Oakland Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Good. Uh, welcome to the February 11th uh, board meeting of the Oakland School Board. Uh, tonight in public session, I I'm sorry, in close session, we will discuss Oh, sorry. Roll call to establish quorum. On the roll call to establish quorum, student director Simmons, student director Smith, Director Lada, Director Williams present, sir. Director Hutchinson, Director Barry present. Director Thompson, Vice President Bachelor here. And President Prohark here. Quorum present.

Thank you. And Mr. Secha, can we have an interpretation check, please?

Yes. For tonight's meeting, we have three languages for live interpretation. There are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. For in person, we have laptops for interpretation. Please come see me. We will start with Arabic. I will lower all attendees hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Miss Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Arabic announcement is done.

Great. Thank you, Miss Abdi. Check attendee to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start Arabic interpretation. Next, we will go to Cantonese. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Miss Ho, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. The Cantonese announcement is done. Mr. Secha.

Great. Thank you, Miss Ho. Check attendees to see if any hands raised for our Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with um Cantonese interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again, please only raise your hand if any Spanish interpretation. Miss Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Of course. Thank you. Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you, Miss Vargas. Checking attendees to see if any hands are raised for a Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with any interpretation. And that conclude announcement and we'll check again later um during the meeting. I turn it back to you, President Bruhard. President Brewhart, turn it back to you.

Thank you. Tonight in close session, we will be discussing the following matters. Labor matters D125-1864. Conference with labor negotiators D2 26-000087 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation under public employment D32 24-1967 public employment superintendent of schools. Uh we will reconvene at 5:30. Uh are there public comments on close session items? Uh yes madam president we do have one. Uh, how much time would you like to allow for public comment? Uh, three minutes.

Two minutes. Uh, yes. This U Ed Ruden Cuyik.

Thank you for that. That's not easy to pronounce. Good evening board. As you already know me, um, my name is Bedrink. I'm a chief steward for a building trade council. Uh, I support everything that you've been doing. really true true hard work that you guys putting your time and effort to change the district for better. Uh I want to flag one thing. Uh I like early retirement thing incentive. Uh I wish we have more participant help the district in this financial district. Uh the stress that we're going through uh definitely support that. That's definitely something that I would like to see going through and hopefully you guys going to vote on it. I have many members even they on the list that we have uh four uh members reach out to me again willing to if we willing to extend for a week or more. There is some people that didn't get a packages there is something that they weren't ill and sick or whatever they wen they weren't home. So they bring considering it right now uh it come from a many all not just from BCTC from a UAS I got a managers we got a multiple other so that's one good thing the second thing it is uh I want to address the layoffs that may happening I want to go back a little bit like 20 years back uh building grounds that was a little bit before my time but I did some factchecking uh we had 140 employees including managers. Right now we're looking at 83 including managers and coordinator and BG director uh employees and my mothers and sister that I represent is 72 those people that they're retiring right now will affect the district operation

as it is already affected. It's going to be huge difference maintaining trying to maintain this many schools with this many people. I don't know how I'm willing and I'm begging you really consider this really hard not as BCTC but not even other unions are five years ago we were essentials in this district. Nobody was working for those two years except building the grounds for that era. Just use that and just give us back at least respect that we deserve to continue doing this and I really mean I'm here for these kids and I don't know what the these kids going at home but I want to make sure that they have everything what they deserve at these schools. If comes there is no lights at the home I want to make sure they come to lights here clean schools whatever is happening please I want to also say we are in a flag that we are expect to negotiate in a good faith uh we've been trying to reach out to general counsel to everybody together we got one date finally which is there is no date I mean time when we going to meet or location be ghosting us for no reason. I'm just trying to bargain my CBA in a good faith. Same as all my solidarity with all other unions. Uh so far nothing happening uh our our contract and I think many of the with OEA and uh FE just TAC SEI just finished theirs. uh US is on the same

page. It's expiring June 30th this year. We are at the midFebruary and I don't even have a one meeting with the district here. So how can we continue like this? That's what I'm asking everybody that's sitting at. I'm giving all my faith in you guys because we've been trying to do all this for months and I don't understand what's what's the issue. communication for everything resolving it's a communication talk to me follow up tell me I can't do it today we can do it tomorrow but ghosting and not responding and just holding that accountable what they're trying to do it's kind of crazy to me I'm going to start pointing fingers not at you guys but pretty much if I have to do I'm gonna have to do it because this is beyond ridiculous and what we trying to do here. It's a make change in this district. Same as you are. I'm sick of the people doing it like they're running their own business. It's our business. We are all in it and I'm really deep in it. I really love what I've been what I'm doing and really love to seeing kids change and put them to the right path of life because nobody had did that to me when I was growing up. I want to be a change to this. I don't want a recognition. I don't want a credit. If I want kid says thank you, I'm in heaven. Please make difference like other board didn't. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Uh next speaker. No. Okay. There are no further speakers for this item. Okay. Thank you, Madam President.

And with that, we will go into close session and reconvene at 5:30. I'd

like to welcome everyone to the February 11th board of education regular meeting. Mr. Rickstar, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please? On the second roll call. to establish quorum. Student director Simmons present. Student director Smith here. Director Ladder present.

Director Williams. Not present. Okay. Director Hutchinson present. Director Barry present. Director Thompson present. Vice President Bachelor here. And President Brohart here. Quorum present. Thank you. Mr. Secho, can we have an interpretation check, please?

Yes. Moving to interpret interpretation check. For tonight's meeting, we have three languages for live interpretation. They are Arabic, Spanish, and Cantonese. For in person, we have laptops in the left side basketball court if you need um interpretation. There's al also translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. We will start with Arabic. I will lower our tenis hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Mr. TK, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Thank you. interpretation, Arabic, language interpretation. mute original audio. Um, Arabic announcement is done. Great. Thank you, Mr. Tick. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Arabic interpretation. We will next go to Cantonese. Again, please

only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Mr. Euan, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. Candies announce minister Mr. Secha.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Yuing. Check attendees. If any hands are raised for Cantonese interpretation, seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Canton interpretation. We'll next go to Spanish. Again, please don't raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Miss Welcome, Marquez, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Yes, of course. Fore Spanish. Mute original audio. Simpch.

Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you so much, Miss Welcome Marquez. Chicken attendees receive any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with any interpretation at the moment, but we'll check again later during the meeting. Mr. Rick Shaw turn to you. M madame president, the uh availability of uh translation services announcement has been completed. Thank you.

