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Budget Update #60
November 16, 2020
Dear Sac City Unified Community,
Since I joined the District in 2017, I have repeatedly
communicated about our precarious fiscal situation. Our District
is operating under a structural deficit, which means our expenses
exceed revenue.
In December 2019, the California State Auditor conducted a
thorough and independent audit of the District鈥檚 finances.
. The California
State Auditor鈥檚 recommendations and findings echoed what our
district had heard before. In fact, over the last
few decades the District鈥檚 finances have been audited or
reviewed over and over by independent auditors and experts who
all say the same thing: that Sac City Unified is operating under
a continued structural deficit and that if action is not taken to
reduce expenditures that the District cannot afford, the District
will be be required to seek a loan from the state to meet the
reserve level required by law, which would trigger a state
takeover of the District.
These entities include:
While the exact date of insolvency may adjust to changing
conditions or budget fluctuations, the fact remains that
insolvency is inevitable without structural changes to the
District鈥檚 budget that lead to ongoing improvement to the
district鈥檚 finances. And while experts have sounded the alarm for
decades, there is insurmountable evidence that our time to
address this fiscal crisis is running out.
, the District will present a draft
Fiscal Recovery Plan on November 19, which will include scenarios
of potential reductions or budget changes to address the
structural deficit. The plan will come back to the Board for
adoption at the Board meeting on December
10.
Over the past two years, the district has made significant budget
cuts 鈥 approximately $50 million 鈥 to stave off insolvency. These
cuts have been painful, and leave few flexible choices in the
budget.
Independent entities have long-warned that without addressing the
high cost of salaries and benefits, 麻豆国产AV would be forced to make
even more difficult decisions about its budget, which would
further impact students and the services we provide them.
Unfortunately, it is time to begin having these difficult
conversations.
Here is the current financial status as of the 2020-21 Revised
Adopted Budget:
As you can see, Sac City鈥檚 budget is literally heading into the
red. We are projected to spend money that we simply do not have.
At this time, we cannot reach the required reductions to balance
the district budget without making difficult cuts.
We know that a narrative exists that the District does not have a
structural deficit, that these facts are nothing more than scare
tactics, or that the District is 鈥渃rying wolf鈥 about the severity
of the deficit. Let me clear: there is nothing I wish more than
for those narratives to be accurate, because it would mean that
we could address students鈥 needs without concern for our ongoing
budget. It would mean that we wouldn鈥檛 have to choose between
services for our students or reductions and eliminations to such
services. It would mean that I wouldn鈥檛 have to send you these
grim emails and updates, and that we wouldn鈥檛 have to make these
difficult decisions. It would mean that we have the freedom to
invest in programs and students, and sustain programs that need
additional support from our general fund because of their value
to students.
Health Benefit Costs Remain High and Must be
Negotiated
麻豆国产AV鈥檚 health benefit costs are high because of a collective
bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated almost a half a century
ago. The agreement stipulates that members of the Sacramento City
Teachers Association be entitled to a specific healthcare
provider, HealthNet. The CBA further stipulates that 麻豆国产AV covers
100 percent of the employee and family plan costs. This results
in the District currently paying well over $30,000 for each
member that selects the family HealthNet plan, making 麻豆国产AV鈥檚
health plan one of the five costliest plans in California.
Since 2018, the district has attempted to engage SCTA in
negotiation on its successor contract to renegotiate this
expensive health care plan.
Possible Negotiable Items and Potential Savings
The District will continue attempting to negotiate savings with
labor partners, but these cuts will require agreement from our
employees.
It is painful to say but we do not have the freedom to invest in
students and programs as we should when our budget becomes tight.
The board will consider the following budget reduction options on
December 10:
- $1.749 million reduction to positions, including Assistant
Principals, Social Workers, and Counselors
- $2.253 million cut to Central Departments, including
Professional Development, Staff, and Supplies
- $9.633 million reduction of staff at programs and sites,
including the elimination of the IB and AP Testing, College and
Career Visits and Non-Special Education Transportation.
- Reductions to the dual immersion program
- The district might also cut 4.941 million from special
programs such as GATE, VAPA or Music programs, Safe Schools,
Social Emotional Learning, New Teacher Induction, Improvement and
Accountability , Alternative Education, and After School/Youth
Development programs.
I urge you to visit our most recent Budget Update and FAQ
page, which discusses our current budget scenario and the
options that will be presented to the Sac City Unified Board. I
also urge you tune in to the board meeting
on Thursday at this link where these options will be
discussed.
Thank you,
Jorge A. Aguilar
Superintendent
Budget Update #59
September 17, 2020
At our board meeting tonight, Sacramento City Unified School
District reviewed the district鈥檚 unaudited actual financial
report for the 2019-20 Annual Budget, which was certified by the
Sacramento County Office of Education. You can view the
Power Point shared with our Board here and the full
report within our Board of Education Agenda here.
Details are as follows:
-
Spending was lower than anticipated due to COVID and
campus shut downs. 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 total revenues were $553.9
million, expenditures were $530.8 million, leaving an ending
fund balance of $93 million for the 2019-20 Academic Year.
Average monthly expenditures were approximately $44 million.
-
The district ran a temporary one-time surplus due to a
halt in spending after school closures. This is a 4%
difference from previous projections, but is a temporary
savings due to the district temporarily stopping many services
and responding to the public health crisis.
-
This is consistent with what we are seeing from
financial report from other districts. Actuals from
districts throughout California are coming in higher than
previous projections, based on this same information.
-
We saw an essential freeze on some of the district鈥檚
purchasing, operating costs, and staffing. To be
clear, this meant:
-
No field trips
-
Books not purchased
-
Utilities, fuel, and other supplies not needed
-
Positions unfilled, including temporary positions
-
Contractors unable to perform duties
-
Halted facilities projects and routine maintenance
-
Per diem employees temporarily out of work.
-
Positions that remained open and unfilled created
savings, but these savings are only temporary. Should
the district close or freeze these positions, we would lose bus
drivers, teachers, support staff, and other hard-to-fill
positions. These positions must be filled when we resume. We
cannot close these positions because they are needed.
-
In some cases, purchases were put on hold as
the district was unsure whether it would receive state and
federal reimbursement and was responding to the Governor鈥檚 May
revise. Some items have been pushed to the next fiscal year and
麻豆国产AV will see increased expenditures for FY 2020-21. For
example, the district鈥檚 purchase of Chromebooks and hot spots
and other technology support for staff and students as a result
of COVID-19. $5 million in textbook purchases were pushed to
2020-21 fiscal year.
-
These one-time savings will help stave off insolvency
for a period of time, but our district is still operating in
the red. Without significant structural changes, we
project insolvency by 2021-22. We project a $40 million deficit
for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
-
We anticipate that the impacts of recession will
continue. The district is also cognizant of the
current economic climate, and that the first year of a
recession is rarely the last. With this knowledge, the district
cannot rely on a false sense of security or fail to recognize
that deficit spending will result in receivership.
What is the projection on cash flow? When will the
district now run out?
Because of the reduction in spending this year, our cash position
has improved. However, the threat of insolvency remains. These
one-time savings will help stave off insolvency for a period of
time, but our district is still operating in the red. Without
significant structural changes, we project insolvency by 2021-22
with cash issues beginning in May. We project a $40 million
deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Why didn鈥檛 we know this a little sooner?
We didn鈥檛 know because when we were building the budget, it was
early May. At that time, we didn鈥檛 know when we were going to be
able to bring staff back for in-person instruction and resume
normal operations or with social-distance modifications in our
classrooms. The budget at that time was based on the Governor鈥檚
May Revise. Actuals from districts throughout California are
coming in higher than previous projections, based on this same
information.
May 26, 2020
Before our school closure due to the COVID-19 crisis, our
district was facing a well-documented $27 million deficit,
largely attributable to Sac City Unified鈥檚 unsustainable employee
salary and benefit structure, which makes up approximately 90
percent of the district鈥檚 unrestricted budget. This has been
confirmed by
Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE),
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a
, and most
recently the
At Thursday鈥檚 Board of Education meeting, we learned more about
Sac City Unified鈥檚 fiscal outlook under the Governor鈥檚 May
Revised budget. To be frank, the outlook is dire. Sac City
Unified can anticipate a significant revenue decline, and
an updated projected deficit of $57 million in the next fiscal
year.
The fact of the matter is, we are down to the bare bones.
The only viable cost savings that remain are staffing and benefit
costs. Had we already reached a negotiated solution with
our labor partners to reduce the costs of employee benefits and
align them to those of the vast majority of districts, we could
have built up a healthy reserve and these cuts could have been
avoided. Unfortunately, that is not our reality and our district
will continue to face hardship over the upcoming months and
potentially years.
Over the next few weeks, we will provide additional information
about our budget and plan moving forward. While much may be
uncertain, you can be assured that our decisions will be grounded
in our mission to meet our students鈥 academic, social, and
emotional needs. Any decisions must minimize the negative impact
of these budget cuts on our students.
PowerPoint on Sac City Unified鈥檚 budget
Key takeaways:
-
Statewide Funding 鈥 The state鈥檚 proposed May
Budget Revision proposes a ten percent cut to the Local Control
Funding Formula, our primary source of revenue. The
proposal also includes cuts to Career Technical Education
Incentive grants, and Child Care and Preschool Funding, among
other programs.
-
Federal Funding (CARES Act) 鈥 Sac City Unified
will receive $16 million in one-time funds. This must be used
by December 30 and is restricted.
What does this mean for Sac City Unified?
-
Dramatic cuts to Sac City Unified鈥檚 primary source of
revenue, the Local Control Funding Formula 鈥 While the
LCFF COLA reduction will be 10 percent, the district will use a
5 percent LCFF reduction outlook due to measures by the state
to mitigate some of the reductions. Assuming a 5
percent COLA reduction the district can expect an estimated $57
million deficit in the upcoming year with an ending
fund balance of approximately 6.7 million. By FY
2021-22 that deficit will balloon to $81 million, with
an ending negative fund balance at approximately -$75
million.
-
Out of Cash by April 2021 鈥 Under the current
projections, we estimate that our district will face serious
cash flow challenges, running out of funding in less than a
year, in April 2021.
Again, we will provide updated information over the next few
weeks about our budget and plan moving forward. Our students鈥
academic, social, and emotional needs remain our highest
priority. We will regularly update you as more information is
available and encourage you to visit our Negotiations webpage at
/negotiations-updates.
Budget Update #58
May 19, 2020
These last few weeks have been difficult for our school district,
for our community, and for our employees.
Last week鈥檚 news that we could expect additional cuts to
education as a part of reductions to the state budget came as an
especially devastating blow - especially as we are
considering the challenge of how we will reopen our schools when
it is safe to do so. And it will take funding, resources, and
support 鈥 something our district was lacking even before this
current crisis.
As part of our continued efforts to be transparent and honest
about our situation, we must inform you, our community, about our
updated fiscal outlook.
Fiscal Challenges
Before our school closure, our district was facing a
well-documented $27 million deficit, largely attributable to Sac
City Unified鈥檚 unsustainable employee benefits
structure. This has been confirmed by
Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE),
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a
, and most
recently the
Governor Newsom鈥檚 announcement of a 10 percent reduction to the
Local Control Funding Formula adds an additional layer of concern
and moves the timeline that our district could become insolvent
much earlier than our initial estimate of late 2021.
Outlook Under a Current State Budget Proposal
At our May 7 Board meeting, our budget team presented scenarios
which included a 10 percent LCFF reduction, indicating that
such a cut could impact our budget by approximately
$50 million, on top of the current $27 million
deficit.
Facing the Hard Truth
There are tough decisions ahead. Our district has already
implemented over $30 million in ongoing budget reductions. There
isn鈥檛 much left to cut and that is the hard truth.
