Schools are out for summer, but the work doesn’t end for Modesto City Schools District teachers, administrators and staff who have been locked in union contract negotiations for the past 10 months.
As health insurance companies continue to raise rates each year, teachers across the state are stuck debating their budgets – in the classrooms and at home.
Locally, educators are bracing as negotiations could continue into the 2026-27 school year. The Modesto Teachers Association is standing firm on its demands for better health insurance options and support for specialized and special education teachers. But administrators say the union’s proposals are not viable for the financial health of the district.
“It just feels frustrating,” said Cheryl Nelson, an instructional coach and ninth grade health teacher at Beyer High School. Nelson is one of five union representatives at Beyer who has been working with teachers.
“It feels like (the district) does have more that they could do to show that they value teachers,” she said.
Nelson previously worked for San Francisco Unified School District, and rallied in support of her former coworkers’ strike in February when the United Educators of San Francisco fought for and won full healthcare coverage for employees and their dependents.
She said the Modesto district is sitting on a 20% reserve, which they should tap into to help teachers paying healthcare costs out of pocket.
MTA officials contend that MCS has a habit of overprojecting its costs, and could use the cushion to meet teachers’ healthcare needs in the next contract.
But MCS Superintendent Vanessa Buitrago said dipping into reserves isn’t an option.
“What I think the public needs to understand is that we need reserves because we don’t know what’s going to happen next year,” Buitrago said.
The cushion, she said, is vital to preventing the district from falling into a deficit and harming teachers’ livelihoods overall, like many districts across the state are seeing. She used Sacramento Unified School District’s recent mass layoff as an example of what could happen in Modesto if they increase spending on health benefits.
She said they also can’t anticipate how much money will be spent in total for teacher’s healthcare, because they don’t know which plans each teacher will choose. Buitrago said what they agree to for MTA would also be applicable to other bargaining units the district contracts with.
Same goal, dueling agendas
MTA President Jennifer McGrath said the district and the union share the same concerns when it comes to high costs of healthcare for teachers. The union’s negotiation chair sits on the district’s ongoing healthcare committee, alongside administrators already.
“The district and the MCS are on the same committee, and we’re trying to find ways to lower the rate,” McGrath said.
Union negotiators are asking the district to cover the full amount of premiums for the lowest-cost health insurance plan for employees, but not 100% of all plan premiums. They are also seeking a move away from a flat contribution to a tiered system and to create specific proposed contribution levels.
Modesto teachers are enrolled in the CalPERS healthcare system, which allows them to pick their plans. The district then contributes up to $1,050 per month for full-time unit members, no matter the plan.
This means any other premium costs, no matter the plan, will come out of pocket for teachers.
Current benefits put families in tough financial spots
At the May 18 MCS board meeting, hundreds of teachers and their families packed the parking lot and parts of the street in solidarity. The rise in cost of healthcare coverage was their primary concern.
The union asked members to hold up signs saying how much each employee has spent on out-of-pocket expenses per month on premiums in the past year.
Some folks made posters expressing deeper concerns on the topic.
One had photos of young girls with a message that read, “Which twin should I insure? I can’t afford both.”
Nelson said teachers who are also parents struggle to keep up with medical costs and pay for dependents.
McGrath said the MTA survey on healthcare costs, which had the highest level of member engagement in her recent memory, shows a single employee could spend anywhere from $70 to $600 per month, and for some families, nearly $3,000 per month.
Some teachers in the district say they want to start families, but can’t because healthcare for them is too expensive at current levels.
Sarah Wagner is a mother to two children at Enslen Elementary. She and her husband Brett Wagner, a social studies teacher at Roosevelt High School and member of the MTA bargaining unit, used their truck as the makeshift stage for the Pack the Lot event on May 18.
While her family lives in Modesto, Wagner works as a school counselor for the Stockton Unified School District and uses her insurance instead of her husband’s. Otherwise, she said, they would have to tighten their budget.
“Any extra fun stuff we wouldn’t be able to do with the kids, we have to definitely be a little more strict on groceries, obviously visiting family elsewhere out of town,” she said, “We’d just have to be a lot more conservative on everything we do, and especially the fun stuff.”
Recently, she’s been shopping for a new dentist in Modesto for the kids, and learned even the practitioners have taken note of the lack of coverage MCS’s insurance options have.
“It’s a good reason to fight for it now,” she said, “anywhere you call to get (the) kids dental and things like that, (practitioners) even say, ‘Oh, you don’t have that (Modesto City Schools) insurance, do you?’”
Contingency language, continuing debates
On Thursday, Buitrago wrote an open letter to the public for statewide collaboration on the issue, urging for legislation to be planned and passed in a timely manner.
“California already utilizes large-scale public employee healthcare systems through existing state structures. The state should not overlook opportunities to explore whether those models may also offer long-term affordability and sustainability benefits for public education systems,” she wrote.
She is also part of a statewide workgroup created by the California Superintendent Tony Thurmond to address the impact of rising healthcare costs on school districts and educators.
“We’re in a position where we have to make decisions about either providing healthcare to an employee or providing academic programming for students. That shouldn’t even be a conversation,” Buitrago said.
However, the two are inextricably linked.
Negotiations for the 2026-27 contract began at the start of the last school year. In December, MTA was hopeful it would put the contract to bed before the start of the new year.
The district and the California School Employees Association (CSEA) were able to finalize an agreement in only four months, before January.
In its negotiations, MTA representatives continue to push for more support for special education teachers and dismissal of a proposed school day schedule change.
The schedule changes refer to the district’s proposed plan to reallocate state funds for arts education by cutting what teachers consider to be foundational programs in elementary schools, which is another point of contention in the new contract.
While the former issues have taken a backseat to the insurance concerns, MTA says they are still a concern for teachers.
At the last bargaining meeting, McGrath said the district offered pay increases in exchange for acceptance of the new schedules. But McGrath said the topics are separate and should remain so.
She also said the offered pay increases will not offset the high medical costs and increases to the cost of living.
“We want to get our members help as soon as they possibly can get it. We don’t want to see it tied to contingency language. We just want to get our members some relief,” McGrath said.
The next board meeting on Monday, June 8 will provide an overview of the district’s budget.
Vivienne Aguilar is a reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at vivienne@themodestofocus.org.