Sonoma County teachers express worry over teacher shortages, pay heading into new school year

Herbert Slater Middle School teacher Genevieve Lilligren tiptoed on a school chair Friday, stapling posters of fruits and vegetables on the walls.

She was decorating her nontraditional classroom, equipped with stoves, large counter space and refrigerators, in anticipation for the first day of school, which starts Wednesday. She greeted parents and teachers who were heading to back-to-school orientation, with freshly baked cookies.

Lilligren teaches culinary arts for three class periods. And then U.S. History. Then drama. She’s taken on extra courses in response to a shortage of teachers at Slater.

She has to teach in different classrooms, depending on the subject, and gives up her lunch period to transition from one classroom to the next. Nonetheless, she’s optimistic about the new school year.

“We’re going to try to make lemonade out of lemons,” Lilligren said, as she set up her classroom while her two sons played with Legos nearby.

It’s extra work, but it’s something Lilligren and other Sonoma County teachers are willing to take on, often unpaid, as they get ready to start the new school year.

“Obviously, no one wants to work for free … in any industry,” Lilligren said. “But at the same time, I think a lot of us understand that we have to create an environment that is going to support not only our students, but also support us in supporting our students.”

While Sonoma County teachers are trying to stay hopeful and positive for their students, union leaders across districts are anticipating continued struggles with teacher vacancies, wages and contract negotiations.

As of Monday, there were nearly 70 active listings for teachers and full-time substitutes across all 40 school districts, according to a Press Democrat analysis.

In Sonoma County’s biggest district, Santa Rosa City Schools, there were 32 active listings for teachers, with the most need in special education, math and science.

These positions are especially hard to fill. According to a data analysis by Bellwether Education Partners, nationwide shortages of teachers in these subjects dramatically increased in the 2000s.

“We've posted all of the positions, some are starting to get filled,” said Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell. “But with summer, we typically experience a load of applicants. So we imagine that we're going to be able to fill these positions very soon, especially with school starting.”

However the posted vacancies don’t tell the whole story. Last week, trustees on the Santa Rosa City Schools board passed a “declaration of need for fully qualified teachers,” stating the need for an estimated 60 additional teachers at the high school level alone.

They also approved a memorandum of understanding, agreeing that newly hired classified employees will be paid a $500 signing bonus on their start date, and an additional $500 at the end of the 2023-24 school year, aiming to boost recruitment and retention.

Teacher vacancies

The teacher shortage is a national crisis long anticipated.

Teachers began leaving the profession as early as the 2008 recession, and the exodus was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which teachers experienced burnout from the demands of online learning.

This led teachers to retire much earlier than they might have anticipated at the beginning of their careers, making up for a major portion of vacancies in teacher positions, according to a study in January 2022 by the Learning Policy Institute.

California has seen the impact of the shortage for nearly a decade, prompting support from Gov. Gavin Newsom as early as 2015 to invest billions of dollars annually into teacher recruitment.

Whether it's the high cost of living in Sonoma County or the salaries offered, incoming teachers are not finding the open positions attractive.

“It’s not just teacher pay,” Montgomery High School Teacher Jim LaFrance said, referring to the lack of applicants. “You look at (how) maybe you can make more money in another position, and you don't have the stress and the challenges that educators face.”

The individual perception of teachers as professionals has become overwhelmingly negative in recent years, said Santa Rosa Teachers Association President Kathryn Howell.

“If you ask an individual about teachers in general, or public schools, it's usually negative,” Howell said. “So it's like, how do you reconcile that within your own self, of getting into this profession that is in many ways, not respected by the public? It's not completely surprising that new graduates are choosing to do something else."

Every district in Sonoma County is struggling to fill teacher vacancies.

The special education, math and science positions require teachers with specialized backgrounds, which often means experienced teachers take on the brunt of the excess work.

“We have a ‘memorandum of understanding,’ which is just a temporary agreement that allows for secondary teachers to teach an extra section and give up their prep,” said Sandra Larson, president of the Petaluma Federation of Teachers and a longtime teacher.

This solution — often the first option when a school realizes a vacancy will not be filled in time — is equivalent to a nonstop school day, with only a lunch break. It’s up to 30 more essays, science projects or math tests for each teacher to grade.

“It’s concerning because I worry about people burning out,” Larson said.

While teachers are typically compensated an additional 20% of their salary for taking on the extra section workload, the additional work affects their ability to teach at full capacity, Howell said.

