The Abridged version:
- The Sacramento City Unified school board approved a fiscal solvency plan Thursday that includes reductions to supply budgets, certain extracurricular programs and administration staffing levels.
- The plan is a “living document,” in need of regular updates, said Chief Budget Officer Janea Marking. Starting next week, Marking will no longer be at the helm.
- Abridged spoke with the outgoing budget leader on her last day with the district. She said the district needs to break “bad habits” that have plagued other districts.
Sacramento City Unified trustees advanced a plan Thursday to keep the district afloat, in the face of a $43 million shortfall and the threat of state intervention.
The reductions are estimated to save the district $70.7 million this school year and more than $59 million in the next. Parents have already expressed trepidation, regardless of district vows to focus on cuts outside of the classroom.
Included in the catalog of cuts are hiring freezes, shrunken supply budgets and reducing certain preschool or before- and after-school programs.
At board members’ request, the plan also accounts for the removal of almost 60 district administrators next year. Officials did not specify which positions or departments would be targeted.
The overall plan is still a “living document,” according to Janea Marking, the district’s chief business officer.
And the question of Sacramento City Unified’s fiscal future is far from settled — though Marking will no longer be there to steer the monetary ship. She will soon move to a role with the Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City.
She also said the district retains “bad habits” from a financial cushion during the pandemic and needs better spending controls.
Marking has been with the district since October 2023. On her final day with the district, she spoke with Abridged and shared her parting thoughts about the district’s future.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Are you feeling confident that this latest plan will keep the district afloat, at least for now?
A: I’m feeling confident that this is our best foot forward right now. It’s hard — I don’t have a crystal ball. It’s hard to predict where this is going to go.
There are things that we don’t know that we don’t know yet. So, it’s hard to say, “Yes, with this plan, everything’s going to be great,” because, like you heard me say (at Thursday’s meeting), I don’t like to make a promise I can’t keep. But I do think that right now, this is our best foot forward.
Q: One thing that was added more recently to the plan was administration cuts. Can you explain why you believe at least a certain number of administrators is necessary?
A: Here in the business office, we obviously aren’t standing in front of students. But for sure, we make sure the lights stay on, that the bills are paid, that our employees are paid.
As I like to think of it, as the leader over business and operations, I want that to just be like a nice silent hum in the background … that our teaching staff don’t even necessarily have to think about. That it’s just working for them. So that way, they’re able to give their 100% to their kids every day.
It takes everyone in the whole system in order for it to be able to work. What is the right number of administrators? Our board is creating that boundary for us to meet. We are going to find out if that’s the right number of administrators for us or not, as we move forward. This is also why it’s a living document, right? We may need to adjust that number — up or down.
Q: The $43 million shortfall and financial crisis that was revealed in September may have caught some parents off guard. Did it come as a surprise within the district?
A: Absolutely. If we would have known about it at any point before when we reported it, we would have reported it sooner.
We were caught off guard by it 100%, and we have done our diligence to make sure that as soon as we knew about it, our board and our community knew about it.
Q: There have been right-sizing efforts in the two years you’ve been here. That $43 million shortfall — did that backtrack some of those steps?
A: I don’t think it backtracked any steps in the opposite direction at all. What I actually think it did is just remind us that … we have some really bad habits.
And we’re not alone in those bad habits. I think most districts have built a lot of bad habits based upon having the additional surplus of onetime COVID funding.
As much as we’ve done to improve internal controls, as much as we’ve done to add systems for knowing what’s coming down the pipeline — and we’ve done a lot of that — there’s still more that we need to bring in line.
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.