Sacramento (December 18, 2018):
In a letter to Sacramento City Unified School District Jorge Aguilar, President David Fisher of the Sacramento City Teachers Association confirmed that the District and Association will meet on January 9th to discuss SCTA's Students First Rebalancing Budget Proposal to fix the Sac City Budget Fiasco.
The District and Association will meet on January 9th.
The SCTA Students First Budget accomplishes the following:
1.
Curbs bureaucratic bloat:
Since 2013-14, the number of administrators in the District has increased from 166 to 267 currently, an increase of 101 full-time equivalents or 61%. We are proposing the number of administrators be reduced to 190, the number the District employed in 2015 when enrollment was higher than it is today.
2.
Provides reasonable compensation to District administrators:
We are proposing that no district administrator be paid higher than the governor of California.
3.
Terminates Administrative Vacation Payouts
: According CBO John Quinto, the District paid out $6 million in vacation payouts to top administrators with at least two administrators receiving buyouts that exceed $135,000 in addition to their annual salaries. We are proposing that these buyouts be suspended.
4.
Redirects Health Plan Dollars:
In November/December 2017, the District and SCTA reached an enforceable, signed agreement (Article 13.1.1 and the “Framework Agreement”) in which the parties agreed to work together to achieve health plan savings that would be redirected to the classroom by reducing class sizes and other improvements to staffing levels of the professional support staff.
5.
Further Health Plan Savings:
SCTA has also identified $12.5 million that the District currently over-budgets for health care premiums for retirees that could immediately be redirected to the classroom.
6.
Other Savings:
SCTA has further identified millions of dollars that could be saved on outside attorneys, third-party service contracts and other items that could be used to fix the District’s budget fiasco.
The Association has also asked the District to post the SCTA Student First Rebalancing Proposal on the District web site and email it out in the District's next budget update and to encourage parents, staff, students and the community to offer thoughts on the proposal.
"After more than 4 months of trying to get the District to discuss our ideas, we are encouraged that the District is finally willing to meet to discuss our Students First Rebalancing Budget on January 9th," said David Fisher, SCTA president. "We need to start by curbing the bureaucratic bloat and then redirecting health plan savings back to the classroom, like we agreed to do when we settled our contract over one year ago. We hope the Superintendent joins these discussions directly."