The Abridged version:
- Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Lisa Allen announced her resignation, effective at the end of the day Thursday.
- Her leave comes as the district faces a multi-million-dollar budget crisis and the threat of a state takeover.
- Cancy McArn, the district’s chief human resources officer and lead negotiator, will be the acting superintendent, the school board announced during a meeting Thursday evening.
Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Lisa Allen abruptly announced her resignation Thursday on what will be her last day in the job.
The district faces a multi-million-dollar budget crisis and the threat of state takeover.
The Sacramento Bee was first to report the news of Allen’s departure.
A spokesperson for the district confirmed Allen was stepping down effective immediately. He said the decision was hers, not a result of being forced out. Board President Tara Jeane said her departure was a “mutual decision” between Allen and the board, but not the result of the current financial trouble.
Allen has been in the position of superintendent at Sacramento City Unified since July 2023. Before that she held various other roles with the district, including as a teacher and later deputy superintendent.
“It took courage for me to accept the role of being superintendent, and it’s now taking courage for me to let go after 30 years of dedication and service,” Allen said during a school board meeting Thursday evening. Her farewell comments received a standing ovation from the packed room.
Cancy McArn named acting superintendent
Cancy McArn, the district’s chief human resources officer and lead negotiator, will take on the role of acting superintendent, the school board announced.
McArn has worked at Sacramento City Unified for almost 30 years, similar to Allen.
“Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of growing alongside this district,” McArn said. “I know this district not only from policy and practice, but from lived experience.”
McArn will receive a $325,000 salary — the amount Allen was earning. Allen exits the district with a salary payout of $152,575 and vacation payout of $74,791.
The board will begin the search for a permanent superintendent, Jeane said at the meeting.
“We aren’t just looking to get through this crisis. We’re looking to grow through it,” Jeane said.
District gets clearer picture of budget situation
The district experienced another major staffing shift at the end of last year, when the previous chief business officer, Janea Marking, departed her role overseeing the fiscal rightsizing.
Sacramento City Unified hired Lisa Grant-Dawson, Oakland Unified’s former top budget official, in the interim.
During Thursday’s meeting, Grant-Dawson presented to the board a more positive picture of the district’s financial situation.
She said the district has found $43.8 million in savings to make a dent in the $113.8 deficit expected at the end of the school year.
A new poster, hung on the wall behind board members, displayed this progress in an orange thermometer.
Previous projections showed Sacramento City Unified running out of cash as soon as this summer. Grant-Dawson’s updated presentation found the district is actually expected to end the year with about $3 million on hand. If that comes to pass, it would help the district avert insolvency and fend off a state takeover.
Staff protest, board pulls back on furloughs
The room was packed Thursday evening, with a couple hundred people in the audience. The majority of those were staff members, including school principals and nutrition services workers there to protest the board’s recent decision to expedite layoffs and increase furloughs.
“You can call these decisions fiscal. You can call them necessary,” said Cindy Hollander, principal at Sequoia Elementary School. “But you cannot pretend they’re evenly applied, and you cannot pretend they’re harmless.”
Many employees criticized a provision in the teachers’ union contract, which gives instructors eight extra days of pay — even next school year, when the academic calendar returns to a normal length.
Meanwhile, some administrators and non-classroom staff were facing up to 12 furlough days this spring.
Last week, trustees voted to approve the furlough days. But following several speakers who highlighted the stress those non-working days would put on staff and the district overall, board members on Thursday night backtracked and removed the furloughs.
“It became clear that the days that we adopted will not actually generate the savings that were projected in the fiscal solvency plan originally,” said Trustee Taylor Kayatta.
Ex-superintendent spent decades in the district
Allen assumed the job of acting superintendent July 1, 2023. Almost a year later, in April 2024, board members officially appointed her to the position.
Before that, she worked in Sacramento City Unified for 28 years, according to her biography on the district website. Originally from Indiana, Allen earned her master’s degree in education from Sacramento State.
“My job title may be changing, but my top priority remains the same — improving student outcomes,” Allen said in a statement at the time of her appointment to superintendent.
Her stint followed former Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, who served from 2017 to 2023 and frequently butted heads with the district’s teachers union.
“As a long time educator who served SCUSD for decades, Lisa Allen was the absolutely right person to succeed the previous superintendent,” Nikki Milevsky, president of Sacramento City Teachers Association, said in a statement following Allen’s announcement.
“We have appreciated her constructive approach and respect for educators,” Milevsky said.
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.
This story was updated at 8:01 p.m. Feb. 5, 2026, to include the appointment of the acting superintendent, at 11:01 p.m. to detail the board’s budget discussion and action, and at 12:05 a.m. Feb. 6 to include McArn’s salary and Allen’s payout.