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The Sacramento City Unified School District logo at the Serna Center in Sacramento on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS<\/p>\n
jvillegas@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
A proposed amendment to increase Sacramento City Unified School District trustees\u2019 monthly compensation from $827 to $3,000 will be withdrawn from a policy update and will not advance to a second reading, Trustee Taylor Kayatta said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The development came days after the district posted the agenda for its Thursday meeting, which included the compensation change as part of the first reading of a sweeping update to the district\u2019s board policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the wrong call in bringing this forward at this time and heard the community feedback loud and clear,\u201d Kayatta wrote in a text.<\/p>\n
In 2025, California lawmakers raised the caps on school board member compensation for the first time since 1984. The law took effect this year<\/a>, allowing trustees in districts the size of Sacramento City Unified to receive as much as $3,000 per month.<\/p>\n The proposed policy would have increased SCUSF board members\u2019 $826.87 per month stipends if the district received a positive or qualified budget certification, or if it entered state receivership.<\/p>\n At least twice each fiscal year, school boards review updated financial projections and classify their districts\u2019 fiscal health as positive, qualified or negative, after which county superintendents review each certification and may downgrade it. A positive certification indicates that the district\u2019s budget health expects to meet its financial obligations for three years, while a qualified certification signals that it may not.<\/p>\n The draft resolution also listed going into state loan as one event that would trigger the higher stipend. Under state law, however, once a district enters receivership and its governing board becomes an advisory body, board members cannot receive stipends, benefits or other compensation from the district.<\/p>\n Kayatta noted that trustees\u2019 stipends would be eliminated if the district took a state loan.<\/p>\n \u201cI included that provision simply to avoid legal uncertainty around what it means if there is a bylaw in effect that is suspended by a resolution from a board that would no longer have the power to amend it in the event of receivership,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Kayatta, a policy committee member who drafted the resolution on the committee\u2019s behalf, said he will announce during Thursday\u2019s presentation that the proposed compensation change and an accompanying resolution will be removed from the policy update.<\/p>\n Although the proposal will remain on Thursday\u2019s agenda because of the 72-hour posting requirement, Kayatta said it will effectively be withdrawn during the meeting with authorization from Board President Tara Jeane.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post Tuesday,<\/a> Kayatta said the compensation proposal should not have been included in a broader policy update and should instead have been brought forward as a standalone item.<\/p>\n Asked whether the board could consider the proposal later as a standalone item, Kayatta said he can\u2019t speak for the full board but had no intention of bringing it back until the district\u2019s budget is stabilized.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the long term health of our district, I think that board compensation should eventually be increased,\u201d Kayatta wrote in the Facebook post.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the author of the bill that amended the state law stated, compensation has not kept up with inflation and does not reflect the current level of board responsibility,\u201d he continued, adding that low pay could discourage lower-income people from seeking a board seat.<\/p>\n First reported by the news site Abridged by PBS KVIE<\/a>, the proposal drew criticism from community members following the district\u2019s efforts to address its structural deficit of $222 million and avoid state receivership<\/a>. The Sacramento County Office of Education has said the district must identify $150 million in cash solutions by June 2027 to avoid running out of money and potentially entering state receivership.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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