Teachers’ union calls for spending plan that prioritizes classrooms and student services

By Post Staff

Seeking to avoid the threat of a state or county takeover of the Oakland Unified School District, the Board of Education has adopted recommendations designed to provide guidelines to the superintendent and administration to resolve an ongoing budget deficit for this year and the next two years.

A resolution on budget guidance was approved at the Oct. 8 board meeting by board members Rachel Latta, Jennifer Brouhard, VanCedric Williams, and Valarie Bachelor. Voting ‘no’ were board members Mike Hutchinson, Patrice Berry, and Clifford Thompson.

After 22 years, OUSD was finally released from state receivership in July. Facing a new deficit, the district is now urgently dealing with the threat of a new state or county takeover.

The board resolution passed at the Oct. 8 board meeting directs Supt. Denise Saddler and her administration to implement a hiring freeze and review openings for new positions. Other possible savings include freezing or canceling consulting contracts, reducing travel expenses, and consolidating other purchases.

Whatever the district decides, none of the possibilities will include school closures or mergers, according to the board resolution.

District staff is expected to come back in November with budget proposals for the 2026-27 school year, including restructuring the central office, reducing administrative positions, and cutting spending on consulting contracts, as well as ways to increase enrollment.

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Speaking at the board meeting, Saddler said, “What I need from all of you is to hear what the parameters are of what you would like staff to look at so we can do our best work to bring you options.”

“I want to respect that every single one of you has been doing some thinking about this and writing about it and have amendments and proposals,” she continued. “I urge you to give us the outside of the puzzle so we can go forth and do our best work.”

In an interview with the Oakland Post, Williams explained that a new board was elected last November and started in January.  The board approved cuts in March of over $100 million to exit state receivership.  And additional cuts of $60-$80 million are requested for 2026-2027, “which means up to $180 million within a year cycle, about 20% of the annual budget, raising the risk of returning to state receivership,” he said.

According to Williams the district carried high deficits with layoffs in 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23, and prior boards “kicked the can down the road” rather than dealing with the deficits.

Past board presidents Sam Davis, Mike Hutchinson, Gary Yee, and Shanthi Gonzales “did not address the problems, leaving the current board to solve them,” he said.

Further, Willliams said, Alameda County Supt. of Schools Alysse Castro and the state agency, Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT) “gave qualified budget approvals for four years. They could have (halted) raises or spending but did not, expecting eventual cuts without mandating immediate reductions.”

As a result, he said the “board needs to make major budget decisions this year within the next few weeks due to a looming fiscal cliff and threat of state receivership.”

“Reductions cannot come solely from central office or consultants,” Williams said. “Everything is on the table, including afterschool (programs), special education, and school restructuring.”

In a statement to the community, OUSD Chief Budget Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson wrote, “The district must develop a plan to restore its reserves as we navigate through the 2025-26 budget and prepare for the 2026-27 Budget Development process. The district will present its first Interim Report in December, reflecting its revised projections for the budget and reserves, which will then be reviewed by the County.

“As we have been saying since early in the 2024-25 school year, the District is currently deficit-spending about $4 million per month, that is, spending $4 million more every month than it’s receiving in revenues. The more we do that moving forward, the more we diminish our reserves, until, eventually, we run out of money.”

“As a school district where the mission is educating children, we cannot run out of money, and the State and County won’t let that happen,” she said. “But we need to prevent it from getting to that point in the first place. The district will need to make some very difficult choices in the near future to remain financially solvent.”

According to the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the teachers’ union, which is currently negotiating with the district for a new contract, the district traditionally distorts its budget, minimizing its revenue and maximizing its expenses to avoid increasing employee wages.

In a presentation to teachers and families, OEA President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer said, “The City of Oakland has a long history of standing up for the most marginalized in our community. And we need OUSD to stand up and be a part of protecting Oakland students by really investing in our school sites.”

Continuing, she said, “Our main job in this district is to teach children, and we need OUSD to change its priorities from (spending its money) outsourcing, contracting out, and investing in top-level management to really providing a student-centered budget.”

“The district has spent too much on the wrong things, too much on outside contracting and on central office administration while also simultaneously having this history of under-projecting revenue,” she said.

“We have a vision for a student-centered budget that invests in our school,” Rancifer said. “We need to restructure the budget to prioritize students and staff, making a student-centered budget that invests in classrooms and student services.”

According to OEA, “OUSD receives nearly $1 billion yearly to fund our schools — yet only 56% of that goes to student-facing staff. Our students feel the daily impact through high teacher- and support staff- turnover. Districts like San Diego Unified prove it’s possible to do better, investing 80% of funds directly into the people who serve students.”