For the second time in a week, teachers in a Sacramento-area school district took to the picket lines.
Teachers for the Natomas Unified School District struck Tuesday morning, following through on a plan to do so after negotiations with the district stalled, days after teachers for the Twin Rivers Unified School District went on a strike.
The Twin Rivers teachers strike is in its fourth day and the district will resume bargaining talks Tuesday at the request of Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento.
The Sacramento Bee will be providing ongoing coverage Tuesday of the Natomas Unified strike. Here’s how things were looking as of about 9 a.m.
Where negotiations stand
As The Bee reported Monday, the strike followed an 11-hour negotiating session on Sunday. The Natomas union has sought a two-year cumulative raise of 8.5%, while the district is offering 4% in that span. The union would also like better health care for teachers and their families and minimum staffing for social workers, nurses and school psychologists.
“Instead of being at the table, they chose to hold a press conference,” Natomas Teachers Association President Nico Vaccaro said Monday of the district. “It’s disappointing.”
The district officials said they had most recently adjusted their proposal Friday, offering an increased raise and a restructured health benefit plan with a fully-paid option for teachers and their dependents for the next two years. They maintain that the district’s offer is consistent with the findings of a third-party fact finder and improves conditions for teachers while being mindful of the suburban district’s “fiscal reality.”
“At the end of last week, the neutral fact finding report confirmed the district’s proposal is aligned with an independent, neutral voice that they determined is reasonable within the fiscal realities facing our district,” Superintendent Robyn Castillo said at a Monday news conference. “Despite that progress, we are now facing the possibility of a strike beginning tomorrow.”
Rally outside Natomas High School
About 100 people rallied in front of Natomas High School Tuesday morning. The main issues on the bargaining table, they said, are health benefits, wages and class sizes. Attendees said health benefits cut deeply into teachers’ paychecks, exacerbating turnover.
“We have a teacher retention crisis here,” said Jeff Bryan, an English teacher of 13 years at Natomas High. Bryan said neighboring districts outcompete Natomas on benefits and wages.
“We want to get back in the classroom ASAP,” Bryan said. “Every day lost that we’re not in the classroom is a missed opportunity for learning.”
Ashley Battle, a mother of two children in the school district, said short-staffing in classrooms, and a lack of aides, is a security risk.
“I know teachers who have two to three jobs,” she said.
Battle said her husband teaches at Inderkum High School, and the family’s health benefits cut about one-third of each of his paychecks.
“The benefits are the biggest thing,” she said. “None of these teachers wanted to strike.”
Vaccaro, the union president and also a special education teacher, said members pay $1,500 per month for health care. Vaccaro said the union is pushing for fully funded benefits with Kaiser, the health system used by many of the district’s employees.
Vaccaro said 106 educators left the district last year, switching to other districts for better pay or leaving the profession altogether.
The scene at Heron Elementary
In North Natomas on Tuesday morning, around a hundred Heron School teachers marched around the campus grounds and through nearby streets, chanting, “The teachers united will never be defeated!”
Lisa MacMillan, a first grade teacher at Heron School, was hit by a car on the first day of school last year and spent a full year in recovery. She said she was faced with paying $1,300 per month out of pocket for her medical insurance. MacMillan said low insurance coverage and fair pay are the most pressing issues for teachers.
“It’s an issue for everybody. The district is only the district is only covering 60%,” MacMillan said. “Healthcare keeps going up and up. That’s a major issue.”
Melinda Lai, a seventh grade science teacher at Heron School, said she’s striking to urge better learning conditions for students. Lai, who also has a student at the school, said over two dozen empty positions have left students without a full-time teacher. “We’re on strike today because our kids deserve safe and stable schools,” Lai said.
The Natomas strike is associated with a campaign by the California Teachers Association to improve teaching conditions.
Parents share views on teacher strike
Natomas Unified is a district of around 17,000 students. Its campuses remained open Tuesday, leaving parents to determine whether to send their children to school with substitutes or keep them home.
Machelle Mack is a grandmother of a Heron School second-grader. She supported the strike, but was concerned about the low number of teachers at the school.
“I am supportive of the teachers in the strike,” Mack said. “It’s been a long time since they’ve had any increases, so my only concern is what’s going to happen when there are no substitutes for the kids, right?”
Ashley Puerta, a parent of a third-grader at Heron School, said she supported the teachers going on strike. “It’s just really disappointing that the district doesn’t see value in our teachers and getting our classrooms open,” Puerta said. “But they see value in their own salaries…it’s really sad that’s their priority versus all these kids.”
Some students were out supporting the teachers. Puerta was joined by her third grade daughter, Adeline, who was striking alongside her mother in solidarity with her teachers.
“I feel sad for my teachers. I feel sad for my class,” said Adeline, who added that she was striking “because my mom says the money would go to substitutes and not the teachers.”
Paul Raul dropped off coffee for the Heron School teachers, who were posted on the sidewalk next to the campus. He said the 4% raise doesn’t do much for the teachers, especially with an increased cost of living in Sacramento.
“It doesn’t even cover the cost of living or inflation,” Paul Raul said. “We need the administration to do a better job of supporting the teachers.”
Raul’s seventh grader, Jaden, helped his dad in providing coffee to his teachers. He was also in support of the strike. “I believe that they give us education, and they’re the ones who actually taught me,“ Jaden said. “I believe they deserve more.”
Jimenez Cortez, an eighth grader at Heron School, joined the protest to rally alongside her teachers. She said that she was marked present in class, despite being out protesting off campus.
“I just want to support my teachers, and I think it’s unfair what they’re going through, and I think they deserve better,” Cortez said.
Cortez, alongside with her friends, said her peers who showed up to school are being assigned to finish 50-page packets and essays inside the school cafeteria and playground.
Retired teacher: ‘We lost benefits’
Retired teacher Georgia Schaaf was on the picket line and held a sign that said “on strike for our community.” Schaaf, who taught for 41 years, she said the strike was a long time coming.
When she heard Heron teachers were striking, she said she urged her retired colleagues to join in support.
“We were the highest paid teachers in the area…and then years passed, we started losing that top salary,” Schaaf said. “It got lower and lower. We lost benefits.”
The Bee’s Jennah Pendleton contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 9:43 AM.
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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.