of certifying up to 10 of its current teachers to become credentialed in special education. The district should reimburse these teachers for education costs up to $10,000 per teacher, he said.
UTR Executive Director Mark Mitchell, who served as one of the three members of the fact-finding panel, issued a Concurrence in Part and a Dissent in Part.
Here are three of the key points in Mitchell’s dissent.
Salary:
“The recommended raises don’t match the severity of the staffing crisis. The district’s own unaudited actuals show a 1% raise for UTR members costs about $1.6 million, not $2.232 million.”
Revenues and reserves:
Mitchell wrote that the district’s portrayal of its financial status was inaccurate because of under-projected Local Control Funding Formula, missing block grant revenue, Prop 98 settle-up (~$16M), understated “other local revenue” (~$7M), and a $10M drop in federal revenue without actual cuts. He also stated that there is more than $62 million in Fund 71, $42 million of which can prudently be repurposed to transition to a fully staffed district.
Class size:
Only one change is recommended: reducing the maximum size of secondary PE classes by one student. (The union has asked for reduced class sizes elsewhere as well.)
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