Top Takeaways The district’s school board approves tentative labor agreements. California school districts face financial challenges amid teacher strikes. Deal between the district and the teachers union raises questions about budget cuts. The West Contra Costa Unified School District board narrowly approved tentative labor agreements hammered out at the bargaining table late last year with its teachers and other employees, but without a clear plan for how to pay for them. It’s a situation that may be replayed in other California school districts in the coming months. Unions in at least a dozen other districts have declared an impasse in labor negotiations, including in Oakland and San Francisco. Many of them are part of the “We Can’t Wait” campaign organized by the California Teachers Association, as were West Contra Costa Unified teachers.The five-day strike of West Contra Costa Unified teachers and other employees during the first week of December was the first strike in the district’s history. In a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, the school board voted to ratify the agreement with the United Teachers of Richmond, which represents teachers in the 25,000-student district in the San Francisco Bay Area. That agreement included granting teachers an 8% pay increase this year and next, as well as more generous health benefits. According to school district estimates, the increases in compensation and benefits to teachers and other employees will cost $105 million over three years during the life of the contracts, on top of an ongoing budgetary deficit the district is covering from…
