Natomas Unified School District educators have been on strike for four consecutive school days. The teachers union and the district last met at the bargaining table Friday afternoon, but the session did not produce an agreement.
This is the first work stoppage in the district’s history, leaving 17,000 students at 19 schools without classroom teachers.
What are teachers asking for?
Natomas teachers are seeking:
An 8.5% raise across two years.Fully-paid health benefits for individuals and their dependents.A cap on classroom sizes.Other items related to overtime compensation and prep time for lessons.What is the district offering?
The district is offering teachers:
A 4% raise across two years.A proposal to pay for the cost of their least expensive health care plan for educators and their dependents through June 2027. The amount paid by the district to cover that plan in 2027 would become the floor, with employees becoming responsible for any increase in costs in the years after.What do Natomas teachers make now?
Natomas teacher salaries start at $56,000 and cap at $121,000. The median teacher salary in the district is $91,000, according to 2024-25 data.
What do Natomas teachers pay for the health insurance premiums?
Natomas teachers are offered seven different health care plans, but the plurality of educators use Kaiser. The current annual out-of-pocket cost for an individual is around $2,400 and $18,000 for a family with multiple dependents.
The district’s current offer would fully pay for the district’s cheapest plan, Western Health Advantage, until June 2027. For employees on other plans, it would cut costs to a single employee’s plan by $1,370, an employee with one dependent’s plan by $10,400 and an employee with multiple dependents by $12,000.
Most teachers are only getting health care for themselves, meaning that the majority of workers will receive an added benefit of $1,370.
Why doesn’t the district meet the union’s demands?
Natomas leaders say that they identified budget reductions and methods to stretch available funding to be able to afford their current proposal while protecting their students and preventing cuts to programming. Meeting the union’s demands, they say, would require $35 million in program cuts for students and possible insolvency.
What does Natomas Unified’s top administrator make?
Robyn Castillo received a salary of $314,200 in 2024 with a total compensation package worth $416,000, according to Transparent California.
How does Natomas Unified teacher pay compare to other Sacramento-area districts?
The median salary at Natomas is similar to the median salary offered at other large districts in the area.
The Sacramento Bee
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.