Learn More About Our Budget
Our team will present the Third Interim Financial Report for
Fiscal Year 2019-20 at the May 21,
2020 board meeting. This presentation will give our community
detailed information about our budget outlook. At the
following meeting on
June 18, 2020, we will present a proposed adopted budget,
which will include possible program cuts in order for us to best
close our well-documented and likely growing deficit.
We will regularly provide our community with updates,
presentations, and information on our budget and status of
negotiations.
Budget Update #57
February 7, 2020
Dear Community Member,
Last night, at a public Sac City Unified Board meeting, and her team, provided an overview of their If you were unable to
attend the Board Meeting, please We want to thank State
Auditor Howle and her team for making themselves available to
attend last night鈥檚 Board of Education meeting.
As was mentioned in last night鈥檚 presentation, the District will
provide regular updates to the State Auditor as we work to
address the District鈥檚 budget crisis. Earlier today, the District
submitted an update which you will be able to view following a
review by the Auditor at: .
Sac City Unified remains committed to finding solutions to our
structural budget deficit. The District proposes to address this
crisis by implementing a number of the recommendations made in
the Audit Report. We must negotiate with the District鈥檚 labor
partners to accomplish this. The District looks forward to
commencing negotiations with SCTA on March 3, 2020 to find
solutions to our budget challenges that improve Sac City鈥檚
educational programs and enhance learning opportunities that
benefit all students.
We will continue to keep you posted on the latest news regarding
our District budget and our efforts to solve the structural
budget deficit. As always, the District鈥檚 chief priority is
student centered learning. Sac City Unified is committed to
resolving the budget crisis while preserving and enhancing
educational opportunities that benefit all students. For more
information, please visit our budget
updates and negotiations updates pages. Thank you.
Budget Update #56
February 6, 2020
Dear Community Member,
We are writing to inform you that the start date for the
upcoming 2020-2021 school year will be Thursday, September 3,
2020. The last day of school will be June 17,
2021.
Our goal is to give families plenty of advance notice about our
school year calendar, and the District has received a number of
questions about the start date for upcoming school
years.
We hope to be able to share information about the start date for
the 2021-2022 school year soon.
As you may know, the District had proposed an earlier start date
for both the 2020-2021 and 2021-22 school years. However, this
matter requires negotiation with the District鈥檚 labor partners as
it impacts their work calendar and we have not reached agreement
on a change to the start date with all of our labor partners.
We remain hopeful that we will begin negotiations with
all of our labor partners on our proposed calendar very soon so
that we can provide notice to our community as early as possible
next year as to any changes to the 2021-22 school
calendar.
As we have shared with our labor partners, the District has
proposed to change the school calendar to begin in mid-August
because we believe that schedule furthers our student-focused
mission. For details on the proposal please see
By shifting to an earlier start date, our District鈥檚
students will benefit from:
-
Greater opportunities to enroll in summer courses at
community colleges
-
Alignment of our high schools鈥 semesters with college
and university schedules, with the first semester ending prior
to winter break
-
Improved opportunities to apply for summer jobs and
internships that begin in early June, which are unavailable to
our students due to the District鈥檚 current end of school
dates
-
Additional instructional days prior to Advanced
Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) testing,
the SAT, and other assessments that are critical for students
applying to colleges and universities.
To summarize, this shift will better position all 麻豆国产AV students
to be better prepared for college and career success, but the
change must first be negotiated with our labor
partners.
We appreciate the patience of our 麻豆国产AV community while we work
to finalize the school year start dates for the 2021-2022
calendar year. Our goal is to maximize opportunities for 麻豆国产AV
students to participate in college and career readiness
activities. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress
of the negotiations to shift our school year
schedule.
Again, please make a note that the start date for the
upcoming 2020-2021 school year will be Thursday, September 3,
2020 and the last day of school will be June 17,
2021.
Budget Update #55
January 23, 2020
Dear Community Member,
Last month, the . The audit report considered the
District鈥檚 short-term and long-term financial challenges and made
recommendations to address the District鈥檚 multi-million
structural budget deficit.
The California State Auditor will present an overview of
its audit report at the upcoming 麻豆国产AV Board Meeting on February
6, 2020. A tentative time has been set for 7:00 p.m. A reminder
will go out next week with the exact time of the presentation.
You can also check
here for the latest updates to the Board agenda.
The District invites interested members of the community to
attend the February 6 Board meeting. Members of the community are
also invited to submit any questions they have concerning the
audit and its recommendations in advance of the meeting. If you
would like to submit a question concerning the audit report,
please
click here to submit your questions by Wednesday, January 29,
2020.
We will continue to keep you posted on the latest news and
information regarding our District budget and finances.
For more information, please visit our budget updates
page. Thank you.
Budget Update #54
December 16, 2019
Dear Community Member,
On Thursday, December 19th, District staff will be presenting the
Board of Education with the First Interim Financial Report and a
Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) update. The
First Interim Report will provide a snapshot of the District鈥檚
current cash flow projections. Click here to
review the board packet materials.
The Board of Education meets at 6 p.m. at the Serna Center (5735
47th Avenue) and these items are scheduled for presentation at
approximately 8:39 p.m. Please note that for parents needing
child care, there will be free child care available in the room
next to the Board meeting. To view the full Board meeting agenda,
visit our Board of Education meeting page.
We will continue to keep you posted on the latest news and
information regarding our budget and finances. For more, please
visit our budget updates page.
Thank you.
Budget Update #53
November 25, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This message is to update you on the status of issuing
retroactive payments to certificated employees who are entitled
to salary increases for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
In August, the District
reported that it was working to calculate the amounts of these
retroactive payments. Today the District issued the final
batch of these payments, which are for individual base salary
adjustments for eligible certificated employees. In total, the
District has now issued all retroactive payments totaling over
$8.3 million. Both the June adopted budget for 2019-20 and the
revised 2019-20 budget approved at the October 3, 2019 Board
meeting included this expenditure.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news related
to our budget. For more information, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #52
October 16, 2019
Dear Community Member,
We want to share that Sacramento County Office of Education
Superintendent Dave Gordon, who provides fiscal oversight of the
district, has analyzed and responded to the district鈥檚 re-adopted
budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year. In his analysis,
Superintendent Gordon states:
鈥淏ased on our review, it appears that the district鈥檚
unrestricted General Fund balance will decrease by approximately
$9.5 million in 2019-2020, approximately $28.1 million in
2020-2021, and approximately $30.9 million in 2021-2022. It
appears that the district will meet its minimum reserve
requirement in the current and subsequent fiscal year, but will
fall short in 2021-2022, leaving a negative unrestricted ending
fund balance of approximately $7.4 million. Therefore, the
district鈥檚 Re-Adopted Budget is disapproved.鈥
Click here to read Superintendent Gordon鈥檚 full letter to the
District.
We will continue to keep you informed of the latest developments
and updates regarding our budget. For more information, please
visit our budget updates page.
Thank you.
Budget Update #51
October 10, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This message is to update you on the status of issuing
retroactive payments to certificated employees who are entitled
to salary increases for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
In August, the District reported that it was working to
calculate the amounts of these retroactive payments. Today,
the District issued the first batch of these payments, which
total $584,910. Both the June adopted budget for 2019-20 and the
revised 2019-20 budget approved at the October 3, 2019 Board
meeting included this expenditure.
The District is now in the process of calculating individual base
salary adjustment payments for eligible certificated employees.
We are manually reviewing every individual employee鈥檚 appropriate
2018-19 placement on the new salary schedule as well as other
individual factors to ensure accurate payment. Base salary
adjustment retro payments to eligible certificated employees will
be issued in November 2019.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news related
to our budget. For more information, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #50
October 4, 2019
Dear Community Member,
Yesterday, the Board of Education adopted a revised budget in
response to the
County Superintendent鈥檚 disapproval of the originally adopted
2019-20 budget.
Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation. Click here
to view full details of the revised adopted budget.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest budget news
and developments. For more information, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #49
September 30, 2019
Dear Community Member,
The District is working on a revised budget for 2019-20 after
Sacramento County Superintendent Dave Gordon disapproved the
District鈥檚 Adopted Budget on September 11, 2019. to read Superintendent Gordon鈥檚 analysis and
recommendations for the District鈥檚 budget.
The Board of Education will hold a public hearing to adopt a
revised budget at its October 3, 2019 meeting. The budget
presentation is item 9.1 on the agenda. Click here
to review the budget item materials in the Board Packet. A
hard-copy of the budget itself can also be reviewed upon request
at the front desk of the Serna Center, located at 5735 47th
Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news and
developments related to our budget situation. For more
information, please visit our budget
updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #48
September 13, 2019
Dear Community Member,
We want to share that Sacramento County Office of Education
Superintendent Dave Gordon, who provides fiscal oversight of the
district, has analyzed and responded to the district鈥檚 adopted
budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year. At the time the budget was
adopted, the
district projected a $25.5 million structural budget deficit for
2021-22. In his analysis, Superintendent Gordon states that
the district has made 鈥渃onsiderable progress towards stabilizing
the budget.鈥 Nevertheless, the 2019-2020 adopted budget was
disapproved by Superintendent Gordon because the district will
fall short of meeting its minimum reserve requirement by
approximately $27 million in 2021-22.
Click here to read Superintendent Gordon鈥檚 full letter to the
district.
In his letter, Superintendent Gordon states the following about
the district鈥檚 fiscal situation:
-
鈥淪ince the district鈥檚 2018-19 Adopted Budget was submitted
one year ago, the district has made considerable progress
toward stabilizing its budget. However, the cuts thus far are
not enough to remove the structural deficit, and although the
date the district projects it will become cash insolvent has
been delayed, the risk has not been eliminated.鈥
-
鈥淏ecause the district is holding weekly Cabinet discussions
on district spending, and is more consistently using properly
documented procedures, we note great improvement in the
district鈥檚 hiring and purchasing processes.鈥
-
鈥淲e again encourage the district and its bargaining units
to immediately accelerate the negotiations process so that all
possible savings to the budget can be realized.鈥
-
鈥淭he District has forged a positive, collaborative
relationship with all of its bargaining units except its
teachers鈥 association. With the expiration of the teachers鈥
contract, the district has initiated proposals for a new
agreement. The teachers鈥 association has not yet agreed to
collaborate or come to the bargaining table to discuss the
district鈥檚 proposals.鈥
As next steps, Superintendent Gordon states that on or before
October 8, 2019, the Sacramento City Unified Board of Education
must revise the adopted budget to include any response to his
recommendations, adopt the revised budget, and file the revised
budget with his office. Further, Superintendent Gordon also
recommends that the district make cuts immediately as any delay
in resolving the structural deficit compromises the future
options available to the district to maintain fiscal solvency.
The District plans to schedule a budget presentation to the Board
of Education at its regularly scheduled October 3, 2019 meeting.
We recognize this news will understandably generate more concerns
about the financial sustainability of the district and its
ability to serve students. As Superintendent Gordon has pointed
out, the district has been making steady progress on improving
its finances. The district is confident that with collaboration
from all labor partners, we can and will achieve the savings
needed to resolve our financial challenges and meet the needs of
our students.
For more information about our fiscal situation, visit our budget updates page. To receive
the latest updates on the status of labor negotiations, sign up for negotiations
updates. Thank you.
Budget Update #47
September 2, 2019
Dear Community Member,
The District has posted to its website the unaudited actuals for
the 2018-19 school year. You may be interested in this
information because unaudited actuals represent the actual
revenues, expenditures and ending fund balance for all the
district鈥檚 funds for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2019.
Click
here to view the unaudited actuals.
The District projected an unrestricted general fund ending
balance of $54.1 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year. The
unaudited actuals show the District with an unrestricted general
fund ending balance of $61.1 million for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
This difference of $7 million is attributed to a number of
factors, including increases in revenue of $3 million mainly due
to interest earnings, and district reimbursements and expense
savings of $4 million mainly in non-personnel areas. It is common
for a school district the size of Sacramento City Unified to have
a gap between projections and year end actuals because of changes
in actual funding and budget spending controls resulting in
year-end savings.
