For Brittoni Ward, seeing teachers at a rally Thursday near a Twin Rivers Unified School District office at McClellan Park was emotional.
“It is really just a testament to how strong our union is, how much they care about their students, that they’re here,” Ward said. “They’re doing this so we can do better for them.”
Ward is president of Twin Rivers United Educators, or TRUE, whose members began a strike Thursday.
It is the first for teachers in the history of the district. The work stoppage meant that 25,000 students across 49 schools in Sacramento, North Highlands and Rio Linda went without their regular teachers.
Union leaders say they are fighting for improved compensation, fully paid employer healthcare and smaller class sizes.
Thursday was a momentous day for the district, with teachers demonstrating at campuses, the district calling for a return to negotiations for union leaders and parents trying to determine whether to send their children to school as substitutes handled classroom duties.
The strike is expected to continue Friday.
Competing claims from teachers and district
Jackie Howard, a California Teachers Association spokesperson, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that 1,500 TRUE members would picket the following day. Howard’s statement noted that the strike came “despite over 14 months of good faith bargaining by TRUE.”
TRUE is one of several teachers unions across the state clashing with their employing districts, part of a statewide campaign by CTA to improve conditions for teachers and mount upward pressure on state legislators to provide more funding for education.
CTA President David Goldberg made an appearance at the strike on Thursday, marching alongside teachers of Grant Union High School in Del Paso Heights.
David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, joins Twin Rivers Unified School District teachers during a strike in front of Grant High School in Sacramento on Thursday. RENÉE C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com
“Working people are saying ‘we’ve had enough’ all across the state,” Goldberg said. “So this is driven first and foremost by the conditions here at school sites.”
In a statement Thursday morning, Twin Rivers spokesperson Zenobia Gerald called on union leadership to resume negotiations and for teachers to return to their classrooms.
“This strike did not have to happen, and it does not have to continue,” Gerald wrote. “Instead of being in classrooms with their students, teachers are on the picket line after choosing to strike rather than continue negotiations. A fair, independently validated contract offer is on the table right now.”
The statement noted that the district was offering a raise of 4.71% over the two-year agreement as well as “full Kaiser HMO family health coverage, 100% district-paid for both years.”
This would include medical, vision and dental to employees and families “at zero cost to the employee, a benefit valued at approximately $27,000 per year per family,” the statement said.
Protests outside Grant High
In a speech to striking Grant High teachers, Ward said they were ready for the district to come back to the negotiating table. “When they are willing and ready to come to bargain in good faith with a proper proposal … then we will meet. We are ready,” she said. “We will win this.”
Grant High history and ethnic studies teacher Ramon Castillo Juarez said that he has struggled due to large class sizes since he joined the school district four years ago. He said he has about 40 kids in each of his classes.
“I would definitely say the overcrowded conditions in the classroom made my first few years extremely difficult,” he said. “Just in terms of class management, every teacher has struggled with it.”
The strike also drew support from students like Oliver Gaara, a Grant freshman.
“I have a lot of teachers here who have supported me in my academic career and I will support them through all of this, especially because I’m someone who will always side with the working class,” Gaara said.
Grant High School student Oliver Gaara, right, holds a handmade sign as he participates in a strike by Twin Rivers Unified School District teachers in front of his school in Sacramento on Thursday. RENÉE C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com Strike affects elementary students
Around the same time that teachers were outside Grant, teachers rallied outside Madison Elementary School, calling for better pay and working conditions.
Drucilla Ramirez, a third grade bilingual teacher and organizing chair for the union, said some classes have as many as 34 students and teachers don’t have aides in the classroom.
“It can become very stressful for the teacher,” Ramirez said. “We want our students to thrive. But with limited resources, being one body in the classroom, it’s very difficult.”
Teachers made clear that health care costs will remain a key sticking point in negotiations. Ramirez said her family pays $1,500 a month under her plan. “It’s a pretty tight budget,” she said.
