UPDATE: WCCUSD teachers and Teamsters return to the bargaining table during strike

This story was co-published with KQED.

Bundled against the morning cold, teachers marched outside the Nystrom Elementary School entrance in Richmond early Thursday, cheering as passing cars honked, and carrying yellow and red picket signs reading “We Can’t Wait.”

Educators at all 56 West Contra Costa Unified School District sites picketed before and during school drop-off on the first day of an open-ended strike, marching for higher pay, smaller class sizes and a reduction of the use of long-term substitute teachers and outside contractors.

Months of negotiations and a mediation process have failed to yield an agreement on a new three-year teaching contract. But Thursday afternoon, Superintendent Cheryl Cotton announced that the district and union had agreed to renegotiate and would meet at 4 p.m.

“My hope is that we can reach agreement on salary and benefits and then turn our attention to collaboratively outline an action plan to address the deep-rooted, systemic issues that exist in our organization,” Cotton said.

The district is facing a projected deficit and has maintained that its budget cannot support additional raises for teachers without risking a state takeover. Union members have argued that the district overspends on outside contractors rather than investing in district educators.

Outside Nystrom Elementary on Thursday morning, striking teachers chanted slogans such as “Education is a right, that is why we have to fight.”

“I’ve been here for 13 years and seen a lot of teachers come and go and the impact that has on our kids,” said Jocelyn Rohan, a sixth-grade teacher at Nystrom. “It’s hard to want to stay somewhere when you’re not being paid.”

Many families chose to keep their children home as the strike began. Of about 440 students enrolled at Nystrom Elementary, just 87 attended class on Thursday, according to the district.

Students expected to go to school

Missing school to support the strike is not considered an excused absence by the district. For families that did not want to come to school, the district offered an alternative independent study curriculum that students could do at home and still receive school attendance credit. About 1,300 students registered for the curriculum out of the 28,000 in the district.

“When people work, they ask for raises so they can support their families,” Nystrom Elementary parent Nidia Lopez said in Spanish, through a teacher interpreter. “If they don’t get a raise, they’ll find work somewhere else.”

Lopez brought her children to school, but she decided to take them home once she realized there was a strike, saying there wasn’t a point to having her children in school if the teachers weren’t there.

Other parents brought their children to school.

Harrishiana Lee, parent of three children in the district, told KQED over a phone call as her children were being dropped off by their father that she supported the union but was frustrated with the strike. All of her children have special needs, she said, and she didn’t have an alternative for the services they needed.

“With the strike, my baby can’t go to school,” Lee said.

For weeks, the district has been planning to keep schools open in the case of a strike. In October, the School Board voted to pay up to $550 per day for substitute teachers during the strike period, up from the regular day rate of up to $280. In an email to parents and the school community on Wednesday, Cotton said schools would “provide safe and supportive classrooms and learning activities” and that meals would continue to be served to students.

Cotton has expressed empathy for the union’s demands, but she has maintained that the district’s budget cannot afford them and that the strike is harmful to students.

“The strike will not fix these problems,” Cotton said in an email statement on Wednesday. “A strike takes teachers out of classrooms, harms relationships, and makes it harder to recruit and retain strong educators. … We are heartbroken for our students. They deserve stability, care, and a learning environment where adults work together.”

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WCCUSD teachers approve strike vote, after talks hit an impasse