As Sacramento City Unified School District grapples with the threat of state receivership and a $170 million budget deficit, the Sacramento City Teachers Association has helped them find some temporary relief.
The SCTA reached an agreement with the Sac City Unified, which involves nearly $100 million in funding.
The funding comes from the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) trust fund, which is a special savings account set up in 2010 for teacher retiree health benefits.
Currently, the district is paying retiree benefits through its general fund. The new agreement will allow them to pull money from the OPEB fund instead.
President of the Sacramento Teachers Association Nikki Davis Milevsky, said that the trust fund had over $160 million.
“We’re joint trustees on that fund with the district, and we would use those monies to free up almost $70 million from the general fund over the next three years,” Davis Milevsky said. “It’s not something that we plan to do forever, but there’s $160 million in it, and that has been accruing interest, and we’ve continued to put money in it over the years.”
Davis Milevsky said most of that budget shortfall came from an unplanned $113 million in special education spending that blew a hole in its budget.
“Those are costs that the district needs to work hard to address,” she said. “We, as teachers, believe that we lower our special education costs by increasing our services and early intervention to our students, so that they do not experience failure that leads to qualifying for special education.”
The agreement still needs to be approved as a school board, according to Davis Milevsky. It’s already been signed by the SCTA, the superintendent, and they’ll discuss more about it in an emergency board meeting on Thursday.
The Sacramento Unified School District declined to comment, but confirmed an agreement was reached, and will be discussed at this week’s meeting.
“I think what’s important is that the school board and the superintendent and the educators here in Sac City are reunited to make sure that our students maintain the services that we’ve gained for them,” Davis Milevsky said. “There’s outside forces that would like to see our district fail, and we are determined to ensure that our district is a success.”
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