\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Educators in the Twin Rivers Unified School District are set to go on strike Thursday, a walkout that would be the first in the Sacramento County district\u2019s two-decade history. If no agreement is reached, the strike will begin Thursday morning and continue until a deal is reached.The district says schools will remain open during the strike and that it is offering incentive pay for substitute teachers in an effort to keep classrooms staffed. The district has said its \u201ctop priority is making sure every student has a safe, supportive, and structured school day.\u201dSome parents say they plan to keep their children home.\u201cWe\u2019re staying home. We\u2019re not crossing picket lines,\u201d said Mariya Kalina Fisher, a Twin Rivers parent whose children attend Hillsdale Elementary School. Fisher said families would bear the burden of the disruption. \u201cIt\u2019s the families who are going to have to sacrifice because their children are not getting the kinds of education that they need,\u201d she said.The Twin Rivers teachers’ union is seeking higher pay to stay competitive with neighboring districts, fully covered health care benefits, and smaller class sizes. Union leaders say those issues have contributed to staffing shortages and difficulty retaining educators.\u201cWe started the year with over 100 vacancies. We currently have 83 right now,\u201d said Brittoni Ward, president of the Twin Rivers United Educators. \u201cThat\u2019s essentially 2,000 students who do not have an educator. So that\u2019s a problem. That\u2019s a real crisis.\u201d Ward added that the union believes the district has the resources to address it.District officials have pushed back, telling families in a letter that the union\u2019s proposals are not supported by the district\u2019s financial outlook and warning that committing beyond its budget could lead to layoffs.\u201cA raise that leads to layoffs is not a raise,\u201d the district wrote. \u201cIt is a trade, your neighbor\u2019s job for your pay increase. And when the layoffs come, it is the students who lose.\u201dIn preparation for the strike, school board trustees last month approved hiring substitutes to replace striking teachers, with the district offering up to $600 per day. Fisher criticized the incentive pay, saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s icky and I think it\u2019s weird to raise it for substitute teachers, but not the teachers that are here day in and day out who know these children.\u201dParents said they are hoping negotiations produce a quick resolution.\u201cThey might be home Friday. I don\u2019t know that we can roll this into next week,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cSo we\u2019re really just hoping that these negotiations take place, that teachers are satisfied with the outcomes, and that we can get back to, you know, life as usual.\u201dThe district did not immediately respond to questions about how many substitute teachers it has on staff and whether a separate proposed strike next week in the Natomas Unified School District could affect substitute availability.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Educators in the Twin Rivers Unified School District are set to go on strike Thursday, a walkout that would be the first in the Sacramento County district\u2019s two-decade history. <\/p>\n
If no agreement is reached, the strike will begin Thursday morning and continue until a deal is reached.<\/p>\n
The district says schools will remain open during the strike and that it is offering incentive pay for substitute teachers in an effort to keep classrooms staffed. The district has said its \u201ctop priority is making sure every student has a safe, supportive, and structured school day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some parents say they plan to keep their children home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re staying home. We\u2019re not crossing picket lines,\u201d said Mariya Kalina Fisher, a Twin Rivers parent whose children attend Hillsdale Elementary School. <\/p>\n
Fisher said families would bear the burden of the disruption. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the families who are going to have to sacrifice because their children are not getting the kinds of education that they need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Twin Rivers teachers’ union is seeking higher pay to stay competitive with neighboring districts, fully covered health care benefits, and smaller class sizes. Union leaders say those issues have contributed to staffing shortages and difficulty retaining educators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started the year with over 100 vacancies. We currently have 83 right now,\u201d said Brittoni Ward, president of the Twin Rivers United Educators. \u201cThat\u2019s essentially 2,000 students who do not have an educator. So that\u2019s a problem. That\u2019s a real crisis.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ward added that the union believes the district has the resources to address it.<\/p>\n
District officials have pushed back, telling families in a letter that the union\u2019s proposals are not supported by the district\u2019s financial outlook and warning that committing beyond its budget could lead to layoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cA raise that leads to layoffs is not a raise,\u201d the district wrote. \u201cIt is a trade, your neighbor\u2019s job for your pay increase. And when the layoffs come, it is the students who lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
In preparation for the strike, school board trustees last month approved hiring substitutes to replace striking teachers, with the district offering up to $600 per day. Fisher criticized the incentive pay, saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s icky and I think it\u2019s weird to raise it for substitute teachers, but not the teachers that are here day in and day out who know these children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents said they are hoping negotiations produce a quick resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might be home Friday. I don\u2019t know that we can roll this into next week,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cSo we\u2019re really just hoping that these negotiations take place, that teachers are satisfied with the outcomes, and that we can get back to, you know, life as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district did not immediately respond to questions about how many substitute teachers it has on staff and whether a separate proposed strike next week in the Natomas Unified School District could affect substitute availability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Educators in the Twin Rivers Unified School District are set to go on strike Thursday, a walkout that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[14852,3409,4579,32955,1431,49497,95007,95008,95013,20767,121,357,123,122,95010,86,95012,4574,95011,79334,95009,35564,89873,2328],"class_list":{"0":"post-205594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-andres-valle","9":"tag-child","10":"tag-district","11":"tag-educator","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-fisher","14":"tag-hillsdale-elementary","15":"tag-historic-strike","16":"tag-incentive-pay","17":"tag-layoff","18":"tag-sacramento","19":"tag-sacramento-county","20":"tag-sacramento-headlines","21":"tag-sacramento-news","22":"tag-school-day","23":"tag-strike","24":"tag-striking-teacher","25":"tag-student","26":"tag-substitute-teacher","27":"tag-teacher-strike","28":"tag-twin-rivers-teacher","29":"tag-twin-rivers-unified-school-district","30":"tag-twin-rivers-united-educators","31":"tag-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}