OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) — A county overview reveals that years of bandaging and kicking price range issues down the highway has rendered the Oakland Unified Faculty District fiscally strapped. With out rapid motion by the varsity district and its board of administrators, the Alameda County Workplace of Training predicts the district may run out of money throughout the subsequent tutorial faculty yr.
In a letter from Alameda County Superintendent of Faculties Alysse Castro despatched Tuesday to the Oakland Unified Faculty District Superintendent and its board, Castro mentioned OUSD is working on an unsustainable price range.
The college district’s price range deficit is projected to achieve $152 million this yr. With out implementing the price range options accredited by the board in December, the district may run out of money by greater than $30 million in November.
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Final month, the varsity district filed a damaging certification to the workplace of training. In Castro’s letter, she agreed with the district’s self-assessment saying, “Without significant intervention, the district is projected to run out of cash during the 2025-26 school year.”
The workplace of training factors to the district’s rising deficits ensuing from approving worker pay will increase with out approving reductions to pay for the raises. That, mixed with years of the board deferring huge choices, altering plans or delaying their implementation has led the varsity district to the troublesome place it’s in proper now.
In response, Castro has appointed a fiscal advisor to assist the varsity district rectify its price range woes. The final time OUSD acquired a damaging certification was simply earlier than it went into receivership in 2003.
Again then, the State of California took management over district enterprise and resulted within the district taking out a $100 million mortgage, which the district says has taken 21 years to repay in full, plus $20 million in curiosity.
At present, the county has oversight of the district’s price range with the ability to override board choices. Now, Castro says OUSD would be the solely state faculty district to have each a fiscal trustee and financial advisor.
The advisor is slated to assist the board by way of June, and, within the coming weeks, assist steadiness the 2025-2026 price range. The board has thought of merging 10 colleges that share campuses.
The college district says the transfer would save tens of millions of {dollars}, however the board nonetheless has not voted on the choice. By the top of subsequent month, Castro says the board must make onerous choices on lowering personnel for the upcoming faculty yr.
Within the letter, Castro continues to say, “If the board does not make decisions now, it will rapidly lose the ability to make them at all.”She says the district operates too many colleges for the variety of college students enrolled and operates too many under-enrolled colleges.
