The Sacramento City Teachers Association is requesting an investigation into the district and the superintendent. The union sent a letter Tuesday to state officials asking for three things.
The union wants an investigation into possible misuse of resources, potential conflicts of interest for Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and a full audit.
The request comes as the school district looks for ways to cut 16-million dollars from its budget.
The board of education has issued the following statement in response:
We will not allow meritless attacks against our Superintendent to distract us from continuing to advance work that is meeting the needs and interests of our students.
Superintendent Aguilar’s appropriate and long-standing affiliation with the University of California should be lauded, not criticized. The University of California is a reputable public institution that has become a dedicated partner in advancing our mission of ensuring that all Sac City Unified School District students have an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential. At the time we hired Superintendent Aguilar, we supported and approved of him retaining a five percent (5%) affiliation with UC Merced to ensure that the district would take a systematic approach to providing opportunities to students to graduate college and career ready.
There is nothing conflicting or unethical about this arrangement and we are dismayed that anyone would argue otherwise.
We are grateful to UC Merced for their partnership with Sac City Unified, which has allowed Sac City to provide more social-emotional and academic supports focused on equity, access, and social justice and have already yielded tremendous benefits to our students, including:
· The ability to monitor graduation and college course requirements for admissions (“A-G requirements”) of each of our students which has resulted in increased graduation and A-G completion rates for the 2017-2018 school year;
· The ability to send college eligibility packets to every 12th grade student in Sac City Unified;
· The ability to identify the post-high school graduation choices of each 12th grade student (applications, admission, and enrollment in higher education; enter an apprenticeship program; join the workforce; enlist in the military; or pursue other opportunities after graduation);
· The ability to establish Early Warning indicators to ensure that students receive appropriate interventions related to behavior, attendance, and academic achievement;
· The ability to assess the readiness of students for 1st grade, 3rd grade, middle school, and high school so that they can successfully transition from one grade level to the next from pre-school through graduation and beyond; and,
· The ability to determine success rates for students who attend Los Rios Community College District, Sacramento State, UC Davis, or UC Merced through a data sharing agreement signed in 2017.
We will continue to make student-centered progress under Superintendent Aguilar’s leadership and work diligently to advance work that supports student success – our first priority.