Teachers at Twin Rivers Unified walked back into their classrooms Monday morning, some gathering for one last huddle before heading inside. The 12-day strike is over.
The district and its teachers union reached a tentative agreement Sunday afternoon, ending a labor dispute that stretched back more than a year.
In a statement, the district said the agreement represents meaningful progress.
“While this agreement is not yet final and remains subject to ratification, it represents meaningful progress toward supporting our educators and maintaining a strong, stable learning environment for our students,” the statement said.
Union president Brittoni Ward said teachers gathered at their school sites Monday morning before walking in together.
“Most of them met and did a huddle as if they were going to go back on the picket line, just to give love to each other,” Ward said. “And then did walk-ins so that they could all walk into their site together.”
The two-year agreement includes 7% raises, a $4,000 bonus, and 100 percent employer-paid Kaiser Permanente healthcare for families. Speech language pathologists will receive additional pay increases.
Healthcare was the biggest sticking point in negotiations. Union members had been paying about $1,600 a month for family coverage, which they said was equivalent to a housing payment.
“Our members stood strong for 12 days and fought for fully funded classrooms,” Ward said in a statement announcing the agreement. “This contract is a massive shift in how our district prioritizes students and classrooms.”
A long road to agreement
The strike began March 5 after more than a year of stalled contract talks. It was the first strike in the district’s history.
Twin Rivers United Educators represents about 1,400 teachers, counselors, nurses, and other certificated staff. The union had been seeking better wages, fully paid family healthcare and smaller class sizes.
The district started this school year with more than 100 teacher vacancies. More than 80 classrooms were still without permanent educators when the strike began.
Craig Seale is a third grade teacher at Las Palmas Elementary School. He has taught in the district for 27 years. On the final day of the strike, he said he was motivated by the need to retain young educators.
“When Natomas Unified or Sac City has better offers and better paths forward for young teachers, we’re going to lose the next Craig Seale. There isn’t going to be another guy like me or my wife when they are getting drawn away to other districts,” he said. “And that’s the problem. We need to fight for the next generation of committed teachers.”
Ward said the staffing crisis was a driving force behind the strike.
“With these investments we’ve made important progress in ending the staffing crisis,” she said.
Twin Rivers teachers walk the picket line outside district offices in McClellan Park, Calif., on Friday, March 20, 2026. The strike ended two days later with a tentative agreement.Greg Micek/CapRadio
Thousands ralliedÂ
Throughout the 12 days, thousands of teachers, parents, and community supporters rallied outside district offices and picketed at schools across the district. About 1,500 people gathered at district headquarters in McClellan Park on the first day of the strike.
Schools remained open during the strike with substitutes, administrators, and support staff supervising students. The district reminded parents that a teacher strike was not considered an excused absence.
During the strike, the district maintained that it negotiated in good faith and that its offers aligned with an independent fact-finder’s recommendations. The district said meeting union demands would require cuts to student programs.
Assemblywoman Maggy Krell helped facilitate the final negotiations. She had urged both sides back to the bargaining table multiple times during the strike.
The agreement still needs approval from union members and the school board. Ward said she expects the ratification process to be complete by the end of the week.
A changed union
Ward said the experience of the strike has strengthened the union.
“Our union is forever changed for the better,” she said. “We held the line for 12 days and the relationships and the bonding that happened within the sites, with the community, across sites. This is gonna be generational change, not only for our union, but for our whole district.”
The Twin Rivers strike was one of two teacher strikes in the Sacramento region this month. Teachers in the Natomas Unified School District also walked out, ending their nine-day strike on March 19 with a tentative agreement that included similar gains.
Both strikes were part of a statewide campaign by the California Teachers Association to improve teacher pay and classroom conditions.
Twin Rivers serves about 25,000 students across 49 schools in North Sacramento, Rio Linda, and North Highlands. The vast majority of students are English learners, foster youth, or eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
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