Copyright Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Hundreds of Santa Rosa’s unionized teachers and staff met this past week in a rare show of force to rally behind a common goal: requesting an outside audit of district finances and demanding greater transparency from Santa Rosa City Schools leadership, who teachers say they no longer trust to solve the now-dire budget woes. The after-hours, in-person meeting Tuesday reflected the high stakes involved for the county’s largest school system, with about 12,000 students. The Santa Rosa district is at risk of both running out of cash and falling into state receivership if it does not make significant headway closing a deficit that has developed over years. Interim Superintendent Lisa August in September said an additional $10 million-15 million in cuts were necessary this school year and warned more layoffs were inevitable — after 150 teachers and staff were let go at the end of the past school year, amid a historic set of campus closures and consolidations meant to stabilize district finances. It was not enough. “Here’s the bottom line — if we don’t trust the district, and we don’t … then we have to get people in here that can figure this thing out,” said Lisa Vieler, California Teachers Association bargaining specialist, at Tuesday’s meeting at Santa Rosa High School. “That has to be external people who are not tied to this county, this county’s superintendent or this (district) superintendent in any way, shape or form.” Vieler and other representatives from the statewide union led the meeting with Santa Rosa Teachers Association President Kathryn Howell. About 400 teachers — about half the local union’s total membership — were on hand to reckon with the grim fiscal outlook and what it would mean to fall into state receivership. State takeover would oust the superintendent and sideline the district’s seven trustees, elected by voters; going forward they would hold advisory-only positions. A state official would be named to govern the district. “We know that that would mean terrible things for our district,” said Ian Myers, SRTA organizing chair. “It would mean terrible things for our contract, our grievance process, our ability to actually negotiate with humans who have a vested interest in our local accountability — all of that goes away. “We know that it would be satisfying in some way to have a full overhaul of our district office, but at the expense of losing our contract and our ability to grieve? We cannot allow that to happen,” he said. “It’s not what’s best for us, it’s not what’s best for our students.” If Santa Rosa City Schools were to enter state receivership, it would be the first Sonoma County school district to lose local control. Statewide, only 10 districts have fallen into receivership since 1990. The teachers’ union — backed by the district’s two other labor groups that include custodians, front office staff and aides — is enlisting experts with the statewide teachers union and requesting intervention by the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team to drum up solutions, hoping to minimize the impact on classrooms. The move comes after trustees, district administrators and managers in recent weeks have agreed to pay cuts that together amount to about $380,000 in annual savings, or 0.2% of the operating budget. Teachers, who represent the bulk of payroll costs for the district, have been asked to consider a set of immediate and nearer-term concessions that could lead to savings outside of workforce reductions. To begin with, the teachers have been asked to waive their professional day in January and take instead an unpaid furlough day, a move that could save the district about $730,000, according to the union. Teachers have also been asked to take two unpaid days next year, a 2% pay cut and to freeze their step and column raises for two years — amounting to a roughly 6% cut in overall compensation, according to union leaders. Those concessions would save the district $5 million next fiscal year, but would not contribute to the immediate savings goal. “Just because this is what they asked for doesn’t mean they’re going to get it,” Howell said to the packed auditorium of teachers, who cheered her message. “We have to agree to this, and we’re not agreeing to this. … And we’re really, really not agreeing to this until we know the bigger picture.” Pushing back on the district’s furlough request, the teachers group is seeking more information from the district, including a fuller accounting of how much money was saved when 150 staffers were laid off and four schools were shuttered this past spring. SRTA representatives sat down on Oct. 21 with district officials for the first time in months. The two sides were set to meet again Thursday. Still more layoff notices — likely more than the 300 initially sent out for the reductions this past school year — are expected in February. Santa Rosa City Schools Board President Roxanne McNally, in a Wednesday interview, said she recognizes that public trust in the district — among school staff members and the wider community — is at a low point as the fiscal crisis has spiraled into an emergency over the past two years. She expected a Nov. 12 release of a more detailed accounting of the deficit and recent savings would address some of the questions and frustration. McNally also said she is open to bringing in outside agencies to look at the district’s books. “I don’t know how to regain trust other than bringing forth the numbers, showing that we are being honest about what the district needs,” she said. The furlough concession in front of teachers, she stressed, “is really necessary in order for us to maintain our cash flow for this current year. … I think everyone in the community wants to avoid receivership and taking that one furlough day is a way we can avoid doing that.” But without concrete numbers, Howell said, teachers are reluctant to consider the district’s initial requests. “The real problem we’re having is putting that into context,” Howell said in an interview Tuesday. “Where,” she asked, do teachers’ concessions “fit into the big picture?… Is it 10% of what they’re trying to get to or is it 5%?” Even some trustees are saying they remain in the dark about exactly how much the district managed to save when it voted in February to close six schools by this coming June, shifting to a 7-12 junior-senior model for secondary campuses. “(We voted) this last year to consolidate and close middle school programs into high schools,” Trustee Jeremy De La Torre said at the Oct. 8 board meeting. “Do we have numbers? Is that actually saving money? I don’t know. “In good conscience I can’t make the decision to move in any direction until I have actual numbers,” he said. Santa Rosa teachers on average make about $98,000 including salary and benefits, which is 11% less than the state average of $117,697. Still, district leaders, and analysts from the Sonoma County Office of Education, have regularly pointed to wage increases in the past five years as a major contributor to increased expenses, even as the district has seen its student enrollment numbers and related revenue continue to decline, the two factors combining to widen Santa Rosa City Schools structural deficit. Pandemic-era one-time funds helped paper over that imbalance — a not uncommon one among school districts statewide — but that funding has now dried up. And Santa Rosa City Schools has now depleted its reserves that helped make up the difference in recent years. The county’s elected superintendent of schools, Amie Carter, told district officials in no uncertain terms weeks ago that the district is at risk of running out of cash by the start of the 2026-27 school year. She also called out district officials for approving raises in years past, in the face of mounting fiscal peril. “Despite grappling with a structural deficit and declining reserves, the board continued to approve substantial staff compensation increases that exceeded annual cost-of-living adjustments, funding them with short-term measures such as reclassifying ongoing expenses as one-time costs, in an effort to allow more time for a thorough and deliberate decision-making process,” Carter wrote in a Sept. 15 letter. CTA leader Christopher Brunette pushed back Tuesday night on that critique, pointing to the district’s place below the state average in pay and citing increased “unbelievable, unsustainable” spending in categories not related to classroom teachers as the real culprit. “When we look at the problem here, the problem is a spending problem,” said Brunette, a lead labor negotiator for SRTA. “You all are not to blame.” Still, payroll costs account for 85% of Santa Rosa City Schools’ operating budget, and rank-and-file employees, including teachers, make up the largest share of that payroll. Union leaders acknowledged the difficult task before them and hinted that concessions, however unpalatable, will likely be necessary as the district moves to slash millions of dollars. “This is 100% the fault of our mismanaged district, right? Absolute gross mismanagement,” Myers said. “We are put in a terrible position where we have to help them solve this problem. It’s not a position that we want to be in, but if we don’t, it’s going to get worse.” The gathered teachers left the meeting with copies of a petition their labor leaders have asked they sign and return to board members at the Nov. 12 meeting. It reiterates their call for outside agencies to examine the district’s books before key concessions are made. Many took multiple copies to give to colleagues and friends. Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.
