Sac City Unified Facing $80M Shortfall, Will Finally Cut 60 Admin Jobs

The Sacramento City Unified School District, which has teetered on the cliff of insolvency for many years, announced it would cut 60 administrative positions as the district deals with a looming financial crisis.

That is a good place to start. This is the same school district which renamed several schools in 2023, including Sutter Middle School and Kit Carson International Academy, costing $550,000. Yet more than half of SCUSD students do not meet basic state English standards, and nearly three quarters fail to meet basic state math standards.

“The district was already facing fiscal woes when a September report showed that the district spent $43 million more than expected last year due to a “flood” of costs that popped up later in the year,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “Officials estimate that the district could end up $88 million in the red by the 2027-28 school year if they do not come up with a strict plan.”

The school district got into $43 million worth of trouble with “unbudgeted spending.” A September report included unauthorized contracts and spending on special education. “During the 2024-25 school year, unauthorized contracts across Sacramento City Unified totaled $62 million worth of spending. The special education department represented 98% of those purchases,” Abridged reported in October. They reported that special education department heavily uses outside contractors because of staffing shortages. But $43 million worth?

The Sacramento County Office of Education told the SCUSD that to become solvent, it needs to cut $50 million in spending for the 2026-27 school year – or risk state intervention and takeover.

“The board approved a fiscal solvency plan Thursday night that included an objective to reduce the number of full-time-equivalent administrators from 328 to 270 by the 2026-27 school year, saving the district about $14 million.”

270 is how many administrators the district had prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a district spokesperson. So, during the pandemic, the already-fiscally mismanaged school district added 58 additional administrators.

The administrative bloat in California’s public education system is blatant, and didn’t just start.

Anecdotally, my son, now 36, attended high school in the Sacramento City schools district. We noted even in 2003-2007 his high school years, the high school had 6 Vice Principals on staff, complete with all of their administrative support staffers. No one really knew what they did.

Notably, my husband also attended that same high school several decades before. They had one Principal, one Vice Principal, 4 school counselors, a school nurse, a librarian, and the same number of students.

Multiply that by all 81 schools, and that’s some administrative bloat.

So, the district spend tens of millions of dollars on unauthorized, non-budgeted contracts. Discussions around insolvency aren’t new; the district narrowly avoided a state takeover in 2019 after a shortfall of more than $20 million, the Bee reported. We remember.

Yet, in all of the articles about the SCUSD fiscal crisis, not one explains in detail the $43 million unauthorized, non-budgeted contracts.

Abridged comes closest:

“During the 2024-25 school year, unauthorized contracts across Sacramento City Unified totaled $62 million worth of spending. The special education department represented 98% of those purchases.”

“When students’ needs are identified, the district is legally required to provide services and accommodations, said Becky Bryant, assistant superintendent of special education, innovation and learning.”

It is evident that the district is in need of special education staff, but instead was hiring administrators.

However, at least the district is making cuts, but more cuts need to be made, as does a significant restructuring and consolidation, which is mentioned in talks with the Sacramento County Office of Education.