This change represents a positive development for the District鈥檚
budget situation because it increases the District鈥檚 reserves to
assist with unforeseen economic downturn or unplanned expenses.
However, the current year savings does not eliminate the
District鈥檚 structural deficit of $26 million. The District
remains committed to eliminating the structural deficit and will
evaluate whether any of the 2018/19 savings have potential for
ongoing budget adjustments. The District will also continue
working through the negotiations
process to achieve ongoing employee health insurance
savings鈥攁n area where the
District is spending significantly more than other school
districts.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news and
information related to our budget situation. For more, visit our
budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #46
August 2, 2019
Dear Community Member,
We want to provide you the latest news with important budget
implications. Earlier today, the District proposed a new teacher
contract and requested round the clock negotiations with leaders
of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. The District seeks
to reach an agreement before school starts that will resolve the
ongoing labor dispute with SCTA leaders and helps reduce the
budget deficit so that students and families are not impacted or
distracted by negotiations during the school year.
Click here to read the District鈥檚 full release.
The SCTA鈥檚 contract expired on June 30, 2019. Since
November 2018, the District has requested SCTA leaders begin
negotiations on a new agreement and is now proposing the
following:
To receive updates on the status of negotiations, please click here to sign up
for bargaining updates and visit our negotiations updates web page. Thank
you.
Budget Update #45
June 20, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This evening the Sacramento City Unified Board of Education
adopted the 2019-20 budget. Click
here to view details and the full budget
presentation.
The 2019-20 budget spends $12.35 million of the District鈥檚
reserves to cover expenditures. While spending reserves is not
sustainable, this temporary approach will buy the district some
time to achieve ongoing savings through labor negotiations. This
afternoon the District invited leaders of the Sacramento City
Teachers Association to commence negotiations on a successor
contract. Click
here to get the latest bargaining updates, including
communications from the District to partners.
Thank you for following our budget process this year. We will
continue to keep you updated over the summer on any developments
that may impact our budget situation. For more, please visit our
budget updates page.
Budget Update #44
June 17, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This is a reminder that the Sacramento City Unified Board of
Education will be adopting a final budget at the Thursday, June
20th Board meeting. The meeting will be at Serna Center (5735
47th Avenue) and starts at 6:30 p.m. The budget is item 9.4 on
the agenda.
Click here to download the full meeting agenda and start time
for each item. To view the executive summary and proposed adopted
budget for all funds, please
click here.
Thank you for staying updated on our budget situation. For more
information, please visit our budget
updates page.
Budget Update #43
June 6, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This evening the District presented its Proposed Budget and Local
Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The $547.5 million proposed general fund spending plan
continues deficit spending into next year, relying on $12.35
million of the District鈥檚 reserves in 2019-20, to buy the
District some time to achieve long-term cost savings through
labor negotiations. The Proposed Budget focuses on making
investments to address the needs of students and maintain program
quality including:
- Increasing grade level readiness rates
- Increasing graduation rates
- Increasing college & career readiness rates
- Providing students with safe, emotionally healthy, and
engaging environments
- Advancing equity for our underserved students
Click here to view this evening鈥檚 presentation of our
Proposed LCAP.
Click here to view this evening鈥檚 presentation of our
Proposed 2019-20 Budget.
As is our traditional process, both the LCAP and Proposed Budget
items will come back to the Board of Education for a final vote
and adoption on June 20th. Members of the public who wish to
submit additional comments or input on the Proposed Budget and
LCAP can contact the
Board of Education and/or contact the
Superintendent. We have also collected feedback from the four
community budget workshops that were held between May
20th and May 30th.
The 2019-20 LCAP and Proposed Budget are the culmination of a
process that started over 6 months ago and includes input from
many stakeholders including our staff, Board of Education, labor
partners and community members. We appreciate the participation
from our community during this process and invite the public to
participate in the budget adoption meeting on June 20th. The
meeting will be held at Serna Center (5735 47th Avenue)
starting at 6:30 p.m.
Thank you for staying updated on our budget situation. For more
information please visit our budget updates page.
Budget Update #42
June 5, 2019
Dear Community Member,
The County Superintendent has completed his analysis regarding
the fiscal status of the District for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
This report is required pursuant to Education Code section
1240[e], for any district with a qualified or negative interim
report.
Click here to read County Superintendent Dave Gordon鈥檚 letter
to the District.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news regarding
our budget situation. For more information, please visit our
budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #41
June 4, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This is a friendly reminder that the District鈥檚 2019-20 proposed
budget and Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) items will be
presented to the Board of Education this Thursday, June
6th.
The meeting will be at the Serna Center (5735 47th Avenue) and
starts at 6:30 p.m. The LCAP presentation is scheduled to begin
at approximately 7 p.m. The proposed budget presentation is
scheduled to begin at approximately 7:25 p.m. Click
here to view the meeting agenda and corresponding materials
for each item. Thursday鈥檚 LCAP and proposed budget items are for
public hearing only. The Board vote to adopt a final LCAP and
budget will be on Thursday, June 20th at 6:30 p.m.
We appreciate you following our District鈥檚 budget and LCAP
process. For more information, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #40
June 3, 2019
Dear Families and Community Members,
Our 2019-20 Proposed Budget continues investing in the goals we
have established in our Local
Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) with a strong focus on
maintaining and improving the quality of education for our
students. Improving the alignment of our Proposed Budget to our
LCAP was one of the recommendations by the State鈥檚 Fiscal Crisis
& Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) in its December 2018 Fiscal
Health Risk Analysis of the District.
Click here to view the 2019-20 Proposed Budget.
These LCAP-aligned investments are necessary for retaining and
attracting students to our schools, particularly at a time when
our District, like others, continues to see declining enrollment.
These investments are also necessary to restore confidence in our
schools鈥 continued ability to provide a quality education,
particularly in response to the concerns that many students,
families and staff have been feeling in recent months as they
learned about the possibility of a state takeover. Keeping
students and families satisfied with the quality of our programs
and enrolled in our schools is an important and critical
component to improving our fiscal situation.
While we are still facing a structural budget deficit, a clear
path to a solution is within reach. The solution rests in
reducing our labor costs which currently stand at 91% of every
dollar鈥6% higher than the average for unified school districts in
California. The 2018 FCMAT Fiscal Health Risk Analysis also
identified this spending outlier as a source of our financial
challenges. In 2019-20, the District will continue to strive for
working with our five labor partners to implement solutions that
are fair to our employees, but also achieve the long-term cost
savings necessary to have a structurally sound and sustainable
budget in place so that we can continue to provide quality
programs to our students.
The 2019-20 Proposed Budget totals $547.5M. In alignment with our
LCAP, it includes key areas of investment to address the needs of
students and maintain program quality including:
鈥 Increasing Grade Level Readiness Rates
鈥 Increasing Graduation Rates
鈥 Increasing College & Career Readiness Rates
鈥 Providing Students with Safe, Emotionally Healthy, and Engaging
Environments
鈥 Advancing Equity for our Underserved Students
We believe in our students and the ability of our schools to
provide them with the quality educational experience they
deserve. The proposed 2019-20 budget will put us on track to
continue prioritizing the needs of our students while buying us
time to work with all labor partners to achieve cost savings in a
manner that is fair and equitable to all of our employees.
Sincerely,
Jorge A. Aguilar
Superintendent
Budget Update #39
May 18, 2019
Dear Community Member,
Starting on Monday, May 20th, the District and Board of Education
will be hosting a series of community budget workshops. The
purpose of the workshops is to share the
District鈥檚 plan for balancing the budget long-term and to
gather feedback from parents and community members. to download the flyer.
The workshops are scheduled on the following dates:
Monday, May 20th @ 6 p.m.
Hiram Johnson High School (6879 鈥 14th Avenue)
Tuesday, May 21st @ 6 p.m.
California Middle School (1600 Vallejo Way)
Thursday, May 23rd @ 6 p.m.
Luther Burbank High School (3500 Florin Rd.)
Thursday, May 30th @ 6 p.m.
Einstein Middle School (9325 Mirandy Drive)
For the current status of the District鈥檚 budget situation,
please
download the Third Interim Report PowerPoint presented to the
Board of Education on May 16th. You can view the full
Third Interim Report by . We have also created a document with
answers to frequently asked questions about the Third Interim
Report.
We will continue to keep you posted on the latest information and
updates regarding our budget situation. For more, please visit
our budget updates page.
Budget Update #38
May 15, 2019
Dear Community Member,
In preparation for the Thursday, May 16th budget update to
the Board of Education, the District has posted the latest
materials on its website. the updated board packet and
information related to the Third Interim Budget Report,
which is item 9.3 on the agenda.
Below are some key takeaways from the items that will be
presented to the Board and public in greater detail on Thursday:
Despite deep cuts and identifying cost savings, the District will
continue deficit spending in 2019-20.
$19.67 million of District reserves will be needed to cover next
year鈥檚 expenditures, leaving only $25 million in reserves at the
start of the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The over $28 million in cuts and cost savings adopted by the
Board so far this year has helped extend the date that a
state takeover would occur, buying the District some time to
achieve long-term cost savings through labor negotiations.
While the meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., item 9.3 is expected to
begin at approximately 8:25 p.m. The meeting will be held at the
Serna Center (5735 47th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824). You can
also watch the
meeting online.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest budget news,
including answers to frequently
asked questions. Please visit our budget updates page for more information.
Thank you.
Budget Update #37
May 10, 2019
Dear Community Member,
Earlier today, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar issued the following
statement in response to leaders of the Sacramento City Teachers
Association requesting that the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction form a budget solutions committee to help the
district prevent a state takeover.
Superintendent Aguilar鈥檚 Full Statement:
鈥淲e are committed to reaching a solution with all labor
partners that will bring a permanent solution to our structural
budget deficit and save our schools from a state takeover. The
district will also seek engagement in this process from
additional stakeholders including parents and community partners
because maintaining the quality of education for our students
should be the North Star that guides our
decision-making.鈥
We will keep you updated on the status
of our budget, including answers to frequently
asked questions. As a reminder, on Thursday, May 16th, the
District will present an important budget update to the Board of
Education as part of the 3rd Interim Report. This presentation
will provide the community with the most recent budget
projections, status of cash flow and other important information
related to the district鈥檚 fiscal status. Click
here on Monday evening to access and download the updated
board packet with materials for the 3rd Interim Report.
Thank you.
Budget Update #36
May 7, 2019
Dear Community Member,
As the District prepares for next week鈥檚 budget report, we are
updating you on a recent development with budget
implications.
Earlier today, an administrative law judge (ALJ) issued a
decision upholding the certificated staffing reductions made by
the district at the February 21st and March 7th board meetings.
While decisions like this which impact our employees are
difficult, the reductions are necessary. Specific fiscal impacts
of the staff reductions and today鈥檚 ALJ decision will be
presented as part of the May 16th third interim budget
report.
Following today鈥檚 decision, Superintendent Aguilar issued the
following statement:
鈥淒ecisions that result in our district losing dedicated staff
members are not easy. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources
to maintain our current staffing levels due to our fiscal crisis
and declining enrollment. We are committed to helping our staff
during this challenging transition.鈥
Board President Jessie Ryan issued the following statement:
鈥淓ach cut to our dedicated certificated, classified and
administrative staff looms heavy on our hearts but is
unfortunately necessary given our grave fiscal challenges. We
remain committed to doing the difficult work necessary to avoid a
state takeover but recognize how deeply these actions impact our
school communities.鈥
A special board of education meeting is scheduled for this
Thursday, May 9th at 7 p.m. to take action on the resolution
authorizing staff to issue final layoff notices. Click
on this link in advance of the meeting to view the
agenda and accompanying materials.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest budget
developments. For more information, including answers to frequently
asked questions, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #35
May 3, 2019
Dear Community Member,
At last night鈥檚 Board of Education meeting, the District
presented information on the development of the 2019-20
fiscal year budget and provided an update on the 2018-19
budget.
