In a meeting closed to the public, the Sacramento City Unified School District decided to lay off hundreds of workers amidst its budget deficit.
Around 400 positions will be cut, including teachers, paraprofessionals, and counselors. Three members of the board were not present during the 3-1 vote.
Some positions, such as social workers, nurses, counselors and school psychologists, were unaffected, but could be considered again by the full board at a future meeting.
Alexander Goldberg, communication director for Sac Unified, said many of the classroom positions listed for removal are already vacant and most of the classroom positions that are filled are on the layoff list as part of their normal budget development process.
“In other words, fiscal solvency plan, or not, they would be on a layoff list largely because of enrollment projections at various schools,” Goldberg said. “This is a process that every district goes through. I just want to make this very clear because throughout the fiscal solvency process we have communicated to families that our intention is to keep cuts away from the classroom.”
Goldberg added this is the preliminary layoff notice and not everyone who receives a notice at this point will be laid off when they finalize the list in May.
The Sacramento Teacher’s Association President Nikki Milevsky said important information the board received on Feb 12’s meeting was how many new positions opened during the budget development process and how many retirements and resignations the district already has for next year.
Milevsky said all the information has to be added together and analyzed before layoff notices are issued.
“For example, if they are closing 21 elementary teacher positions but adding 5 new ones at a different school, then 25 elementary teachers have already put in retirement/resignation notices, no one in that category will receive a layoff notice,” she said. “ Instead, the district will need to be hiring more.”
This comes as the district faces an estimated $113 million deficit by the end of the school year. The district said around 120 positions are currently vacated and other positions will be cut due to expected enrollment projections.
Trustee Chinua Rhodes was at the Feb 12 meeting and voted in favor of the layoffs. He said this board approval was the first step in the state‑mandated process, not the final step for layoffs.
“We have a huge opportunity to right‑size the district, reel in some of the spending in departments that have been spent inappropriately, or grow a cadence to doing things a certain way,” Rhodes said. “As trustees, we have an opportunity right now to fix that for the betterment of our constituents and our school community.”
During the February 5th board meeting, the district announced they are predicted to stay solvent for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year and avoid state receivership. Rhodes said he is happy about this prediction but said they need to continue to be disciplined.
Rhodes said next year they will still be following and creating new plans to ensure they continue being solvent and that will be accomplished through consecutive conversations in public sessions and with community members.
“My main goal through the budgeting process is to lean on our fiscal responsibility as trustees, ensure the long‑term fiscal stability of the district, while acting to preserve the work and the opportunities for our young people.”