The Abridged version:
- Leaders in the Sacramento City Unified School District are pondering a variety of possible cuts, including 30% department supply budget reductions, to stave off a financial crisis and state intervention.
- The board has until the end of the month to finalize their plan. Some changes could be implemented immediately, while others would go into effect in the coming years.
- Other factors adding to the challenge include a pattern of unauthorized contracts and top personnel changes.
Sacramento City Unified School District leaders are weighing steps such as future cuts to sixth grade field trip funding or delays in purchasing new curriculum and technology as a means to escape the district’s extensive financial crisis.
“There’s going to be some hard decisions to make, some hard cuts,” said school board member Chinua Rhodes. “It has to happen.”
A September report revealed Sacramento City Unified spent $43 million more than expected last school year. The spending surprise added onto what was already a grim fiscal reality, district officials have said.
Without a fix, the district is at risk of county and state intervention.
Janea Marking, chief business and operations officer for Sacramento Unified, presented a long list of possible reductions to stabilize the district’s budget during the school board’s meeting Thursday evening.
No cuts or changes were made official. The board is continuing to ponder proposals before a finalized plan is due to the Sacramento County Office of Education at the end of the month.
Immediate changes could come to SCUSD
Sacramento Unified needs to identify about $50 million in savings going into next year, Marking said.
Options on the table for immediate changes include:
- Reducing the supply budget of each department (except custodial) by 30%
- Delay purchasing updated math curriculum, with new books and supplies, until July 2027 and new Google Chromebook computers until July 2026
- Sending materials such as report cards electronically, instead of by mail
Potential cuts at the Serna Center, district office
Board trustee Taylor Kayatta also raised reducing administration staffing to pre-pandemic numbers by next school year.
Most of his fellow trustees supported the idea (two, including Board President Jasjit Singh, were absent), and the Sacramento City Teachers Association have made similar recommendations.
But trustee Tara Jeane said this proposal was a “question mark” for her.
“Do I agree that administrators are farther removed from classrooms? Absolutely,” Jeane said. “But I’ve also experienced when you make a cut in one place, how a program can get decimated, because you don’t have the right oversight anymore.”
Deeper cuts down the road
The district is also facing troubling projections that show Sacramento City Unified in the red as soon as springtime.
Suggested future changes, at the district level and for implementation as soon as the 2026-27 school year, include:
- Curtail field trip funds for sixth graders districtwide
- End payments for tests related to Gifted and Talented, Advanced Placement, the International Baccalaureate program and Preliminary SAT
- Discontinue Parent Participation Preschool, a program for parents to work in the classroom with toddler or preschool age children
District practices, personnel changes add challenges
Board members and Marking emphasized that the district’s issues run deeper than a few errant purchases.
“Yes, our financial data is sounding an alarm. But it is our district practices that require triage,” Marking said Thursday.
Adding to the concern, Kayatta said, is Marking’s recently announced departure from Sacramento City Unified. She will be moving to a role with the Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City starting in December.
“We are now losing our visionary chief business officer, someone who I believe has been one of the few voices willing to face our financial reality head on,” Kayatta said. “I cannot say enough how devastating a loss this is for our district.”
Unauthorized spending scrutinized
In the process of scrutinizing the district’s spending habits, school board members have taken aim at a pattern of unauthorized expenditures.
Officials have said previously these unapproved contracts totaled at least $62 million in the last school year.
On Thursday, district staff presented the board with 17 additional outstanding unauthorized contracts from this spring and summer.
Trustees retroactively approved the $670,705 sum.
Next steps
Sacramento City Unified owes the Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools Dave Gordon a draft of their fiscal solvency plan by Nov. 15.
The school board agreed Thursday to meet again in a week for a special meeting with more conversation, before hitting that deadline.
The district’s final version is due Dec. 1.
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 has been updated to reflect that the Sacramento City Unified School District owes the Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools a draft of its fiscal solvency plan, and that the proposed 30% cuts would be to departments’ supply budgets.