Click here to view the presentation.
As a reminder, the next key upcoming dates in the budget
development process are:
May 16, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揟hird Interim
Click
here for the agenda
June 6, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揚ublic Hearing for LCAP, EPA, and
2019/20 Proposed Budget
Click
here for the agenda
June 20, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揂dopt LCAP, EPA and 2019/20 Proposed
Budget
Click
here for the agenda
June 27, 2019
Deadline to Submit to SCOE Adopted Budget & LCAP
Please note that open session for upcoming Board meetings will
start at 6:30 p.m. We will continue to keep you updated on the
latest budget news and information. For more, please visit our
budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #34
May 2, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This afternoon an arbitrator issued a decision on the salary
schedule adjustment disagreement between the District and the
Sacramento City Teachers Association. Click here
to view the arbitrator鈥檚 full decision.
In response to the arbitrator鈥檚 decision, the District has issued
the following statement:
鈥淭he District is disappointed in the outcome but will respect
the decision of the arbitrator. The arbitrator鈥檚 decision will
cost the District more than the 3.5% maximum increase we had
agreed to and planned for in our budget. It will have negative
implications on our budget situation and we are now carefully
reviewing the details of his decision to assess how much our
financial obligation will increase by and the impact of this
decision on our current financial challenges.鈥
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest budget news
and information. For more, please visit our budget updates page. Thank you.
Budget Update #33
April 23, 2019
Dear Community Member,
We have updated our budget updates page with information about
the following key upcoming meeting dates:
May 2, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揇raft LCAP
Click here
for the agenda
May 16, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揟hird Interim
Click here
for the agenda
June 6, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揚ublic Hearing for LCAP, EPA, and
2019/20 Proposed Budget
Click here
for the agenda
June 20, 2019
Board of Education Meeting鈥揂dopt LCAP, EPA and 2019/20 Proposed
Budget
Click here
for the agenda
June 27, 2019
Deadline to Submit to SCOE Adopted Budget & LCAP
Please mark your calendar and check regularly our webpage with upcoming
meeting dates for new events and meetings. Thank you
Budget Update #32
April 3, 2019
Dear Community Member,
At tomorrow鈥檚 April 4, 2019 Board of Education meeting, there
will be a presentation on the District鈥檚 cash flow report.
Click here
to view the meeting agenda and packet.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. and is at the Serna Center (5735
47th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824). The cash flow report item is
scheduled to start at approximately 7:30 p.m. You can watch a
livestream of the meeting at this
link.
We will continue to keep you updated on our budget situation and
upcoming meetings. For more information, please visit our
budget updates page or read
answers
to our most frequently asked questions.
Thank you.
Budget Update #31
April 03, 2019
Dear Community Member
One of the biggest potential barriers to solving our budget
challenges is the impact that a teacher strike would have on the
District鈥檚 finances. Tonight, leaders of the Sacramento City
Teachers Association announced that they plan to lead a teachers
strike in our district schools next Thursday, April 11th. The
District will continue reaching out to SCTA leaders to avoid a
strike that would have very negative implications on our budget
and we have issued the following statement in response to the
strike date announcement:
This strike is unnecessary and will only hurt
students, families and employees by putting the district on the
fast track to a state takeover. A state takeover will result in
less money for our students and do serious harm to the city鈥檚
public schools for many years to come. Our students do not
deserve to be put through the hardships that will be caused by
this strike. We will continue encouraging SCTA leaders to work
with us in the coming days to focus on saving our schools from a
state takeover and finding more collaborative ways to resolve
their disagreements with the District.
Also, earlier this afternoon Superintendent Jorge Aguilar sent
this letter to SCTA leadership to be shared with the SCTA
council prior to their vote to set a strike date. For updates on
this developing situation, please visit our
website. To sign up for future budget alerts, please visit
our budget updates page.
Budget Update #30
March 8, 2019
Dear Community Member,
We understand that our budget situation demands transparency and
fiscal accountability. That is why moving forward we want to make
sure members of our community have access to as much information
as possible about how we are spending taxpayer dollars.
Today, we launched an important new tool that will improve budget
transparency by providing the general public with direct access
to real-time information about the District鈥檚 budget and its
expenditures. This 鈥淪ac City Unified Budget Dashboard鈥 tool
allows any member of the community to now view and access the
same financial information that our budget department staff is
able to access through our financial system.
Transparency will be critical to solving our budget challenges
and our community must be able to see how spending cuts impact
our total budget. For example, despite the Board
of Education taking action last night to cut 33 administrator
positions, put a cap on administrative spending, reduce unused
vacation accruals and other cost savings measures, the
District still needs to make additional cuts to eliminate our
structural budget deficit and save
our schools from a takeover. This new tool will help the
public see firsthand how we are spending our money and the impact
that cuts will have on our budget.
We are interested in getting your feedback on this new tool. If
you have questions, comments or suggestions about the new Sac
City Unified Budget Dashboard, please
submit them here.
Thank you for your interest and requests to better understand how
we work through our budget challenges. For more information about
our budget situation and to review previous Budget Alerts and
updates, please visit our webpage or see answers to our budget
Frequently Asked Questions.
Budget Update #29
March 7, 2019
Dear Community Member,
The Sacramento City Unified Board of Education tonight made
additional reductions to central office administration and other
administrative spending. The cuts add to the $1 million of
previously made cuts to the central office administration.
These actions reduce the District鈥檚 total expenditures on central
office administration to an estimated 4% of the total
general fund鈥攕ignificantly lower than the average for school
districts in Sacramento County.
In addition to making the additional central office and other
spending cuts, the Board also passed a resolution on the fiscal
solvency plan to save our schools. . The resolution includes:
- Placing a cap on spending on general administration
- Controlling administrator costs by not filling certain
administrator vacancies
- Freezing salaries and adopting other cost-savings measures
- Adopting a management accountability plan to reduce the
future cost of 鈥渧acation cash outs鈥 by having employees provide
plans to use their vacation time and not allow it to accrue over
time
- Working with labor partners and unrepresented employees to
rebalance employee benefit contributions with a goal toward
returning to District contributions that are in parity to
comparable school districts while providing high quality benefit
plans to our employees
The Board will continue to seek working with labor partners to
achieve health cost and other savings to save our schools from a
takeover. For more information visit our budget or
.
Budget Update #28
March 6, 2019
Dear Community Member,
On February 14, 2019, Sacramento County Superintendent Dave
Gordon completed an analysis of several cost savings ideas
submitted by leaders of the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
For example, since September 2018, SCTA leaders have stated that
the District could save $16 million by 鈥渞educing central office
administrators鈥. However, according to Superintendent Gordon鈥檚
analysis, if the District made a 20 percent reduction to its
unrestricted central office administration, that would only
generate $1.6 million in savings, not the $16 million stated by
SCTA leaders.
Superintendent Gordon also wrote that within the central support
functions of the district, total unrestricted administrator
(certificated and classified) salary and benefit costs are less
than $8 million. The District has already made $1 million in cuts
to central office administration and continues seeking more cuts
in this area.
In summary, the District cannot rely on central office
administrative cuts to eliminate the structural budget deficit.
As we continue looking for additional savings and efficiencies,
the most viable solution to the District鈥檚 budget challenges
remains calling on all labor partners to work collaboratively
with the District to rebalance employee health benefits
contributions while still continuing to provide high quality
benefit plans to employees. Four of five District labor union
partners have commenced contract negotiations with a goal of
rebalancing employee health benefits. The District is awaiting
commencement of contract negotiations with SCTA leadership.
For more information on our budget situation, please visit
our or
read responses to . Thank you.
Budget Update #27
March 5, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This email is to notify you that the Sacramento City Unified
Board of Education will be presented with the Second Interim
Financial Report and fiscal recovery plan this Thursday, March 7,
2019. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will take place at the
Serna Center (5735 47th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95824).
In addition to items in the financial report and fiscal recovery
plan, the Board will be considering a resolution to help save our
schools by further reducing spending in the following ways:
- Capping spending on unrepresented administrator and
management positions
- Further exploring health cost savings options
- Reducing unused vacation time accruals
The fiscal recovery plan that will be presented continues to
prioritize making cuts away from services and programs that serve
our students. To view the Board meeting agenda and
packet, please
click here.
Budget Update #26
February 28, 2019
Dear Community Member,
In recent weeks, we have received many questions regarding the
District鈥檚 plan for balancing the budget, the status of achieving
health cost savings, implementation of a salary schedule
adjustment for teachers, and other items.
This email is to notify you that we have updated the FAQ section
of our website with answers to some of the most frequently asked
questions. Below are the items that have been added to
our FAQ鈥檚.
New FAQ鈥檚
What is the District鈥檚 plan to save our schools from a
takeover?
To avoid a ,
the District needs to close a $35 million structural budget
deficit. A critical component of the District鈥檚 plan to balance
the budget and sustain itself long-term is to achieve employee
health insurance cost savings. Currently,
labor partners representing our custodians, bus drivers,
cafeteria and maintenance workers, and principals have initiated
contract negotiations with a commitment toward making shared
sacrifices to prioritize the needs of students and save our
schools from a takeover. We will continue to invite leaders from
the Sacramento City Teachers Association to begin contract
negotiations before we run out of time.
Working with labor partners and employees to reduce spending is
the District鈥檚 preferred plan. According to a D (FCMAT) the
District is spending 91 cents of every unrestricted dollar on
benefits and salaries. This amount exceeds the state average for
unified school districts and is unsustainable. According to the
FCMAT report: 鈥淭he statewide average for unified school
districts as of 2016-17 (the latest data available) is 84.63%. At
2018-19 first interim, the district is exceeding the statewide
average by 6.37%.鈥 and scroll to page
17 for the reference about Sac City Unified鈥檚 high average for
benefits and salary combined.
If the District and its bargaining partners cannot achieve the
savings necessary to balance the budget, then the District will
have to find other alternatives which would include cuts to
programs and services that our students and families depend
on.
If the District can save a lot of money on health costs,
why has the District not implemented a health savings agreement
with the Sacramento City Teachers Association
(SCTA)?
Achieving health savings has been a high priority for the
District for many years. Health savings cannot be achieved until
the District and SCTA reach agreement. We will continue to invite
leaders from the Sacramento City Teachers Association to begin
contract negotiations.
What is the disagreement over the 3.5% salary schedule
adjustment all about and how is it related to the
budget?
Per the 2017 framework agreement between the District and SCTA,
both parties were to agree upon a salary schedule adjustment 鈥渘ot
to exceed a total expenditure of 3.5 percent鈥. The District has
been committed to honoring the 3.5 percent toward a salary
schedule adjustment. However, after the agreement was ratified,
the SCTA submitted to the District an implementation proposal
that the District estimated would cost 7.1 percent annually, or a
total of $14.2M in ongoing expenditures. This amount is
significantly higher than the amount the District believed was
agreed to by the parties, and which was actually approved by
our Board of Education, reported to and approved by the
Sacramento County Office of Education, and planned for in
our budget.
In terms of dollars, the difference between the agreed upon 3.5
percent and the proposal SCTA submitted after the agreement was
ratified, is approximately $7 million per year of ongoing
expenditures. on whether there was agreement between the parties
on the 3.5 percent given the differences in what we and SCTA
believed we had agreed to. The Court determined that SCTA and the
District should resolve this matter in arbitration. The parties
are scheduled for arbitration on March 7, 2019.
Did the District file a motion in Superior Court seeking
to overturn its collective bargaining agreement with SCTA due to
budget constraints?
