Sac City Teachers Reiterate Offer to Meet with District Around-the-Clock to Address Staffing Crisis

Sacramento, September 23, 2019–Earlier today, the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) reiterated its proposal to Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and School Board President Jessie Ryan to meet immediately to address the staffing crisis in SCUSD.

Four weeks into the new school year, the District still has more than 100 certificated vacancies, resulting in thousands of students being taught by temporary substitutes

The offer, which was made today in a letter from SCTA to Aguilar and Ryan which you can view here, reiterates an offer first made on August 7th.

SCUSD is the only school district in California that implemented massive layoffs of certificated staff in the midst of a national teacher shortage.

When the layoffs were announced in the spring, SCTA warned that they were unnecessary and would result in a staffing crisis when many of those laid-off teachers took jobs in other districts.

The District justified its layoffs in response to a threat of fiscal insolvency that quickly dissipated when the District discovered it had failed to include at least 730 students in its budget. After projecting a budget deficit of $35 million in 2018-19, recent financial documents released by the District show SCUSD broke even in 2018-19.

More recently, the District’s actual enrollment figures for the 2019-20 are 276 students higher than projections, an additional contributing factor to the staffing crisis.

“Every Sac City student deserves to have a fully-credentialed teacher who reflects the diversity of our District,” said David Fisher, SCTA President and parent of two students in the District. “For the sake of our childen, we call on Superintendent Aguilar and Board President Ryan to work with us to address this immediate crisis.”