SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Many parents and grandparents are not happy with the Sacramento City Unified School District's earlier start to the new school year.
The district said this will allow them to avoid almost $40 million in penalties for time lost during the teacher strike last year.
"I've known that it could be a possibility, probably for about four or five months now," said Tamara Geary, a mother of a student at Genevieve Didion K-8 School.
The idea that students in the Sacramento City Unified School District could start next year early has been looming for quite some time. It was finalized Wednesday night after an agreement between the district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association.
"In order to relieve that penalty and get that money back to spend on our students, we have to fulfill the state's requirements which is double the minutes, double the days over two years consecutively," said Nikki Milevsky, president of Sacramento City Teachers Association.
That penalty is about $40 million.
However, some parents and grandparents of students said the early start date of Aug. 19 makes it difficult for children and their families.
"The summer vacation that they should have, and then I also feel bad for the teachers and the staff cause they usually come in a week before that. So now they're coming in almost the first week, almost second week of August. And I have a lot of friends who had already made plans," said Geary.
Dennis Kubo said his family had already purchased plane tickets to take all his grandkids to Chicago in August.
"We found out that the school district was going to change the start date for the school year on Aug. 19. So that kind of put a damper into our plans. We may not go, at least the grandkids won't go," said Kubo.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association said they understand why parents are concerned.
But $40 million was a lot to lose when it can benefit students.
"We're gonna use those additional minutes to the best of our abilities to serve our students. And we're gonna use that money to add additional supports for them. Interventions, lower class sizes, having more supports in our special ed programs, as well as having more mental health supports and academic," said Milevsky.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association said families can reach out to them or the district if they have concerns.
They plan to work on issues on a case-by-case basis.
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