No. There has been some misunderstanding about the previously
referenced court case. The court case involved the District
seeking to obtain a decision on whether there was, in fact, an
agreement between the parties on the single issue of the salary
schedule adjustment. The District currently has the salary
schedule adjustment budgeted at a 3.5% cost increase to the
District. The District was not trying to overturn the entire 2017
agreement with SCTA. In fact, the District has already
implemented most of the 2017 agreement including:
- Paying out 2.5 percent retroactive salary raises for teachers
in 2016-17
- Paying out 2.5 percent salary raises for teachers in 2017-18
- Paying out 2.5 percent salary raises for teachers in 2018-19
- Crediting unlimited years of qualified experience to new
hires and current teachers for placement on the salary schedule
- Hiring two additional psychologists
- Increasing the stipends of Athletic Directors from $3,895 to
$4,490
Why does the District not communicate directly to
employees about its cost savings plans, and other questions
related to employee health benefits?
Labor laws require the District to communicate with the union
representatives of our employees and prevent District
administrators and management from communicating or 鈥渄irect
dealing鈥 with represented employees on issues related to wages,
working conditions and other issues. Labor unions representing
various employee groups do not have these same restrictions on
communications with employees and can communicate freely about
these matters to employees in their bargaining unit.
More Information
The District will continue to keep the community updated on the
latest news and actions related to our budget situation. For more
information, please visit our . Thank you.
Budget Update #25
February 21, 2019
Dear Community Member,
As we , tonight the Board of Education took
up important cost saving
measures to help save
our schools from a takeover and prioritize funding for
students. The Board voted to start the process of reducing our
staffing levels to match student needs based on the district鈥檚
actual and projected enrollment. These actions will result in an
estimated cost savings of $5 million.
Specifically, this means staffing levels will be reduced to match
the district鈥檚 class size requirements.
The Board鈥檚 action maintains District class size ratios while
ensuring that certificated staffing levels do not exceed the
ratios specified in the District and Sacramento City Teachers
Association (SCTA) collective bargaining agreement and, keep
within California Department of Education class size
requirements. Per the District and SCTA collective bargaining
agreement, class size ratios are:
- 24 to 1 for grade K-3 classes
- 33 to 1 for grade 4-6 classes
- 31 to 1 for grade 7-8 classes
- 32 to 1 for grade 9-12 classes (maximum in English, Social
Studies, Math and Science shall be 35:1, shall be limited to 170
pupil contacts per day)
- 15 to 1 for elementary segment special education mild to
moderate classes
- 16 to 1 for secondary segment special education mild to
moderate classes
- 13 to 1 for elementary and secondary segment special
education moderate to severe classes
- 28 to 1 for the resource specialist program (RSP)
Moreover, early childhood programming will be reduced to save
costs and focus on kinder readiness and our core mission of
providing K-12 services. The funding the District receives from
the state and federal government to run the program is not at a
sufficient level to fully operate our
early childhood programs. This has resulted in
losses to the District鈥檚 unrestricted general fund. The
District will be reducing its Pre-K programs next year to reduce
these costs. Families that are impacted by these changes will be
connected to other entities that provide these services to
ensure continuity of care.
The actions taken tonight to cut staffing levels to match the
District鈥檚 actual service needs are an important step in
multiple actions the Board will be taking in the coming weeks to
save our schools from a takeover. Please follow our budget updates page to learn more.
Thank you.
Budget Update #24
February 15, 2019
Dear Community Member,
At next Thursday鈥檚 Board of Education meeting, the District will
be taking additional steps on implementing cost savings measures
that are necessary to balance our budget and save our schools
from a takeover.
Download the meeting agenda by clicking
here.
As we reported last month, the Governor鈥檚
proposed budget will not fix our budget challenges. We will
need to continue to work with bargaining partners to achieve
health care and other cost savings. These necessary steps
may result in hardships for some of our employees. However, we
must begin taking steps now to remain fiscally solvent and be
able to continue addressing the needs of our students. We
appreciate SEIU 1021, United Professional Educators, Teamsters
Classified Supervisors and Teamsters Local 150, for beginning the
negotiations process with the District in January.
Superintendent Aguilar has reached out to SCTA leaders since
November asking them to offer dates to begin bargaining. Given
the longstanding strained relationship with our teachers鈥 union,
and because we cannot afford to lose any more
time, Superintendent Aguilar again today asked SCTA leaders
to agree to begin negotiations, and to agree to a neutral
facilitator, to help both sides reach agreement on what are the
necessary steps we must take to help save our
schools. .
We will continue keeping you posted on actions we are taking to
save our schools from a takeover. For more information,
please visit our website. Thank you.
Budget Update #23
February 13, 2019
Dear Community Member,
As has been widely reported, Sacramento City Unified Schools are
projected to run out of cash in November. Unless significant
spending cuts are made by June to balance the budget and meet
state required reserve levels, the district will be taken
over.
Although the District is working on solutions to save our schools
from a takeover*, this situation has understandably prompted many
questions and concerns from our community about what would happen
if a takeover occurs. To help you get the facts about what
insolvency and takeover would mean for our schools,
please click here to download a fact sheet or see the
facts below.
FACTS ABOUT 鈥淪TATE TAKEOVER*鈥 OF OUR SCHOOLS
There would be less money to spend on students.
When an insolvent school district gets taken over, a state loan
is obtained to pay its bills. State loans charge an interest rate
on the borrowed money. Therefore, in addition to making cuts to
pay its bills, the District would need to make even more cuts to
pay back the state loan with interest. This will result in less
money available for our students.
An Administrator takes over. Local control is
lost.
An Administrator would be appointed and the local school board
would lose its decision-making authority. Part of the
Administrator鈥檚 responsibilities is to identify cuts to balance
the budget and repay the state loan with interest. Valuable
student programs, services and schools could be cut out of the
budget.
Recovery could take 10 or more years.
According to experts from the State鈥檚 Fiscal Crisis Management
Assistance Team (FCMAT), school districts in California that have
experienced a takeover take about 10 or more years to recover. It
could be many years before parents and local community members in
Sacramento would regain local control of our schools.
Experts agree a takeover would be bad for our
students.
Experts from FCMAT presented to the Sacramento City Unified Board
of Education on December 13, 2018 and warned District leaders
that a takeover would not be in the best interest of our
students. FCMAT has encouraged the District and its labor
partners to work together to identify the cost savings necessary
to avoid a takeover.
Click here to download a printable version of this fact
sheet. To receive updates on this issue, including upcoming
district proposals that would save our
schools, click
here to sign up for budget updates. For more
information, visit our budget
updates page.
Thank you for taking time to review this information. The
District will be communicating with you again about our proposed
solutions for avoiding a takeover. If you have any
questions, please submit
them here.
*NOTE: While this process has traditionally been referred to as a
鈥渟tate takeover鈥, made several changes to the state鈥檚 system
for intervening in fiscally distressed school districts. Among
the changes, takeover responsibilities shifted from the state to
the county level.
Budget Update #22
February 7, 2019
Dear Community Member,
On November 16, 2018, we notified you of a requesting a
declaration from the court on a salary schedule adjustment
disagreement between the District and the Sacramento City
Teachers Association (SCTA).
A judge has now rendered a decision directing the parties to
arbitrate their disagreement over the salary schedule adjustment.
The outcome of the arbitration could have significant budget
implications for the District.
When the agreement with SCTA was reached, we
understood that the terms included a mutually agreeable
adjustment to the salary schedule in 2018-19 that should 鈥渘ot
exceed a total district expenditure of 3.5%鈥, which the
district has been and remains committed to
honoring.
SCTA has claimed that the District agreed to an expenditure
that has been estimated at 7.1% for 2018-19 and thereafter.
This amount is significantly higher than the amount we
understood was agreed to by the parties, and which was
actually approved by our Board of Education, reported
to and approved by the Sacramento County Office of
Education, and planned for in our budget.
We respect the Court鈥檚 decision and look forward to presenting
our facts in arbitration. We are committed to planning a
budget that is focused on protecting core academic programs and
enrichment opportunities for students, while protecting and
maintaining the fiscal solvency of the District.
For more budget alerts and information, please visit our
website.
Budget Update #21
January 30, 2019
Dear Community Member,
The 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 general obligation
bonds have been downgraded by the Standard and Poor鈥檚 rating
agency. The new rating (BBB) represents the lowest investment
grade bond rating indicating more risk than higher rated
bonds.
We are hopeful that all of our labor organizations will work
together with the District to craft a solution to our fiscal
problems. Until then, the lower bond rating means the District鈥檚
interest payments will be higher for bonds issued under this
downgrade. Increased interest rates and bond costs will create an
increased burden for the taxpayers who voted to support bond
initiatives for capital improvement projects. The District must
prioritize projects and consider whether bonds to pay for those
projects should be issued in the near future given the financial
risk involved.
Four of five district labor organizations鈥揝EIU 1021, United
Professional Educators, Teamsters Local 150 and Teamsters
Classified Supervisors鈥揾ave commenced negotiations with the
District to address its fiscal problems. The District remains
hopeful that all labor partners will work in partnership with the
District to reach consensus on decisions that will improve
the District鈥檚 fiscal condition, without disrupting the classroom
or programs that benefit students.
Our District鈥檚 financial future is in jeopardy unless all
employee partners come together immediately to collaborate with
the District and make significant budget cuts.
Budget Update #20
January 22, 2019
Dear Community Member,
On January 10th, Governor Gavin Newsom introduced his budget
proposal for the 2019-20 fiscal year. As is our practice, the
District has updated its budget projections in response to the
Governor鈥檚 proposed budget. This email is to update the community
on where our budget projections currently stand.
It is important to note that budget projections are fluid. At the
time of our 1st Interim Report last December, the District
reported needing to make a minimum of $16 million in cuts for
2019-20 and another $36 million for 20-21. However, under the
Governor鈥檚 proposed budget, and an updated forecast projecting
continued declining enrollment in our schools, the District needs
to cut $35 million for both years to completely eliminate the
structural budget deficit, meet its financial obligations, and
meet the 2 percent minimum reserve for each year as required by
law.
We appreciate the Governor鈥檚 increased investment in education.
However, the biggest takeaway for our families is that our
District鈥檚 fiscal challenges remain and we have to significantly
reduce spending immediately to avoid running out of cash this
year and being taken over by the state. The chart below shows
that despite our updated projections, the District鈥檚 fund balance
will still be almost completely gone in 2019-20.
The District will continue working with our labor partners to
achieve the costs savings necessary to prioritize student needs
and avoid a state takeover. As was reported two weeks ago in
Budget Update #19 below, contract negotiations with a focus on
making shared sacrifices to eliminate our structural budget
deficit, have started with SEIU 1021, United Professional
Educators (UPE), Teamsters Local 150 and Teamsters Classified
Supervisors. The District will continue inviting and making
efforts to have all of our labor partners agree to contract
negotiations and work with us on addressing our budget
challenges. The bottom line is that despite a 3.5 percent
increase to education in the Governor鈥檚 proposed budget, our
District still must significantly reduce overall spending to
achieve the cost savings targets needed to avoid state takeover.
District leaders understand this somber news, and County
Superintendent Dave Gordon鈥檚 letter last week agreeing with the
District鈥檚 self-certification of 鈥渘egative鈥 status, will
continue to raise serious concerns about our ability to protect
funding for core academic and student programs. To date we have
been able to keep cuts away from students. However, continuing to
keep cuts away from students will require shared sacrifice and
all labor partners working collaboratively with the District to
achieve additional cost savings.
To help the community better understand our current situation,
below is a basic breakdown of the key factors that led to these
latest budget projections.
Declining Enrollment
Student enrollment plays a significant role in how much funding
the District receives from the state. The District has had a
continuous trend of declining enrollment over the past 17 years,
and has continued to lose students this year. The District is
projecting an enrollment loss of 384 students in the 2019-20
school year, translating to a projected $3.5 million loss in
revenue in 2020-21. Click
here to view year by year enrollment projections.
