A “Skim Scam” in Twin Rivers and Natomas unified school districts, with rubber-stamp classroom-spending waiver approvals by the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), has diverted nearly $118 million from classrooms over the past six years.

Data recently obtained by our union revealed the scam. In early January, CTA President David Goldberg sent a letter to State Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and State Controller Malia Cohen demanding a fiscal audit and investigation of SCOE.

In Twin Rivers alone, nearly $116 million has been diverted from classrooms by SCOE’s systemic approvals of unjustified classroom spending waivers.

“Skim scams like this hurt students and keep classrooms from being fully resourced. For the district administration to repeatedly request spending waivers without meeting the 55% threshold is a violation of California’s educational code.”

—TRUE President Brittoni Ward

California Education Code Section 41372 mandates that unified school districts dedicate at least 55% of their budget to classroom instruction — a law designed to ensure districts put students first. Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) failed to meet this spending requirement for six consecutive years, diverting a total of $115,931,201 away from classroom instruction between the 2019–20 and 2024–25 school years. Natomas Unified School District also engaged in a similar waiver skim scam for school years 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25, totaling more than $1.5 million in diverted funds.

“Skim scams like this hurt students and keep classrooms from being fully resourced, which has prolonged impacts,” said Brittoni Ward, Twin Rivers United Educators (TRUE) president. “For the district’s administration to repeatedly request spending waivers without meeting the 55% threshold is a violation of California’s educational code. And for SCOE to approve the districts’ often unsubstantiated claims is not only negligent, it’s dangerous.”

To qualify for a waiver, TRUSD claimed their teacher salaries exceeded those of comparable districts. However, to validate this claim, they are legally required to provide specific comparison data on salaries and benefits. A review of applications from 2019–20 through 2024–25 shows that SCOE approved them despite TRUSD consistently failing to provide the mandatory proof outlined below:

• 2020–21: Failed to provide any comparability data.
• 2019–20 & 2023–24: Failed to provide health and welfare contribution data. Additionally, salaries did not exceed benchmarks at the beginning, average or maximum levels.
• 2022–23 & 2024–25: Failed to provide health and welfare contribution data.

“This failure to fund classrooms is a calculated administrative strategy rather than a budgetary necessity,” said Goldberg in his letter. “This is not a matter of fiscal hardship. Twin Rivers students have been bearing the weight of a six-year long funding siphon that SCOE consistently enabled,”

“Over the last six years, SCOE has allowed millions to be skimmed from Sacramento County classrooms. These violations disregard the law, and signals to every district in California that classroom funding statutes can be ignored with impunity.”

—CTA President David Goldberg

A recent email from a top TRUSD administrator indicates that TRUSD has no intention of trying to meet the 55% required expenditure.

The administrator explicitly states, “The 51% is the new norm % for TRUSD due to the large amount of S/C [Supplemental/Concentration] funds that we receive and low % is used towards instructional teachers and aides.”

This admission — that violating the Education Code is the “new norm” — apparently raised no concerns among SCOE staff, confirming that Superintendent Dave Gordon rubber stamped the malfeasance.

The lack of oversight extends beyond TRUSD. For example, the Natomas Unified School District applied for a waiver in 2023–24 based on a “serious hardship to the district,” but without any supporting documentation beyond the following paragraph:

“NUSD usually meets this criterion; however, due to spending the remaining of the pandemic related grant funds [emphasis added], the ratio of teacher salary and benefits to the total expenditures decreased to 54.38%.”

Natomas Unified offered no proof that having to spend pandemic-related grant funds and meeting the statutory minimum would cause the district “serious hardship.” Superintendent Gordon’s staff approved the waiver, depriving Natomas students of $1,065,721 worth of classroom services during that school year.

In 2022–23 NUSD diverted $453,680 from classroom instruction funds. (In 2024–25 the district applied for a waiver but ended up not needing it.)

“Over the last six years, SCOE has allowed millions to be skimmed from Sacramento County classrooms,” said Goldberg. “These violations disregard the law, and signals to every district in California that classroom funding statutes can be ignored with impunity. This systemic negligence must be investigated to stop future violations. Sacramento students and families deserve no less.”

Both TRUE and Natomas Teachers Association (NTA) are fighting back against the skim scams. As We Can’t Wait locals, both are in contract negotiations with their districts and gearing up for possible strikes if their demands for students, schools and educators are not met. Visit We Can’t Wait for more.