Tonight um we have several items on the agenda. I know our audience is full here. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize the importance of respectful decorum, communication, and engagement at our board and committee meetings. The work of the board is serious business and impacts the everyday experiences of our students, staff, families, and broader community. It is critical that all of us both up here on the dis and in the audience model the respectful interactions that we would like to see our students have in their classrooms, on the playyard, and in athletic competitions. As we open tonight's meeting, I urge everyone present and planning to attend to re review and abide by the board of education protocols and meeting rules of engagement listed on pages eight and nine of tonight's agenda. Tonight there will be many opportunities for public um comment after uh the student board members report after the superintendent report adoption of the general consent report adoption of the general consent report facilities all non-aggenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board and unfinished business as well as new business. Um and that'll be our last item of public comment. Public uh comment cards are on the table by the door. Please fill them out and put them in the box up in the front. Thank you. Tonight in close session on labor matters on item D1 item N number excuse me 251864 conference with labor negotiators. The board gave direction on this matter. Motion by Vice President Bachelor, seconded by Director Williams. Vote four in favor. two opposed, one abstension, and one absent. Under legal matters on D item D2, number 26-000087, conference with legal counsel,

anticipated litigation, the board did not take up this matter. Under public employment matters on item D3, number 24-1967, superintendent of schools, the board did not take up this matter. And that is the end of the February 11th, 2026 close session report out. Uh

point of order, President Brohart, I just wanted to cite the uh complaint I made in close session that there was an item being discussed that was inappropriate for clo the narrow scope of close session and that it was inappropriate to discuss any possible aspects of a fiscal solveny plan in close session when those conversations are required to be held in open session. And I just wanted to say on the record, I said uh multiple times within close session that I thought it was inappropriate and a violation of the Brown Act. And I also stated very clearly that I am going to do my duty and if necessary as a whistleblower to make sure the community is fully informed of everything they're legally allowed to be informed about. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Hutchinson. Tonight under modifications of the agenda, I would like to move all items under S, S1, S2, S3 to first um then followed by the um student report, labor partners, uh public comment, and then the consent items O and consent items P. Item T, new business. Items two, items T1, T2, and T3, uh, the president's report, member, board member reports, and any introduction of new legislation. Are there any other board um modifications to the agenda? Okay, thank you. And with that, we will begin with our unfinished business item S1, financial stabilization implementation plan, protecting equity, maintaining local control, and prioritizing students. And I believe we have a presentation from both Dr. Sadler and Dr. Futus. Thank you. Good evening, President Bruhard, Vice President Bachelor and members of the board, other members of the board, the community, our staff, families. Thank you for joining us tonight. Tonight we return with our third progress report on the financial stabilization imple implementation plan. This is a sobering moment as we present the details supporting the approximately 50 million in budget adjustments we introduced last month. Changes that will affect our workforce, our colleagues who serve Oakland's children every day. When I first wrote to you in October

2025, I said that this would be difficult, and it is. Every recommendation is one we wish we could avoid. These are people we care about and programs our community loves. But this is also a moment of resolve, responsibility, and commitment to creating a sustainable and successful future of this district. Let me first acknowledge what tonight means. When we talk about budget reductions, we are talking about real people, educators, support staff, administrators who have dedicated themselves to Oakland students. Every number in this presentation represents someone's livelihood, someone's contribution to our community, and someone's career in public education. This reality weighs heavily on me and our senior leadership team. I know it. I know it weighs on each of you as board members. We do not take these decisions lightly and we honor the service of every person who will be impacted. Since we la last met on January 28th, significant progress has been made. Yesterday, I met with 1235 of our school and central office administrators. I shared with them the same financial realities I'm sharing with you tonight. They asked hard questions about the deficit we're attempting to close, about why we're not closing schools, and about

whether their sight level work will make a meaningful difference. I told them the truth. Their efforts represent a portion of the overall picture, but the central office is bearing the weight of the deepest cuts. I told them I'm proud of their resilience as they lead through this difficult time. We are now able to bring clarity on the workforce and the impact of our decisions. Over 201 FTE will receive notices by March 15th. This includes position eliminations, PARs retirements, bumping impacts, and expiring grants. And I want to say those numbers are estimates because there are a lot of implications as we go through the process. But the most important thing, these are real people, educators, support staff, administrators who have dedicated themselves to Oakland students. Tonight you'll hear from Dr. Dr. Ruben Futos from HYA who will walk us through the detailed financial analysis. I will provide the context and leadership narrative. And most importantly, we will need your guidance, your questions, and your partnership as we prepare for the pivotal pivotal February 25th action meeting. I'd like to begin with first reviewing the agenda and I'm going to go through this quickly. The agendas before you, the challenge, our response, implementation results, our timeline, and the board ask.

Tonight's presentation follows the same structure we introduced January 28th with one critical difference. We have now a more complete picture of our workforce realignment required to achieve long-term sustainability. We'll begin with a brief recap of this challenge. This is the why. We will review our strategic response. This is the what. And present the detailed implementation results including personnel impacts. confirm our timeline for board action and conclude with our specific ask of you tonight and that is the how. I'm pleased to welcome back our team from HYA. These are fiscal experts you authorized last December who have added tremendous value to this effort. Dr. Futos and I will guide us through the presentation. He will give us insight on the financial details. I'll provide context at key points and return at the end of end for the board to ask questions and our closing. The board is not asked to take a action tonight. Tonight is about engaging the board and the community in this discussion and giving our team the opportunity to to continue to triplech check our math. As the wise carpenter says, measure twice out once. Dr. Futos, please begin. Thank you, Dr. Sedler. Good evening again, directors. The first piece is to recap the challenge that we um had discussed at our prior presentations. Uh the revenues of the district, as you well know, have been down. Uh we have had issues such as declining enrollment

and uh historically we went down from 37 38,000 to the current amount where we are hopeful that we will continue in the 33 to 34,000 range. The federal co funds have now expired. We've discussed that with with the committees regarding ESSER and other funds. And some of our important one-time grants are sunsetting and that's also been part of the conversation regarding uh that ongoing reduction in funding. And we have a variety of federal uncertainties as the board well knows. We have uh an obligation at the state level to adopt our budgets by July 1. Uh the the federal government and other budget uncertainties can take more months as the federal um adoption takes place. As to the costs, um it is not news for me to tell you that costs are rising. Obviously, health insurance premiums and a variety of other district services continue to go up every year. The same as for the district as for us as individuals. Our facilities require repairs and in some cases the the initiative of the facilities program is helping with that as they age. We continue to have our education's cost increase every year to provide the quality of services that we want with an enrollment that continues to decline and the rising costs go faster and our enrollment can uh grow. And finally, we have a variety of contributory elements to our uh budgetary challenges including the growth over the last few years of the contributions of Calsters and Calpers. So, what was the result? To recap, the board identified a little over a hundred million dollar gap between ongoing revenues and expenses and provided direction to the administrative team to address it. This isn't a one-year

problem. This is a problem that is structural and therefore, as we discussed at the last two meetings, requires action that will take several years to implement. So, what have been our responses? the financial goals uh adopted by board resolution in December, including assuring that we maintained uh a balanced budget in the future, that we addressed the general fund deficits, and that we addressed them with some operational goals. no school closures. Prioritize reductions in the central budgets as opposed to the sites to get that done furthest from the students. Enhance efforts to improve student attendance and enrollment. Reduce reliance on one-time funds. And that's part of the discussion of the grants and others. Improve fiscal controls, monitoring, and transparency. Thank you, Dr. Futos. These four phases represent a deliberate shift from reactive crisis management to proactive strategic planning. The March 15th statutory deadline for a reduction in force notices requires immediate action tonight and on February tw 25th. But these personnel decisions are part of a larger multi-year plan for operational excellence. I want to be clear, HYA's recommendations extend beyond phase two. We will continue working with them and with this board and our community through budget adoption and into long-term sustainability planning. I recognize

that we will all want greater clarity on our comprehensive plan and this is part of our June 30th deliverables for budget adoption. Now, let me add something here that I believe is important for you to know. HYA's credibility with the county oversight team has been invaluable and their expertise will continue to inform our work. our core commitments. Before we get into the detailed numbers, I want to ground us in the commitments that guide every decision we make. Fiscal sustainability that enables educational excellence. When finances are stable, schools focus on teaching and learning. And this is the foundation for everything else. Competitive compensation grounded in fiscal reality. Our teachers and staff deserve fair pay. Sustainable compensation requires sustainable financial performance. Both are possible and both are necessary and both are our responsibility. Operational stability that earns family confidence. Strong financial management demonstrates Oakland is well-governed and worthy of trust. This is how we rebuild enrollment. Partnership that solves problems together. That's labor, students, community, board, and county working as allies, not as adversaries. Excellence as the standard, not the exception. Every Oakland student deserves outstanding education and we accept nothing less. These commitments don't change because of fiscal pressure. They guide us through it.

