Natomas Unified School District teachers voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike if the district does not meet their demands at the bargaining table.
After a year of unsuccessful negotiations, 95% of Natomas Teachers Association members voted Tuesday night to authorize a work stoppage. If the union ultimately decides to strike it would be the first in the history of the district.
Natomas teachers say they are fighting for lower class sizes, improved student services, competitive wages to retain and recruit teachers and improved safety conditions on campus.
The union argues that the district places too much money in reserves, rather than spending it in classrooms. The district has a policy to keep reserves at 9% of the budget while the state mandates a minimum of 2%.
“This vote is a clear rejection of NUSD’s misplaced priorities,” NTA President Nico Vaccaro said. “Educators are standing up for our students and demanding an end to a staffing and recruitment crisis that led to over 100 educators leaving our district last year. It’s time to stop hoarding reserves and to start investing in the classroom.”
The two parties will enter fact-finding, a legally mandated step after reaching an impasse in which a panel will hear arguments from each party, on Feb. 20. The panel will issue its report within 30 days and the union can legally strike two days after its release.
The Natomas Teachers Association joins another Sacramento-area teachers union, Twin Rivers United Educators, as two of several unions across the state whose members are preparing to leave the classroom.
Natomas and Twin Rivers teachers were paid an average of $90,931 and $98,027 a year in 2024-25, respectively, according to the California Department of Education. Teachers in Sacramento City Unified School District were paid an average of $109,230. The average teacher salary for a public school teacher in the state of California was $103,552.
SCUSD teachers receive fully-paid benefits while Natomas teachers pay around $3,000 for individual health plans or up to $16,000 for multiple family members, according to a CTA spokesperson.
Their effort is a part of a statewide campaign organized by the California Teachers Association. Contract talks have stalled between dozens of school districts and their respective unions across the state and has already led to two strikes in the Bay Area. Teachers in Richmond secured fully-funded health benefits after four days out of the classroom while teachers’ strike in San Francisco enters its third day Wednesday.
“Just like in Twin Rivers and San Francisco, educators here are standing up to say, ‘enough is enough’ — it is time to make classrooms a priority,” CTA President David Goldberg said.
Can Natomas afford proposed contract?
At the same time, Natomas Unified is facing financial difficulties due to lower than expected state funding to schools. The district is considering cuts which could include reductions to the International Baccalaureate program, athletics and other support services, according to a Wednesday news release.
Natomas Unified Superintendent Robyn Castillo said that heeding the union’s demands would “definitely have an effect” on the availability of these student services and the district’s longterm financial stability.
Castillo said that the provisions NTA is asking for are “distant” from the district’s current financial situation. This year’s round of negotiations feels like “a departure from locally-focused bargaining which has characterized the way we’ve worked with NTA” because of the influence of the coordinated statewide strategy by CTA.
“As a district, we really remain committed of working towards a fair and a sustainable agreement, but those have to require proposals that are grounded in our local financial realities and a genuine effort to get to resolution,” Castillo said.
Part of NUSD’s budget woes stem from the state’s estimated cost of living adjustment to school funding decreasing about half a percentage point in both the 2026-27 and the following year, about a $2.4 million reduction in revenue over that period.
The district has made recent efforts toward efficiency, Castillo said — it is working to reduce several full-time central office positions and toward moving vendor-operated programs in house.
Castillo, alongside seven other district leaders across California, recently penned an open letter to policymakers calling for more funding from the state to cover rising costs and decreasing revenues in school districts across the state.
The letter was also signed by the superintendents of Twin Rivers Unified, whose teachers union is poised to strike, and San Francisco Unified, where a historic strike commenced Monday.
Vacarro said that the district should be looking to address teachers’ demands based on the current financial situation.
“Our superintendent should be focusing on the current retention crisis,” Vacarro said. “The district has the ability right now to prioritize our budget to focus on the needs of our students and educators.”
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Jennah Pendleton is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered schools and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in Orange County and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.