Not Over Yet

Guadalupe Enllana is the new president of the West Contra Costa school board.

A series of speakers at Wednesday’s school board meeting thanked school board trustees Guadalupe Enllana, Cinthia Hernandez, and Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy for their support and engagement with two local unions who went on strike Dec. 5.

Speakers also criticized Superintendent Cheryl Cotton for not attending negotiations during the strike while sending messages directly to parents that “undermined” teachers.

Thanks to the board trio’s leadership, speakers said, a tentative agreement was reached between the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the unions representing virtually all teachers and staff.

Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy is the new board clerk.

Board Elects New President and Clerk

Later in the meeting, the board elected Enllana as its new president and voted for Gonzalez-Hoy to be the next board clerk. Trustee Jamila Smith-Folds voted against both nominations. Outgoing Board President Leslie Reckler voted in favor of both candidates, along with Enllana, Hernandez, and Gonzales-Hoy.

Board President Enllana served as board clerk this year, which was also her first year on the school board.

“It’s been a great big learning curve,” she said. “I think I’ve grown and I’ve learned, and I’ve tried to be focused on serving our students.”

Getting To Full Ratification

The United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) announced Tuesday that its members had ratified the tentative agreement with 93% approval and 86% participation. Teamsters Local 856 posted on its website today (Dec. 18) that their members had ratified their tentative agreement with 98% voting for approval.

The next step in the WCCUSD process is for the board is to ratify the agreements in a public vote.

However, Superintendent Cheryl Cotton and outgoing Board President Leslie Reckler said Tuesday that before that vote can happen, the terms of the tentative agreement must be reviewed by Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey.

District Responsible for Disclosures

Getting the county superintendent’s review started requires the district to first complete a form disclosing terms of the agreement, its fiscal impact, and how the district intends to pay for it, they said. County Superintendent Mackey will then have at least 10 days to review the information.

“Therefore, due to this legally required process, the item will not be agendized until January 2026 at the earliest,” Reckler said.

An Urgent Need

More than a dozen speakers on Dec. 17 urged the five-member board to ratify the agreement and put it into action as soon as possible.

Speakers on Wednesday said they worried that the steps needed to ratify the agreement and put it into effect might be delayed. They said implementation is urgently needed to keep teachers, speech therapists, and other staff in the district.

Counting on Goodwill

UTR Executive Director Mark Miller said, “Members are very excited about our tentative agreement and we’re counting on the leadership of our board and the board majority that supported this tentative agreement to shepherd it through to implementation. And we’re counting on the goodwill of our superintendent to participate in that. We look forward to making that happen in the new year.”

Several employees, including speech therapist Merissa Schade, said they had been reluctantly looking around for positions in other districts. In Schade’s case, the key issues were health care and a cap on workloads. The tentative agreement would increase the district’s share of health care costs from 80% of Kaiser coverage to 100% of family coverage by June 30, 2027.

‘It’s Urgent’

“It’s urgent that this agreement is put in place immediately so teachers and SLPs (speech language pathologists) will stay,” Schade said.

Sara Creely, a teacher at Hanna Ranch, agreed.

Creely said that the district has 70 teacher vacancies and that means about 2,000 students don’t have permanent teachers.

“If we’re losing students maybe we’re losing them because the parents want them to have a teacher, for God’s sake,” she said.

Ditch Bad Contracts

Another concern is about practices of district administration staff and how they may view the agreement.

Eric Jepson, a teacher at El Cerrito High, said he is proud of the school board majority for looking forward.

“It is time to ditch the bad contracts of years past that send our taxpayer money out of our community…Thank you for your courage and please do not let any fearful employees slow you down from being the change that we want to see.”

UTR Secretary Sam Cleare said, “We need to put this tentative agreement on the agenda as soon as possible. Stalling continues to erode trust.”

Concern About Estimates and Overruns

The district’s 1^st interim report on finances is “concerning,” according to Vice President Gabby Micheletti.

“It is concerning to see that the estimates are that district staff has already overrun the budget for professional and consulting services by $8 million, subagreements for service by $4 million, and almost doubled the budget for travel and conferences.”

Micheletti continued, “WCCUSD staff needs to stop playing games and create budgets based on more accurate assumptions of income. I have no idea what staff thinks they will win by continuing to not invest in educators and students but I hope the board will stand up to see that this agreement is ratified so that we can actually start to improve the working and learning conditions in WCCUSD.”

Complaints About Cotton

Two speakers strongly criticized Superintendent Cotton.

Carolyn Kruger Hanson said:

“The absence of the district’s top leader spoke louder than any statement ever could… Instead of showing up at the table, Superintendent Cotton chose to stay home and communicate directly with parents in ways that framed educators as unreasonable.”

Kristin Cohen, a teacher at Shannon Elementary, said:

“I would like to know who is being held accountable for all the misinformation and lies that were put out to the public with regard to the teacher strike and negotiations. Certain people should either be fired or they should resign. Cheryl Cotton and Leslie Reckler, I am mostly speaking to you.”

Pay Not Docked in December

In contrast, UTR President Francisco Ortiz thanked Cotton for confirming today (Dec. 18) that UTR members who were on strike for four days will not be docked pay at the end of this month.

“As we head into the holidays, that assurance matters,” Ortiz said.

He added, “I want to thank the entire UTR membership for ratifying our tentative agreement with a 93% approval rate. We are hopeful that our tentative agreement will be placed on the upcoming board agenda.”

Kim Moses Will Retire

The district announced today (Dec. 18) that Dr. Kim Moses will retire in June 2026. Moses was WCCUSD interim superintendent from December 2024 until Cotton was hired in June 2025. Moses is currently the Associate Superintendent of Business Services. She represented the district in the recent union negotiations.