Sac City Opens Schools Without Enough Teachers

Volume 40, No. 1| August 30, 2019

The Staffing Crisis School Board Member Transparency and Accountability Scorecard

Sac City has a staffing crisis. Our conservative estimate is that at least 100 certificated position are unfilled, meaning that between 3,000 to 4,000 Sac City students are without a credentialed educator--or nearly 10% of the entire student population. As of today (August 30), Human Resources has been unable to provide the list of current vacancies, or the number of unstaffed classroom positions. At CK McClatchy, for example, it was reported that classes began with 19 substitute teachers, nearly 20% of the staff. Many vacancies remain unposted. At Rosa Parks, the numbers reported were 10 of the 40 staff were substitutes, with several vacancies that were known for months only being posted Wednesday night. Sadly, last March and April, the Sac City school board voted unanimously to lay off more than 400 educators, including the elimination of 175 certificated positions. Predictably, many of those teachers are no longer available after taking jobs at other districts after being laid off. Additionally, the District only posted the new, vastly improved salary schedules on August 13--three months after the arbitrator's decision--missing another opportunity to attract staff to take positions with the District. Recently disclosed communications between FCMAT and Superintendent Aguilar and Board President Ryan from March, and additional communication between SCOE Superintendent Dave Gordon and Mr. Aguilar--as reported in the Sacramento Bee--indicate that the decision to layoff was based on faulty numbers and a huge enrollment error that was not disclosed to board members before those layoff decisions were finalized. Chief Human Resource Officer Cancy McArn confirmed to us that she was not informed about the letter from Dave Gordon and Mr. Aguilar's confirmation of the mistake before the school board made the decision to lay off. She testified under oath at the layoff hearings in late April 2019, based on the inaccurate numbers. To understand how something like this occurred and to try to prevent it from happening in the future, we asked each board member the following questions: 1) Can you please confirm unambiguously that you did not receive the March 7, 2019 exchange of emails between Mike Fine of FCMAT and Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and Board President Jessie Ryan prior to the District providing them to SCTA via a CPRA request on or about July 15, 2019? If you did receive them prior to that date, can you please provide the approximate date they were provided to you and the manner in which you received them? 2) Can you also confirm unambiguously that you did not receive copies of Dave Gordon’s March 19, 2019 letter to Mr. Aguilar regarding questions of enrollment and Mr. Aguilar’s April 1, 2019 email response to Mr. Gordon prior to the release of the Third Interim Budget on or about May 16, 2019? If you did receive them prior to that date, can you please provide the approximate date they were provided to you and the manner in which you received them? Here are the responses:

To view the original letter to Lisa Murawski, the chairperson of the Sac City School Board's Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Committee, click here. To view, Ms. Murawski's response and our follow-up, click here. To view, the letter from Superintendent Aguilar written on Ms. Murawski's behalf, click here. It is notable that Mr. Minnick, Ms. Murawski and Mr. Aguilar directly avoid answer the questions. According to Mr. Aguilar: he "strives" to keep board members informed but won't give a straight answer to these questions. We're interested in your thoughts on this.

Should board members confirm whether they received this vital information? Yes Select No Select