This slide demonstrates accountability. December 10th, you gave us clear mandates. Six weeks later on January 28th, we reported back on progress. Tonight, six more weeks later, we present the complete picture. We restored the 3% reserve. That's 35.1 million ending balance projected. The reserve target was met. No school closures. All 80 plus schools remain open. Small school schools protected central cuts deeper. Tonight you'll see the details. At least 20% cuts at central office compared to 10% at schools and approximately approximately 139 FTEEs eliminated from central divisions roughly twothirds of the total work workforce impact. improved fiscal controls and transparency. I want you to know the HYA experts contracted and actively engaged and we are building our confidence within the county. Attendance improving. We've made progress, but ongoing work is needed. Early gains are promising, but we're not there yet. and addressing the hund00 million struct structural deficit. Tonight we present approximately 50 million in identified ongoing reductions. This cuts the original gap in half. The remaining work continues through budget development. You set high expectations and we're meeting them.

Dr. Futos,

thank you. One of the important elements was to bring you information about the central office reductions which we uh we listed as part of the plan overview. The central office reductions at this point are targeted have targeted $21 million and we believe we're on track. This is designed to stabilize the district finances while again keeping them away from the from the cuts at schools and also um to make sure that the team provides a review of central office and operational departments to improve efficiency. The SLT conducted those analysis and provided a lot of information that ended up resulting in the reductions before you. The comprehensive analysis identified opportunities to eliminate duplication, consolidate administrative functions and operate more efficiently. There was an intent in prioritizing voluntary separations through early retirement incentives which are coming before the board to minimize involuntary layoffs and honor staff contributions. The result is a reduction of approximately 201 FD central offer funded positions, including voluntary early retirements that redirect resources toward direct student services and reducing the general fund impacts. And this is in correlation to what we discussed before of using restricted funding to the best of our ability. before you are the central office positions that are uh slated for for reduction. Uh the team did a a painstaking amount of work to make sure that you had as much information as possible, including the FDE equivalent,

the bargaining group that they belong to in in significant detail. As you can see at the bottom of page four of this report, the total number uh ties to the previously mentioned FTE in the central cuts and it's 201.49. Thank you, Dr. Futos. Those numbers tell the fiscal story. Now, let me tell you the human story behind them. In a district where 75 to 80% of our budget is compensation, there is no path to closing a $50 million gap without impacting jobs. I will not stand before you and pretend otherwise. The workforce realignment we present tonight will result in over 201 FTEES receiving notices by the March 15th statutory deadline. This total impact includes direct position eliminations from the division reductions you'll see tonight. Employees taking PAR's early retirement. And I want to thank uh director Williams for advancing the concept of bringing early retirement as a part of our process. Uh it will also require bumping rights under our labor agreements expiring and grant fund expiring grant funded positions as well as frozen vacant positions. Now let me be absolutely clear. These are not numbers on a spreadsheet. These are our colleagues. We looked at every single position. We used our carrot center approach. We weigh weighed your priorities and then

we made the hard call. Every single team member matters. Each one of them deserves our respect and gratitude and our support to ensure that their transition is dignified and supports them in finding their next opportunity or enjoying their retirement years. As I mentioned to each of you, I'm taking a fine tooth comb as a at all a look at all of our expenditures. I'm even looking at our utility uses, our water bills, our garbage bills. I'm looking at where we can get energy efficiency and cost savings throughout while maintaining a high quality experience for our students and staff. Our chief of systems and services, Preston Thomas, is here tonight to answer any questions you may have on these strategies. I'm ve Now I'd like to look at our TKHub launch. Okay. I'm very excited about this initiative. This research is clear. This early childhood education changes lives. And with the city and county passing measure measures to increase funding, we have a unique window to push Oakland towards a universal preschool model that will have a profound positive impact on our community. Our chief academic officer, Sandre Aguilera, and our CSSO Thomas are working with me to ensure that we are positioned to provide this value ad to every family seeking our services. Now I want to look at um

special ed. These are two very exciting ideas that we advanced in scenario three. We believe that taken together, OSD will rec recapture over $10 million to provide direct services to Oakland families. And that is um the addition of non-public schools within our Oakland schools. This will give an opportunity to improve quality and reduce outside contracting. While the full details are still under examination, know that your leadership team led by our chief academic officer and our chief of school services um is working um direct diligently to change the narrative and improve outcomes for our kids. Now, building sustainable excellence. I believe in my soul that every student deserves teachers who build careers here, dedicated and caring. I believe that schools focus on learning, stabilized and not managing crisis. I believe that programs that have stability and continuity and a well-run, well-governed, and professional district that works for them. This is a belief that I have for every student. And now we'll talk about excellence is our students birthright. The financial s sustainability makes it possible. That's the work. Dr. Futos,

thank you Dr. Sadler. uh board directors, one of the important things is the directives that you have given the superintendent and that's her directive to us as to what approach are we going to use to make a lot of these uh elements including financial reporting recommended shifts, reductions, etc. The number one goal is to protect students. Uh all neighborhood schools remain open and core academic programs are protected as was the original intent provided by the board. It is a shared sacrifice. The reductions have touched all divisions and employee groups and the leadership takes the cuts first as we did with the central reductions. And finally, the intent is for full transparency and partnership, clear communication, stakeholder engagement, dignified support for affected employees, and one of the main course services of that is the retirement incentive as explained by the superintendent Sadra core commitments.

