{"id":375327,"date":"2026-06-26T02:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/375327\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T02:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:56:13","slug":"oakland-school-officials-insist-a-remarkable-budget-turnaround-is-authentic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/375327\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland school officials insist a remarkable budget turnaround is authentic"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Leaders of the city\u2019s public schools have approved a new $1.2 billion budget with a surprising revenue surplus, despite earlier warnings by Alameda County\u2019s top education official<\/a> that the district\u2019s finances are more precarious than they appear.<\/p>\n

Oakland Unified officials said a $30 million spending reduction in recent months resolved the schools\u2019 operating deficit and has even produced nearly $8 million in breathing room, though longer-term costs still outpace revenues through the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

Previously, the deficit had been estimated to total around $100 million, leading the school board in February to approve hundreds of layoffs and other spending cuts.<\/p>\n

The apparent stark turnaround in the months since led to a 4-1 vote Wednesday by the school board approving the 2026-27 budget, which takes effect July 1 and encompasses all Oakland Unified funds, including worker salaries, operating costs and money earmarked for specific purposes.<\/p>\n

The spending plan will now be reviewed by Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro, who in a June 18 letter to Oakland Unified officials warned that a tentative labor agreement with the district\u2019s teachers<\/a> may not be sustainable in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the size of labor agreement \u2014 expected to cost $12 million next year, $31 million the following year and $60 million in 2028-29 \u2014 had sparked considerable concern, making the disclosure of extra revenue all the more remarkable.<\/p>\n

Board Director Mike Hutchinson, a hostile opponent of the teachers\u2019 union who dissented from Wednesday\u2019s vote, ominously told the staff not to \u201cknowingly put forward fraudulent numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland Unified School District District 4 Vice President Mike Hutchinson speaks during the OUSD board meeting at the La Escuelita Education Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The district recently announced that it had found high levels of lead in 200 of its water fixtures across the city\u2019s schools. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s financial officials, however, defended their analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we have done in our budget is right,\u201d said Tara Gard, a deputy superintendent who temporarily is filling the recently vacated chief business officer position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t type it over,\u201d Gard added. \u201cWe can\u2019t manipulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan by Oakland Unified officials to stabilize spending includes withdrawing $14.7 million in funding for special education and eliminating $3 million in consultant contracts, along with a slew of other cuts.<\/p>\n

Gard also noted that \u201cschool site reductions\u201d could be in the district\u2019s future, though the details of that strategy would need to be ironed out.<\/p>\n

The question of whether to close some of the district\u2019s 80 campuses \u2014 which serve an estimated 34,000 students, per the most recent available data \u2014 has long been a political wedge issue at Oakland Unified.<\/p>\n

Questions about whether shrinking schools is a viable path forward could soon resurface as Hutchinson and the board\u2019s most labor-friendly members \u2014 directors Valarie Bachelor and Jennifer Brouhard \u2014 go up for re-election in November.<\/p>\n

The district, meanwhile, remains without a permanent superintendent. The board in recent months extended the interim top official, Denise Saddler, for another year.<\/p>\n

In April, the school board voted to suspend the search for a permanent hire, days after this news organization reported that Brouhard and Bachelor had privately told union leaders that they were sticking with Saddler for the time being.<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Leaders of the city\u2019s public schools have approved a new $1.2 billion budget with a surprising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,16752,7,332,15,4730,181,23,100,143,145,144,385],"class_list":["post-375327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-budgets","tag-california","tag-east-bay","tag-education","tag-k-12-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375327","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=375327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}