Health Benefit Costs
One of the biggest cost drivers in the District is employee
health insurance. In fact, to
current employees and retirees. Until the Sacramento City
Teachers Association agrees to switch health plans to less
expensive health plans with comparable benefits, the District
projects its health costs will continue to increase in 2019-20.
In addition, the District is being mandated by the state to
continue contributing more toward the CalSTRS and CalPERS pension
systems to ensure those retiree systems remain solvent (see next
section for more details).
Governor鈥檚 Proposed Budget
The does not include any one-time
funds, but does seek to increase state funding to school
districts by approximately 3.5 percent. The District appreciates
Governor Newsom鈥檚 increased investment in education and other
proposals focused on reducing costs. However, in Sac City
Unified, our
costs continue to significantly outpace the 3.5 percent proposed
increase in our revenues. Our structural budget deficit will
remain unless District spending is reduced.
The Governor鈥檚 proposed budget also seeks to reduce the CalSTRS
employer contribution rate by approximately 1.0 percent in
2019-20 and 2020-21, as well as to reduce our out-year
contribution rate by 0.5 percent. Assistance from the Governor in
bringing down this cost is certainly welcome. However, it will
not generate enough savings to prevent our District from running
out of cash this year, or to balance our budget in future years.
The chart below shows that over a 10-year period, our projected
STRS costs, even with the Governor鈥檚 proposed STRS contribution
decrease, will still be almost three times more than in 2013-14.
Next Steps
Again, we appreciate the Governor鈥檚 increased investment in
education but understand that despite a 3.5 percent increase to
education in the Governor鈥檚 proposed budget, our District still
must significantly reduce overall spending to achieve the cost
savings targets needed to avoid state takeover. Our Board of
Education is committed to preventing this from happening.
Thank you.
Budget Update #19
January 9, 2019
Dear Community Member,
This email is to update you on the progress we are making in
starting critical discussions with labor partners so that we can
achieve the cost savings necessary to avoid state takeover. We
are pleased to share that today we met and had productive
discussions with our labor partners, United Professional
Educators (UPE) and SEIU 1021. We also have meetings
scheduled this Friday with Teamsters and Teamsters Classified
Supervisors (TCS). The Sacramento City Teachers Association
(SCTA) has not agreed to dates to begin negotiations.
Nevertheless, the District had a previously scheduled meeting
from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. this afternoon with leaders from the
SCTA to discuss their cost savings ideas. Superintendent
Aguilar waited until 4:20 p.m. in anticipation of listening and
discussing SCTA鈥檚 cost savings ideas. Unfortunately, SCTA
leaders showed up late to the designated meeting
location. After several minutes of District staff being
interrupted and talked over, our staff left the room as it was
clear that such an environment would not allow for a productive
discussion.
The looming possibility of the state taking over the District
requires that each of us engage in productive discussions focused
on the goal of avoiding state takeover. Our District鈥檚
Civility
Policy calls for all of us to demonstrate mutual
respect, civility, and orderly conduct and model such behavior
for the children we serve. We must all keep this policy in
mind, especially at this critical juncture where we must have
difficult conversations focused on continuing to have local
control as opposed to state takeover of our District.
Although a productive discussion with SCTA did not take place
today, Superintendent Aguilar and District representatives remain
committed to meeting and look forward to sharing the following
with SCTA concerning its cost savings ideas:
-
Validation of Cost Savings Estimates 鈥
SCTA proposes that their ideas would generate $60 million in
savings. The District had planned to ask about whether these
estimates had been validated by independent school finance
experts.
-
Retiree Health Insurance 鈥淥verpayment鈥 鈥
SCTA proposes that the District can save $12 million by
鈥渞edirecting鈥 retiree health insurance 鈥渙verpayments鈥. The
District has a fiduciary obligation to make these payments,
which are to cover the cost of providing lifetime health
benefits. After discussing this SCTA proposal with the
Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), it is premature
to estimate a $12 million savings. The District had planned to
ask questions to better understand SCTA鈥檚 position given that
SCTA members are beneficiaries of lifetime medical benefits.
-
Administrative Cuts 鈥 SCTA proposes that
the District can save $16 million by eliminating administrative
positions. The District had planned on seeking specifics
regarding which administrative positions SCTA would eliminate.
It is worth noting that almost half of the positions listed in
SCTA鈥檚 cost savings ideas are either principals or other school
site administrators, not central office administrators.Please
click here to read the District鈥檚 full response to SCTA鈥檚
claim that the District can cut $16 million from its
administration.
-
鈥淰acation Buyout鈥 Savings 鈥 SCTA proposes
that the District can save $6 million per year by ending
鈥渧acation buyouts鈥. The District has analyzed this idea and
determined that there is not $6 million worth of savings in
this area in future years. However, the District is committed
to saving money by enforcing vacation time policies and has
already taken a number of steps to reduce this cost in future
years鈥 budgets. You
can read a full summary here of the steps already
taken by the District to reduce this cost.
The District remains optimistic that all five labor partners will
continue to work collaboratively to solve our budget challenges
and avoid the damaging effects that a state takeover would have
on our students. In a future update, we will send detailed
information about the negative consequences a state takeover
would have on our students and families.
We will continue keeping you updated with the latest information
on our budget. Thank you.
Budget Update #18
December 17, 2018
Dear Community Member,
I want to provide an important update on some critical next steps
our school district is taking to address the structural budget
deficit and keep budget cuts away from our students.
Last Thursday, the state鈥檚 Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance
Team (FCMAT) presented the district with a Fiscal Health Risk
Analysis which you can
view here. FCMAT鈥檚 primary mission is to assist school
districts in identifying, preventing and resolving financial,
human resources and data management challenges. FCMAT concluded
that, unless changes are made, the district is at high risk of
insolvency and focused on identifying district systems and
processes where improvements can be made. As a result of FCMAT鈥檚
findings, and in addition to , the district is
now taking steps to implement business process changes in the
following areas:
- Aligning the district鈥檚 budget and Local Control and
Accountability Plan (LCAP) processes
- Improving communication between the business services
department and other departments
- Better management of position control (i.e. process of
filling vacant positions)
Adopting FCMAT鈥檚 recommendations will help fix a number of
improper business practices that have become norms in the
district for many years. The Board of Education and I are
committed to changing the organizational culture that has led to
these improper business practices and will implement business
process changes immediately, holding all employees accountable to
adopting these new practices.
While implementing new practices and accountability
measures is important, to avoid running out of cash we must work
collaboratively with all labor partners to immediately achieve
health cost savings.
As has been reported in
the news, the ongoing cost driver for Sac City Unified is its
long history of paying significantly more for employee health
benefits than all other surrounding school districts. For
example,
Sac City Unified pays almost twice as much as neighboring
districts to provide similar health benefits to employees. I
remain committed to getting all labor partners to work with the
district as soon as possible to switch employees over to more
affordable health insurance plans with comparable benefits. The
longer it takes to switch health plans and save money, the more
likely the district will run out of cash and be taken over by the
state.
On December 6th, four out of five district labor union
partners鈥擲EIU 1021, United Professional Educators, Teamsters
Local 150 and Teamsters Classified Supervisors鈥攃ommitted to
switching health insurance plans to save the district an
estimated $11 million to $16 million per year. On Friday,
December 14th, district representatives met with the Sacramento
City Teachers Association leadership team and other
representatives, to discuss what it would take for SCTA to agree
to make a switch in health plans. SCTA leadership indicated that
they would switch SCTA members to a more affordable health plan,
but only if the cost savings were used to, among other things,
hire an additional 220 certificated staff. Clearly, using health
savings to pay for new positions is not going to save the
district any money.
While an agreement with SCTA leadership was not reached on
Friday, I remain optimistic that they will soon understand the
value of switching SCTA members to a more affordable health plan
and applying the savings achieved toward covering the cost of
teacher salaries and benefits. I will continue to keep you
updated on the latest developments on our budget situation. Thank
you for your patience as we work to resolve this challenge.
Sincerely,
Jorge A. Aguilar
Superintendent
Budget Update #17
December 14, 2018
Dear Community Member,
We want to inform you that this evening we concluded a meeting on
health savings with our labor partner, the Sacramento City
Teachers Association. The two parties had a focused discussion on
how we can work together to switch to a more affordable health
plan with comparable benefits. Both the district and SCTA have
agreed to continue discussions on new health plan options as
early as next week. We look forward to continuing the process and
taking steps necessary to reign in the significantly high cost of
providing health insurance to district employees so that we can
redirect more of those funds toward our students.
Budget Update #16
December 14, 2018
Dear Community Member,
The district looks forward to meeting with Sacramento City
Teachers Association leaders at 4pm this afternoon to discuss the
specific next steps necessary to achieve health insurance cost
savings so we can balance our budget next year, avoid
running out of cash and protect and expand programs for our
students. We will continue to keep the community updated on the
status of these discussions. We know our students and families
are depending on us to work together to implement health care
cost savings so we can prevent running out of cash next year
and avoid state takeover.
Budget Update #15
December 12, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Today, we regret to inform our community that under the current
circumstances we are facing, the Sacramento City Unified School
District is projected to run out of cash next November.
This is our reality despite the fact that we have identified
over. Without further actions, this means
the District would be unable to fulfill its financial obligations
and would not have enough cash to cover employee payroll,
payments to vendors and others. To prevent the District from
running out of cash, we must immediately identify additional cost
savings to balance next year鈥檚 budget.
While it is painful to share this news with our community, we
remain committed to working as hard as possible to address our
budget challenges. In recent months the District has taken
various steps to achieve as many cost savings as possible in
areas where negotiations are not required. However, the greatest
cost savings by far would result from all of the District鈥檚 labor
union partners agreeing to switch over to more affordable health
plans. Reports provided by school districts to the County Office
of Education show that Sac
City Unified spends significantly more to provide health benefits
than all other Sacramento area school districts. Therefore,
the largest savings would be achieved if labor partners agree to
switch over to more affordable health plans. This action requires
agreement from the District鈥檚 five labor partners. An
independent analysis provided to the District by the non-profit
California Education Coalition for Health Care Reform (CECHCR), a
nonprofit group that works with school districts to reduce health
care costs, showed the District could save between $11 million
and $16 million annually if labor partners agree to make the
switch in health plans.
Last week, four of the District鈥檚 five labor union partners took
an important step to help actualize these health cost savings. In
a joint announcement with District leaders, SEIU 1021, United
Professional Educators, Teamsters Local 150, and Teamsters
Classified Supervisors, all signed an agreement to switch to more
affordable health plans with comparable benefits. If you have not
already seen it, please watch and read news
coverage of this announcement or watch a video replay. The District has
made the same proposal to SCTA and hopes to reach agreement soon.
The District recently offered SCTA three dates this month to meet
again on this important issue. The District remains
optimistic that we will soon have agreement with all labor
partners to switch over to more affordable health plans by
selecting benefit plans similar to those currently offered, but
that cost significantly less. To be clear, paying less for
health plans would not mean losing benefits.
Meanwhile, the District is implementing other cost savings
strategies that do not require negotiations to save what it can.
For example, the District continues its trend of reducing how
much of its general fund is spent on administrators. The District
now spends 4.39 percent of its general fund dollars on general
administration, the lowest in the Sacramento region. By
comparison, surrounding school districts spend an average of 5.71
percent of their general fund dollars on general
administration. Click
here to see California Department of Education data showing how
much less of its general fund Sac City Unified spends on
administration than surrounding school districts.
While operating a lean administration helps the District achieve
some short-term savings, under-staffing has long-term
financial consequences. Under-staffing results in employees
being unable to utilize vacation time鈥攁 benefit the District is
required by law to allow employees to accumulate and use, or cash
out if unused. Since Sac City Unified has traditionally been
understaffed with many employees unable to utilize their vacation
time, the
District has had to take action in recent months to reduce this
financial liability and prevent it from growing. Implementing
a 鈥渦se it or cash it out鈥 policy this year for vacation time has
saved the District approximately $4 million in future
liabilities. To view cashed out vacation time for unrepresented
staff, click
here.
