West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) officials responded to complaints filed earlier this month regarding ongoing teacher vacancies. But the plaintiffs said the district lacks a sufficient plan to address the problem and that next steps could include litigation if the vacancies are not resolved.
“Our job as teachers and our ability to do our jobs are being undermined,” said West Contra Costa teacher Sam Cleare. “But what really hurts me the most is that these students – because I care so much about them – are not getting an education.”
Three teachers in the district, including Cleare, filed the complaint Jan. 31, alleging that the district failed to provide students with qualified teachers, forcing teachers to take more classes and sacrifice preparation time.
The district's response acknowledged the allegations were true. The district was not in compliance with the law because teacher vacancies were not being filled and were being filled by long-term or daily substitute teachers. According to the response, vacancies were not filled due to teacher movement and delayed notice from teachers who left the district during the 2022-23 school year.
The district also blames statewide systemic problems for contributing to the problem. Starting in 2021, California schools have seen a significant increase in teacher vacancies and a decrease in the number of new teachers, the response said. This is because the pandemic has forced many educators to leave the profession.
“The district did not intentionally create vacancies,” Camille Johnson, interim assistant superintendent for human resources, responded. “The district did its best to provide support and supervision to students within these restrictions and did not intentionally cause violations,” she said.
There are 202 teacher vacancies in Contra Costa County, according to data from the UCLA Center for School Innovation. There are 504 vacancies in Alameda County, 38 vacancies in Solano County and 125 vacancies in San Joaquin County.
To address the teacher shortage, the district continues to revise its strategies to increase retention and recruitment and has implemented “recruitment, development and hiring measures.” Additionally, since August, officials have attended 25 job fairs in the region and posted job postings on at least six job boards.
A coordinator has also been hired to develop and promote pathways for substitute teachers and staff to become full-time teachers, and the district is working with various universities and non-profit organizations for recruitment, the district said.
Karissa Provenza, an attorney with the civil rights law firm Public Advocates who is representing the three teachers, said the district's response was insufficient.
On April 19, nine days after the district responded to the complaint, Provenza sent a notice of appeal to the district on behalf of his client. The district must provide a plan by Monday outlining how each vacancy will be filled and have a meeting with Provenza and the client to resolve the vacancies.
“If the district’s response continues to be inadequate, we and our clients reserve every right to pursue additional legal action, including filing suit in California Superior Court,” Provenza wrote in the appeal.
The appeal acknowledged the impact of teacher shortages on schools but said it does not relieve WCCUSD from filling each class with qualified, qualified teachers. This could be a short-term solution if the people replacing some of the vacancies were eligible to be permanently assigned to the class, the appeal said. Other short-term solutions proposed were to fill qualified administrator positions with vacant positions for the remainder of the school year, hire individuals holding short-term employee permits or temporary internship permits, and hire retired qualified teachers who the district had previously filled. Yes.
Local officials did not respond to requests for comment on the appeal.
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The three educators who filed the complaint teach at Stege Elementary School, Helms Middle School and Kennedy High School. Each school currently has four vacancies available from the beginning of the school year or in the fall.
At schools like Stege Elementary School, where four of 12 teaching positions are vacant, about one-third of students are “not receiving an education,” Cleare said. “I saw students blaming themselves or becoming less interested in school.”
For the past seven years, Cleare has taught at Stege, and she said the school year has started with a vacancy or someone leaving midway through. Teachers sometimes had extra students in their classes for weeks, Cleare said. She is currently taking classes with fourth and fifth grade students due to a vacancy.
“I can’t believe this problem has been going on for so long and so little has been done,” Cleare said. “It feels like they don’t care about their students.”
Cleare said there is not enough time to prepare for classes and that it is common for classes to have extra students due to substitute students and teacher shortages. At one time she had grades 1 through 5 in her class.
West Contra Costa has fewer fully qualified educators teaching in their fields compared to the state average. The district had 78% qualified teachers for the 2021-22 school year, according to data from the state Department of Education. This is the most recent data available. The state average was nearly 86%.
Excluding charter schools, WCCUSD has the lowest percentage of fully qualified teachers compared to other districts in Contra Costa County, the data shows. Every other part of the county is above 80%.
According to the complaint, chronic absenteeism is increasing due to vacancies, especially for students who need more support. In some cases, students were placed in the cafeteria due to a lack of teachers. Since the beginning of the school year, some classes have been taught by substitute teachers, making it difficult for parents to know who is teaching their children each day.
“We started hearing from parents who were very upset about what was happening,” Provenza said. “We continue to hear that substitutes are not getting the support they need to support students. This is the confusion that comes with so many vacancies.”
According to Provenza, substitute teachers can be approved to teach classes for longer periods of time (usually 30 to 60 days), but at Stege, Helms and Kennedy, substitute teachers have taught classes for longer periods of time. The complaint alleges that Helms Middle has a large number of eighth-grade students without full-time teachers in math, science and English.
Teacher vacancies disproportionately affect students of color, according to the complaint. Stege Elementary School has about 38% Black or African American students and 34% Hispanic or Latino students for the 2022-23 school year, according to data from the state Department of Education.
Nearly 83% of Helms Middle students are Hispanic or Latino, and about 7% are Black or African American. About 73% of Kennedy High School students are Hispanic or Latino and nearly 18% are Black or African American.
Cristina Huerta, the Kennedy High School teacher who filed the complaint, said the vacant positions are having a “serious” impact on students’ ability to take Spanish courses. There are 143 students enrolled in Spanish but do not have a Spanish-qualified teacher.
“During the first quarter of the school year, students received several long-term subscriptions, but they did not last more than a few weeks. And then they turned around as the Kennedy teachers covered other time periods without access to the curriculum. “Huerta said in an email.
Students face gaps in their Spanish education because some of the teachers teaching the classes are not qualified to teach the language, Huerta said. Students will struggle in higher level Spanish classes for years to come.
“Overall, I am disappointed with the vacancies. I am concerned about the future of Kennedy’s Spanish program as we will have fewer vacancies next year and will no longer be hiring a third Spanish teacher,” Huerta said. “I’m not sure how our small department can serve the Kennedy student population trying to meet graduation requirements and enroll in higher-level classes to prepare for college.”