The Abridged version:
- Elected leaders at Sacramento City Unified School District knew the school district was headed for disaster sooner than they let on, according to former Chief Business Officer Janea Marking.
- Marking, who departed her role as top budget official in November, detailed in an email to the county office of education warnings that she and other staff members gave the board throughout negotiations with the district’s teacher union.
- The contract with the Sacramento City Teachers Association is one of several causes blamed for the district’s multimillion-dollar budget crisis.
Elected leaders at Sacramento City Unified received multiple warnings before steering the school district toward insolvency, according to a scathing account by the district’s ex-top budget official.
Details were included in a March 10 email from Janea Marking, former chief business officer, to the Sacramento County Office of Education, most of which were first reported by The Sacramento Bee.
Sacramento City Unified is contending with a $170.5 million predicted budget deficit and the prospect of becoming cashless by July.
Marking alleged that she and other staff members cautioned school board members against approving raises for members of the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
“They were warned, several times, of the realities of their decision making,” Marking wrote in her email. Yet, “the SCTA pressure for more money was indescribably intense.”
Marking wrote the email five months after she left the district to take a job at Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City.
School board backing SCTA
By her description, Marking said she thought trustees were acting in the best interest of the district’s teacher union — at the expense of other labor groups.
School Board President Tara Jeane did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
During a June 26 meeting, when the board met behind closed doors, “one board member led the group to back SCTA and meet their demands,” Marking wrote.
Nikki Milevsky, union president, in response to the email’s publication, questioned Marking’s timing.
“Why did she wait until five months after she left to make allegations about alleged comments made in closed session that people would have to break the law by disclosing confidential discussions to refute?” Milevsky said. “As the CBO, she was the one responsible for the accuracy of the budget.”
The former budget officer did not respond to a request for comment from Abridged.
Finger pointing abounds
The contract between Sacramento City Unified and its teacher union is just one on a lengthy list of reasons experts say are to blame for the multimillion-dollar crisis.
Other causes include about $40 million in unexpected expenses last school year and a continued proliferation of unapproved contracts across district departments.
Marking, in her email to county officials, said the writing was on the wall before the extent of the crisis became public in September.
“I wanted you to have this information as well given the lack of any factual statements being told to the community about what the board knew, who is accountable, and how critical the financial situation really is,” Marking wrote.
“I’m concerned everytime they issue a message that they are confident everything is going to be ok,” she continued. “I don’t believe they actually believe that.”
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.