Cotati-Rohnert Park prepares for strike as district, teachers’ union remain divided over wages

As union leaders put out calls for bullhorns and safety vests in anticipation of a strike, Evergreen Elementary kindergarten teacher Mandy Hilliard found herself taking a few extra steps before leaving her classroom Wednesday: a little more cleaning, a little more organizing.

She couldn’t be sure when she might return — or who might be using it while she is away.

“Usually I leave really detailed sub plans,” said Hilliard, who has worked 18 years in the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District and is also a mother to two Evergreen students. “It’s a little bit nerve-wracking (that) I don’t know what’s going to be happening in my classroom tomorrow.”

Hilliard is one of hundreds of teachers who will trade lesson plans for picket signs Thursday, and one of thousands of parents who may keep their children home from school as the largest teacher strike to hit Sonoma County since 2017 begins.

Teachers in the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association are stopping work in a dispute with the district over wages. The strike comes nearly a year after the union opened with a proposal for a collective bargaining agreement that called for a 19% increase over three years.

The last negotiating session between the district and the union was Friday. On Monday, the union announced its intent to strike if no deal was reached by Thursday.

Two board members had met with union leaders for conversation Wednesday, but no formal negotiations occurred throughout the week.

However, district and union negotiators, school board trustees and community members faced each other Tuesday evening at a board meeting, which was preceded by a demonstration of 200 or more people and punctuated by tearful speeches, impromptu singing and sobering financial data.

Despite the fervent advocacy from educators and parents, and even some comments from trustees expressing anguish over the impasse, the district and union gained no ground toward a resolution.

Heading into Thursday, some parents were making arrangements to keep their kids out of the classroom to show support for the striking teachers. Principals, meanwhile, were scrambling to make contingency plans for the students who will be present.

Several campuses, including Evergreen Elementary School, University Elementary and Technology High School, told families that the school day would be shorter and class schedules would be modified. Monte Vista Elementary would be closed Thursday and Friday due to staffing shortages, the superintendent said in a letter to families.

Melissa Schaeffer Woltering, a single mother who works full-time, said she planned to keep her son out of University Elementary in solidarity with teachers. On Thursday, he’ll come to work with her between 8:30 a.m. and noon, and then a nanny will look after him until Schaeffer Woltering finishes work at 3 p.m.

“The reason why I did it is because I want to support the teachers,” she said. But, she added, “I’m confused, I’m scared.”

Teachers have been holding out for ongoing wage increases equal to those recommended by a state-appointed neutral fact-finder in a report published last week; those include a 6% increase for this year, 5% next year and 3.6% in 2023-2024, equating to 14.6% over three years.

“There’s nothing more to say,” said RPCEA president Denise Tranfaglia Tuesday in her report to the school board. “The answers are before you. … You can fix this. Settle this now.”

But district officials reiterated that the district cannot afford the union’s demands, especially if it adheres to long-standing policy of giving equal increases to its other two union partners and its administrators.

John Bartolome, chief business official, presented data during a budget update that showed the district would drain its reserves significantly this year with a 6% increase, and when a 5% increase kicked in for all employees in 2022-2023, the district would reach a structural deficit of $2.3 million.

A few school board members expressed anguish about the state of the negotiations and the district’s finances.

“I just want you to know, I hear you,” said Chrissa Gillies, a board member. She said as a single, working adult, she also doesn’t know when she will be able to retire, that she works about 80 hours per week and she helps her daughter cover basic needs such as groceries.

“I wish we weren’t where we are today, and I hope that we can work this out sooner rather than later,” Gillies said.

Some urged the board to think creatively and questioned why administrators would automatically receive the same raises when their salaries are closer to state averages than the teachers’.

“In 27 years, we have always provided for all the units, all the employees, in this district,” said Leffler Brown, a board member. “We have never just given a raise to one unit and not the others.”

Students also urged the district to find a way to give teachers the wage increases they asked for.

“Every single teacher should feel appreciated and respected, but to be quite frank with you, that is not how they are feeling,” Rancho Cotate High School junior Diana Flores told the board. “As a student leader myself, I would expect people with important roles, such as a board member, to step up and show their leadership skills.”

Several students said they planned to join their teachers on the picket line. Union members, meanwhile, were gathering bullhorns, safety vests and other materials in preparation for the first day on strike.

“We’re trying to figure out logistics: what we’re allowed to do, not allowed to do,” Hilliard said.

This will be the largest number of teachers and students affected since a 2017 strike in Petaluma City Schools over teacher pay, which scrambled campuses for one day. Cotati-Rohnert Park, Sonoma County’s third-largest school district, hasn’t experienced a strike in at least a generation.

“I want the teachers to get what they deserve,” said Schaeffer Woltering. “I just hope this pans out quickly.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.