The Abridged version:
- Taylor Kayatta never pictured himself running for office. Now the self-proclaimed introvert is one of the most outspoken figures on the Sacramento City Unified school board.
- He is well known for lengthy, feather-ruffling social media posts, often centering on the school district’s ongoing multimillion-dollar budget crisis.
- Kayatta said he’s doing what he wanted public officials to do when he was a frustrated parent on the other side of the dais.
One by one, school board members file into the meeting room. Some meander through rows of attendees, shaking hands, hearing out complaints, smiling at students.
Taylor Kayatta tends to head straight for the dais.
Carrying the reserved demeanor of a self-proclaimed introvert, the Sacramento City Unified trustee and father of two has an unassuming way about him. Unlike, at first glance, an outspoken public figure.
Compared to some of his colleagues, such as Chinua Rhodes, the board’s most tenured member with jovial charisma and a penchant for high fives, or Tara Jeane, board president and a public school teacher with the industry knack for leading a room’s focus, Kayatta doesn’t stand out as an obvious figure for the spotlight.
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Yet, by many accounts, his name is one of the most well-known in the district.
In one particular late July meeting, an off-schedule gathering for leaders to review their latest iteration of a financial recovery plan, the board president is absent. So, Kayatta, the vice president, holds the gavel.
With a downcast gaze, he takes his time settling into the center seat. Then as the meeting begins he straightens up, firing off questions and comments during board discussion.
Later in the evening he’ll get online, as he often does, to share what happened at the meeting and the latest controversial decision in the district’s fight to stay afloat. His Facebook musings, often posted late at night, have provoked criticism from online commenters and made their way into local news coverage.
Though he knows his approach won’t please everybody, Kayatta said he’s doing what he wanted officials to do when he was on the other side of the dais: speak up.
“When I was a parent who felt like I wasn’t getting what I needed for my kids,” Kayatta said, “I wish I had a board member who would at least tell me what’s happening. Tell me the good and the bad.”
Bad news bear
A lot of bad news has come out of Sacramento City Unified over the last year.
The budget crisis snowballed for years, its root causes preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current board. But the avalanche came crashing last fall, starting when officials uncovered about $40 million in unexpected spending from the previous year.
As staff and leaders kept digging, there were “more bugs coming out,” Jeane, the board president, said.
Local media reported each revelation, including the district’s first go at a plan to cut its budget. The district’s communication team released intermittent statements during major developments, such as the sudden resignation of former Superintendent Lisa Allen.
But many updates were also heralded by Kayatta, via his official Facebook account.
There was the “Hail Mary” post in January, soliciting community input. (Kayatta emphasized in a recent conversation that he was never asking for donations to a multimillion-dollar problem, rather feedback and fresh ideas.)
Also, the time he wrote, “The time is nigh for Sac City leadership,” and took aim at administrators in the district’s central office and school campuses.
As recently as Thursday night he marked the start of the new school year by writing online about the district’s tough year ahead and reiterating the urgency of avoiding state intervention.
The posts are often long yet blunt, unpopular among some of those closest to the situation while undeniably prevalent on social media feeds.
‘I’ll just do it myself’
Kayatta, 41, said he never pictured himself in the public eye.
One of five siblings, he lived in Maine until sixth grade, when his family relocated to southern California. After graduating from UCLA, he moved to the state capital for law school at University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. There he met his wife, Teresa, who grew up in Sacramento.
Her mother is a retired Sacramento City teacher who still volunteers in classrooms, her father a former principal and charter school leader. Kayatta said he leans on his in-laws for the “background scoop” on the district.
When asked what led him to run for school board, he answers unequivocally: “It was my son.”
At a young age, Kayatta’s son, Torsten, had difficulties in school.
Even with a family steeped in education and attorneys as parents,Torsten wasn’t getting the additional support he needed, like speech therapy.
“We had everything you could possibly need to know how to ask the right questions, to know what our rights were, and it was still like pulling teeth,” Kayatta said.
“It’s like, if we can’t do this, how can anyone get this done?” he added.
So he spoke up, and he joined district parent committees, but still was not getting the answers he wanted. If the elected officials at the time weren’t doing enough, he thought, “Well, I’ll just do it myself.”
Mixed reviews
Part of that alternative approach has manifested in a prolific social media presence.
It can be a balancing act, Kayatta said, between wanting to be transparent with families, without revealing too much of the bureaucratic sausage-making process.
Often, though, big decisions or developments will happen after working hours during lengthy Thursday night board meetings. Kayatta said he feels a responsibility to make sure people see these updates.
“I’m not going to presume that people have watched our meetings,” he said. The assemblies tend to run between four and six hours long.
When he hears of bubbling confusion, he’ll pick up his online pen.
“If I’m running into people at Bel Air and they’re like, ‘Oh, we heard this and this,’ and it’s just inaccurate — I feel like I need to address that,” he said.
And yes, he reads the comments. “I can’t not do that,” he said.
Responses to his posts range from appreciation for his candor, questions pressing for greater clarity and a healthy dose of cutting criticism.
“Ah, yes… The finger pointing and refusal to accept accountability continue,” Steve Bruno, a comment section regular and database administrator for the district, replied to a March post.
“We expect nothing different at this point,” Bruno wrote.
Longstanding habit
Posting isn’t a new thing for Kayatta. He’s been authoring lengthy Facebook posts for about as long as the social media platform has been around.
In college, that meant airing his student government grievances online.
It ruffled feathers then, too.
At one point, Kayatta said an acquaintance took him aside and suggested a different approach. Write the post but then walk away, he was told. Give it 24 hours, at least.
For the most part, Kayatta still follows that rule today.
“No one wants to see your rough draft,” he said. “There’s been maybe one of two over the years that I’ve written and then just posted.”
Another run
The first time someone called him “Trustee Kayatta” he recalled cringing.
“It’s weird,” he said. “Please, just call me Taylor.”
Now he’s poised to continue on as Trustee Kayatta for at least another four years.
He opted to run again, a decision he explained in a post on Facebook (his personal, not official account) as wanting to continue advocating for families like his own.
And since he and the two other incumbent trustees had no challengers as of the Aug. 7 filing deadline, the district is set to continue with the same school board for the foreseeable future.
Throughout that time, some stage of the district’s budget crisis will continue to loom.
Adjournment
It remains to be seen if officials’ latest plan to dodge state intervention is successful, especially after a key piece of that strategy — an agreement with the teachers union — sits in limbo.
District and county office of education officials went back and forth over the deal. The quarrel came to a head, pulling in state leaders at a time when many students began returning for the first day of school.
Board members approved the deal in question back in July, at the meeting Kayatta presided over. At the time, he tried to get ahead of county officials’ skepticism, though they would ultimately decide to rescind the deal.
“Our children will lose if the adults start fighting,” Kayatta said.
The vote was unanimous, with one absence, which put the gavel in Kayatta’s hand for that pivotal vote.
“And with that,” he said, “we are at adjournment.”
With the meeting over, Kayatta gathers his papers and says a brief goodbye to the other trustees. Head down, he leaves as quietly as he arrives.
