Schools lose arts money, suspicious mail to lawmakers: Sacramento’s top stories

From a school district forfeiting arts funding to safety rankings for Halloween trick-or-treaters and a wave of threatening mail targeting California lawmakers, here’s a quick look at what readers need to know.

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• Sacramento City Unified School District must return $1.8 million in unspent Proposition 28 arts and music funding to the state after spending only $4.5 million of its $6.3 million allocation over three years — more than any other California district left on the table. The California Department of Education clarified that a waiver the district received only applies to the 80% staffing rule and does not extend the three-year spending deadline, meaning unexpended funds revert to the state. Spokesperson Alexander Goldberg said the district has added 32.4 full-time-equivalent arts positions through the funding and has not laid off any arts or music teachers, citing challenges finding qualified arts educators and building sustainable positions.

• Elk Grove ranked as Northern California’s safest city for Halloween trick-or-treating, coming in at No. 12 on a national SafeHome.org list of 152 cities, with Roseville close behind at No. 21. Sacramento landed at No. 120 on the Halloween safety ranking, while Stockton (No. 128) and Oakland (No. 149) finished near the bottom of the list that weighed crime rates, pedestrian fatalities and law enforcement staffing.

• Reps. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno, reported Tuesday that their offices received letters containing an unknown powdery substance, joining Rep. Kevin Kiley, Rep. Ami Bera and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla among California lawmakers targeted. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating a series of suspicious mailings sent to secretary of state offices, election offices and congressional offices, with preliminary information suggesting more than 100 letters circulating in the U.S. mail system.