In the midst of tackling a significant budget deficit, Sacramento City Unified School District appeared earlier this week to have missed out on more than $1 million in state arts funding.
A recent report appeared to show the district did not spend and therefore would have to pay back $1.8 million of the $6.27 million allocation from Prop 28 funds. However, the district went back and found there had been a reporting error and the funds were in fact fully spent.
Prop 28 is a law that passed in 2022 to help fund arts education in schools. The law states that districts are required to spend at least 80% to hire teachers and the other 20% on training, supplies and materials. Any money the districts don’t spend within a 3-year span would have to be paid back to the state.
The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this week the SCUSD left more money on the table than any other school district in the state.
But, according to a press release, the district found it was a clerical error and ensured that all of the Prop 28 funding to support arts education was spent and no funds will have to be returned to the state.
The district says its Prop 28 investments include 32 full-time arts positions and they’re providing art education to 13,500 students across 60 school sites in all grade levels.
“We thank the voters for seeing the importance of the arts in schools and for passing Prop 28,” Cancy McArn, superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, said in the press release issued Thursday. “The Board of Education has been clear that our mission is to serve and support the whole student. Providing a robust arts education program is one of the many ways we accomplish that.”
Spokesperson of the district, Al Goldberg, told CapRadio there was never a time where the district thought they had to pay back $1.8 million. He said the error came from an employee who didn’t report the cumulative total over the three years, which made it look like the district owed millions.
“[The funds] cover the 2024 school year, ‘25, and ‘26, so when you report the data out or the spending out, you report it as a cumulative total,” Goldberg said.
“When our person internally reported the numbers, they didn’t do that. They made a mistake, and they did not report the cumulative total over that three-year period, which is what they were supposed to do.”
District officials also mention in a press release they’re taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again in the future.
The district shared the corrected expenditures showing the full money was spent.
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