Sacramento City trustee asks for school financial help in ‘Hail Mary’ to community

The Abridged version:

• Sacramento City Unified could run out of cash as soon as this summer. One board member is turning to parents and the community for help.
• Trustee Taylor Kayatta said he is not looking for individual donations, but rather ideas that district staff and leaders may not have considered.
• If Sacramento City Unified does not come up with much-needed savings soon, they may face state receivership. Kayatta said the possibility is becoming increasingly imminent.

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As Sacramento City Unified schools’ financial crisis could come to a head as soon as this summer, a member of the board is pleading to the community for help.

“I am humbled to admit that the ‘miracle’ we need right now cannot be found in a spreadsheet alone,” Trustee Taylor Kayatta wrote in a Facebook post Saturday. “It must come from us. I am asking you—parents, teachers, and neighbors—to stand with us.”

Kayatta’s social media message to families prompted several responses, some asking to clarify what exactly the three-year board member was seeking.

“If any members of our community have access to people who can help us with our immediate cash crunch, please let me know,” Kayatta wrote in response to one of the comments.

Seeking ideas for school financial crisis

Kayatta told Abridged his post was not a request for individuals to chip into the multi-million-dollar crisis.

“The level of issues we have are beyond pretty much anyone’s ability to help with,” he said.

Instead, the vice president of the board said he is calling for ideas.

“In some ways, it’s like a Hail Mary,” Kayatta said.

“There’s only so much we can rely on our staff for right now,” he added. “If they’re not thinking of something, but someone else has an idea, the board will run with it.”

‘Imminent’ threat of receivership

District staff crafted and board members passed a fiscal solvency plan, with budget cuts for this school year as well as in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

However, Kayatta was among a vocal contingent of trustees who earlier this month expressed frustration that these rightsizing efforts were not being implemented fast enough.

“No matter how prepared we are for what to do next year, if we run out of cash this year, then we can’t avoid the receivership,” he said in an interview with Abridged Monday.

If the district cannot come up with enough savings by end of this fiscal year to resolve the school financial crisis, they will likely have to ask the state for an emergency loan. In exchange, the county will send in an administrator, who overtakes the board’s authority completely.

Ten school districts, out of about 1,000 statewide, have faced this reality. Multiple have needed more than 20 years to repay their loan.

Asked about the Sacramento district’s odds of avoiding such a fate, Kayatta said there is still time to rectify the situation. But the clock is ticking, and the board member said he would not have penned the dire warning, “if I didn’t think it was imminent.”

He said, “People need to know that this is very serious.”

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.