Thank you, directors. As we move to conclude our presentation, I want to remind you of the commitment I made to you when you entrusted me to steward our district during this time. Fiscal sustainability that enables educational excellence. Nothing good happens if we're broke and broken. Competitive compensation grounded in fiscal reality. I've served at every level in our district and I want every member of this team to have fair pay and sustainable budgets that honor commitments year after year. I would never lead this board into a situation where unrealistic promises would lead to more layoffs or place us in receivers hands. And at this time, I want us to remember um this approach that we take and I want us to think about as we discuss our commitments to wages and but they also must be accompanied by cuts. We have a deficit. So together, let us make sure our books are strong and our ability to deliver secure. So this means that we have to have partnerships that helps solve problems together. And that's labor, students, community, board, and our county working as allies. And excellence as the standard, not the exception. I've I've spent over 40 years in this district. This is my hometown and I love Oakland and I love our teachers and our staff. I truly believe our teachers are among the best and the finest in the nation. I feel the same way about our

administrators and our custodians and our buildings and ground and our classified staff. I believe OSD is an employer of choice for many of us and it is important that we think about a competitive compensation that attracts and retains excellence that retains excellent educators that retains excellent administrators that retains excellent custodians that rec retains excellent classified staff excellent buildings and grounds. We need to make sure that we maintain professional respect and partnership in problem solving. We have a problem. We have to come together and solve this problem together. Career development opportunities are important and we have to have pathways for growth and dignified treatment during these transitions. I shared this with you at our last update, but I want everybody to hear this again, especially our team members who are impacted by these decisions. I'm personally see you and care for you and I've been in this position before and I want you to know I'm working very closely with our chief talent officer Tara Guard to set up a program called Od Cares and actually this is something I did when I was principal at Shabbo Elementary School Shabbo Cares and this will be an effort where we will provide a comprehensive transa transition process process, support services, career counseling, job search assistance, and actually a job fair with people on site offering

positions and connections to many other opportunities. We'll also provide clear, timely communication about status and resources. We will also, this is very important, that we also recognize and appreciate service. This is something that I know Terra Guard has been in the front of for many years and is something I believe in. And I also want to acknowledge everyone's service to Oakland students. This is important to me to acknowledge those affected and be thoughtful about the process. Dr. Futos,

thank you. As we move forward, um, we want to have a small reminder of our next steps and also to keep the timeline in front of the board of directors so that you know what progress is being made. In December, the board adopted scenario 3. Obviously, that is complete. In January 20, uh, the HYA team presented the initial approaches to how we were going to deal with some of these issues. And you heard us use terms like restricted funds and balances etc. In January 28, we provided you the first progress update which has been completed and we were pleased to share the news with the board that our first interim was qualified. January 28th through February 24th, community engagement period, which is in progress, to get feedback regarding all this initiatives and steps that need to be taken in order for us to have solveny and financial reports that are successful. February 11, tonight, it is the first the board's first hearing on workforce realignment. On February 25th, the board action on workforce realignment will take place and this is a critical vote. On March 15, it is the statutory deadline for notices for affected employees. In March, we also have the second interimm report. In May, we have the governor's budget revision which will provide important information regarding the development of our future financial reports, multi-year projections and budget. And finally, in June, the board adopts the fiscal year 2026 2027 LCAP and budget. As you know, the March 15th deadline is not arbitrary. It's required by California Education Code tonight and on

the 25th. Um, as Dr. Fto stated, are critical is a critical time so that we don't miss the window to get control of our budget. If we miss it, we lose the ability to implement these reductions for the 26th 27th school year, which means more of a structural deficit that our deficit will continue to grow and this would put the board in danger of losing local control. Thank you. This concludes our formal presentation. Thank you. And with that, we'll have public comment uh for 20 minutes. Are there any public speakers?

Uh yes, Madame President, we have 19 speakers. Okay, 19 speakers at 20 minutes means one minute each.

Okay, I will call the first five speakers. Uh Kim Ays, Laura Byer, Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, and Matt Glazer. Um, Madame President, I do see Sheila Haynes online and Kim online. Kim's name. Let's take Kims online and then um actually we'll take both of them online first. Okay. Uh Kim Ays, I will allow you to speak.

Good evening. Thank you board and uh Superintendent Sadler. I have questions on the implementation plan. Um and I will for the purposes of time just focus on my two biggest ones. One is understanding the small schools approach. the um 8.5 million that is shifted from other programs to small schools. I would like to know what the definition um is that of what is being used to define a small school here in this case since my understanding is that definition has changed over time in in Oakland um with back in the early 2000s 500 being considered small. So um at this stage that would mean nearly all of our elementary schools. I'm imagining that um the cuto off is somewhat smaller than that. And I I also am uh would like to understand more of the the why behind that. What um what needs to be protected and what is um different in small schools that makes it higher priority than the services that were being funded across the district um in other ways since the shift to small schools means that something else is getting cut. So I'd like to understand more of what is being cut to prioritize that. My other question is on TK hubs. I uh noticed that there's a significant difference between the uh January facilities committee presentation on TK hubs versus and the the outline and and detail that was provided there on where those hubs could be located, how many there are, what the demand is related to them, and then what IC presented tonight, which is two to three central hubs across the whole district, which um is surprising to me in in terms of um doesn't seem like the best way to capture that large

opportunity. Your time if you'd wrap that up. Thank you. Uh Miss Haynes. Uh yes, I'll allow Miss Haynes to speak. Uh one minute, please. Miss Haynes, you're all muted. Sheila Haynes.

Um, Sheila Haynes, you're unmuted if you can speak. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.

Hi. Um, so I appreciate uh the thoroughess and work being done um to try to get us back to where we need to be, but I'm still not clear on the costs to special education um in regard to the proposed cuts to that education and are you guys still using measure N and H carryover funding to apply towards the deficit? I'm I'm just I'm not clear on the sources that's reducing the deficit. Um I it also stood out on slide 12. It's concerning on slide 12 with the note that says pending because it's a total of 32 million in cuts to school sites and services. So with that, I'm just not clear on the impact and services that will be cut and what the effect will be on our students. I know that it's hard to make demands right now, but I can only hope that more cuts to the arts won't happen since you've already cut a million in arts education. You know, with it being Black History Month, I mean, and I have a student in special education, our our black students with disabilities, they have already been impacted the most by cuts and closures and suspended disproportionately over and above all other students. So, I just hope that whatever plans in place that you will uh protect our most vulnerable students and protect all student services that our students depend on and also make it uh a loving environment at the same time.

Thank you. So, thank you.

Thank you. Uh next speaker, please. That was Carol Delton, Matt Glazer. Good evening everyone. Carol Delton. I would like to echo the previous speaker's uh request for clear information about the makeup of the reserve and say that I believe it is critical that the district including HYA present a full description of what the trans the plan is that includes everything. not, you know, the the shift to f of funding here and the force reduction there, but everything and how does it work together in a tracker that shows us where each part is at because we've been hearing about a number of these things for years with respect to the TK hubs that was lifted up. uh I understandtood previously that the main goal was to increase enrollment because there's such an interest in that. Now it can be both and because having a TK at a hub could expand space at one of the smaller buildings of which there are many in Oakland. I hope it is at least expanding the enrollment. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker please. I believe that I understand the depth of the problems we face as a district and I have stressed in many places that this conversation shouldn't only be about what it what cannot be lost but what we must do without as painful as that will be in the short term. With that, during times of austerity, it is important not to lose sight of what investments hold the highest value for the cost, the most bang for your buck, so to speak. And what I know from my personal experience and communications from many others across the district is that perhaps the greatest return on investment comes from our support staff such as community school managers and TSAs. Simply put, this investment that you've made has been a smashing success over the last few years. I am well aware that a good number of support staff including ours at Peralta Elementary were intended as a temporary postcoid measure paid for with onetime funds. I'm also aware that in most cases, their effectiveness in supporting our students, teachers, and principles has vastly outshown the cost of this investment. Our schools and communities can and will endure a lot during this time. But our ability to best serve students rests largely with the highest value support staff that we already have in place. For this reason, I respectfully plead with you to find a way to restore at least partial funding for CSMS and other support staff to every school at OSD to help us and you weather this storm. I also wanted to plug the PAC meeting uh Tuesday next sorry next Wednesday night uh which will be available on Zoom and Parent Square. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh next speakers uh yes madam president. Next five speakers are Diane L. Margaret Show Oliver Brennan JD Willian Holly Wilson.

