Faced with intense opposition from teachers, Sacramento City Unified announced Wednesday it would not join other California districts in reapplying for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Nikki Milevsky, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, left, and school board president Patrick Kennedy announce the district’s intent not to pursue a No Child Left Behind waiver. Credit: Sacramento City Teachers Association
Its defection leaves seven of eight districts seeking to extend a waiver from the federal accountability law through the California Office to Reform Education, a nonprofit that they formed. The waiver they got last year was the first for school districts, as opposed to a state department of education. The CORE districts applied because California was one of only four states that either didn’t seek a waiver or had its request rejected.
Rick Miller, executive director of CORE, said Wednesday he expects the other CORE districts to seek and receive a one-year extension of the waiver. They include three of the four largest unified districts in the state: Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fresno, plus San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, Santa Ana Unified and Sanger Unified.
From the start, former Sacramento City Superintendent Jonathan Raymond’s pursuit of the waiver alienated the district’s teachers union, which accused him of acting on his own instead of collaborating. The anger hasn’t abated since Raymond left in December.
“What started as a backlash against Jonathan Raymond took on a life of its own,” said school board President Patrick Kennedy. “We just came to the point of total paralysis,” where a stalemate over terms of the waiver were interfering with other negotiations and work in the district, he said.
“I would love to have continued with the waiver,” said interim Superintendent Sara Noguchi. “But we