FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 2024
Media Contact: Sumeet Bal, Director of Communications, 917.647.1952, sbal@publicadvocates.org
Contra Costa Superior Court Fails to Order Fix to Teacher, Facility Issues in WCCUSD
After over a year of district inaction to address staffing and facility deficiencies, educators, parents, and students continue to wait for answers
San Francisco — Today a Contra Costa Superior Court judge declined to order the West Contra Costa Unified School District to fix facilities and demonstrate to the state that they have legal and minimally qualified teachers in place, despite years of district inaction and illegal staffing practices that deprive students of a safe and stable learning environment.
“This lawsuit—after years of conversations and paperwork—was our hope to address the basic needs of our students. Our vacancy crisis didn’t start this year. I have worked at Stege Elementary School for seven years; at the beginning of every school year we would start with empty classrooms or would lose teachers later in the year. When some students would reach me in the third grade, I was their FIRST credentialed teacher for the entire year. These inequities, targeted at some of the most vulnerable students in our communities, are simply unacceptable,” said Sam Cleare, an educator in WCCUSD. “We must continue to fight for more resources in order to meet the basic needs of our students. Williams complaints should allow community voices to be heard, but instead they were ignored.”
In July, Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm, and pro bono counsel Munger, Tolles & Olson, filed the first lawsuit under the landmark Williams v. California settlement, on behalf of six educators, staff and parents, against WCCUSD, for failing to address staffing and facility issues in schools across the district, violating the rights of their students—low-income, Black, and multilingual learners—who are guaranteed the basic tools necessary for a quality education. Frustrated by the district’s refusal to address the many serious concerns after months of conversations, delay and disregard of numerous Williams complaints, the petitioners sought a court order to compel WCCUSD to immediately remedy these violations and respond to complainants as required by law.
“Today’s ruling is deeply disappointing. As a community lawyer who has been working alongside WCCUSD educators, parents, and students for two years, I have witnessed firsthand how this district has consistently failed its most marginalized students with little regard,” said Karissa Provenza, Staff Attorney for Public Advocates. “For over a year, the students and teachers of Stege Elementary have pleaded with the district to take action and provide its students with a safe place to play, grow, and learn from qualified and supported teachers. Teachers across WCCUSD have urged the district to better support them. Teachers are critical to a student’s life, and having the stability of a permanent and qualified teacher is directly related to student confidence and outcomes. Despite this setback, we will continue to fight.”
The decision by Judge Terri Mockler will allow the compounding issues of poor facility conditions and teacher vacancies to continue. These conditions and burdens have already brought retention issues to a district that has a lower than average percentage of fully prepared teachers.
“We believe the Judge’s ruling was a legal error. The legislature established with the Williams v. California settlement that certain minimum necessities are so inviolate that districts must remedy their denial immediately when proven and report back to complainants. No excuses and no exceptions. Those fundamental necessities include the lack of a textbook for each student, dangerous facility conditions and the lack of a single qualified teacher for the whole year. To allow valid facility complaints to go ignored and illegal teachers to continue in place runs counter to the basic requirements of Williams,” said John Affeldt, Managing Attorney at Public Advocates who was one of the plaintiff’s lawyers that settled the Williams case with the state in 2004. “We are consulting with clients about next steps.”
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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity and climate justice.
