Sacramento City’s labor woes are older than its seniors. Will the school district change?

Students in the Sacramento City Unified School District have now been deprived of a week of instruction with no end to the current teachers strike in sight. But the situation causing this crisis is not new — it’s been ongoing for 19 years. In 2003, the crux of the issue was identified: 100% employer-paid health insurance is financially unsustainable.

Despite the clear message given to all parties, the can was kicked down the road in six labor negotiations, effectively ensuring that the people serving as SCUSD and Sacramento City Teachers Association leaders today inherited the problem of repeatedly using one-time funds to finance the reoccurring expense of 100% employer-paid health insurance. The sporadic bargaining that has taken place since 2018 is the seventh successor contract negotiation since this problem was identified.

While regional business and local leaders from all levels of government in Sacramento were turning themselves inside out to keep an NBA franchise in Sacramento and figure out how to build an arena for the Kings, the critical work of building a fiscal structure that would ensure stability for California’s capital’s largest school district was being ignored.

While Sacramentans should have been focused on how to ensure that every student is a fluent reader by third grade, there’s been drama between adults instead. Statewide third-grade literacy rates are troubling enough, but the fact that several schools serving our students are on the state’s list for “75 schools that have the highest percentage of students in grade three scoring at the lowest achievement standard level” is particularly egregious when one realizes that SCTA’s elected leaders and executive director have been recognized for their contributions to a national campaign to cut evaluations of student achievement.

While Sacramentans should have been doing the necessary soul-searching to address the racism and bias that harms children and staff and results in our district joining the ranks of other Sacramento County districts to earn the label, “The Capitol of Suspensions,” the futures of Black children have been damaged.

This problem is older than the seniors who should be playing sports, going to prom, taking AP tests, attending senior awards and graduating in the upcoming weeks. These students now — through no fault of their own — find these plans in limbo.

The children who will attend the district’s newly-expanded transitional kindergarten program this fall are nearly as old as this current seventh negotiation for a renewed teachers’ contract since the problem was identified.

I don’t know what the exact answer is, but I do know that the solution won’t be found by feuding opinions.

Based on my experiences in construction management, as a bond transaction coordinator and as playground yard duty monitor, I know that ground rules that will maximize focus on the points of agreement and the points of conflict so that both can be given appropriate attention are key.

With high tensions, the parties don’t need the intervention of politicians. SCUSD and SCTA need a neutral convener that can commit to following a fair process and ensure there is not another generation of Sacramentans growing up while adults kick the can of financial stability down the road another 19 years.