“The main reason teachers do it is for the kids, right?” Howell said. “There are definitely teachers that will take it on, especially in their first few years of teaching when their salaries are still pretty low. Because that's a huge chunk of money and it could make a difference to a person and their quality and standard of living.”

“What they ended up doing is working well beyond the school day and well beyond their contract hours to get all that work done.”

Sometimes substitutes can take the additional classes, but given the nature of math and science classes, the option is not always favorable.

“ (Substitutes) often have no background in the subject matter,” Howell said. “The students deserve the best, and a substitute teacher is not going to be the best solution.”

Will Lyons, who teaches English at Santa Rosa High, remembers last year’s scramble to make sure every class had a teacher available to fill in while they waited for a permanent solution. The vacant positions outweighed the school’s resources, even with substitutes.

At one point, administrators were even subbing in classes.

“This kind of stresses the whole system,” Lyons said. “Everybody's kind of burned out, not doing their very best on the part that they're officially assigned to do. Every one of those jobs that are open, is there for a reason: to serve students.”

Howell echoed this sentiment.

“A teacher that is spread thin, that is barely hanging on, is not going to be the best teacher they can be ― the teacher that our students deserve,” she said.

Lyons said heading into the school year is “gonna be a beautiful disaster.”

Districts are looking for creative solutions because increasing teacher pay isn’t easy to achieve. School budgets, past union disputes and teacher strikes have proved that, and current negotiations are going to take a while.

Teacher pay

Sonoma County’s average teacher pay in the 2021-22 school year was just below $75,000 for unified school districts, according to California Department of Education data.

In comparison, California’s average salary for a unified district schoolteacher was $87,732 in 2021-22, with the overall state average at $85,856.

Beginning teachers, who make as little as $42,000 in Sonoma County’s elementary schools, often have to take on second jobs, live at home with their parents or have roommates to afford the cost of rent.

Union leaders argue that increased teacher pay is paramount to attracting and retaining professionals in Sonoma County, where residents need to earn $103,870 year per household to live comfortably if paying rent, according to a 2023 GOBankingRates study.

Lisa Bauman, president of the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association, knows the teacher pay issue is not unique to her district, to Sonoma County or even to California.

“But it's a reflection of the future of education,” she said. “If we don’t do something, it’s just going to get bleaker.”

Their districts are also competing against neighboring Napa and Marin counties, which offer teachers much higher average salaries, Bauman said.

Marin County's average teacher salary for unified districts in 2021-22 was $90,317, according to the California Department of Education. In Napa it was $99,558.

Some teachers are willing to just move or make a longer commute, Bauman said. With those wages, she says Sonoma County districts need to be more competitive or they will be in trouble.

Negotiations to come

This year, teacher unions will focus on fighting to bridge the gap between cost of living, state and county average teacher pay, and improved health benefits.

There are 14 school districts across the county that have not reached a contract agreement for the current school year, according to the Sonoma County Office of Education, meaning they’re in active negotiations or are satisfied with the benefits of their last contract.

Petaluma Federation of Teacher’s contract doesn’t expire until 2025, but when the contract opens “wages will definitely be on that list,” Larson said.

The Bennett Valley Teachers Association, which had the lowest wages in Santa Rosa, was on the verge of a strike last spring but has since reached a settlement and is waiting on the school board to approve a final ratification August 16.

Bauman said she’s heading into the school year and negotiations with “cautious optimism.”

In 2022, she led a six-day long teacher strike, saying the experience was exhausting, but informative, and will help drive their next contract negotiations.

In March, 2022 teachers hit the picket lines after eight months of stalled negotiations over pay increases. Most classes emptied as families and students joined them outside their campuses. Despite tight budgets, teachers ended up with a 14.6% raise over three years.

“I saw how empowered our association was when it really mattered,” Bauman said. “I think people are ready. I know I feel rested and ready, and I feel positive and encouraged that we're going to be just as strong and unified as we were in March of 2022.”

This year, the Santa Rosa Teachers Association will be preparing for open contracts, which start in July 2024, said Howell. Though there’s no set plan, she said it’s likely salary and health benefits will be at the top of their priorities.

Howell remembers teachers from association chapters across the county joined the Rohnert Park Cotati teachers on the picket line.

“We're tight knit and we're all one union,” she said. “We definitely talk to each other about what’s being bargained in other locals and making sure we don’t just compare ― that we support each other.”

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8531 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. Reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@PressDemocrat.com.