The Abridged version:
- A large group of principals from the Sacramento City Unified School District blasted the board of education Thursday night for granting teacher raises and suggesting the district’s crippled budget be balanced with administrative cuts.
- Administrators said past boards have required sacrifice across the board — not just from administrators.
- The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team — a state-funded organization consulting with school districts in financial distress — also reprimanded the trustees for approving the raises without any ability to pay for them.
A horde of principals and other school leaders denounced the Sacramento City Unified school board for agreeing to two years of raises for teachers while eyeing cuts at the administrator level.
The district faces a multi-million-dollar crisis, revealed in September, and is at risk of fiscal insolvency, according to a new report from a statewide fiscal crisis team.
Earlier that same month, school trustees unanimously approved a new contract with the Sacramento City Teachers Association. It included a 2% salary increase for all represented employees. The overall agreement was estimated to cost the district about $10.6 million this school year.
District officials signed off on the settlement without a clear plan for how to afford the pay bumps, according to a new report from a statewide fiscal crisis team.
Negotiations are ongoing for all other district labor groups — including the United Professional Educators, which represents principals, assistant principals and other administrators.
Teachers’ contract comes ahead of other employee agreements
“Let me be clear,” Garrett Kirkland, president of the administrator union, said in comments to the board Thursday. “UPE supports teachers being highly compensated.”
But, he and a series of speakers told trustees, the agreement with the teachers’ union has left the district on unsure footing when it comes to bargaining with all other represented groups.
“As a result of your actions, the rest of the bargaining units are being told they will not get the equivalent,” Kirkland said.
Amid conversations about the district’s rocky path forward, Trustee April Ybarra pushed back on what she said is a popular narrative about the relationship between the school board and the teachers union.
“Having an (political) endorsement by the teachers doesn’t mean that we’re bought by the teachers,” she said.
Administrators brace for ‘chop from the top’
Sacramento City Unified officials approved a financial recovery plan in November that included the removal of almost 60 administrators next year.
Belinda Bridgewater, principal at Isador Cohen Elementary School, criticized what she called the “chop from the top.”
“If you cut the administrators in charge of technology services, then my school will have a problem,” she said.
Fellow principal Richard Dixon, of David Lubin Elementary School, has been in the administrator position since 2013. This is not the first Sacramento City Unified fiscal crisis he has endured, he said.
“However, in past crises everyone was asked to sacrifice,” Dixon said. “This time, that does not appear to be the case.”
Statewide crisis team sounds alarm in Sacramento City
The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team — a state-funded organization consulting with school districts in financial distress — published a Dec. 10 report diagnosing Sacramento City Unified with a litany of budget woes, including the teacher union agreement.
The report labeled Sacramento City Unified at high risk of insolvency.
Michael Fine, the team’s chief executive officer, said the problem was not improved compensation for educators.
“Teachers are underpaid as a society,” he said in a presentation to the board. “The issue I have is that you all approved that agreement without any ability to pay for it.
His team’s recent report echoed a similar audit of Sacramento City Unified in 2018.
“This is a district in crisis. It’s been a district in crisis for too long,” Fine said Thursday. “And your kids are suffering as a result.”
Eight-day pay provision draws scrutiny
Along with the 2% pay bump, teachers at Sacramento City Unified will receive compensation for eight additional days of instruction this and next school year.
In 2024-25 and 2025-26, the district extended the instructional calendar by a little over a week to account for time lost due to a 2021 teacher strike.
The Sacramento City Unified calendar returns to a regular length starting next year. But the two-year contract with teachers means they will continue receiving the extra pay in the 2026-27 school year.
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.