Sac City cuts more than 400 positions amid budget crisis. Who will be affected?
Food service workers, safety officers, instructional aides and student service coordinators: These are some of the positions on the list of more than 400 that Sacramento City Unified School District plans to eliminate to address its budget crisis.
The district board of trustees voted 4-0 at an unbroadcast special meeting Thursday night to issue preliminary layoff notices to employees in these positions on March 15. But around 120 positions slated for elimination are vacant, and not everyone who receives a notice will be ultimately laid off. Final notices will come in May.
Sacramento City Unified, which has been facing shrinking enrollment for a decade, goes through a similar process every year to “right-size” staff as a part of its budget development process. This year the cuts are more dramatic as the district works to stave off a budget deficit of $113 million by the end of June.
While the district is no longer expected to face state takeover come summer due to positive cash flow projections, it still needs to identify cost savings for this year and coming years, when the deficit is expected to grow to around $200 million if no action is taken.
The board has already opted to reverse earlier cuts to administrators after outcry from management staff and revelations that the cuts would not result in significant savings.
Most positions slated for elimination are nonteaching staff, such as central office administrators, food service workers and instructional aides, but the board will consider cuts to preschool teaching positions at the Feb. 19 board meeting.
Since the board was made aware of the fiscal crisis in September, members have emphasized that they want to keep cuts as far from the classroom as possible.
In an initial vote, trustees Tara Jeane, Taylor Kayatta and Chinua Rhodes voted yes on the proposed cuts while April Ybarra voted no, citing concern about some of the positions being eliminated. Several positions were pulled from the list and the vote was redone, this time 4-0. Trustees Jose Navarro, Jasjit Singh and Michael Benjamin did not attend the special meeting.
Garrett Kirkland, Hiram Johnson High School principal and president of the union representing administrators, criticized the board for making major decisions in a setting the public could not easily access when only four members were present.
He said that the proposed reductions are certain to impact students, even though they are largely directed at nonteaching positions.
“The question is whether the district is prepared to approach those impacts with honesty and a genuine commitment to shared sacrifice,” he said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 10:50 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that the vote to eliminate staff positions was 3-1. A second vote, which occurred after a revision to the list of jobs, was 4-0.