While these actions have resulted in some savings, they will not
yield the ongoing large savings needed to keep the District
financially solvent in the long-term. The key to long-term cost
savings is to work collaboratively with our labor partners to
switch over to more affordable health plans and lower the cost of
providing employee health benefits, which four out of five labor
union partners are committed to doing.
The District will continue to keep you updated on the status of
our budget situation and important developments as they occur.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through this
challenge.
Budget Update #14
December 8, 2018
Dear Community Member,
This week four of the district鈥檚 five labor partners鈥擲EIU 1021,
UPE, Teamsters Local 150 and Teamsters Classified Supervisors,
signed an agreement to implement health cost savings with the
help of the California Education Coalition for Health Care Reform
(CECHCR), a nonprofit group that works with school districts to
reduce health care costs.
We are optimistic that all of our labor partners will agree to
implement these cost savings, which requires selecting a specific
health plan that will replace an existing plan, and then
notifying CECHCR of that selection and a start date.
To better understand the importance of achieving health cost
savings to help solve our budget challenges, please watch the recent news
coverage on this issue or watch the
replay of the announcement which is posted on our website.
Thank you.
Budget Update #13
December 5, 2018
The 麻豆国产AV announced in a video
statement on Wednesday that it has managed to find millions in
cost savings, with most cuts being made away from the classroom.
However, Superintendent Aguilar and Board President Jessie Ryan
warned that these cuts will not be enough to entirely
address the district鈥檚 structural deficit. Both leaders called on
district employees to rise to the occasion and make shared
sacrifices to eliminate the structural budget
deficit.
Board of Education President Jessie Ryan indicated
that 鈥漌hile the Superintendent has gone as far as he can in
reducing costs, we are now forced to look for other areas to save
money. As Board President and mother of two children in our
schools, I want to be very clear that the Board of Education will
not approve a budget that hurts students. Our students did not
cause this budget deficit and we will not balance the budget on
their backs.鈥
All of the savings the district has found up to this point have
been attained without any collective bargaining. However, to
eliminate the district鈥檚 structural budget deficit, it must now
reduce total
costs to provide health benefits. The district will not be
able to balance its budget in future years unless all employees
are willing to make some concessions in the next round of
contract negotiations. These negotiations are expected to begin
immediately after the Board of Education voted on November 15,
2018 to give Superintendent Aguilar authority to begin bargaining
with labor partners.
The district believes the largest potential costs savings would
be achieved by shopping for more affordable health insurance
plans for employees. Sac City Unified is currently, and has
historically, spent
significantly more on its employee health insurance costs than
other school districts in the region. A cost savings estimate
provided to the district by , shows
Sac City Unified could achieve an estimated $11 million to $16
million per year in savings if all labor unions agree to join a
health insurance pool that will provide employee benefits at a
lower cost. CECHCR is an initiative of the non-profit Center for
Collaborative Solutions that helps school districts and their
unions work effectively together to save money and implement best
practices in how they handle the complexity of health benefits
issues.
鈥淥ur budget staff has worked very hard over the past few months
with the assistance of an appointed fiscal advisor to achieve the
maximum amount of cost savings that could be achieved without
touching our existing labor agreements,鈥 said Superintendent
Aguilar. 鈥淲e have reached the point where we cannot eliminate the
structural deficit without bargaining. Protecting core academic
programs and services for students will now require all of our
labor partners to come to the bargaining table ready to make
shared sacrifices. This is the only way we can balance the budget
and avoid state takeover.鈥
Budget Update #12
November 16, 2018
As we continue preparing a plan to address the district鈥檚
structural budget deficit to advance our vision of Equity,
Access, and Social Justice, we want to share an important action
we have taken to resolve claims that the district is responsible
for expending more resources in salaries than that
which we understood had
been agreed upon last year with our labor partner,
the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA).
When the agreement with SCTA was reached, we
understood that the terms included a mutually agreeable
adjustment to the salary schedule in 2018-19 that should 鈥渘ot
exceed a total district expenditure of 3.5%鈥, which the
district has been and remains committed to honoring.
The SCTA, however, has claimed that the district agreed
to an expenditure that has been estimated at 7.1% for
2018-19 and thereafter. This amount is significantly higher
than the amount we understood was agreed to by the
parties, and which was actually approved by our Board,
reported to and approved by the Sacramento County
Office of Education, and planned for in our
budget.
The district seeks to resolve this matter in court so we can
continue to plan a budget that is focused on protecting core
academic programs and enrichment opportunities for students and
maintains the fiscal solvency of the district.
To that end, this morning we
filed a complaint in Sacramento County Superior
Court requesting a declaration from the court
that there is not an agreement between the district and
SCTA regarding the 2018-19 salary structure, let alone an
agreement to pay significantly more than the terms of our
contract which were ratified by our Board of Education on
December 7, 2017.
We will continue to provide updates on proactive measures we are
taking to reduce costs, achieve savings and protect resources for
our students and families. Thank you.
Budget Update #11
November 3, 2018
Dear Community Member,
As our district continues working on a solution to our structural
budget deficit, we want to inform you of an important reform that
is now being implemented to reduce future spending.
You may have read news articles in recent years such
as or the .
Failing to control the cost of accrued vacation siphons
away resources from our students and schools.
That is why under the leadership of Superintendent Jorge Aguilar,
the 麻豆国产AV is now implementing a
鈥渦se it or cash it out鈥 policy that will rein in and reduce the
financial burden on the district of paying out unused vacation
time. This is an important step in reducing the financial burden
that high leave balances have on the district. Since implementing
this policy, the district has reduced its financial liability by
approximately $4 million.
Here鈥檚 how it works: Vacation time is an employment benefit. When
accrued vacation time is not used by an employee, the employer
has an obligation to pay out the value of that benefit when the
employee leaves or retires from the agency. By putting a policy
in place that requires employees to use their vacation or cash it
out, the district prevents situations where employees are
hoarding vacation time and then receiving large lump sum payouts
when they leave.
Our labor partner, the United Professional Educators, has also
agreed to help the district further reduce our future costs by
decreasing its members鈥 number of vacation days from 22 to 5 per
year. In fact, new UPE members hired after July 1, 2017 will not
accrue any vacation time. This reduction in vacation days
will help the district save money. In addition, non-represented
management employees are now required to either use or cash out
any vacation carry over above 15 days to further reduce the
district鈥檚 financial liability and lessen the cost of vacation
benefits so more resources are available for our students.
to learn more about state laws pertaining to
employee vacation time and the district鈥檚 obligations to comply
with these laws. We will continue to keep you updated on steps we
are taking to save money.
Budget Update #10
October 18, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Last night our Board of Education voted to continue working with
our local Sacramento County Superintendent, fiscal advisor and
labor partners to address the district鈥檚 budget deficit. Voting
to continue working locally and waive the formation of a Budget
Review Committee that would be handled at the state level, allows
the district and stakeholders to continue working together at the
local level to address the budget deficit and chart a course
toward financial sustainability.
Click
here to view the budget update presentation at
yesterday鈥檚 Board meeting.
The district will now continue working collaboratively with all
partners and the County Superintendent to meet a December 14,
2018 first interim report and balanced budget deadline. The
district has also started working with the state鈥檚 Fiscal Crisis
& Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) on a fiscal health analysis
of the district that FCMAT is anticipated to complete this
December.
We will continue to keep you updated on the latest news and
information related to our budget situation. For more information
including responses to frequently asked questions, please visit
our Budget Review Process web
page. Thank you for your patience as we work through this
process.
Budget Update #9
October 12, 2018
Dear Community Member,
We are writing to inform you that, as anticipated, the
Sacramento County Superintendent has sent a
letter disapproving the school district鈥檚 revised budget
that was adopted on October 4, 2018.
Prior to submitting our revised budget, we notified the County
Superintendent that while our revised budget included
approximately $10 million in cuts, many to our central office and
administration, we knew it did not contain sufficient reductions
to completely eliminate the district鈥檚 structural deficit. In
order to minimize the impact to students, we notified the County
Superintendent that we needed more time to work alongside the
Sacramento County Office of Education, the County
Superintendent鈥檚 appointed fiscal advisor, labor partners and our
community to chart a sustainable course that is thoughtful and
student-centered.
The fiscal challenges facing Sac City Unified are the result of
the district鈥檚 decades-long history of operating with an ongoing
structural deficit that has not sufficiently prioritized meeting
the needs of students. Making real, solid, and permanent
reductions in expenditures to address our longstanding fiscal
problems will require courage and commitment and working in
collaboration with all partners and stakeholders. Quick fixes
made within the 30-day period we were given, would not have
served students well. That is why we decided to adopt initial
cuts on October 4th that will not harm our students, while
seeking more time to work on solutions that will solve our
long-term structural deficit.
Our fiscal challenges can and will be resolved; however, not with
a quick fix. The way forward is working in partnership with
shared ownership of the solution. There is no other way to solve
this. We have to create a functional collaborative coalition
between the district鈥檚 bargaining partners, the 麻豆国产AV Board of
Education, and the community.
Successful models are out there, and we need to look no further
than our own backyard where Elk Grove Unified School District has
a working coalition of the district鈥檚 union leaders. Together,
they take responsibility for the health of the district鈥檚 budget
and work together to keep the organization fiscally sound. In Sac
City Unified, over the past few months we have been working
diligently to bring together our labor partners and we are very
close to achieving this model. In fact, four of our five labor
partners have formed an unprecedented labor-management consortium
dedicated to coming up with sustainable solutions by coming to
the table and reworking budget priorities that focus on
supporting students.
The solutions we reach in the weeks ahead must come from
meaningful input from all stakeholders and reflect the values of
fiscal prudence as well as our unwavering commitment to student
success. Our current and future generations of students are
counting on us to come together to solve this problem. We are
determined not to let them down.
Sincerely,
Jorge A. Aguilar Jessie
Ryan
Superintendent President,
Board of Education
Budget Update #8
October 5, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Sacramento City Unified Board of Education and
Superintendent Jorge Aguilar have released the following
statement regarding action taken at yesterday鈥檚
Board meeting:
鈥淟ast night we took immediate action to cut
approximately $10 million from our central office and reduce
other administrative expenditures. Now we must shift our focus to
having a serious conversation with all employees about how
we can work collaboratively to achieve savings in areas
where costs continue to increase beyond our ability to
sustain. One area is in employee healthcare costs.
麻豆国产AV spends more on employee
healthcare costs than any other surrounding school district in
the region. The potential to continue to provide high quality
coverage while achieving millions of dollars in health cost
savings is a win-win that will solve our most prevalent budget
challenges and redirect millions of dollars back into programs
for students. All that is required now is the willingness of
every bargaining partner to put the past behind us and come to
the table ready to make this happen.鈥
Below are PowerPoint slides presented at last night鈥檚 meeting
which summarize $11.48 million in budget adjustments and cost
reductions approved by the Board.
Budget Update #7
October 3, 2018
Dear Community Member,
We would like to inform you that we have updated our frequently
asked questions page with a response to
a question related to the district鈥檚 administrative
positions and costs. Copied below is the question we have
received and our response. Please visit the district鈥檚 FAQ
page for all responses to the most common questions
we have received. Thank you.
Has the district鈥檚 number of full-time administrators
grown from 190 employees in 2014-15 to 271 employees in
2017-18?
No. This statement is factually incorrect and the District has
requested that the Sacramento City Teachers Association refrain
from using the incorrect figures in their communications. Below
are the accurate numbers related to the district鈥檚 reported
administration costs reflected in the District鈥檚 end-of-year
actual reports submitted to the Sacramento County Office of
Education and the California Department of Education:
- In 2014-15, the district actually reported employing 232.2
administrative full-time employees.
- In 2017-18 the district actually reported employing 267
administrative full-time employees.
