Educators in West Contra Costa School District getting ready to go on strike

By Amanda Hari

More than 1,000 West Contra Costa School District educators are getting ready to strike, possibly as soon as Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon, after school was over, the United Teachers of Richmond were still working. They were finishing up signs and carrying out cases of water in preparation for a potential strike.

“We don’t want to go on strike, but we can’t keep the classrooms in the conditions that they’re in,” Michelle Schultz explained. 

Schultz is a second-grade teacher. She’s been working in the West Contra Costa School District since 2003.

She loves teaching all her kids, but she says some, are falling behind and special education services are inconsistent and behind schedule.

“They’re learning to explore the world and they’re really awesome and right now some of them are, especially the ones that are reading at a lower level, they’re not getting the support that they need,” Schultz stated. 

She said classes are overcrowded. According to the union, to start the school year, 71 classrooms lacked a permanent, designated teacher, instead relying on substitutes.

Schultz knows firsthand how that impacts students. Her kid was one of them. 

“My son felt that the class didn’t add anything to their education because it was mostly crowd control,” said Schultz. “My son was like, it’s chaotic. The other students aren’t listening.”

The strike preparations follow the release of a “fact finding report” on Friday. California’s Public Employee Relations Board called on the district manager to offer a substantial salary increase, but it did not address the overcrowding or need for more educators.

Union President Francisco Ortiz has been in the negotiations and said it’s frustrating.

“It feels like educators have been sounding the alarm for years,” said Ortiz. “We’ve been in negotiations for 10 months, and there hasn’t been any movement by the district that really prioritizes stable schooling or stable conditions for our students.” 

While stability and permanent educators are the biggest concerns, there are others.

“One of them is working conditions, specifically in our school sites that have extreme heat, so we’ve set a proposal for that as well,” Ortiz explained. 

Schultz is hoping that if they do strike, the community will support them and not cross the picket line.

“We hope that they will honor the strike so that this can be resolved quicker, and so the district will look at what we need and really commit to making it work,” said Schultz. 

CBS News Bay Area reached out to the West Contra Costa Unified School District and has not heard back at the time of this report.