Sacramento City Unified to start next 2 school years early. Here's when school will start
SACRAMENTO -- The first day of the next two school years for Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) will begin eight instructional days earlier to make up for instructional time lost during last year's teacher strikes.
Back in March, the school district voted to move forward with a waiver request to add 16 school days to avoid paying a $47 million fine from the 2022 strike.
The strikes over wages and budget cuts caused schools to shut down for eight days and those days were never made up.
The California Board of Education approved the district's request to waive the penalty for not having the minimum number of instructional days and minutes on Wednesday.
This means the 2024-2025 school year will begin on Aug. 19. The 2025-2026 school year will also begin eight school days earlier, but an exact date has not been announced.
"At Sac City Unified we believe that every day counts, and this plan to add eight extra days of school demonstrates our commitment to that belief," said Superintendent Lisa Allen in a statement.
SCUSD and the Sacramento City Teachers Association collaborated to create a recovery plan. Part of the plan allows the district to reinvest about $39 million in funding to support teaching and learning, which could have been used to pay back the state.
