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Yet, somehow, according to the new budget numbers, district fiscal staff believe spending will decrease by $109 million next year, despite new labor agreements adding about $100 million in retroactive pay and future raises. In 2027-2028, the budget will spike again, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The math left skeptics scratching their heads while district officials declined to offer explanations.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI’ve been following this ridiculously closely,\u201d said parent Arielle Fleisher, who has two children in district schools. \u201cI do not get it. There\u2019s no clear picture of where we stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmund Chan has been an involved parent in the district for over a decade, including a stint on a parcel tax oversight commission, yet the new budget numbers \u201ccame out of nowhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to believe and understand,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019m being gaslit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former school board member Sam Davis was more direct about his suspicions related to the budget numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t pee on my leg and tell me it\u2019s raining,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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The special board meeting Wednesday to approve the updated financials included testy exchanges, including one between staff and board member Mike Hutchinson, who asked how a district with a massive deficit and expensive labor agreements could suddenly be celebrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be an explanation that everyone can understand,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people can\u2019t answer the question then people are hiding the answer or they can\u2019t answer the question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifics, however, were never forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can understand some confusion how we got from where we were and where we are now,\u201d said Tara Gard, deputy superintendent of Business and Operations. \u201cI\u2019m looking at operations. I\u2019m looking at staffing.\u201d<\/p>\n
District officials and school board President Jennifer Brouhard, who was among the five members who approved the budget report, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday or Thursday.<\/p>\n
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The report is now in the hands of the county Office of Education, which oversees district budgets. Castro is expected to respond to Oakland\u2019s fiscal assessment in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Parent Rebekah Otto, whose two children attend East Oakland schools, said a broad grasp of the budget is critical to helping the community understand what will happen to their classrooms in the fall and beyond.<\/p>\n
That includes confusion over the teachers contract. While the district and labor union reached a tentative agreement in February, there is still no official cost analysis of it, which is required before the school board can vote to approve it. Retroactive raises remain on hold and all costs will likely be pushed into the next budget year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear what that will mean in terms of additional spending cuts or other repercussions, said Otto, who is a parent editor for The Dig, which posts online Oakland school board meeting recaps. That was one of many questions Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t answer really basic questions,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that Oakland parents and school staff, including teachers, are owed an understanding of the specifics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oakland Unified School District this week said it is financially stable, weeks after a massive deficit. Don…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[332,15,143,145,144,4265],"class_list":["post-336730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-east-bay","tag-education","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}