Teacher Talks Go Late

Teacher Gloria Renardson shares her Christmas wish on Dec. .9 at Alvarado Adult School.

Negotiations between the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) and the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) continued tonight (Dec. 9) at Alvarado Adult School. No agreement had been signed as of 9 p.m. Talks were still going on.

If no agreement is signed tonight, the teachers’ strike will continue Wednesday (Dec. 10). District teachers will rally at El Cerrito High School starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

At about 5:30 p.m. today, UTR President Francisco Ortiz came out of the bargaining to thank the teachers and supporters who were still marching, chanting, and rallying outside the talks. Many of them had arrived by 3 p.m.

Ortiz thanked teachers for their “incredible collective action,” which he said had brought district negotiators to the table with a goal of signing an agreement.

“We are going to be hopefully closing out a deal here tonight,” Ortiz said.

However, as the night went on it was not clear when a tentative agreement would be signed.

It appears that UTR and Superintendent Cheryl Cotton disagree on how much it would cost the district to agree to UTR’s latest contract proposal.

The UTR proposal specifies that teachers would receive a 9% raise spread over two years. The district would cover 90% of Kaiser cost in 2026, 95% of Kaiser cost effective Jan. 1, 2027, and 100% effective June 30, 2027.

Ortiz wrote in an email to the community on Dec. 7 that the district had presented a framework including salary, class size, benefits, special education supports, and international educator protections.

“The district provided clear costs totaling approximately $97 million over three years for the package the board believed was responsible and achievable,” he wrote.

Based on this, UTR then submitted a counterproposal, Ortiz said.

However, Superintendent Cheryl Cotton issued a Dec. 8 news release saying the magnitude of UTR’s counterproposal was “estimated at over $180 million.”

As a result, the Board directed the superintendent to further examine its impacts on schools and students,” the news release said.

In his short speech Tuesday evening while negotiations continued, Ortiz said district administrators “are not working in the best interest of our students.”

“They lied to the board over the weekend,” Ortiz said. “They scared them, and we had to talk to our board members and assure them that their (district administrator) figures were wrong and that we need to come to an agreement so we can continue to support our students.”

Ortiz said a majority of school board members have confidence in the union’s numbers and its counterproposal.

“Our elected board of education supports you,” he told teachers. “A majority supports you.”

UTR Executive Director Mark Mitchell said WCCUSD negotiators “came unprepared” Tuesday, with documents that are “full of errors.”

At about 6:45 p.m., Ortiz and other union negotiators came outside to talk to a small group of teachers who were still marching.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Ortiz said. “Go home and get some rest.”