The Abridged version:
- Conflict between Sacramento City Unified and the Sacramento County Office of Education had led to a statewide effort to amend California education law. That push fell short of meeting an end-of-session deadline Monday, though.
- Without the change, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond can step in as overseer of the Sacramento school district at any point before the end of his term in November.
- Thurmond threatened to intervene in a letter to local officials in August. He would be the first in his position to use this authority.
A conflict between a Sacramento school district and the county Office of Education had ballooned to the point that a group of officials from across California wanted to change a piece of state law.
The California County Superintendents, representing the state’s 58 counties, proposed tweaking a line in the Education Code to prevent the state superintendent of public instruction from unilaterally taking over the role of monitoring a struggling school district.
The group’s 11th-hour proposal fell short of becoming legislation, though, ahead of the last day of session at the state Capitol on Monday.
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“It’s too early to say if a similar proposal will be reintroduced next year,” Derick Lennox, senior director of governmental relations and legal affairs for the county organization, said in a statement.
“Much depends on whether the State Superintendent of Public Instruction does exactly what legislators and parents have feared — strip authorities from impartial county officials in an act of political power, rather than sound fiscal judgment,” he said.
Thurmond’s threat
The county group was reacting to state Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s recent threat to intervene in Sacramento City Unified’s financial affairs.
After the district butted heads with the Sacramento County Office of Education over the latter’s decision to nix a new agreement with the district’s teachers union, school leaders turned to Thurmond.
Trustees and Sacramento City Superintendent Cancy McArn asked him to revive the contract. He declined.
But, in a letter addressed to McArn and county Superintendent Dave Gordon, Thurmond expressed concern about the county office’s actions. And he said he would be watching closely, ready to potentially step in.
California law allows the state superintendent to take over as direct overseers if they determine the county offices “are not effective in resolving the financial problems.”
Thurmond, if he acted, would be the first to exercise that authority.
Effort falls short
County officials across California were alarmed by the prospect, said Kindra Britt, communication director for California County Superintendents.
It spurred a last-minute push to change the law to require the state Board of Education president or their designee to sign off on any intervention. But the group faced a tight deadline to get its proposal into actual legislation.
“We’re trying to do something in a week that normally takes months,” Britt told Abridged by PBS KVIE last week.
Ultimately, the effort came up short.
Sacramento City Unified leaders protested both the measure and its timing. McArn, the superintendent, said she and trustees were caught completely by surprise.
“That doesn’t instill trust,” she said.
State stepping in uncertain
While they were racing to try to make deadline, members of the county organization said they heard “troubling rumors” that Thurmond might take the supervisory reins at Sacramento City Unified as early as this week.
Michael Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, said on Friday he had heard similar rumblings.
But with the county superintendents’ proposal failing to come to fruition, there may be less urgency spurring Thurmond to act and get ahead of a legal change.
Sacramento school officials, for their part, have invited his intervention.
They say the support they get from Thurmond and other Department of Education officials has so far surpassed that of the county office and its superintendent.
“Tony Thurmond has been like, ‘Let’s get you guys solvent and keep you solvent,'” said Jasjit Singh, a Sacramento school board member. “I wish that was the same energy we got from Dave Gordon.”
Julie Lautsch, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, said in a statement that Thurmond is set to meet again with school district and county office representatives Tuesday.
“We appreciate the Legislature’s choice not to rush an unnecessary statewide change in law while local discussions are actively underway,” Lautsch said. “Changing the law in the middle of those discussions would have undermined efforts to reach a local resolution.”
