Live updates: A second Sacramento-area teachers strike begins in Natomas
For the second time in a week, teachers in a Sacramento-area school district took to the picket lines.
Teachers for the Natomas Unified School District struck Tuesday morning, following through on a plan to do so after negotiations with the district stalled, days after teachers for the Twin Rivers Unified School District went on a strike.
The Twin Rivers teachers strike is in its fourth day and the district will resume bargaining talks Tuesday at the request of Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento.
The Sacramento Bee will be providing ongoing coverage Tuesday of the Natomas Unified strike. Here’s how things were looking as of about 1:30 p.m.
Hundreds attend midday rally near Inderkum
Hundreds gathered Tuesday for a noon rally at North Natomas Regional Park, across the street from Inderkum High School.
Natomas Teachers Association President Nico Vaccaro told attendees that the district has the means to pay competitive wages and invest in its students.
“We are on strike for our students,” Vaccaro said.
Jlay Tor, a mother of four from Natomas, said she has been in the district since 2011, first with two students who graduated Inderkum, and now with two at Paso Verde. She said she has watched qualified, experienced educators leave the district. Some have begun to view Natomas as a “training district” for early-career teachers.
“I’ve seen the slow decline,” Tor said.
One of her children had experienced teachers for kindergarten and first grade, but for second and third grade has had first-year teachers.
“Educators across the state have had it,” said California Teachers Association President David Goldberg. “You can’t keep balancing the budget on our backs and our students’ backs.”
People marched from the farmer’s market marquee in the park to the North Natomas Library, past Interkum High, chanting and carrying signs.
The teachers are part of a wave of Northern California strikes led by CTA. The Dublin Teachers Association began a strike Monday. Richmond teachers walked out for the first time in December, for four days, said United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz.
Ortiz said the Richmond teachers had similar complaints: They were among the lowest paid in the region, with the highest health care contributions in Contra Costa County. Plus, turnover was dramatic. The union, which represents about 1,450 people, saw 1,500 educators leave over the course of five years.
They won 8% raises over two years, and fully-funded health benefits, he said.
Where negotiations stand
As The Bee reported Monday, the strike followed an 11-hour negotiating session on Sunday. The Natomas union has sought a two-year cumulative raise of 8.5%, while the district is offering 4% in that span. The union would also like better health care for teachers and their families and minimum staffing for social workers, nurses and school psychologists.
“Instead of being at the table, they chose to hold a press conference,” Vaccaro said Monday of the district. “It’s disappointing.”
The district officials said they had most recently adjusted their proposal Friday, offering an increased raise and a restructured health benefit plan with a fully-paid option for teachers and their dependents for the next two years. They maintain that the district’s offer is consistent with the findings of a third-party fact finder and improves conditions for teachers while being mindful of the suburban district’s “fiscal reality.”
“At the end of last week, the neutral fact finding report confirmed the district’s proposal is aligned with an independent, neutral voice that they determined is reasonable within the fiscal realities facing our district,” Superintendent Robyn Castillo said at a Monday news conference.
In a Tuesday morning email to families of students, a district spokesperson acknowledged that that the morning’s student drop off “likely looked different” at schools. But the spokesperson also wrote that “a neutral third-party fact-finding panel” had issued a report and found that the district’s offer to teachers was reasonable.
“Picketing will not change the fiscal realities facing our district today,” the spokesperson wrote.
Rally outside Natomas High School
About 100 people rallied in front of Natomas High School Tuesday morning. The main issues on the bargaining table, they said, are health benefits, wages and class sizes. Attendees said health benefits cut deeply into teachers’ paychecks, exacerbating turnover.
“We have a teacher retention crisis here,” said Jeff Bryan, an English teacher of 13 years at Natomas High. Bryan said neighboring districts outcompete Natomas on benefits and wages.
“We want to get back in the classroom ASAP,” Bryan said. “Every day lost that we’re not in the classroom is a missed opportunity for learning.”
Ashley Battle, a mother of two children in the school district, said short-staffing in classrooms, and a lack of aides, is a security risk.
“I know teachers who have two to three jobs,” she said.
Battle said her husband teaches at Inderkum High School, and the family’s health benefits eat about one-third of his paychecks.
“The benefits are the biggest thing,” she said. “None of these teachers wanted to strike.”
Vaccaro, the union president and also a special education teacher, said members pay $1,500 per month for health care. Vaccaro said the union is pushing for fully funded benefits with Kaiser, the health system used by many of the district’s employees.
Vaccaro said 106 educators left the district last year, switching to other districts for better pay or leaving the profession altogether.
The scene at Heron School
In North Natomas on Tuesday morning, around a hundred Heron School teachers marched around the campus grounds and through nearby streets, chanting, “The teachers united will never be defeated!”
Lisa MacMillan, a first grade teacher at Heron School, was hit by a car on the first day of school last year and spent a full year in recovery. She said she was faced with paying $1,300 per month out of pocket for her medical insurance. MacMillan said low insurance coverage and fair pay are the most pressing issues for teachers.
“It’s an issue for everybody. The district is only covering 60%,” MacMillan said. “Healthcare keeps going up and up. That’s a major issue.”
Melinda Lai, a seventh grade science teacher at Heron School, said she’s striking to urge better learning conditions for students. Lai, who also has a student at the school, said over two dozen empty positions have left students without a full-time teacher. “We’re on strike today because our kids deserve safe and stable schools,” Lai said.
Parents share views on teacher strike
Natomas Unified is a district of around 17,000 students. Its campuses remained open Tuesday, leaving parents to determine whether to send their children to school with substitutes or keep them home.
Machelle Mack is a grandmother of a Heron School second-grader. She supported the strike, but was concerned about the low number of teachers at the school.
“I am supportive of the teachers in the strike,” Mack said. “It’s been a long time since they’ve had any increases, so my only concern is what’s going to happen when there are no substitutes for the kids, right?”
Ashley Puerta, a parent of a third-grader at Heron School, said she supported the teachers going on strike. “It’s just really disappointing that the district doesn’t see value in our teachers and getting our classrooms open,” Puerta said. “But they see value in their own salaries…it’s really sad that’s their priority versus all these kids.”
Some students were out supporting the teachers. Puerta was joined by her third grade daughter, Adeline, who was striking alongside her mother in solidarity with her teachers.
“I feel sad for my teachers. I feel sad for my class,” said Adeline, who added that she was striking “because my mom says the money would go to substitutes and not the teachers.”
Paul Rahul dropped off coffee for the Heron School teachers, who were posted on the sidewalk next to the campus. He said the 4% raise doesn’t do much for the teachers, especially with an increased cost of living in Sacramento.
“It doesn’t even cover the cost of living or inflation,” Rahul said. “We need the administration to do a better job of supporting the teachers.”
Rahul’s seventh grader, Jaden, helped his dad in providing coffee to his teachers. He was also in support of the strike. “I believe that they give us education, and they’re the ones who actually taught me,“ Jaden said. “I believe they deserve more.”
Retired teacher: ‘We lost benefits’
Retired teacher Georgia Schaaf was on the picket line and held a sign that said “on strike for our community.” Schaaf, who taught for 41 years, she said the strike was a long time coming.
When she heard Heron teachers were striking, she said she urged her retired colleagues to join in support.
“We were the highest paid teachers in the area…and then years passed, we started losing that top salary,” Schaaf said. “It got lower and lower. We lost benefits.”
The Bee’s Jennah Pendleton contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 9:43 AM.
