The Abridged version:
- The Sacramento City Unified School District received about $6.3 million in funds from the state meant to boost arts and music programs. It was poised to have to return $1.8 million of unspent money.
- However, a recent review of the district’s expenses revealed a “clerical error” and that officials did in fact spend their entire allocation.
- Chief Business Officer Gerardo Castillo, who began in the role over the summer, said he expects fewer administrative errors like this going forward.
Sacramento City Unified was already penny-pinching when officials there learned they would need to return about $1.8 million to the state.
However, a last-minute review found that’s no longer the case.
The district had received about $6.3 million in funds from Proposition 28, a statewide investment meant to boost music, theater, drama and fine art programs in schools.
Voters approved the measure in 2022. School districts started receiving the money in 2023-24 and had three years to use the allocation. Anything left on the table had to be given back.
Sacramento City Unified was on the verge of having the largest unspent return of any school district, as first reported by The Sacramento Bee.
Except, the district did spend the full amount, said the district’s Chief Business Officer Gerardo Castillo. It was a “clerical error,” he said, and as of Thursday his team had updated its reporting with the state.
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‘We spent it all’
Castillo, who started with Sacramento City Unified over the summer to lead its budget team, said he thought something sounded wrong when he heard the district had left almost $2 million untouched.
After a last-minute review of prior-year expenses, he found the reporting error.
The money went toward expanding the district’s visual and performing arts programs, according to a news release Thursday. That included 32 new full-time arts positions across schools.
“We spent it all in accordance with the law,” district spokesperson Brian Heap said.
The release also said the district “has taken action to understand the cause of the reporting error so it is not repeated in the future.”
Castillo and other school leaders have been reforming bad budget habits, as part of their work to get out of a $150 million budget deficit and avoid a state intervention.
He said he expects fewer mistakes — especially of this size — going forward.