- Four (4) of these positions were vacated and left unfilled at
the end of the fiscal year in compliance with the hiring freeze
adopted by the Board of Education, leaving the district with a
total of 263 administrative full-time employees to start this
fiscal year.
Sac City Unified administrators, both at the site level and
district office, constitute 4.66% of budget expenditures and are
focused on student achievement and providing critical support
services to all of our school sites. To help the community
understand the roles of our 263 administrators, here is a
breakdown of who these employees are and what roles they perform
for our students:
- Almost half, 49% (129) of the 263 administrative positions,
are held by Principals, Assistant Principals, Site Instructional
Coordinators, Student Support Services Coordinators, and other
positions directly serving students on school
sites. Click
here to view a listing of all job titles and salaries for these
129 FTEs.
- Roughly 10% (26) of the administrative positions are not paid
for with unrestricted general fund dollars because they are
covered through grant funding, bonds, reimbursements or other
funding sources. Eliminating these positions would not result in
any cost savings since they are not paid for with general fund
dollars. Examples of these positions include, among others:
- Our Director and Supervisor of Special Education
Services, responsible for overseeing the delivery of services
to students with special needs;
- Our Coordinator for Induction Programs serving first-year
teachers;
- Our Director of Student Support and Health Services
overseeing school nurses and the delivery of health-related
services at school sites;
- Our Director and Coordinators of Multilingual Literacy
Services and;
- Our Attendance Campaign Coordinators which are focused on
increasing student attendance and generating more revenue for
the district.
Click here to view a listing of all job titles and salaries of
these 26 FTEs not paid for using unrestricted general fund
dollars.
- Roughly 7% (18) of the administrative positions are
responsible for ensuring the district complies with various state
and federal laws and other requirements including:
- Education Code;
- Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and Local
Control Funding Formula (LCFF);
- School Safety compliance;
- Student data and online privacy and safety;
- Employee Payroll;
- Translation Services;
- Bullying Prevention;
- Student Enrollment and;
- Disciplinary Hearings
Click
here to view a listing of job titles and salaries for these 18
positions.
- Roughly 12% (33) of the administrative positions are
supporting school sites in instructional supervisorial roles,
maintenance and operations, and pupil transportation. For
example, these positions include our Director of Guidance and
Counseling, Chief Operations Officer, Student Transportation
Supervisors, and Manager for Facilities Maintenance. The district
also employs a grant writer through this funding source and this
individual has garnered nearly $75 million in funding for Sac
City Unified since the 2014-2015 academic year. Click
here to view a listing of job titles and salaries for these 33
FTEs.
- Only 21% (57) of the administrative positions in the district
are administrative employees that are paid out of the general
fund for a total combined salary amount of $6.7 million. Many of
these employees lead the district, or parts of the district, and
perform highly critical leadership functions in human resources,
business services, accounting, technology, communications,
operations and accountability to support school sites with the
delivery of essential services that sites depend on but are
unable to perform on their own. These positions include the
district鈥檚 leadership team including the Superintendent, Deputy
Superintendent, Instructional Area Superintendents and their
administrative management and support staff. Click
here to view a listing of all job titles and salaries for these
57 FTEs.
Every school district depends on administrative employees to keep
school sites open and running to serve the needs of students.
While the district鈥檚 total number of full-time administrators is
currently 31 FTE greater than in 2014, this growth and the
percentage of overall budget that is allocated for administration
is on the lower end of administrative costs compared to
surrounding districts in the Sacramento region (see chart below).
Budget Update #6
October 3, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and Sacramento City Unified Board of
Education President Jessie Ryan released the following statement
this afternoon after the district, working with a fiscal advisor
appointed by the County Superintendent, has determined the amount
of cost savings the district must achieve to eliminate its
structural deficit is $28.5 million in 2019-2020 and $19.5
million for 2020-2021:
鈥淭he 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 fiscal
problems are structural, complex and not new.
The fiscal challenges are the result of the district鈥檚
decades-long history of operating with an ongoing structural
deficit that has not sufficiently prioritized meeting the needs
of students. Making real, solid, and permanent reductions in
expenditures to address our longstanding fiscal problems requires
courage and commitment and working in collaboration with all
partners and stakeholders. Quick fixes made within a 30-day
period will not serve students well.
Therefore, we have notified the Sacramento County
Superintendent that the revised budget we plan to submit by the
state required October 8th deadline, while making
approximately $10 million in cuts, does not contain sufficient
reductions to completely eliminate the structural deficit. We
simply need more time to work alongside the Sacramento County
Office of Education, the County Superintendent鈥檚 appointed fiscal
advisor, labor partners and our community to chart a sustainable
course that is student-centered.
Our fiscal challenges can and will be resolved; however, not
with a quick fix. The way forward is working in partnership with
shared ownership of the solution. There is no other way to solve
this. We have to create a functional collaborative coalition
between the district鈥檚 bargaining partners, the 麻豆国产AV Board of
Education, and the community.
Successful models are out there, and we need to look no
further than our own backyard where Elk Grove Unified School
District has a working coalition of the district鈥檚 union leaders.
Together, they take responsibility for the health of the
district鈥檚 budget and work together to keep the organization
fiscally sound. In Sac City Unified, over the past few months we
have been working diligently to bring together our labor partners
and we are very close to achieving this model. In fact, four of
our five labor partners have formed an unprecedented
labor-management consortium dedicated to coming up with
sustainable solutions by coming to the table and reworking budget
priorities that focus on supporting students.
The solutions we reach in the weeks ahead must come from
meaningful input from all stakeholders and reflect the values of
fiscal prudence as well as our unwavering commitment to student
success. Our current and future generations of students are
counting on us to come together to solve this problem. We are
determined not to let them down.鈥
Budget Update #5
October 2, 2018
Dear Community Member,
We want to share that since September 10, 2018 the district has
been working closely with the fiscal advisor appointed
by the Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools to
review the district鈥檚 budget numbers for accuracy.
The amount of cost savings the district needs to achieve to
eliminate its structural deficit has been revised after our
review. The current structural deficit amount after the review is
now $28.5 million in 2019-2020 and $19.5 million for 2020-2021.
The updated amount reflects changes made after checking for
accuracy and reviewing cost information. See chart below for
more details.
We will continue to update you on our progress as staff continues
to work on a revised budget proposal for the Board of
Education meeting this Thursday. We plan to send out another
update tomorrow but want to keep you apprised of this information
for now.
Budget Update #4
September 18, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Thank you again for signing up to receive budget alerts from the
麻豆国产AV. The district would like
to inform you that our website has been updated with responses to
two new frequently asked questions and their responses. Please
check the bottom of this email for the two new FAQ鈥檚 and
responses that have been added to our web page. You can
access all of the FAQ鈥檚 here.
We are still working to schedule a public meeting date for
presenting a revised budget. Once that date has been scheduled,
you will be notified. Thank you for your continued patience
during this process.
Newly Added FAQ鈥檚
Was the budget disapproved because the district mismanaged its
finances?
No. It was disapproved because the County Superintendent is
required by law to provide fiscal oversight of the district鈥檚
finances and the district鈥檚 budget has projected deficit spending
that will leave the district without any reserves before the end
of the 2019/20 school year. The district鈥檚 adopted budget
although having sufficient resources to pay expenses for this
year, did not include sufficient reserves for outgoing years.
Does the district have a top-heavy central office and high amount
of administrative overhead?
Not in comparison to other school districts. This can be
determined by how much of the district鈥檚 overall budget is spent
on administrative expenses allocated to the central office. The
district鈥檚 records show administrative expenses allocated to
central office have actually decreased from 4.5 percent of
unrestricted general fund budget in 2014-15 to 4.2 percent of
unrestricted general fund expenditures in 2017-18. These figures
show an overall decrease in central office and administrative
spending during this time period. It is worth noting that the
district鈥檚 budget significantly increased during this time
period. From the 2014-15 fiscal year to the 2017-18 fiscal year,
the district鈥檚 budget grew from $333,320,568 million to
$395,468,056 in state and local unrestricted general fund revenue
sources. The larger revenues led to hiring more staff at all
levels of the organization to implement programs and services
dedicated to low-income, foster, and English Learners paid for
with these revenues. By comparison, the number of teachers
employed by the district also grew during this time period. For
example, in 2014-15 there were 2,298 certificated (i.e. teaching)
FTE employees in the district. In 2017-18 that number grew to
2,521 certificated FTE employees in the district鈥攁n increase of
223 teaching positions*. That increase in hiring of teachers
would be equivalent to fully staffing classrooms at McClatchy
High School three times. See chart below for how Sac City
Unified鈥檚 administrative expenses as a percentage of its budget
compare to surrounding districts.
*Source for number of FTE certificated (teaching) positions:
麻豆国产AV Financial Database
Budget Update #3
September 13, 2018
Dear Community Member.
Answers to frequently asked questions that the district has
received since the announcement of our budget disapproval, are
now posted online on our budget review process page. Click
here to view the FAQ鈥檚.
The FAQ鈥檚 will be updated frequently in the coming
days leading up to the October 8, 2018 deadline to submit a
revised budget to the Sacramento County Office of Education.
Remember that if you have a question, our public information
office will work to respond with an answer. Please submit
your questions here.
Thank you and have a good evening.
Budget Update #2
September 10, 2018
Dear Community Member,
Thank you for subscribing to receive updates from the Sacramento
City Unified School District regarding the
recent disapproval of the
2018-19 adopted budget. In the coming days, you will be
receiving more updates from the district about this topic,
including answers to frequently asked questions and when a public
meeting will be held. You can also visit our website for updates and
information.
We want to clarify the reason why the district鈥檚 2018-19 adopted
budget was disapproved by the Sacramento County Office of
Education (SCOE). It was disapproved because sufficient funding
was not set aside in savings (our reserve) to meet the state鈥檚
mandated requirement to maintain a minimum 2 percent reserve in
fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21. A minimum reserve is necessary
so that we are structurally addressing our long-term fiscal
challenges and able to meet the needs of our students in future
years. Per Education Code 42127d, an independent fiscal advisor
has now been assigned by the SCOE to work with the district to
help remedy our financial sustainability challenges. The
independent fiscal advisor arrived to the district today and has
now begun the process of assessing our budget to help identify
options to address our reserve deficiencies in 2019-20 and
2020-2021. No decisions regarding cuts will be made until the
fiscal advisor has completed her assessment work.
To help raise awareness about the steps the district is now
taking in response to the budget disapproval, Superintendent
Jorge Aguilar and Board President Jessie Ryan were guests on
Capitol Public Radio鈥檚 Insight with Beth Ruyak this
morning. or tune in to 90.9FM
Capitol Public Radio this evening at 7:15 p.m.
Finally, we want to make sure you are receiving accurate
information from us about what is going on. If you have
questions, please do not hesitate to submit them
here. We will do our best to respond to your questions as
quickly as possible. Thank you.
Budget Update #1
September 7, 2018
Dear Community Member,
At last night鈥檚 Board of Education meeting, our Chief Business
Officer, Dr. John Quinto, publicly announced that the Sacramento
County Office of Education (SCOE) has disapproved the district鈥檚
adopted budget for this fiscal year. The school district must now
submit a revised budget by October 8, 2018 that addresses our $24
million budget deficit.
Understanding that this is a critical issue to our students and
families, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and Board President Jessie
Ryan want to with our community in response to
this situation鈥攖he first time SCOE has disapproved our adopted
budget.
We want to assure our community that our commitment over these
next few weeks is to work tirelessly to continue making good on
the promise of advancing equity, access, and social justice for
all students and collectively figure out how to address our
budget challenges with the least disruption to our students.
The district has created a webpage to update our community with
the latest news on this situation, frequently asked questions and
other resources. Please sign up to receive alerts and details on
how you can participate in meetings on this issue by
visiting: www.scusd.edu/budget-review-process.