Dept. of Education headquarters to be treated for bedbugs — remote work continues
More than a month after bedbugs were discovered in the California Department of Education headquarters, leadership has pledged to treat the entire building to exterminate the insects.
An employee first spotted two live bedbugs in their cubicle on June 3 and reported the sighting to CDE leadership. That afternoon, an email from CDE chief deputy superintendents Dave Schapira and Ingrid Robertson announced that employees could work remotely through that Friday, June 5.
The 2 p.m. email directed employees to exit the building, promising that CDE leadership would work with the Department of General Services to “ensure that assessments and possible treatments are completed.”
Fallon Okwuosa, assistant deputy director of public affairs for DGS, wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee that “when DGS was notified of the possible presence of bedbugs at the building, we acted immediately.”
“The building was closed to allow for a thorough inspection and implementation of industry standards by subject matter experts that help with the eradication of the bedbugs,” she wrote. “All areas were inspected, and areas were treated as recommended by the subject matter experts.”
Schapira and Robertson sent a second email on June 4 that said “following a thorough review, no bedbug activity was detected in any of the identified areas within our building.” Staffers returned to the office two days per week starting Monday, June 8.
In response to a request for more information from Emily Ingram, the vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000 District Labor Council 764, CDE leadership provided the inspection report from,DGS. The report shows that pest control inspected two or three sites on each of the building’s floors.
A recurrence in room treated in 2024
According to education programs consultant and DLC 764 steward Gina Garcia-Smith, employees found several dozen bedbugs on June 23 in the building’s suite 3407. The DGS pest control team did not inspect the room, though it was also the site of a 2024 bedbug infestation in CDE headquarters.
Garcia-Smith said she was in the office when employees reported discovering bedbugs in suite 3407. When an employee moved a table in the room, “tons” of bedbugs scattered from behind it, according to Garcia-Smith.
CDE employees shared three videos with The Bee that show several small insects crawling on a carpeted floor. The insects resemble bedbugs’ characteristic apple-seed shape.
Following the sighting, an email signed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond instructed CDE staff to work remotely.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and due to additional reports of insects in the building, all staff are directed to work remotely effective immediately and until further notice as we work to have the entire building inspected by DGS and their pest control specialist,” the email read.
Reports of bedbugs on multiple floors
According to CDE analyst Nicole Pineda, the infestation was not limited to the building’s third floor. Pineda, who works on the sixth floor, said she noticed bites on her ankles after she left work on June 17. Pineda says that she never visits other floors while at work.
“On my designated days to be in the office, I specifically wore short dresses and sandals because I did not want any fabric to drag on the floor,” Pineda said. “What would have happened if I wore pants? Maybe I would have taken a hitchhiker home.”
Pineda said that three of her colleagues who work on the fourth floor noticed bites between June 8, when CDE employees returned to the office, and June 23. Employees on the second floor also reported bedbug bites during this time, Pineda said.
On June 26, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Abel Guillén sent an email to employees stating that pest control specialists with DGS were “conducting a comprehensive inspection of the entire building due to reports of bedbugs.”
“Findings so far have confirmed bedbugs in a concentrated area on the third floor,” the email read.
Guillén’s email stated that by July 6, CDE would require its employees to work in the office four days per week as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order.
The executive order, which mandated that state employees return to in-office work starting July 1, was initially waived for CDE employees while pest control inspected the department’s headquarters.
Union filed a grievance
In response to Guillén’s email, the union filed a health and safety grievance on June 26 in accordance with Section 10.30 of SEIU Local 1000’s contract with the state. The same day, senior union representative Shaila Watts sent a “cease and desist” email to Guillén asking that the July 6 return-to-office deadline be canceled.
“It is very apparent that while the department has put another Band-Aid on this current insect infestation your efforts are not reassuring to the employees that work in the building,” the email read. “You have not provided any proof or any specific information that these bugs have been eradicated not only from the 3rd floor but that there has been no evidence on any other floor.”
Over 70 CDE staff members emailed department leadership on June 30, asking that the CDE take “immediate action to properly treat the bedbug infestation.”
Union representatives conducted two walk-throughs of the building on June 30 and July 3. SEIU Local 1000 DLC 764 President Cecelia Wilson, who participated in both walk-throughs, said she saw dead bedbugs on the third floor but no indication that other areas of the building had been treated.
Guillén’s July 9 email stated that CDE leadership had contracted All Day West, a pest control vendor, independent from DGS. All Day West and EagleShield, DGS’ pest control service, had both inspected the building, Guillén wrote.
According to the email, EagleShield recommended only localized treatment rather than treatment of the full building.
“It is not true that there is an ‘infestation’ at the building, nor is it true that DGS has refused to treat the whole building,” Okwuosa wrote in an email to The Bee. “As bedbugs are generally pesticide resistant, there is no way to simply spray/fumigate a building — the methods used to treat an office building are more complicated.”
However, Thurmond asked that the entire building be treated — a request with which DGS complied.
Both EagleShield and All Day West will perform inspections using bedbug-sniffing dogs after treatment is complete, Guillén wrote. Treatment will take about one day per floor, and employees will be expected to return to the office no earlier than July 27.
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