Hi, good evening. My name is Margot Scow. I'm a parent with three kids at Glen View Elementary School. Um, I'm here asking you to reverse the cuts to school sites. Um, you are cutting our TSA, our school community manager, our literacy coaches, our mental health supports, our PE coach, and enrichment teachers. With these cuts, you're doing irreparable harm to our children's emotional well-being, physical health, academic and intellectual development. Our schools cannot function without these crucial staff. So please, I am begging you to look elsewhere. Um, make more cuts to the central office. Let the central office be gutted before you gut our schools. Um, look at those outside contracts and be more efficient so that you can staff our schools. I'm begging you as a mom, as a taxpayer, as a citizen of Oakland who cares about our kids, you need to staff our schools. Um, so please reverse the cuts to school sites. Pursuant to ED code 41326H, Alama County Superintendent of Schools can reassume all legal rights, duties, and powers of the OSD Board of Education, essentially putting the district back into full receiverhip if the district violates its recovery plans within 5 years after the trustee is removed or the loan is repaid, whichever is later. Elise Castro, where are you? I voted for you. Please do the job you elected to do. Did O USD violate their recovery plan? Are they about to? We're all waiting for your answer. Again, pursuant to ED code 41326H, Alama County Superintendent of Schools

shall return to to the OSD board all of its legal rights, duties, and powers reassumed under this subdivision when she determines that future compliance with the approved recovery plans is probable or after a period of one year, whichever occurs later. If the board comes up with a real plan that can be executed, will you give them a year to implement? Don't forget they did all sorts of weird stuff with the LCAP. You are going to need to review that for compliance. Will you do your job? The fate of 34,000 kids in Oakland depends on you. Good evening board and interim superintendent. A plan to have a plan. That's what the county superintendent told you in a letter. And four months later, we still don't have a plan. So, this presentation tonight really at its core just covered $21 million of savings. And it turns out there are 201.5 positions, mainly central that hit a lot of sites. How many of those are actually from restricted dollars? So, what are we saving in the bottom line in the unrestricted fund? And there's more to come in the next meeting. This time last year, our our CBO at this meeting presented all of the cuts, all of the plan for a hund00 million adjustments. And you know, each of the FTEEs were assigned to one of the three Rs. Remember that? The three R process. because if we actually had implemented that last year, we wouldn't be here scrambling now. So, at the next meeting, you still have $32 million of sites to um and and 12 million of SNC transfer funds. You might have another 300 or 400 FTEEs to be introduced at the next

meeting and you've to vote on them that night. You might have 600 FTEEs to cut this board in two weeks time to vote on. Just think about that. And you're going to see it for the first time. Crazy. The plan should have been presented tonight.

Hi, my name is Holly Wilson, chapter secretary of SEIU. Um, so a lack of resources creates a vicious cycle of harm in our communities where students, families, and staff live through the violence of housing insecurity, food insecurity, and xenophobia through anti-immigrant sentiments and practices, as we all know, is heightened in this day and age. So to see a list including instructional aids, case managers, teachers, counselors, social workers, custodians, and nurses to name a few proposed cuts only adds to the instability our school communities must face and be retraumatized through. And I'm not sure if I'll have the time to speak further on this in the next opportunity for public comment, but I do encourage you to continue digging deeper into contracting agencies um to name specifically SPG and Evale Group alone were initially going to receive $30 million in their contract this school year. So I ask OSD is broke and 10 contracts for special education are on the general consent form totaling $28,550,000. Are we not concerned by this excessive use of contracting in this specific department? Yes, students with IEPs need and deserve their services and most of all they deserve stability and consistency and not to be used as pawns for excessive contracting and union busting. Thank you. Good evening board. I'm JD Washan, the twin seventh graders in the district and I was on the picket line this morning in San Francisco with my sister-in-law who is a teacher there. Um, and because what's happening in OSD is not uh unique to Oakland. Um, you know, public schools were created with institutional racism embedded into their design. And now they are being starved of funds, picked apart by charters and voucher programs because there's a large layer of powerful people, the current presidential administration foremost among them, that want public education dismantled. They want whole layers of the population underserved or not served at all. And there have been comments made to this board saying that the cuts this board is

moving towards are the wrong choice because they hurt everyone. and they're requesting that instead you consider closing and consolidating schools and they leave the next part unspoken but it's so that only some students are heard and so they don't consider or they don't care who those students are and so I appreciate your uh dedication to keeping schools open because um as the uh back there it says every student deserves to thrive and we know now that not every student is thriving in Oakland and if we and they never will if we continue to cut off whole neighborhoods from their right to a public uh to public community schools because this is not just a discussion about how we save some dollars here or there for next school year or this school year. It's about how do we move forward to save public education and who do we save it for?

Thank you. Are there other speakers?

Uh yes, Madam President. Next five speakers are Sicha Sanjuri, Luca Lai, Vanessa Flynn, Assad Olvala, Carrie Kaufman. So, tomorrow in uh rules committee of the city, you're going to have to pay $860,000 for the election of 2022 and you agreeing to pay for any upcoming election. So, where that money is going to come from? You have uh discussions about neighborhood schools. You are not a neighborhood school district. You are a choice district. You have no obligation to protect neighborhood schools. You are a choice district. So, you can close schools because kids, everybody has options to go anywhere. You have buses. You have over 25 buses that go to six schools, supplemental buses every day. You have never given a budget on how that money where that money comes from. You don't have to do that. You have 20 people assigned to your newcomer administrative staff. 20. And I don't see any of them being eliminated here for less than 3,000 students.

