The Abridged version:
- Sacramento City Unified officials presented their first formal update on their strategy to make it through the 2026-27 school year and dodge a dreaded state intervention.
- Reductions on the table include removing districtwide funding for a well-known sixth grade field trip to Sly Park. Now, parents and PTA groups will be responsible for covering the costs.
- With the latest round of saving measures, staff anticipate that the district will have cash in the bank through February. That’s without a recent agreement with the teachers union, a key piece of the solvency plan that county education officials rescinded last month.
A little more than a week into the new school year, Sacramento City Unified officials said they have made a dent in their hefty goal to stay afloat and dodge a dreaded state intervention.
So far, staff identified about $36.7 million in savings, a little more than a fifth of the overall $158.6 million needed to prevent the district coffers from running dry.
Chris Ralston, assistant superintendent of facilities, presented the figures to the school board Thursday, promising a cadence of monthly progress reports moving forward.
“The data will get better. The reporting will get better,” Ralston said.
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Other savings could come from an extensive list of potential program cuts, including pulling back districtwide funding for a well-known sixth grade field trip to Sly Park in El Dorado County.
Sly Park stays, funding doesn’t
Under the proposed change, payment for the middle school science trip would be the responsibility of individual schools, parents or PTAs.
Shifting the cost away from the district’s checkbook would save an expected $850,000 this year, according to Ralston’s presentation.
The multi-day trip has long been an annual event for sixth grade students at Sacramento City Unified. Traditionally, parent groups at each school would fundraise for it.
After 2020, the district began using additional COVID-19 pandemic-related funds to cover the costs across campuses.
Trustee Taylor Kayatta, whose son just started sixth grade at Pony Express Elementary School, said his PTA has already started raising money, “as are other PTAs that saw the writing on the wall.”
“For a lot of our students, hopefully most of our students, the trip can still happen,” Kayatta said.
Missing piece
About $31 million — the bulk of the $36.7 million recovered so far — comes from a one-time state grant. The rest is predominantly the result of a change in funding for books and supplies.
Currently, the district faces the prospect of running out of cash by February.
That runway would stretch through April with the inclusion of a contentious agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
The four-year contract extension, announced at the end of July, came with about $48 million in savings for the district in 2026-27. Most of that resulted from the temporary use of a special reserve account, instead of the general fund, to pay for retired teachers’ health benefits.
The agreement was a key piece of the district’s most recently updated financial recovery plan.
Deal on ice
However, officials from the Sacramento County Office of Education overturned the agreement, citing concerns about use of the trust and that the agreement would lock up bargaining until 2030.
District leaders appealed the decision to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
Thurmond declined to reverse the county-level recission, but he endorsed the original deal and threatened to step in over the county office’s authority going forward.
The agreement could be resurrected, district officials said in the wake of Thurmond’s ruling.
Trustee Jasjit Singh said he strongly disagreed with criticism of the deal, and he called on the county office Thursday to retract their previous decision.
“There is a credible plan before you,” Singh said. “Look at this plan and work with us.”
Related content from PBS KVIE: Inside California Education: Sly Park
