Dear SCUSD Families,

We recognize the uncertainty surrounding the potential extension of the school calendar has caused confusion and frustration for Sac City families. We are writing to inform you that the school year will end as scheduled on June 16, 2022 with no additional instructional days added to the 2021-2022 school year calendar. The 2022-23 school year will start as scheduled on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

We had hoped to be able to provide additional instructional time for students this school year to recover the learning time lost due to the recent strike.  Unfortunately, we were not able to reach a student-centered agreement with the Sacramento City Teachers’ Association (SCTA) to extend this school year without the necessary assurances to appropriately staff our schools, especially given the varying needs of our diverse student population.

The District’s focus from the start of this process has been on making up learning time for our students who lost 8-days of instruction during the strike. After two years in which students missed significant classroom time due to COVID, we owe them more learning time, not less. That is why the District is building a plan to add sixteen (16) days of instruction over a two-year period.

The District now has more time to work collaboratively with all of our labor partners on a student-centered approach to recover quality, meaningful instruction.

INVESTMENT IN STUDENTS THROUGH FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Our effort will continue to focus on fiscal responsibility and investment in students by recovering most of a state penalty for not providing the required minimum instructional time in the 2021-2022 academic year.  By adding days and minutes of instruction to future academic calendars, Sac City Unified will seek a waiver from the State Board of Education to reduce the financial penalty per California Ed Code 46206. Although there are added costs associated with this plan, including operations and staff salaries, the District believes those expenses are more than justified by the additional learning opportunity for our students.

HOW STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION WAIVER WORKS

When appropriate, the District intends to submit an application for a penalty waiver to the State Board of Education. The process requires that over a two year period we make-up twice the number of instructional days and minutes lost in the 2021-22 school year. As with any change to the school calendar that impacts the work year, we will be discussing the changes with our labor partners. Rest assured that we will give families advance notice of how future academic calendars would be adjusted for family planning purposes.

The District will keep you informed as this process develops. This student-centered approach offers a tremendous learning benefit for students and will give families more time to plan for these calendar changes.