Good evening. I'm Lucy, the principal at Franklin Elementary. I'm also a proud alumnest of OSD. I've been here for a while. Um, but I'm here to say that the system that we currently have, the way it's funded and structured, is not working for our students and and our it's not working for our schools and students. When um teachers walk out on two of the last three stri um bargaining cycles on strike is not it's not simply a labor issue. It's a distress signal and that's fired by a broken system. Strikes cannot be our new norm. It just can't be. When high schools lack the staffing to provide basic A to G courses, we are not just dealing with SK sched scheduling challenges. We're are closing doors to college and future careers. When schools must rely on supplemental funds, title one funds, concentration funds, or other grants to fully fund essential positions like TSAs, attendance specialists, community school managers, and social workers. We're are building a foundation on unstable ground. Core staffing and services cannot depend on temporary or restricted dollars. We have to fund schools stably and equitably for long-term success. Without a strong base, we would struggle to function. And Franklin is one of those schools. And as a district, we cannot survive or thrive in those conditions. I'm sorry, I'm over time. Um um I just want to say that I'm here because I really care about our district, but I also want you to know and I'm telling you honestly with urgency that we are at a we we have reached a breaking point and you cannot continue to ask us to do more. This is not here about the ar the this is not about saving schools not saving schools this is about saving our district and our students are watching our educators are watching our community is watching and I'm asking you to work with us the leaders who are working at the school sites every single day to

lean on our expertise and to trust our point of view about how we can run our schools safely and well for our students. And so I ask you to act now and I ask you to make the decisions that will help build a stable foundation for our students and for our district's future. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Vanessa Flynn and I'm the proud principal at Sequoia Elementary School. As a principal, I have the privilege and the responsibility of experiencing every day what it takes to run a high quality school. The work extends beyond instruction. It includes ensur ensuring student safety, supporting mental health, meeting diverse learning needs, maintaining strong family partnerships, and creating an environment where both students and staff can thrive. These day-to-day realities, they're complex and they're demanding and they're deeply human. A principal, a part-time CSM with upwards of 450 students at title at a title one school or in some schools no CSM, no TSA. The one pagers and the subsequent decisions that leaders have had to make based on staffing and budget, the budget that was handed to us do not reflect an understanding of what it means to lead a school effectively. I'm sorry I'm going over. It is a call to put thriving schools on the back burner and instead to school leaders, the message is do what you need to do to survive. Let's please stop normalizing just surviving. Let's look deeply into the root causes of this budget crisis to go to ground decisions in the realities of daily operational and adaptive demands that it takes to lead a school well. Please, a highquality school can't exist without highquality people. And those people need adequate resources, manageable workloads, and professional respect in order to succeed on behalf of our students and families. Fiscal responsibility, yes, it's essential.

However, cutting resources without fully considering the day-to-day impact, the risks undermining the outcomes that we seek to improve, has the board considered the unintended consequences of what we leaders are being asked to do here? I respectfully call on you to please engage closely with us, the school leaders who are the experts of what it takes to lead a school well and to understand uh the demands and the realities. I'm asking you please reinstate community school leaders 1.0 FTE teachers on a special assignment 1.0 FTE attendance specialists 1.0 STIPS 1.0 0 and noon soups.5 FT per student. These are essential. Community school managers and TSAs are essential. Okay. Especially at a school with 450 kids, uh 500 kids, 600 kids. It doesn't make sense.

Thank you. I'm going to ask you to wrap that up. Thank you. I can talk. I try to listen to

one minute. Right. I will try and also honor the one minute. Uh I do have concerns with it only being one minute after we waited two hours uh for for open session to start. Um uh my name is Carrie Kaufman. Uh I do have a long uh a long list of comments. However, I will save that for union time. I will use this time to speak for Principal Shandere, the principal of Walking Miller, who was not able to stay two hours uh extra. This proposal will directly reduce the quality of services students receive. Without adequate staffing, we will not be able to raise reading rates, ensure student safety, or create a consistent sense of belonging for children. These are not abstract concerns. They are our daily conditions that allow schools to function. When students feel safe, unsafe, unsupported, or unseen, chronic absenteeism increases. That absenteeism then leads to further funding loss, creating a compounding cycle that harms the very schools already under the most strain. This plan will not stabilize schools. It will accelerate their decline. It also raises serious concerns that schools are being allowed or forced to deteriorate to the point where communities feel pressure to intervene through fundraising, volunteer labor, or by accepting closures as inevitable. That is not responsible or ethical way to make decisions about public education. decisions about stu schools should prioritize students learning, safety, and well-being of of above other considerations. I will save the rest of this for union time.

Thank you. Uh next speakers. Uh last five speakers are Phoebe Nuin Akun Eay Chelanda Gregory, Katherine Camp, and Brandon Wall. And again, if we could stick to one minute. Thank you.

Uh, good evening. My name is Phoebe W. I'm an occupational therapist with special education and vice president of SEIU. Um, I'd like to credit this board and super superintendent Sadler with the difficult work of taking a closer look at contracts and central office expenditures. I'd also like to share a couple of pro proverbs and idioms um, as you work on the budget. The first one is haste makes waste. hastily rushing proposed uh reduction in labor um is is and will be wasteful. The return on investment of these 125 on the ground positions is in attendance is attendance health. This is site level labor dollars hard at work. More bounce for the ounce. How do we realize more um bang for the buck as as we'd say? Um focus on the core base. Focus on the basics and the fundamentals. How do we realize that? We realize the force of the 125 ground level positions across schools and facilities. This includes classified professionals, case managers, family engagement specialists, culture keepers, instructional assistants, and restorative justice facilitators.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening everybody. Um, I'm AD Kunlay, case manager at Oakland High School, SEIU member. So, I just want to say I am the case manager that they're talking about. I'm the person who works directly with kids for every single thing that goes on in their life, the crisis that they have. I have five kids right now in real crisis. I know what the school look like when I'm not there for one day. So for somebody to tell them kids that they that they don't have me for good as a case manager, I just can't imagine that for them. And that's just five kids on my mind right now. Everything I'm saying right now can be proven with a simple phone call or a site visit. If you go to my school and talk to any kid at all, give I'll give you my phone number, my picture, whatever, and you ask them on any given day how impactful their case manager or myself as their case manager who has 400 kids by myself, and I work with almost every other case manager's kid. You can ask anybody how impactful our work has been, and I guarantee you, you won't hear anybody say anything negative, no matter who the kid is. We have 1,600 kids. So, I I can't see why as a case manager our jobs can be taken away. We work closer with kids than anybody on campus for every single issue. We are the triage.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Okay. Hello. Um, my name is Katherine Camp. I'm a parent to a first grader at Glen View Elementary. I'm here on behalf of Glenn Glen View Elementary parents and our PTA executive leadership to oppose the proposed 10% cuts to school site budgets because these cuts are not just numbers. They are literacy support for our struggling readers. They are mental health services for ch children in crisis. They are enrichment programs that keep kids engaged and connected to school. At Glen View, this means losing around 300 to $350,000 next year. These are studentf facing professionals. They are not optional. They are essential. The district has acknowledged that a 7.5 to 10% reduction in site budgets will most likely eliminate positions. So, let's be honest, this is a decision to remove studentf facing staff. Glen View families are forced to raise $35,000 to fund reading intervention, mental health counselors, enrichment, and music. If these cuts move forward, we need to raise $546,000 just to maintain what we have, nearly double. Across the board, cuts do not land equally. They widen inequities. They create a two-tiered system. schools that can privately subsidize programs and schools that cannot. This is not equity. That is institutionalizing disparity.

Public education should not operate on a pay-to-play model. A child's access to literacy literacy support or mental health services should not depend on their parents fundraising capacity. We understand the district faces a deficit, but balancing the budget on the backs of students, especially the most vulnerable students, is not fiscal responsibility. Is it a policy choice? If you truly believe in students first, then school sites must be protected. Do not start with the people who teach, counsel, and support our children every day. Thank you that your time is up.

