Sacramento City Unified School District moves up start date for upcoming year

(FOX40.COM) — Students in the Sacramento City Unified School District will start school earlier than usual.

District officials announced Wednesday first day of classes are moved up to Aug. 19.

The announcement comes after the State Board of Education approved the district’s request for a waiver to avoid fees after instruction time was lost during the 2021-22 school year due a teachers’ strike.

The district also added eight extra days of instruction for each of the next two school years as part of a “learning recovery plan” agreed upon with the Sacramento City Teachers Association.

The 16 extra days of school are aimed to avoid paying $47 million in penalties in relation to the 2021-22 teachers’ strike, which lasted eight days.

School officials said the learning recovery plan “enable the district to reinvest approximately $39 million in funding to support teaching and learning.”

The district and teachers’ union agreed to the recovery plan in March and the additional school days needed to get approval from the state.

The eight-day strike resulted in lost instruction time, which the state requires districts to make up during a certain amount of time.