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The SCUSD is considering adding 6 more instructional days to the school year to make up for lost days during the strike.
Sacramento City Unified School District is once again facing financial distress soon after approving labor agreements to end its eight-day teacher strike. The Sacramento Office of Education gave the district’s budget a negative certification, stating that the strike itself would cost the school district millions of dollars and could be unsolvable. The county assigns that designation “when a district will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the current year or for the subsequent fiscal year,” according to the state.
In a letter to the district, Sacramento County Superintendent Dave Gordon says the new labor contracts coupled with declining enrollment “significantly alter the yearly projections” and increase the district’s risk of running out of funds. The agreements made with the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021 union came after both unions went on strike for eight days, a period in which the district shut down campuses because it did not have staff to keep them open.
“We encourage the SCTA and the district to come to an agreement to reduce the district’s health benefit costs,” read the letter. “However, given the district’s growing structural deficit, this proposal may need to be renegotiated to allow the savings to be redirected to support current ongoing costs.” Sacramento City Unified and school unions are currently working together to identify ways to restore as many days and hours as possible to help manage the penalty.