27 Feb Teachers Union Asks Richmond to Look at WCCUSD Finances; Richmond Honors ‘Black Nine’ Officers

Richelle Milford, from left, Gabrielle Micheletti and Francisco Ortiz of the United Teachers of Richmond spoke at Tuesday’s Richmond City Council meeting. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

The teachers union representing over 1,500 educators in the West Contra Costa Unified School District has been sounding the alarm on what they say is a district “manufactured fiscal crisis.” Now, they want Richmond’s help fixing it.

While the West Contra Costa school board approves millions in cuts to remain fiscally solvent, United Teachers of Richmond’s vice president Gabrielle Micheletti says WCCUSD is “manipulating these numbers in a way that strikes fear in the district and creates a downward spiral.” 

Micheletti and other UTR leaders, including president Francisco Ortiz, asked council members to conduct an independent analysis of WCCUSD’s finances and officially declare the district’s budget governance a crisis. 

“They are really pushing the narrative that there is no money,” Micheletti told Richmond City Council members Tuesday. “Right now, they are just eviscerating our schools, and it is putting more and more burden on our teachers who are still here working.” 

Richmond officials were supportive of the union’s calls for transparency within the district and encouraged future collaboration across cities, WCCUSD and educators (including a potential resolution declaring a crisis) but were split on the request to conduct a financial analysis. 

Council members Soheila Bana and Jamelia Brown said they didn’t want to overstep their boundaries. 

“Please again, think twice before listing your specific asks to make sure it’s most beneficial to you and doesn’t put us in an uncomfortable position,” Bana said. 

Council members Sue Wilson and Claudia Jimenez felt differently. 

“I just really want to emphasize that this idea that we don’t want to step on any toes, that’s not my feeling about what I’m willing to do for Richmond teachers,” Wilson said. “If I have to step on some toes to improve the working conditions and the education conditions of Richmond kids, I’ll step on toes.” 

The Richmond City Council does not have authority over WCCUSD or its school board, which is made up of five elected trustees and two student trustees. Four of those trustees — Cinthia Hernandez, Guadalupe Enllana, Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy and Leslie Reckler — represent schools in Richmond. Hernandez and Enllana, the newest trustees, represent the bulk of those. 

“This is our moment to use our political skills to move the needle,” council member Doria Robinson said. 

Hours before the meeting, UTR said that the district’s new interim superintendent of business services David Hart agreed with the union’s financial analysis. However, interim Superintendent Kim Moses said at the Feb. 5 meeting that the $162 million UTR said was in reserves was “not an accuracy in our reality.” 

“The reality is currently in our reserves we are holding $37.63 million dollars,” Moses said at that meeting.

The district’s fiscal solvency plan — which accounts for $13 million in cuts over the next two years and $19 million this school year — “is exhausting most of that in order to meet our annual fiscal responsibilities,” Moses told the school board Feb. 5. 

“Almost every year, West Contra Costa predicts in their adopted budget that millions of dollars will be needed from Fund 17, however, when the unaudited actuals come out … we see that not only zero dollars were being used but money was actually added,” said UTR bargaining co-chair Richelle Milford. 

UTR said accumulating funds in reserves was something the Los Angeles Unified School District did when Hart served as its chief financial officer. LAUSD, the state’s largest school district, had $4.9 billion in reserves in 2023 that educators urged the district to use to prevent cuts. 

LAUSD said in a statement then that those funds had “little flexibility.” 

UTR said the real problem is with the district’s recruitment and retention. In the past three years, UTR said over 560 educators have left WCCUSD. 

>>From Our Archives (2021):

‘We … Put Ourselves Last’: Former WCCUSD Teachers on Why They Left the Classroom<<<

Much of that is because of the high cost of living in Contra Costa County and WCCUSD’s salaries being almost 10% lower than the California average, according to the union. 

“Next time we come together,” Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a former WCCUSD teacher, said, “we will have ideas that will be brought by you and brought by us because only by sharing ideas can we advance and move forward.” 

‘Black Nine’ recognition

Near the end of Black History Month, the City Council and a room filled with supporters honored the contributions of nine former Black Richmond police officers who filed the country’s first internal lawsuit in a police department challenging racial discrimination.

“With Judge Henry Ramsey’s help, we changed a few things,” Arthur Johnson, one of the Black Nine, said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Richmond is a better place because the Black Nine stood up during times when there was times to stand up and stood out.”

The Black Nine are: Johnson, Douglas Ellison, Harold Redic, Marvin Smith, Ollie Glover, Otis Timmons, Michael Nichols, Rudolph Johnson and Tecumseh “Danny” Nelson. 

Council members also honored Ramsey, the lawyer of the nine and a former Alameda County judge; and Guardians of Justice (the Black Police Officers’ Association), an organization the nine founded that the staff report says is “dedicated to fighting injustice and supporting underprivileged communities.” 

The Black Nine’s victory “not only led to improved treatment of Black officers in Richmond but also inspired the creation of advocacy groups for Black officers across the country,” read the report, brought forward by council members Bana, Brown and Robinson. 

Chief Bisa French, the first Black woman to lead the Richmond Police Department, is a member of the Guardians of Justice. 

“There’s too many to name,” she said, “but it’s because of you all and the work that you did to pave the way for many of us that are up here today that are still within the department.”