Sac City schools to make immediate layoffs, freeze spending amid budget emergency
The Sacramento City Unified School District is set to make a number of immediate cuts in an effort to address a severe budget crisis that could put it in the hands of state receivership by the end of the school year.
Trustees were again frustrated by the slow implementation of a fiscal solvency plan originally drafted in November. During an update at a special board meeting last night, the board reacted to news that the plan would not save as much money as originally anticipated and that many pieces of the plan have not yet been put into action.
“What we’ve seen so far is that we’re moving, it seems to us, in the wrong direction as we keep finding more problems with our assumptions, rather than finding more money,” trustee Taylor Kayatta said.
Adding to the district’s woes, information released Thursday shows that the district is worse off in more ways than was previously understood because of errors made in its multi-year budget projections. The school district is projected to be about $190 million in the red by 2027-28 if spending is not corrected.
“It’s exhausting to constantly be here and try to tell our staff this is urgent,” trustee Chinua Rhodes said. “Sometimes it feels like the board has high urgency and everybody else doesn’t, and it’s like, bizarro-world, upside-down, ’Stranger Things.‘”
In response to interim Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson’s presentation, Kayatta moved to add a number of provisions to the fiscal solvency plan, which was unanimously approved by the board:
• Transfer into a classroom position or immediately lay off the 70 administrators identified for reduction earlier in the school year. Many of these staff members were told earlier this month that their jobs would be eliminated by July, but now most of these employees will either be transferred into classroom positions or cut loose in an effort to save money in this fiscal year.
District spokesperson Brian Heap said those affected by the “immediate” layoffs need to be given a sixty-day notice by law, meaning that the earliest some of these employees could be cut loose is April. However, Heap said that the clock hasn’t started ticking for most of these employees yet, and that the earliest layoffs aren’t likely to go into effect until May. Previously the positions were slated to be eliminated at the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
• Immediately freeze all professional services contracts that do not provide direct student support. All other “mission critical” contracts will be brought to the board for approval before services are resumed.
• Freeze all supply purchases, except custodial supplies, for the remainder of the school year.
• Furlough non-union staff for 12 days before May 30. This move affects about 190 employees and amounts to a 5% pay reduction, according to district spokesperson Brian Heap.
The board also opted to not fill four empty administrative roles, including a new role mandated by a settlement agreement with the California Attorney General. Despite Grant-Dawson’s recommendation to fill these positions, trustee Jasjit Singh reasoned that the district could not afford to spend money it doesn’t have, especially when little movement has been made on the fiscal solvency plan so far.
“You don’t have any money in your checkbook, so I don’t think we can really have a conversation about spending anything,” he said.
Further updates on the plan will be discussed at the district’s next meeting on Feb. 5.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 2:55 PM.
