After three decades climbing the ranks of Sacramento City Unified School District, Lisa Allen stepped down as superintendent just as the district’s dire financial crisis began to look up.
Earlier this month, Allen issued an emotional goodbye to the district she worked at for three decades hours after she announced her decision to retire to staff members.
Her sudden resignation on Feb. 5 was a surprise to many — despite the profound budget issues that emerged under her tenure, Allen was reportedly well regarded by staff and teachers, particularly those she worked closely with in the district office.
In the few hours between the staff announcement and the board meeting that would finalize her departure, district employees organized an impromptu send-off celebration for Allen. Communications officer Brian Heap said that their large conference room was packed and those who couldn’t fit spilled out into the hallway and watched through the glass windows. Heap said that “tears were flowing” as staff members spoke about Lisa’s effect on their lives.
Praise for Allen from staff members, students and district advocates centered around two core qualities: the personal attention she provided staff and her student-centered approach.
“She really has this incredible empathetic quality,” former community engagement manager Niki Kangas said.
Allen’s departure comes a few months after revelations that Sac City was again at high risk of insolvency, thanks in part to “flood of unexpected costs” that cropped up at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
Trustees have expressed frustration with the district staff’s inability to swiftly implement a fiscal solvency plan to prevent a state takeover by the summer.
The timing of her departure led to questions about Allen’s involvement in the fiscal crisis despite board President Tara Jeane’s insistence that the mutual decision was not a direct result of the budget process. Jeane said at the time that they mutually agreed that “creating space for new leadership will best position the district to address and overcome its current challenges.”
The district’s poor spending practices and a broken culture long precede Allen’s leadership, according trustees and other parties.
Heap sees the association between her resignation and the district’s budget crisis as unfortunate.
“It doesn’t feel right to me – after everything she gave to this district and community – for her to go out under some sort of perception that she was the person responsible for where we are today,” Heap said.
Allen, who earned a base salary of $325,000 per year, was paid out for the rest of the year and will continue to receive health benefits through June 30, according to her voluntary separation agreement obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
What Lisa Allen meant to SCUSD employees
Allen climbed up the ranks of the district over the course of 30 years, starting as a classroom teacher and eventually taking over as interim superintendent in July 2023 following Jorge Aguilar’s resignation. She was formally hired into the position in April 2024.
During her time as a leader, the district saw improved state math and English scores across nearly every racial demographic, a graduation rate that improved over pre-Covid levels, increased student support services and the addition of reading intervention teachers at every elementary school.
Allen took helm at the district at a time of high tension for the district. She took the helm a year following Sacramento City Teachers Association’s eight-day strike and two years after educators and other district staff voted no confidence in former superintendent Aguilar and three years after the state identified the district as being at high risk of fiscal insolvency.
As superintendent, Allen was able to build on deep-rooted relationships that she had cultivated over several decades .
Terrence Gladney, a former Sac City parent and longtime advocate for students, has known Allen since 2009, when he was on the school site council at John Cabrillo Elementary School. He said that having Allen as deputy superintendent helped Aguilar’s cabinet maintain essential relationships and knowledge of district history.
“Having her there with her understanding of systems and people and interconnected relationships allowed us to honor the history and people of the district,” he said.
Gladney also praised Allen for her focus on equity for students. When she served as a staff liaison to the Black/African American Advisory Board, a group which Gladney chairs, he said she was “always available to listen and counsel and give guidance over things.”
“She was always accessible, no matter how many crazy crises were happening in the district office,” Kangas said.
Several staff members and students also spoke to Allen’s willingness to engage with them personally and give her undivided attention.
Justine Chueh-Griffith, a senior at West Campus High School and former student board member, said that Allen “truly cared about students.” She told a story about how Allen helped protect her during a tense Trans Day of Visibility event when protesters targeted her, the only student in attendance, after she raised the trans flag. Allen guided Chueh-Griffith to her car, pushing through a rowdy crowd.
“That’s just the kind of leader she is — she really does have a care and passion for students and protecting the kids in this district,” she said.
On a day when Kangas was frustrated with her work in her role as community service manager, Allen sat down with her to tell her a parable about a person throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean, telling a skeptic that even if they couldn’t save them all, their actions made a difference for that one.
Kangas wears a starfish pin on her blazer each day to remind herself of the sentiment Allen communicated to her: That they are never going to be able to solve all the world’s problems, but that they can chip away at progress to make the system better serve everyone.
A departure amid layoffs and low morale
Despite Allen’s interim replacement, Cancy McArn, being well-regarded, the former superintendent’s resignation cast a shadow on what was already a somber environment in the district office.
Cancy McArn was announced as the interim superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District during the meeting on Feb. 5. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Layoffs have disproportionately affected their staff and the bimonthly admonishment from the board about their work in recent months has led to a dark mood in the Serna Center.
Kangas was one of the district employees whose position was slated for elimination. She ended up finding a new job before she was issued a pink slip.
“The instability that we’re already feeling is exacerbated by another leadership change,” she said.
Losing a leader that forged so many personal relationships in a building being gutted by layoffs hasn’t made things easier.
“Morale is definitely low, not as a result of leadership but because of recent attacks on central office administration,” said an administrator who asked not to be named out of concern for her employment.
The administrator said they wished the board would look at some of the “great strides” the district has made, such as the improved graduation and college readiness rates.
“I know that Lisa valued the work,” she said.
Jeane announced Thursday that the district would soon begin a request for proposals from search firms, saying that the board wanted to prioritize community engagement in the process.
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Jennah Pendleton is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered schools and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in Orange County and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.