Here’s why teachers are picketing weekly at Cotati-Rohnert Park schools

Teaching band at Technology Middle School isn’t Ben Mesches’ only job. He also tends bar in Petaluma part-time and teaches private music lessons on the side.

His jobs, and the income his fiancée, Alex, makes as a case manager with Sonoma County’s homeless outreach team, enable the couple afford a 600-square-foot apartment in Santa Rosa. They’re also planning for their wedding.

But when they consider the possibility of Ben quitting his bartending job, or moving into a bigger place, the financial picture gets murky, Mesches said.

“We can’t afford to move out,” the 29-year-old teacher said. “It feels unfair. We work really hard.”

Mesches said he’s heard stories like his from all across the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District for years. Those stories are the driving force, teachers say, behind their push for a three-year contract with a double-digit percentage raise.

Teachers in the district would need about a 30% raise to match the statewide average teacher salary. The district has offered what it calls a nearly 10% raise spread out over three years.

The fight led to impasse with district negotiators early in the school year, and union members overwhelmingly voted in November to strike if negotiations fail. Discussions have continued unsuccessfully, and tensions have been rising.

By the final days of February, the two negotiating teams expect to have better sense of where they stand; a state-appointed “neutral” will produce his fact-finding report to both parties this week, to be made public a few days later.

Denise Tranfaglia, president of the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association, expressed confidence that the fact-finder’s report will put the district in the position of needing to up its offer.

“If it was a favorable report, which we think is going to happen, then the president of the Board of Education should authorize (Superintendent Mayra Perez) to come up with a better offer,” Tranfaglia, a 24-year veteran of the district, said.

Perez offered a more conservative take.

“I hear that they’re very confident and that’s great, but I also worry about the fiscal solvency of the district,” she said. “I want to make sure we don’t have a negative or qualified budget.”

Both parties say they want to avoid a strike.

“It’s our hope and our intention and our goal to work this out at the table,” Perez said. “Our community, our students, our parents and our staff do not need a strike.”

Tranfaglia agreed.

“Nobody wants to strike — are you kidding, after these last couple years?” she said. “But educators know what they’re worth. They want to be valued, and what’s the harm in asking to be valued?”

A long road to middle ground

For the past several years, the district’s approximately 320 union teachers have had their salaries and benefits determined and renegotiated annually, often with retroactive. single-digit raises. But last year, the union decided to go for more.

The negotiating team opened in April 2021 with a request for a three-year agreement instead, with bigger increases than the retroactive 1% to 3% agreed to in the last settlement.

In total, they requested a 19% total increase through the duration of the contract: 7% in 2021-2022, 6% in ’22-’23 and another 6% in ‘23-’24.

Tranfaglia said teachers felt the time had come to ask for a longer agreement and bigger raises in order to move the district’s salary offering closer to the state average. They had also hoped to settle the agreement before the district passed its budget for the 2021 fiscal year, which did not happen.

In 2019-20, the average teacher salary in a California unified school district was $83,901, according to the California Department of Education. In Cotati-Rohnert Park that same year, the average was $63,878.

Teachers said their lagging pay rates are especially difficult in Sonoma County, where cost of living is higher than the state average. That kind of financial pressure can make it hard for teachers to continue to live and work in the district, union members say.

“We want to make sure we can attract and retain educators to stay in our district so they don’t leave and go to surrounding districts or leave the state,” Tranfaglia said.

In August, the district, which is in solid financial shape with an 8% reserve fund, responded with an opening offer of a single-year, 1.5% wage increase. After the union rejected that offer, the district in September came forward with a last, best and final offer of 2% for the year, with the $2,000 bonus.

The union also rejected that offer, and the two parties were at impasse, which began the mediation process. On Nov. 17, the union announced that more than 90% of the membership had voted to authorize a strike if an agreement could not be reached.

After fact-finding and the release of new, higher COLA estimates from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the district bumped up its offer in January to include what the district has described as a 9.9% increase over three years.

That includes a 3% increase this year, 3% the following year, and 1% for the third year. The district continued to offer the same $2,000 off-schedule bonus for all teachers; Perez said the district is offering the bonus based on one-time funding related to COVID relief.

“I believe it is a good offer,” Perez said. “We tried to honor (the union’s request for) a three year agreement, and our hope is to increase our offer in year three once we know what our revenues will be for that year.”

But teachers have protested that the bonus offered by the school district doesn’t count as a raise.

“We don’t like bonuses because it doesn’t apply to our retirement or the salary scale, and it is taxed at a higher rate,” Tranfaglia said.

They also continue to advocate for wage increases that more closely mirror the rise in cost of living. One statistic the union points to is to the Consumer Price Index, which rose 7.5% nationwide between January 2021 and 2022, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The way the district has handled teacher salaries for the past few years, determining pay after finalizing its budget, “means they’re not planning for the increased cost of living, which means that we’re not going to be competitive,” said Emilie King, vice president of the union.

“We understand it’s not an easy task, by any means, but it’s something that for years, the teachers have been asking for the district to plan for us,” she said. “Plan to reallocate the budget and to take a look at some of those (expenses) and get creative.”

'Not going to cut it’

Many schools are bracing in the coming year for the financial impacts of declining enrollment and high rates of absenteeism during the pandemic.

Perez said those are among the reasons she and the district are approaching a three year deal with caution.

“At this point, we think we’re stretched a little bit with what we offered,” Perez said. “If we’re expected to stretch more, we’re really going to have to sit down and do some planning, work with principals and our entire community to see what we can do.”

Teachers, though, don’t buy that there’s no money to be found. They say the district has prioritized making administrative salaries competitive, and it’s time for them to catch teachers up.

Tranfaglia said she appreciates that the district increased its offer and continuing to negotiate.

But, “7% over three years is not going to cut it for us,” she said.

Since January, the mood around the negotiations process has grown more tense. Teachers have been protesting at various campuses before and after school, and picketing outside of board meetings, to keep the pressure on.

Kristi McWilliams, a teacher at Rancho Cotate High School, has joined her colleagues in protests outside at the end of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“While I’m out there, I’m usually thinking, ‘Why is this necessary?’” she said. “I’m happy to be out there to support my colleagues, but I also think it’s ridiculous that it’s necessary that we have to fight and work so hard to get what we deserve.”

“But when cars start honking as we go by, it’s also empowering and makes us want to continue fighting,” she said.

At the Feb. 15 school board meeting, Perez and board members began discussing plans if the negotiations fail and a strike occurs. After a short discussion, the board voted to table any action, until an unspecified later date.

The possibility of a strike has teachers and administrators alike worried, but determined. Most are eager to see what the fact finder determines in the report this week.

“We will take it seriously and look at it,” Perez said. “It’s up to the board to give authorization, if we need to make changes to our offer.”

“Nothing happens without tension,” Tranfaglia said. “Change happens when we really have to take a hard look at things, and educators want to be prioritized.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Ben Mesches’ name and that he lives in Santa Rosa. It has also been updated to clarify the discrepancy in wages between the state average and Cotati-Rohnert Park.

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