Lisa Gant, another third grade teacher, said she and her husband pay $1,400 per month. Especially for new teachers, salaries can look appealing, Gant said. But then benefits take a hit. Gant said some of her colleagues work second jobs driving for ride share services, running Etsy shops or selling lesson plans online.
“I don’t know, after teaching all day here, how you pull yourself together to work somewhere else,” Gant said.
A group of 32 district employees marched from Madison Elementary School to the Madison Avenue Interstate 80 overpass, waved signs and chanted to cars passing below. An organizer said most are Madison employees, though some work at multiple locations.
Striking teachers from Madison Elementary School, part of the Twin Rivers Unified School District, picket at the Madison Avenue Interstate 80 overpass on Thursday. ANNIKA MERRILEES amerrilees@sacbee.com
The teachers returned to the school, and as they marched along Madison Avenue, students crowded to the edge of the playground, waving and shouting, jumping up and down, chanting one of the teacher’s names.
“We’re celebrities,” Ramirez said.
Rally near district office
More than 1,000 teachers and supporters coalesced at the Twin Rivers district office at McClellan Park by 11 a.m., dancing and drumming to the music of Lorde, Latin artist Luis Fonsi and Aretha Franklin’s iconic anthem, “Respect.”
Hordes of educators took over Dudley Boulevard, where the district office is located. They created a sea of yellow and red in front of the office. Their colorful signs read “We can’t wait for the future our students deserve” and “On strike for students.”
Sang Nguyen, center, an eighth-grade math teacher at Rio Tierra School, holds a sign while joining hundreds of striking teachers and supporters at the Twin Rivers district office at McClellan Park on Thursday. RENÉE C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com
Several speakers, including Ward, Goldberg and several other local union leaders spoke to the crowd from atop a truck in the middle of the street.
In her speech to the crowd, Ward commended fellow teachers for showing up and chastised the district for “creating the crisis” for Twin Rivers schools by not moving on their end of negotiations.
Princess Moss, vice president of the National Education Association, spoke about local teachers’ struggle and conditions in the profession across the United States.
“You know Twin Rivers, I love you, but this fight is so much bigger than Twin Rivers,” Moss said. “Every educator in this country deserves to earn enough to survive on the one job they love, educating our future.”
The crowd dispersed around noon, grabbing catered tamales on their way out.
Ward said it was emotional and beautiful to see teachers at the rally.
“It is really just a testament to how strong our union is, how much they care about their students, that they’re here,” Ward said. “They’re doing this so we can do better for them.”
Ward said they last heard from the district Tuesday and they are waiting to be invited back to negotiate. If not, pickets at school sites and another rally will follow Friday.
Parents weigh options
As teachers rallied by Madison Elementary School on Thursday morning, parents determined whether to keep their children home or send them into the school.
Alexis Taylor of North Highlands opted to keep her three children home from the school for the day. She was told their classes would be combined with others and taught by substitutes. Taylor said she’s supportive of the strike. But her children struggle to learn when substitutes are teaching.
Rosaelena Ramos, another North Highlands resident, dropped her son off for kindergarten at Madison on Thursday morning. His class would be covered by a substitute, Ramos said.
She brought her son in early to help him adjust. He did well, she said, once he saw his classmates. “Kids learn better in smaller crowds,” Ramos said.
Her daughter’s transitional kindergarten class was canceled because it is difficult to find substitutes who are credentialed to teach the early childhood education track.
Ramos had childcare Thursday for her daughter, while she went to work. But if classes don’t resume, Ramos may have to have her daughter stay with family.
Despite the complications, Ramos said she fully supports the teachers’ efforts.
“Everybody deserves a chance for better opportunities,” Ramos said. “In our country we should have that.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 3:30 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.
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Graham Womack is a general assignment reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Prior to joining The Bee full-time in September 2025, he freelanced for the publication for several years. His work has won several California Journalism Awards and spurred state legislation.