Sacramento school year won't be extended, but there will be 16 instructional days added over the next two years.
The Sacramento City Unified School District has stated it will not be extending the 2021-22 school year to make up for academic calendar days lost to the teacher strike in March. The 2021-22 SCUSD school year will end as scheduled on June 16, and will start as scheduled for next year on Sept. 1, 2022. The changes made have been decided at 16 days of school total added to the next two academic years. The decision comes after a months-long discussion over how to avoid paying around $47 million in financial penalties after over 43,000 students missed a week and a day of school instruction when the SCTA went on strike. The state imposes financial penalties on school districts that don’t provide the minimum amount of days and minutes of instruction, and the strike quantifies the lost learning time as 2,400 minutes.
"By adding days and minutes of instruction to future academic calendars, Sac City Unified will seek a waiver from the State Board of Education to reduce the financial penalty per California Ed Code 46206," the district said. "Although there are added costs associated with this plan, including operations and staff salaries, the District believes those expenses are more than justified by the additional learning opportunity for our students."
The district still has to discuss the changes with labor partners, and reassures families it will give advanced notice of how future academic calendars will be adjusted once the decision is finalized.