Thursday School Board Meeting Could Result in Layoffs, Elimination of Sports

Thursday's meeting of the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education won't be for the faint of heart.

Trustees will be searching for nearly $8 million in potential cuts . The harsh plans will become reality if voters don't extend a 2009 tax increase in a special election this summer.

Because the district is required to plan its budget before that election, it must prepare a best-case scenario budget to balance a $9 million deficit and a worst-case scenario budget to tackle a $22 million shortfall.

At Thursday's meeting, trustees will look to eliminate "financial support for sports, drama, yearbook, newspaper, marching band, cheerleading and speech and debate," the district said in a press release. "The proposal is to eliminate 'extra pay for extra duty stipends,' uniform replacements funds, athletic trainer funds and co-curricular transportation funds for a savings of $1.261 million."

The board has already said the worst-case scenario budget would require increased class sizes and the elimination of most buses.

Trustee Donald Terry, who represents Rosemont, emphasized the district has already made all of the obvious cuts.

"All the kind of, 'easy fixes' are gone now," Terry said last week in a phone interview. "We’re talking about decimating programs that, in my opinion, save kids' lives."

Superintendent Jonathan Raymond echoed that sentiment in the press release.

"We need the public to understand that years of the state balancing its budget on the backs of kids has eliminated all the easy solutions to public education under-funding," Raymond was quoted as saying. "As a colleague of mine recently said, not only is all the ‘low-hanging fruit’ gone, the tree is gone."

The board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Serna Center, 5735 47th Ave.