Since 2023, the school board has directed district officials to come up with three different budget balancing plans to eliminate its structural deficit, which have included possible school closures, resource consolidations and staff reductions.
None of those initiatives has been implemented. In 2023, the board reversed a plan to close schools; in 2024, it failed to take any action on another merger proposal; and last year, it reneged on $95 million in ongoing budget cuts through layoffs and service reductions.
“The district has a pattern of initiating and discontinuing major planning efforts,” Castro wrote. “The absence of a stable, consistently implemented plan undermines long-term fiscal stability and community trust.”
Her letter also raised alarms about turbulence among the school board and top district officials, reflecting “instability in key roles and systems needed to manage complex fiscal conditions.”
Last year, longtime Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell departed the district suddenly, seemingly forced out two years before her contract was set to end. In the fall, the district’s top budget officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, resigned days after interim Superintendent Denise Saddler — backed by the teachers’ union and a slim board majority — appeared to undermine her budget-balancing proposal.
The district originally planned to hire a new permanent superintendent before next fall, and contracted with a search firm in November, but that plan has stalled.
Board President Jennifer Brouhard said the board now plans to begin its recruitment process next fall, ahead of the 2027-28 school year.
Oakland Unified School District board president Jennifer Brouhard speaks during a meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)
According to Brouhard, when the board began discussing the superintendent search in January, “most of us felt that we really needed to pay attention to the budget work,” she said.
“No work was done, no money has been paid for the work [to] the search firm for the superintendent search,” Brouhard said. “Hopefully we’ll be resuming that in the early part of the fall.”
Saddler’s current contract expires in June of this year and is likely to be extended.
Castro also pointed to conflicts among the school board as adding to district instability: “Recent board actions related to fiscal oversight have frequently been decided by narrow 4-3 votes, reflecting a significant divide on key decisions.”