No resolution in sight as second day of Cotati-Rohnert Park teacher strike ends

The scene in the commercial parking lot across from Rancho Cotate High School was similar Friday morning to the staging area from just a day before

A spread of coffee, pastries and fruit sat on a table under a canopy, along with sign-in sheets for teachers and community members and a collection of protest signs to mark the second day of a districtwide strike.

Around 8 a.m., Denise Tranfaglia, president of the teachers union, addressed the swelling group of teachers and supporters clad in red or purple.

“Day Two is going to be hard,” said Tranfaglia, who has taught in the Cotati-Rohnert Park district for 23 years. “We’re excited, we’re here, but at the end of the day, we’re going to be like, ‘Where’s our deal?’”

Day Two again featured more than 300 teachers walking picket lines and modified schedules at all but one of the district’s 13 school campuses. But no negotiations took place Friday between the bargaining teams for the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association and the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District.

District and union officials said no talks were planned for the weekend, either, as of Friday afternoon, setting the stage for a labor action poised to go into its second week on Monday. After next Friday, students are on spring break for a week.

The strike already has disrupted instruction for 6,000 students in Sonoma County’s third-largest school district. Fewer than 750 attended classes for the second time Friday, according to the district.

Teachers remain steadfast in their call for ongoing wage increases equal to those recommended by a state-appointed neutral fact-finder in a report published last week. That would include a 6% increase for this year, 5% next year and 3.6% in 2023-2024, equaling 14.6% over three years.

The district has balked at the first-year figure and offered instead a 3% increase and 3% one-time bonus. District officials have cited budget projections showing a full 6% first-year hike in payroll costs for all employees would drain most reserves.

By the end of next school year, under the higher costs linked to teacher pay and equal raises for other unionized staff and administrators, the Cotati-Rohnert Park district would face a deficit of $2.3 million, district leaders say.

Any board approval of a deficit-based budget would trigger a host of urgent steps, including a plan to cut enough costs to rebalance the budget.

The district’s budget is nearly $60 million this year, and the largest cost is personnel. Teachers, as the largest group of employees, account for the most cost.

“To go fiscally insolvent means we’re going to go into next year having regular meetings to look for cuts,” said Superintendent Mayra Perez Friday. “We’re going to have to look for so many dollars, and it has to be people.”

A raise at the rate sought by teachers would cost the district approximately $8.5 million over three years. Granting the same raise to administrators would cost an additional $2.5 million.

But Cotati-Rohnert Park has “no legal or moral obligation” to give administrators the same raise, the union said, contending it already spends more as a share of its budget than California districts on average spend on administrator salaries and benefits.

Bryna Wigmore, president of the allied Service Employees International Union in Cotati-Rohnert Park, echoed the sentiment while on the picket line outside Technology Middle School Friday.

“Management makes enough already,” she said.

At least 96 of the union’s 140 members, which include classroom aides, library assistants, campus supervisors and others, have joined their teacher colleagues on the picket lines over the past two days, she said.

Parents continued to express support for teachers Friday in interviews and emails to The Press Democrat. Student attendance remained meager, with only 738 students showing up at school — eight more than had attended Thursday, and still around 12% of the total student body.

About 50 students who were in class at Technology Middle School walked out for a second day in a row to stand with their teachers on the picket line. A few staff members supervised to make sure students were safe.

“I think it's kind of lame how they have to do this,” said Isadora McKenna-McKee, a sixth-grader. Within a few minutes, she had already finished two signs.

“Babysitters make more,” said one.

“Most of my family are teachers,” McKenna-McKee said. “They work a lot harder than they should.”

Barbara Ruch, mother to a sophomore at Rancho Cotate High School, left the decision up to her daughter to attend or stay home during the strike. She chose to stay home in support of her teachers.

Ruch, meanwhile, spent her day off Friday driving to various school sites to drop off food and water. In between work on Thursday, she drove a similar circuit, Ruch said, so she could honk her horn for the teachers.

“It was the only support I could offer,” Ruch said.

Larry Dunn, father of a Technology High School senior, said his son decided to stay home to do work his teachers had prepared in advance, rather than attend in-person for the modified instruction happening at his school. He has AP exams in a month and wants to study.

Dunn said his son’s teachers are “awesome,” and he supports their push for a higher wage. At the same time, though, he wonders whether the union and district are far enough apart in their negotiations to warrant a strike, especially with no clear end in sight.

“To strike for such a thin margin seems like a big ask,” Dunn said. For the first couple of days, at least, his son has been challenged by and occupied with his schoolwork.

“But if it drags on for more than a few days, then who knows?” Dunn said.

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