Our kids, let me finish. Our kids get one elementary school experience, one

we want to be able to hear from all the communities. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Good evening everybody. My name is Dr. Shelanda Gregory. I'm the proud principal of Met West High School. I'm here today to speak with both pride and urgency about my school. Over the past five years, I have built the systems, structures, and cultures cultured centered on student success with the support of my team. Because of the sustained work, we now lead the district in student growth. This past year alone, we saw 42 42 point gains in both ELLL and math. Our graduation rate is 94%. Note that won't show on the dashboard because there was an error and we're in the process of correcting that, but it does show on my site plan. Um, I am especially proud to share that 100% of our black and Hispanic students graduated last year. There is no other school in the district currently producing those outcomes. This progress did not happen overnight. It is a result of intentional staffing, strategic budgeting aligned to student needs, and a staff that shows up every single day committed to our young people. That is why I'm deeply concerned about the proposed funding cuts. Losing six critical positions at our school would directly impact student support services and threaten the very system that are producing these results because we are already underfunded. For 5 years, I've been expected to ensure my site budget aligns with our site goals and district goals. I am asking the board to hold itself to the same standard because right now your budget is not aligned to the goals. Right now, budget decisions are not aligned with the shared goal of improving outcomes for students across OSD. If we want families to choose OSD schools, we must continue improving educational equality and ensuring our schools are safe and wellresourced. That requires difficult conversations and difficult decisions, including addressing underenrolled schools rather than continue to underfund schools that are producing results. Our students cannot thrive on limited resources. They deserve stability, investment, and sustained support. So, I'm asking you to reconsider all cuts to schools.

Thank you. Next speaker. Hey there. Uh my name is Brandon W. I'm a parent first. Uh thanks for all you do. This is obviously incredibly difficult work. Um what I am noticing though is that uh you guys are running really close to insolveny, right? Uh we didn't even see the full plan today, right? There are tens of millions of dollars in cuts that are going to be presented uh at the next board meeting. And and I have to disagree with uh Mr. Mr. Brennan who said it should have been presented tonight because quite obviously it should have been presented a month ago or two months ago. Um we had an opportunity we've had multiple opportunities for specificity and real plans rather than plans for plans or plans for scenarios or scenarios for plans. Um and we just haven't seen it at this point. It is more important than ever before that we hold to the board policy of a 3% reserve unrestricted reserve or base fund reserve. Um of course the state you know wants us to keep at least 2%. Um, and I know that some board members think we should actually reduce board policy and just make it 2%, but that doesn't give us a lot of opportunity for error. Um, San Francisco, who's in negative budget certification, uh, they were lamenting the fact that they have a 7% uh, uh, reserve right now. Um, I just want to know if you've paid back the 7 million taken from measure uh, N because we know that that can't actually be used for what a reserve is actually supposed to be used for. So, it's not whether it's legal and maybe it's not, it's certainly not ethical and it's certainly not a good idea. Thank you for all your work.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers? That concludes all public speakers. Uh we'll now take board comments. Director Simmons.

Um I would like to say that I've been on I've been here for the latter part of two years now. And you know, you kind of get used to it. You know, you kind of get used to the tiptoeing to the, you know, candy coating. Um, you get used to a lot of it being here for a extended amount of time. You know, even the staff, not any of us on the board, but the staff that's been around in OSD for a long time, decades, they've seen it. They've experienced it with past boards and, you know, past leadership and, you know, they stay hoping that it's going to change and hoping that it's going to get better. But it really I'mma just I'm going to be completely honest. It really just feels like that we're a little scared to make a decision. I don't know what's going on in close session. I don't know what you guys are talking about behind closed doors, but it feels like we're all just scared of the applause going away. We're scared of the cheers getting quiet. We're scared of people not accepting our decisions, people not liking what we have to say or liking the decision that we have to make. Or maybe we don't have a decision to make and maybe, you know, you guys don't really know what to do and that's okay. That's that's totally fine. But what isn't fine is when, you know, people are left out of the loop and we they have no choice but to say that you guys are doing something shady behind closed doors

because that's all we, you know, that's all we that's all we think. That's all we have to do. You know, it's like when you're in a relationship and you know, you feel like someone's sneaking behind your back because the communication isn't clear and all it really takes is a you can talk to me. That's all it really takes. But we don't hear that. Nobody hears a you can talk to me. Nobody hears you can come to me. And you know when we do say that, we don't really show it. You know, we waited 2 hours for you guys to come down for only one minute of public comment. But and I know we have a specific time we have to end tonight. and you know they implemented that rule but I think it's just the common courtesies that we could give matters a lot. Um and I really just want to end saying that you know it's not about us and that goes back to the applause. It's not about what people think about us up here. It's not about if people like you or if people don't like what you have to say. you know, we're not doing any of this for us. You know, at the end of the day, not to get real bleak here, but at the end of the day, you know, we're all gonna die. You know, none of this is for us. Everything that we're doing up here right now is for those who come after us. And, you know, you're not going to remember any of that any of anything you've done once we're gone. The only people that are going to remember is the people that come after us. and that's the only people that's going to that it's going to affect. So, I think we all just have to be we all have to stop being scared to act and scared to say what it really is. And if we don't know what we're doing, then let's say we don't know what we're doing, so then we can get some help. And if we do know what we're doing, if we do know the decision that we're going to

make, then let's just say the decision. And if there's a reason we can't say that decision, then let's say the reason that we can't say the decision, you know, it we have to say something though. So, thank you for listening. Um, I just want to echo that yes, s support staff and case managers are very essential in our school sites. School is not the only thing that us students face on our day-to-day basis. And the staff that show up at our school sites every day should not be threatened at all. And if you can't look for a deeper solution as you know leaders, then that just shows what our community looks like to you and what you actually prioritize as people. And like we all say, we all know that attendance increases funding. But if we want families to choose OSD, then we have to look at ourselves and make the decisions that are hard or whatever we need to do. I just want to also talk about maintaining professional respect for each other. Something I cannot urge more, especially with the direction that we're heading into. We don't know what happened in close session like Director Simmons said, but we do know that you came out a half an hour late. A lot of people had to leave. People have work in the morning. We have school in the morning. It's a lot of stuff to do, but we must be able to respect each other, the people that we worked with, but we also need to maintain that respect with our students and our parents and our community members that are engaged. It's hard enough to come here and demand things, whether you're a student, a parent, a engaged community member, especially when you feel like the board isn't already complying to what we're asking for. So, I just ask you guys to move forward with transparency and more

respect among all of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Director Barry. First, I want to apologize that we came down late. And I think we were caught up in what we thought was a heavy and intense conversation, high stakes, and getting caught up did have us forget and neglect our responsibility to community and the impact um it had on your ability to show up and speak on really critical issues. And so I apologize. Um, first um I also want to start by saying I think for me what makes all of this so hard to accept is how avoidable it is. um I think very close within our reach. There's a reality where we're not making cuts like this year after year after year and we aren't having the conversations we need to have right now, the serious conversation and planning we need to have to make sure that this isn't the reality next year. A lot of what we're caught up in right now is meeting the bottom line um budgeting um balancing a budget right now and we're not addressing the structural deficit. So, I do think we need to as we do this work speak more to that work and some of us are doing it. It's not completely off the radar, but I do think we need to take that seriously. Um, for what's in front of us tonight, I have just a few concerns. Um, I think that in order for me to get to a yes, which is what I told you I want to be on the 25th to roll out a plan, I think the gaps in information that we have about the impact on programming, the impact on compliance, the impact on the structural deficit, those are things that I know

