The Oakland Unified Faculty District may run out of money by November if the district’s Board of Schooling doesn’t act to shut huge finances deficits projected for this faculty yr and subsequent.
In a letter despatched to OUSD on Tuesday, Alameda County Superintendent of Faculties Alysse Castro mentioned if the district’s board doesn’t take motion by June, OUSD wouldn’t solely run out of cash however may once more find yourself beneath the supervision of a state trustee and lose its skill to make selections domestically.
In her letter to OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell, Castro included finances info that exhibits the district is dealing with a projected $95.7 million shortfall this faculty yr and a $99.6 shortfall for the 2026-2027 yr.
“This is not an abstract problem,” Castro wrote. “Without significant intervention, the district is projected to run out of cash during the 2025-26 school year, leading to significant destabilization for students and staff, necessitating another bankruptcy loan from the state, and forfeiting local decision-making authority.”
The letter was in response to a district resolution to file a “negative certification” of its finances in recognition of the truth that it gained’t be capable of meet its monetary obligations for this and future faculty years.
The present challenges are the identical ones the district recognized again in 2009, in accordance with Castro, and embody the findings that it has too many faculties for the variety of college students within the district, has too many under-enrolled faculties and small faculties and doesn’t meet pupil and household wants in each neighborhood.
“Without significant intervention, the district is projected to run out of cash during the 2025-26 school year, leading to significant destabilization for students and staff, necessitating another bankruptcy loan from the state, and forfeiting local decision-making authority.”
Alameda County Superintendent of Faculties Alysse Castro
The certification mechanically attracts elevated consideration from county and state schooling officers and requires the county to take a number of actions to assist the district out of its monetary gap.
On Tuesday, Castro introduced that she could be sending a fiscal advisor to assist the district implement its “3Rs process,” which features a redesign to enhance fairness and pupil outcomes, a re-envisioning of the district’s “footprint” and a restructuring of providers, staffing and sources.
Johnson-Trammell mentioned the district is able to work with the county to seek out its manner out of its present monetary morass.
“The OUSD leadership team understands ACOE’s recommendations, and we will work closely with the appointed fiscal advisor to take every action possible to maintain our local control and put OUSD on a sustainable financial path toward a vision of a district that prioritizes educational efficacy and equity,” Johnson-Trammell mentioned in an announcement launched Wednesday.
Union difficult closures, cuts
The district’s academics’ union, the Oakland Schooling Affiliation, believes the solutions don’t lie in class closures and cuts to classroom sources however in lowering administrator pay and “costly outside contracts.”
“It’s simple: our schools are the heart of Oakland and when administrators from the district and county push cuts and closures, it destabilizes our schools for our students and communities,” mentioned OEA President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer.
“This manufactured budget crisis can be solved by working with Oakland educators to ensure our schools are thriving and joyful places for every student to learn, grow, and dream,” Taiz-Rancifer mentioned.
Within the county’s eyes, the district — which has struggled with declining enrollment — should overcome “governance and operational dysfunction” and cease deferring, bypassing or altering troublesome selections, in accordance with Castro’s letter.
As examples, Castro cited the district’s 2023 selections to again out of a faculty closure plan and to offer academics raises with out lowering spending in different areas.
FILE: Trainer Sara Holderfield creates an indication through the Oakland Unified Faculty District (Oakland Unified Faculty District (OUSD)) trainer’s strike at Oakland Technical Excessive Faculty in Oakland, Calif. on Could 9, 2023. (Isaac Ceja/Bay Metropolis Information)
She additionally mentioned OUSD would be the solely district with each a county monetary advisor and a state monetary trustee guiding its selections.
The trustee was appointed after the district went into receivership and was required to take out a $100 million state mortgage in 2003 — an association the district has virtually labored itself out of.
If it could actually’t repair its present finances issues, the state will as soon as once more intervene.
