{"id":223080,"date":"2026-03-17T02:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223080\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T02:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:50:08","slug":"asm-krell-urges-twin-rivers-board-to-end-teachers-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223080\/","title":{"rendered":"Asm. Krell urges Twin Rivers board to end teachers strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, is pushing for elected officials at Twin Rivers Unified School District to intervene to end the teachers strike<\/a>, according to an email obtained by The Sacramento Bee. The work stoppage March 5 has put 25,000 Sacramento students<\/a> without classroom instruction for eight consecutive school days.<\/p>\n

Bargaining has been at an impasse since Thursday, when district negotiators said that they would not discuss other contract items until the teachers union accepted their health care proposal.<\/p>\n

If the strike continues through Tuesday it will become the longest teachers strike in California since Oakland educators left their classrooms for 26 days in 1996.<\/p>\n

Krell was at the Twin Rivers bargaining table<\/a> for three sessions last week, none of which resulted in any significant movement. Superintendent Steve Martinez has been absent from bargaining sessions since the strike began, including those Krell participated in, union president Brittoni Ward said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuperintendent Martinez has been completely absent during all of this, the only employee in our district with fully employer-paid health care,\u201d Ward said at a rally. \u201cRaise your hand if you\u2019ve seen Superintendent Martinez anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twin Rivers district spokesperson Zenobia Gerald did not respond to the union\u2019s allegation that Martinez has not been present at recent bargaining sessions.<\/p>\n

Krell sent an email to Twin Rivers board members Sunday afternoon requesting that they schedule an emergency meeting as soon as possible. She offered to join the meeting and said that she remains available to assist both sides in reaching an agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been at an impasse in negotiations since Thursday and need your leadership and direction to move forward,\u201d Krell wrote.<\/p>\n

Gerald said that a special meeting has not been scheduled. District trustees have not returned individual requests for comment via email.<\/p>\n

The school board<\/a> is not typically involved in teachers contract negotiations, with the district being represented by staff administrators, human resources representatives and legal counsel or specialized labor relations consultants. Once a settlement is agreed upon by both parties, it goes to the board for final approval.<\/p>\n

But as students head into their third week of gathering in gyms and auditoriums instead of receiving instruction from a credentialed teacher, parents are calling on elected school officials to put an end to the strike.<\/p>\n

What the board can do<\/p>\n

Under the district\u2019s board bylaws, a special meeting may be called at any time by the board president or a majority of trustees. In the case of an emergency, like a work stoppage, the board may hold a meeting without a 24-hour notice, meaning that trustees could convene as soon as they choose.<\/p>\n

In a special closed meeting, the board could give specific direction to the superintendent about how to approach contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

At a Friday rally at Ridgepoint Elementary School<\/a>, Trustee Sharon Reichelt took the bullhorn to express her support for striking teachers and their demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got off the phone with Dr. Martinez and I told him that I have always supported the teachers, and I want you to know that I am a teacher and this is breaking my heart,\u201d she said. \u201cI told him that I want him to go back to the tables and settle on benefits and I support full benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union is seeking a 10.5% raise across two years, fully-paid health benefits for individuals and their dependents, a cap on classroom sizes and other items related to overtime compensation and prep time for lessons.<\/p>\n

The district is currently offering a 4.7% raise across two years and a health care proposal that would pay for the cost of teachers\u2019 plans through June 2027, not including dental and vision. 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.<\/p>\n

Twin Rivers teacher salaries currently start at $64,000 and cap at $124,000. The median teacher salary in the district is $98,000, according to 2024-25 data. They report paying up to $20,000 per year in health care costs for their families, significantly reducing their total compensation package compared to Sacramento City Unified, where teachers receive fully-paid health care benefits.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 12:59 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jennah Pendleton<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, is pushing for elected officials at Twin Rivers Unified School District to intervene to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[101768,121,123,122,97977,101769,90321],"class_list":["post-223080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-maggy-krell-intervention","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-teachers-strike","tag-twin-rivers-board","tag-twin-rivers-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223080","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=223080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}