Trustee Taylor Kayatta

09/12/2026

You could feel the power of community at Keaton's Child Cancer Alliance's Inaugural Childhood Cancer 5K Walk this morning. The "Hope Lives in 95831" team showed up in force on behalf of our local families and walked with many more from around the region to show our unity, hope, and support for families affected by childhood cancer.

09/03/2026

Update regarding GATE. As promised last week when I last posted about this, I have worked with District staff to determine what is changing about GATE in our district and what isn't, and to understand the reasons for any changes - which had not been previously shared with the Board or widely with our community.

This afternoon, the District sent a message to families at our three cohort schools (Phoebe Hearst, Pony Express, and Suy:u Elementary Schools), where GATE identified students are grouped in a self-contained GATE services classroom classes and the cohort of students remains together from grades 2-6. I am sharing this information more widely as much of it is relevant to families not in cohort classes. As noted in the message below, GATE services are continuing in Sac City. We will also be hosting an information session later this fall to share additional information.

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Dear Families,

We are reaching out to share clear, updated information regarding Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) services in Sacramento City Unified School District. We know there has been recent confusion and misinformation shared within school communities regarding the future of our GATE services. We want to clarify directly: GATE services are continuing in SCUSD, and we are committed to transparent, ongoing partnership with our cohort school communities.

Because your child attends a campus with a historic GATE Cohort structure, we want to outline how early-grade screening is evolving, how we are supporting your school, and how you can join us for an upcoming community dialogue.

> Transition to Universal 3rd-Grade Identification

Effective this school year, SCUSD has transitioned formal GATE screening exclusively to 3rd grade via universal CogAT testing. Moving away from 1st-grade testing ensures that student identification is grounded in highly reliable diagnostic data rather than early developmental variability. Testing in 3rd grade—rather than 1st grade—provides significantly higher diagnostic accuracy as student reasoning and digital test familiarity stabilize, while giving English learners and students from diverse backgrounds time to build foundational skills before evaluation.

The decision to adjust our GATE identification process for the current year was the result of conversations we had as we reorganized our district offices over the past year, but was deeply informed by multi-year research, state-wide policy and practices, and our core goals of equity—rather than as a solution for our District's budget challenges.

> What This Means for Your School Community

Because your site has historically used 1st-grade screening to form early-grade specialized cohorts and classrooms, your school leadership team will work hand-in-hand with the District’s Curriculum & Instruction Department to design a transition model tailored specifically to your campus.

We want to reassure your community of our commitments:
- High Academic Expectations: The elimination of early testing does not lessen academic rigor. All teachers remain fully committed to delivering high-level, differentiated instruction and enrichment for students who demonstrate advanced academic needs.
- Continuous Classroom Challenge: Tier-1 academic extensions, flexible grouping, and accelerated learning strategies are standard classroom expectations for every teacher at every site.
- Collaborative Community Dialogue: We have always intended to partner closely with our cohort school families during this operational transition. The District will host a dedicated community meeting this fall to share more information on GATE screening, discuss what gifted education can and should look like within California's framework and our district, and gather your perspectives to directly inform future decision-making.

Universal 3rd-grade screening ensures that all students across SCUSD are automatically and equitably evaluated at the optimal developmental window. We value your partnership and look forward to engaging with you this fall to ensure your school continues to offer a rich, challenging environment where every student thrives.

Details regarding the date, time, and location of the fall family engagement session will be shared in the coming weeks.

Best Regards,
SCUSD Curriculum & Instruction Department

09/02/2026

Many of you have seen that board compensation is part of this Thursday’s agenda. A proposed policy update would provide that board compensation be adjusted to the amount allowed by newly amended state law, and a related regulation would defer those increases until the district’s budget situation is stabilized.

When I join in presenting the policy update package of which this policy is a part, I will recommend to my colleagues that the policy related to board compensation be pulled, and that the resolution not move forward.

I want to be fully transparent about how this policy and resolution came about. Over the past several months, the Board’s Policy Subcommittee, of which I am a member, has been working with staff and policy experts from the California School Boards Association to revise a large number of our policies that have become woefully out of date. This matters because the policies are effectively the laws of our district, and if they no longer relate to current law then enforcing them can lead to confusion if not improper action. This review was intended to identify as many policies as possible that could be updated in one large package, allowing the Board to subsequently focus on policies requiring more thorough evaluation. The error here is that the board compensation policy should not have been considered as part of a largescale update, and should have always been its own item brought forward.

The draft policy and resolution missed the mark. This is not the time to talk about increasing board compensation, even if that increase is deferred. I take full ownership of this since I was the one who drafted the resolution as part of the Policy Subcommittee. Additionally, I have heard community feedback loud and clear. You viewed this item as the board looking to increase its compensation at a time when we are making cuts. While that was not my intent, I took the feedback I received to heart. I understand and agree that updating this policy is inappropriate at this time – even with a resolution that sought to push the effects out to a later date.

For the long term health of our district, I think that board compensation should eventually be increased. Board compensation levels have not been updated in state law in 40 years. As the author of the bill that amended the state law stated, compensation has not kept up with inflation and does not reflect the current level of board responsibility. More importantly, lower pay levels can inhibit lower income people supporting their families from running and can encourage experienced and effective board members to move on. I believe that the appropriate compensation rates supported by the California School Boards Association, who sponsored the bill, are good for the long-term health of our district. Many other districts around the state, including several in our region, have come to that conclusion by increasing their own compensation. But that conversation in our district needs to happen at the appropriate time, and now is not that time.

