Bay Area

WCCUSD Educators Getting 14.5% Salary Hike Within 5 Months

West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) educators will see a total 14.5% increase in salary within the next five months, part of a three-year contract agreement with the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) that was ratified by UTR members on February 17, according to the school district. In statements, the school district called the agreement “historic,” saying it reflects the highest two-year total increase that WCCUSD has offered in more than 20 years.

Published

2 years ago

February 23, 2023

Oakland Post

Kennedy High School in Richmond. Photo courtesy of The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

In statements, the school district called the agreement “historic,” saying it reflects the highest two-year total increase that WCCUSD has offered in more than 20 years.

As part of the agreement, the district says it will additionally increase the dollar amount of benefits contributions to maintain employees’ current level of health coverage and buffer the rising cost of medical care; establish mental health as an approved reason for Personal Necessity Leave; and expand parental leave (see a summary of agreements incorporated in the contract at the bottom of this story).

“While financing this agreement was not easy, we are proud to offer this critical investment in our educators,” WCCUSD Superintendent Dr. Chris Hurst said. “We strongly believe that this is an ethical reimagination of our district priorities, investing in our students, schools, and programs by recruiting and retaining highly qualified classroom educators.”

According to the district, financing the agreement required “aggressive reallocation of resources” and will mean the district’s budget will undergo significant operational cuts.

The newly ratified deal with UTR followed contentious negotiations and averted a potential strike.

When an impasse in negotations was declared in December, the district had reportedly offered its educators a cumulative 10% raise by July this year, as well as equity-based salary adjustments for hard-to-staff positions that were far below market rate. The UTR countered with a cumulative 17% in the same period, and had additionally requested increases in the third year of the contract, tied to an expected increase in state funding.

In a statement last week, the California Teachers Association (CTA) lauded the new agreement as prioritizing both safety and educator pay. In addition to the 14.5% salary increase, the new contract requires that MERV-31 or HEPA filters are placed in all workplaces, incorporates procedures to document safety concerns and provides educators with trauma-informed de-escalation strategies, according to CTR.

The new deal also incorporates language pertaining to the development of a Community Schools model of education into the UTR contract, a first for CTA member associations. A Community Schools model is one that develops partnerships between a school and other community resources that support a child’s growth beyond the classroom, with an integrated focus on academics, social services, leadership and community engagement, according to the CTA.

According to the WCCUSD, the role of classroom educators in shared governance of Community Schools was a point of contention in contract negotiations. The district had previously proposed addressing incorporation of Community Schools in a separate document or Memorandum of Understanding.

UTR President John Zabala said the new contract agreement, which was approved by 72.84% of 1,182 voting UTR members on Friday, achieves the union’s priorities.

“This was only possible through the incredible organizing efforts that our union demonstrated this year. New leaders have emerged and stepped up, giving up their nights and weekends,” Zabala said. “It has been an honor to meet and work with our zone captains, our organizing team, and our picket captains. We owe them so much.”

Summary of Agreements Included in the 2022-2025 Contract Deal Between WCCUSD and the UTR (as provided by the district):

Increases in Compensation

A 14.5% salary increase over the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 contract years, broken down as follows:
- 7% for the 2022-2023 school year, retroactive to July 1, 2022, including a 1% salary increase that funds additional educator time for collaboration and assessment;
- 5% for the 2023-2024 school year, including 1.5% to fund 1 additional educator workday in the work year;
Increased dollar amount in benefits contributions in order to maintain employees’ current level of coverage and buffer the rising cost of medical care, amounting to the equivalent of another 1.06% of compensation each year for the next three years;
An increase of the educator overtime rate, from $33 per hour to $42 per hour; as well as an increase of the period subbing rate to $50 for secondary and $55 for elementary; and
Increased rate for required staff development.

Direct Efforts to Address the Educator Staffing Crisis

Removal of the limit on years of service that new employees can bring from another district;
Improvement to the value and function of teacher transfer rounds by providing a financial incentive for teachers who notify the District of retirement/resignation by February 1 of each school year;
Compensation at the hourly rate for nurses covering for the absence of another nurse; and
Compensation at 120% rate for nurses covering a higher caseload due to unfilled positions.

Recognition of Educators’ Work Beyond the Instructional Day

A self-directed, work-from-home compensated workday (an extraordinarily rare work benefit for K-12 teachers)
A salary increase of 3.5% for secondary teachers who teach more than three preps (that is, who have to prepare to teach more than three different courses);
Additional stipend for elementary teachers teaching combination classes;
One paid week of collaboration for Speech Language Pathologists; and
Additional stipends for teacher leadership positions, including Teacher in Charge, Community Schools Lead Teacher, World Languages Department Chair, Assistive Technology (WATR) Department Chair.

Commitment to Shared Governance of Schools:

A first in the state of California: Contractual language to maintain our educators’ partnership in shared governance of WCCUSD’s long-standing Community Schools initiatives, both at the district and school site levels; and
Continuation of the collaborative process for creating the professional collaboration calendar at every school.

Improvements to Educators’ Wellness and Safety:

Expansion of the approved reasons for Personal Necessity Leave to include mental health;
MERV-13 filters or HEPA air purifiers for all workspace;
Streamlined process for safety complaints;
Expansion of paid parental leave, from 2 weeks on top of FMLA leave to 3 weeks on top of FMLA leave; and
Removal of the sunset clause for parental leave.

Improvements to Teaching and Learning Environments:

Continuation of class size reductions that went into effect on July 1, 2022;
Reduction of class size for Career Technical Education classes;
Reduction of the counselor-to-student ratio at high schools, from 350:1 to 338:1; and
Improved safeguards for space in dance classes by establishing class size as a 6-foot radius per student within the assigned dance room, up to a maximum of 51 in large rooms.

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

5 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.