The Sacramento City Unified School District remains committed to keeping our families informed about the progress of recovering student instructional time lost due to the recent strike.

The district is determined to reach an agreement that provides students with the quality learning time they deserve while minimizing disruption to family schedules. Additionally, any agreement must consider the financial impact to our budget.

In our most recent proposal to SCTA to recover lost instructional time for students, the district proposed that teachers and staff provide instruction and services for the extra minutes and additional days that would be added to the school and work year calendar. To ensure that our students receive high quality instruction from their teacher during this additional learning time, the district proposed prior approval for any absences due to personal necessity. This would ensure that the district is able to predict staff absences and not rely on substitute teachers, which may leave our students without instruction and services and would result in additional hiring costs.

The district’s proposal allows for staff to recoup their pay by providing instruction for extended minimum days including June 16 and the extra instructional days on June 17 and 20-24. Just as our students receive grades and credits once they have completed assignments and coursework, teachers and staff would be paid for providing instruction and services once they have provided them. Our proposal to compensate teachers for instruction and services once they have provided them is designed to provide students with equitable access to instruction in safe, well-staffed, learning environments. To be clear, this is not intended in any way to be punitive of staff who participated in the strike, but rather to ensure that our students recover the lost instruction and other supports they deserve.

Further and as the Sacramento County Office of Education noted in its letter to the Board of Education last week, the district faces approximately $47 million in penalties for failing to provide students with the minimum instructional time required by the California Department of Education. Recovering this lost learning time not only benefits our students, but also reduces the significant impact those penalties will have on the district’s short and long-term fiscal health.

We know Sac City Unified families are trying to make summer plans for child care, vacations, and other activities. Rest assured, while SCTA has not agreed to our proposal, we are working to resolve this matter as quickly as possible and will notify you of additional updates no later than Friday, April 29, 2022.