09/01/2026

This evening, Sacramento New Technology High School and Sacramento City College co-hosted a Parent Power Hour to provide information to students and parents about the Early College partnership between the two schools, explore student resources, engage in a Q&A, and connect with the people helping make this opportunity possible for our kids.

The early college program at New Tech is one of the hidden gems in our district. At New Tech, every student is both a high school student and a college student. Hosting a parent information session at City College really brings that point home.

08/29/2026

08/29/2026

Leadership at the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) and the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistant Team (FCMAT) have spent the past few months lobbying state legislators for a legislative maneuver to force Sac City Unified into receivership. By law, receivership is only triggered if a local school board requests it. Because our duly elected board has refused to prematurely accept a state loan, they are now trying to change the rules of the game.

I will say again what I’ve said before: if we need to request a state loan to keep our schools open and staff paid, we will - but only if absolutely necessary. Surrendering control of our district to an unaccountable, appointed administrator for a decade or more would be devastating to our students and community. Public school districts are run by a democratically elected board for a reason: to ensure our community has a voice. The solution to district challenges is holding elected leadership accountable, not abandoning local control to unelected bureaucrats.

The California Education Code includes a deliberate statutory scheme that allows a district to appeal to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction if county oversight is ineffective. SCOE and FCMAT are attempting to eliminate this longstanding appeal process simply because Sac City Unified finally sought to use it. Calling this established law a "loophole," as they have framed it to the Legislature, is insulting; it is in fact a vital democratic check designed to ensure collaboration between county superintendents and the school districts they oversee.

Over the past few days, without any public input or standard legislative dialogue, SCOE and FCMAT have been pushing to sneak a change into the Education Code in the final hours of the legislative session. They are proposing to deliberately undermine a duly elected local school board and the duly elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction simply because we do not agree with them.

The law they want to dismantle supports our democratic system of government in California. They want to replace the elected State Superintendent's oversight role with that of an unelected bureaucrat. They want state law to reflect their view of education oversight, which is to listen to their own hand-picked unelected "experts" who will pursue their own goals regardless of the impact on our students and communities. Such bureaucrats would be fine with strikes that keep our kids out of the classroom, school closures that indiscriminately affect our communities of color, and more – as long as the budget improves. I don’t use this phrase loosely, but it is entirely applicable here: SCOE and FCMAT want the Deep State to be the final arbiter of public school decisions in California. They claim to support our democratic systems as long as we do exactly what they demand, but the moment we exercise our democratic authority, they want the power to overrule us. Undermining a duly elected board just because you don't get your way isn't oversight; it is fundamentally undemocratic.

I am not opposed to a transparent, democratic review of how counties oversee school districts or how the State oversees county offices of education. In fact, I would start with looking at the level of control counties already have over school districts, which in my experience is balanced against the interests of our students and in favor of the political whims of county superintendents. However, this must happen through the proper, open legislative process - not privately at the last minute by two grumpy old men who are set to retire within weeks and are upset that they aren't getting their way.

The Sac City Unified board has an actionable plan to keep our district solvent in the short term while addressing long-term financial challenges. We asked the State Superintendent to intervene as a last resort only after it became clear that SCOE was unwilling to collaborate on budget corrections and was exclusively pushing for a state loan. You can read more about why we did so in our Superintendent’s letter requesting this intervention:

08/28/2026

The Back to School Night at John F. Kennedy High School was great! It was a pleasure to blend in with the crowd and check out what is being offered to our students this year and to take in the feeling of the community. I also made sure to check out Principal Thom's WASC Update.

As many of you know, Kennedy is currently on probationary status with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which is our school accreditation agency. The principal's update did not shy away from the realities of what led to our current status, but it offered a clear path towards coming out of probation in the near future and setting the school up for the greatness its students deserve. The energy on campus, in the content of that update, and around the community tells me that we're ready to take this opportunity to truly restore Kennedy to greatness.

Included in this post are some slides from the WASC Update and an obligatory picture of the student parking lot which shows that our solar project is moving quickly toward completion.

The WASC team will return in March to review our progress and, we hope, conclude that we have met all the terms of our probation.

08/27/2026

08/24/2026

I’ve heard questions from parents and community members regarding the future of Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) in Sac City Unified following recent communications suggesting the program is being eliminated due to budget cuts.

I want to set the record straight clearly and directly: The Board has taken no action and provided no direction to eliminate GATE programming.

Here are the facts on GATE and the District Budget: (1) Our adopted Fiscal Sustainability Plan contains no cuts to GATE programming. (2) In November, 2025, staff proposed reviewing GATE implementation as part of broader fiscal discussions. In response, the Board explicitly directed that GATE is not to be cut as a budget-saving measure. (3) The Board’s direction has consistently been to study how we can strengthen and expand GATE to make it more equitable and accessible for every student who needs it—not to end it.

Educating our gifted and talented students is vital. GATE is specialized, differentiated support for students with unique learning needs, just like Special Education. As a parent of two GATE students—including a Twice Exceptional (2E) student in GATE and with an IEP—and someone who benefited from a similar program growing up, I know firsthand how critical these services are for unlocking a child's full potential.

I have already raised this issue with district leadership to clear up any internal confusion and ensure correct information is shared with our school sites and families.

Our GATE programming remains in place, and I will continue to protect and strengthen it for our students.