Sacramento City Unified Asks Principals to Trim School Budgets by 10 Percent: Plans Due Wednesday, Cuts Limited to Supplies and Contracts as the District Works to Close a $174.5 Million Gap
Sacramento, California, in Sacramento County — Sacramento City Unified School District has asked its principals to trim their schools' budgets by 10 percent this school year, according to The Sacramento Bee, in a development summarized by the education news outlet EdSource on October 20. Principals have until Wednesday to submit plans to reduce spending on items such as supplies and outside contracts; the reductions cannot come from salaries.
Chief Business Officer Gerardo Castillo said the district set a $2 million target for cuts to what it called school-site non-personnel spending, with possible reductions to supplies and contracts paid from schools' unrestricted budgets. The district is also beginning a student attendance campaign to increase average daily attendance funding, with a goal of increasing revenue by $2.5 million.
The district is trying to close a $174.5 million funding gap, and district leaders announced on Thursday that they had reduced the gap by $49.8 million so far. If the district cannot come up with the money it needs to pay its bills, it will have to request help from the state Legislature by early January, Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, told EdSource in August; if the district took an emergency state loan, its school board members would be stripped of decision-making authority and become advisers to a state- or county-appointed administrator.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 萨克拉门托市景实景。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，开放授权。 / File photo: the Sacramento, California skyline. Image via Wikimedia Commons, open license.
