The Abridged version:
- Sacramento City Unified leaders said they were on track to get out of a $135 million hole, owing in large part to a new deal between the district and teachers union.
- Officials from the Sacramento County Office of Education, though, announced Friday that they are rescinding the agreement.
- The union is encouraging the board to appeal the county’s decision to state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, the union president said.
Sacramento City Unified School District leaders this week touted a new and improved plan to get out of a $135 million hole and stave off a much-feared state intervention.
County officials just threw a wrench in their plans.
Advisers from the Sacramento County Office of Education announced late Friday they were rescinding a key piece of the district’s recovery plan: an agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers Association that was estimated to save about $48 million in 2026-27.
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Superintendent of the county office Dave Gordon expressed concerns with the deal — notably the fact that it locked up bargaining with teachers through 2030 and pulled resources out of a special reserve fund — in a July 24 letter to district leaders.
Luz Cázares, fiscal adviser to Sacramento City Unified, pulled the plug on the deal with the superintendent’s support, according to a statement from Gordon’s office.
School board members unanimously approved the deal during their meeting Thursday evening.
Trustee Taylor Kayatta at the time disputed the county office’s concerns and said reversing the agreement puts the district’s ability to escape the budget crisis “in peril.”
President of the teachers association Nikki Davis Milevsky said in a statement Friday that the move “undermines our democratically-elected board’s authority to solve local issues, compromises our district’s ability to avoid insolvency, and, in effect prolongs the need for her own paid oversight.”
The union is encouraging the board to appeal the county’s decision to state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, Milevsky said.
