West Contra Costa Unified School District presents 90-day fiscal stabilization plan

The West Contra Costa Unified School District launched a 90-day fiscal stabilization plan on Wednesday to address a multi-million-dollar deficit and prevent the district from again falling under state control, as labor leaders warned that unresolved disputes could undermine student success.

Superintendent Cheryl Cotton presented the plan during a school board meeting, describing it as a roadmap to engage families, staff and labor groups in shaping a long-term financial strategy.

“This is our roadmap to achieve fiscal solvency together,” Cotton said. “This is not a numbers discussion tonight. We’re not talking about numbers. The purpose of this presentation is to share the plan and the process to engage in future numbers discussions that will occur over the next 90 days.”

The district’s financial challenges are long-standing. In 1991, WCCUSD became the first school district in California to declare bankruptcy, taking out a $29 million emergency loan from the state that took 21 years to repay. Cotton warned that decisive action is needed to avoid repeating that history.

“We must now address our current budget issues to prevent a future need of an emergency loan,” Cotton said. “There’s urgency to this work. The fiscal stabilization plan will ensure financial stability, support long-term planning, and retain local control of WCCUSD.”

The plan will proceed in four stages: assessing the budget, identifying the root causes of the deficit, setting goals and developing actionable strategies to monitor progress. The first community sessions are scheduled for September 15 at Hercules High School and September 16 at Richmond High School, with additional meetings planned through November at schools across the district. All sessions will also be accessible via Zoom.

Cotton emphasized transparency and accessibility throughout the process.

“This is a very public process, and very public information is shared,” she said. “All these materials are able to be accessed on our website, and I encourage folks to get more comfortable with the resources that are available to us.”

During public comment before the presentation, United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz called on trustees to focus on student needs and uphold commitments to educators and staff.

“Take San Diego Unified as an example,” Ortiz said. “They have built budgets that center students and the educators to support them. The results are clear, San Diego students consistently outperform WCCUSD, not only academically, but also across equity measures.”

Ortiz said the union has been forced to escalate a grievance over the district’s Teacher Support and Assistance Program to binding arbitration, warning that more than 140 new teachers depend on the program for mentoring and coaching this school year.

“Ignoring educator support undermines student success,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz also noted that classified workers represented by the Teamsters union are at an impasse with the district, calling their struggle “our struggle.” Ortiz urged trustees to stop spending on legal battles and instead “simply uphold its commitments, commitments to educators, to students and the community.”

Board members discussed ways to improve outreach for the upcoming meetings, suggesting maps and signage to help families navigate campuses and broader communication beyond school families, including outreach to city councils and advisory groups.

The 90-day plan is scheduled to conclude in late November, but Cotton said community updates will continue into spring 2026. A full schedule of meetings and resources is available at wccusd.net.

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