By admin 
Sacramento City Unified’s budget tells two very different stories about what happens next. By the numbers in the budget the district adopted in June, the district is headed toward a $228.9 million deficit by the end of 2026-27 school year. By the numbers in the revised plan approved last week, it could end the year with a $162,000 surplus.
Read more Liberal Democrats gutted California’s CARE court, so homeless addicts just say ‘no’ | Opinion
Two days before the district approved its revised budget, the Sacramento County Office of Education disapproved the June-adopted budget, saying it did not provide adequate assurance that the district could meet its current and future obligations. The district now says it disagrees with SCOE’s assessment, while its revised plan awaits county office review.
“We respectfully disagree with SCOE’s assertion that our 2026-27 budget fails to show how the district will meet our current and future obligations,” wrote Brian Heap, a spokesperson for the district, in a statement Monday.
“Nonetheless, at our last meeting, the SCUSD Board of Education unanimously approved a revised budget, which projects the district’s budget will be balanced, while maintaining positive cash flow through June 30.”
Jacqueline White, the new superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education, wrote that the district’s June-adopted budget and accompanying multi-year projections showed its ending fund balance would grow to negative $646.1 million by 2028-29 and that it would not meet the state’s 2% reserve requirement.
White acknowledged the additional solutions the district had since brought forward, but said several appeared to be “outside its control,” as she raised concerns about assumptions in the district’s revised budget package including its new multi-year projections.
“The Government Finance Officers Association recommends that revenue estimates for a government’s ongoing operating budget should not include onetime revenue sources,” White said in a letter to the district’s superintendent Cancy McArn, reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.
In her Sept. 15 letter, White urged the district to revise and resubmit its budget and projections without relying on solutions it cannot control, adding SCOE would make a final determination by Nov. 8.
Read more It’s the first day of fall in California. See how quickly we’ll lose daylight
The letter came as the district’s recently approved multi-year projections raised questions from financial experts, including analysts with the Legislative Analyst’s Office and the state-funded Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, as well as the district’s own chief business officer, who acknowledged that the projections carried risks.
Sac City Unified and SCOE are navigating three disputes: an earlier teachers’ union agreement that the district wants SCOE to reinstate, a new union agreement temporarily suspended by the SCOE-appointed fiscal adviser, and a budget that SCOE has asked the district to revise to remove solutions the district cannot control before issuing a final decision by Nov. 8.
On Thursday, district board members criticized the fiscal adviser Luz Cázares’ decision to suspend the new agreement with teachers, which she said failed to meet state requirements for fiscal reviews and public disclosures. Board member Taylor Kayatta called the county office’s oversight ineffective.
“The concepts and assumptions that led to tonight’s numbers were developed in coordination with our fiscal advisors, not given to them at the last minute,” Kayatta said during the meeting.
“To say otherwise is dishonest, and it represents the ineffective oversight we recently raised with the state superintendent of public instruction.”
This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 6:30 AM with the headline “County education office urges Sacramento City Unified to revise budget again.”
Read more Grand jury report into death of Nolan Wells released. Here are the details