Teachers at Natomas Unified School District will strike March 10 if their demands around compensation, healthcare benefits and special education conditions are not met, the union announced Tuesday.
Natomas would be the second Sacramento-area district to experience a strike this month. The Natomas Teachers Association, like their neighbors at Twin Rivers Unified (who plan to strike Thursday), have been negotiating with district leaders for more than a year.
“We are working hard to reach an agreement that makes our students the priority and breaks the cycle of educators having to work two or three jobs just to afford to do the job they love, teaching,” union president Nico Vaccaro said.
“We are able and willing to bargain for as long as it takes. If NUSD fails to do the right thing, our members are ready to strike and will be on the picket lines beginning on March 10.”
In a statement spokesperson Deidra Powell said that the district is still committed to the negotiation process. She said that in a long bargaining session today, the two parties came to several tentative agreements around special education and safety.
“We are surprised to hear Natomas Teachers Association has issued a strike date given the progress we made in today’s negotiations and our agreement to continue negotiating in good-faith tomorrow,” Powell wrote. “This announcement comes before the formal fact-finding report has even been released. We are returning in hopes of finalizing an agreement. We hope they are too.”
The district and the union will return to the bargaining table Wednesday. The fact-finding report from an independent reviewer is expected to come in later this week.
Natomas Superintendent Robyn Castillo previously cited a worsening financial situation as the reason teachers’ contractual demands have not been met, and that fulfilling these wants could mean cuts to extracurricular programs and support services.
This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
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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.