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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Another View: City schools chief ignores consultants - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Another View: City schools chief ignores consultants - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee:

Another View: City schools chief ignores consultants

Published: Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 14A

Scott Smith, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, is responding to the Dec. 2 Viewpoints article, "Our struggling schools need a long-term fix," which stated: "If the aptly named 'trigger cuts' are enacted, we face cutting at least $12 million from our budget mid-year."

Like Jonathan Raymond, superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, the members of the Sacramento City Teachers Association support efforts to rescue the dire financial condition of our schools. Statewide polls consistently show that a majority of Californians favor some form of revenue-raising, provided it goes directly to schools and social services.

However, they would not approve of the money being spent on consultants as our superintendent seems to favor.

Concerned Sacramentans should be outraged to learn that SCUSD has, after spending nearly



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/10/4112865/city-schools-chief-ignores-consultants.html#ixzz1g945JPOo

Sac High-West Campus Swap Tabled by SCUSD Board

by Othello H. Curry, 3rd, published on December 9, 2011 at 11:27 PM


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SCUSD Board Members During Discussion on School Closures and Consolidation

The Sacramento City Unified School District Board ended the controversy surrounding a plan to swap two central city campuses by tabling the proposal indefinitely at its meeting Thursday night at the Serna Center.

The standing room only crowd broke out in enthusiastic applause when SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan Raymond made it clear what the Board intended to do.

Strong feelings on all sides of the issue had been building after the proposals that contemplated the campus swap along with school closures and consolidations were first tendered.

“Design teams” were appointed by the principals of each school that were composed of staff, parents, students and neighbors. The groups recently began meeting to discuss the pros and cons of possible changes.

If they had been adopted, the plans would have affected a number of