Just hours after the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education approved a financial recovery plan aimed at avoiding insolvency and state receivership, the Sacramento County Office of Education on Friday rejected a key component of the proposal.
Luz Cázares, the fiscal adviser appointed by county schools’ Superintendent David Gordon, rescinded the board’s action approving an agreement between the district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
The agreement, part of the district’s broader fiscal sustainability plan, was expected to save approximately $48.7 million.
The Office of Education, with support from Gordon and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, said it rejected the agreement for three reasons.
County officials said the agreement would redirect assets from one account to another, draw money from a trust fund in a way they believe would increase long-term costs and limit the district’s flexibility to make additional labor-related savings in the future.
Xanthi Soriano, SCOE’s executive director of communications, said the agreement would only delay SCUSD’s projected insolvency by a few weeks while making it more difficult for the district to achieve a sustainable long-term fiscal recovery.