it's information we have, but we haven't been completely transparent about that. And I think that would help with what some of community is asking for. Um, and when I think about impact on programming services, I think it's important for us to think about the gaps it's creating at school sites. And we heard a lot of it tonight. If we are creating gaps in programs and services, what is our plan for addressing those gaps? How do we plan to fill that? and I would want to be able to have some preview of that plan in order to vote for whatever is going to be in front of us in a couple of weeks. I think that there are still gaps in information related to the gaps uh related to the impact on our finances. So if there's a on I don't know what slide it is but there's a slide that showcases outlines all of the strategies the target amount that we hope to reduce um in the budget in each of those areas. It says track on review or impending and it's unclear what on track means what pending re means and it would be helpful to see that quantified so that there's a total um that we can see that we're making towards getting to that 100 plus million. Um can I keep do I have more time? Yes. I think um and then on compliance, it would be helpful to see uh how we're tracking and monitoring that. Um special education, the charter office, um we spoke about that earlier. Um uh right now it is unclear what our plan is for addressing some of the compliance concerns and how we're tracking it. And having that information in front of us ahead of a vote would also be helpful. I just want to ask the questions that don't have to be addressed right now, but I would be helpful to have them

addressed tonight. And so, um, how much more in cuts should we expect from where we are today? And again, knowing where we're at today helps us preview that, but knowing that number will also help us understand what the future potential impact. We have a lot of people showing up today talking about the impact that they can preview or see because sites got one pagers, right? but what else is down the line and some of that information does have to be presented to us before the 25th so that we can actually weigh some of those tradeoffs in that decision-m and then related to um specifically some of the CSM positions the TSA the STIP the noon the afternoon a lot of those positions do impact our bottom line not just revenue but also performance quality of teaching and learning and so again if we're cutting those positions and I got information back that central office will not absorb some of those functions and responsibilities. So then what what can we expect principles to do? What flexibility and creative autonomy are we giving them at sites to respond to some of these changes? And is it possible for us to get some of that information ahead of the February 25th vote? And I hope there's a second round because I have two more questions, but I'll stop there. Thank you, um, President Brohart. Um, yeah, just just want to say to the community, thank you for sharing, um, your concerns. I think we've we've all been thinking about this as well. Um, we definitely um, need this feedback to understand where the focuses of the programs need to be for the school district. Where's our focuses? It's kind of like we now have a budget where

everyone's interconnected and one cut over here affects another position over there. And I think that's going to be really a really uh tough thing to look at because um uh if we're talking about making sure we keep the cuts away from our kids and making sure we keep attendance as a priority, we keep um mental health as a priority, we keep um um you know restorative justice, we keep you know the priorities in which our students need to thrive. Then where do we look? Where do we look? And so yeah, well, you know, I think we are looking at how do we restructure our our central office to actually move the services down to the school site. So um those conversations should be had when we look at site budgets and then ask the questions how do we bring funding to these particular uh budgets but what we do is we take funding away from another program. So the question is how do we when do we start prioritizing whose program funding is going to go away from and I think that is really something that we have to continue to have these conversations to see where are we going to invest the funds at and what programs will actually be uh reduced. What I would say I'm always going to support the office of equity. Um, I think that they've been doing some really good work to continue to lift up our young folks. Um, I think that it's it's something that started for quite a while, but it's been a success. Our ArabAmerican students, our Arab students need the support as well, and I just don't want to be looking at taking those away, but I will continue to have conversations. I

know it's important to have attendance specialists at the school as well as CSMS. Um, we also want to make sure that we have behavior specialists at the school sites as well. All those conversations are important. The real the real conversation is where do we pull where do we pull the funds to pay for what we need to pay for. And I think if you're ready to have a conversation, I'm still here to have it with you. Thank you,

Director Lada. Yeah, I think I want to start with a comment which is around the um fact that all of our schools, our neighborhood schools are staying open. I think unlike many other board directors, I've received lots of comments from parents and questions about why aren't we merging schools or consolidating schools? Why aren't we closing schools that are too small? And I just want to say that I am in full support of keeping open our smallest schools. And I want to say publicly why. Because those schools are not small because they are bad. They are not small because there is something wrong. They are small because of decisions that we as a district have made to take resources out of those schools. They're small because the city has made decisions about what neighborhoods we put refineries in or we allow legal illegal dumping in. And I also want to say when you look at the makeup of the students at schools that are small, you will not see schools that are reflective of the schools that are here tonight. You will see schools that have no possibility of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to backfund anything. And it's I just feel like I want to say that publicly because I know that it's something that many people want to believe that if we closed all of those schools that we could save every single position that we're considering. And I want to say that's not true. And that's hard. My kids school, my kids, two of my

kids go to the smallest school in the district currently, Prescott. We are also losing positions. We also have to pay for 0.5 of our CSM. We have to find money to try to find a.5 for a TSA and that money is coming out of money that we have to cobble together. We qualify for community schools granted. We have to pay for that. We're losing our case manager. And so this is very personal to me and I I want to say to all the schools that are losing centralized funding, that are losing positions, that I hear you and I feel it, too. And I am committed to finding out how we can find more resources for our students, for the people that work with them every single day. I really am. But I will also say that I am unapologetic. that I don't think the way that we do that is by pointing at other schools to try to find money from them. And I'll save I have some questions, but I'll save them for the second round.

Richard Thompson.

Um, thank you um, President Rohard. First, I want to thank um the superintendent and also um our financial person. I want to thank you for your report. Um, I appreciate you're talking about the oper operational operationalizing, I'm sorry, and the financial goals that we are looking at here as you present it uh tonight. Um, thank you for talking about the fair pay that teachers deserve and and how we should try to work toward that. Thank you for talking about the superlative educational opportunities that all kids should get. But I do want to just end with this. Let's operationalize what those things mean. You and I had a discussion in our 2x two and I told you that I'm a real nuts andbolts person. Um I can talk about things as they are tangential to what many of my colleagues have already mentioned but I think um the rubber meets the road when we actually talk about what the thing is and then operationalize that thing so that everyone understands how that thing functions in the district. So, and and I hope I'm not being too amorphous with with my comment. I I hope I'm kind of drilling down a bit so that you sort of grasp the essentials of what I'm trying to say. Um but again I want to say thank you for taking the first run at um actually presenting information that we must of course um swallow that we must of course you know entertain but again I do want

to say operationaliz operationalization is so important in this case because as you've heard many individuals talk about um and please allow me to say this individuals are talking about what means something to them and in order for us to make I as a board in order for us to make a a real concrete decision even though that thing might mean something to them when we operationalize what the things are for instance the excellence in education if we can operationalize that um if we and operationalize financial goals. If make it mean something to each one of us so that we can make a concrete decision as to how we should move forward. I think everyone believes that we need to have an educational program that's substantial. I think everyone believes that we need something in order to draw other students in. I think I think everyone understands, you know, the controversy between enrollment and attendance. I think we all understand that. I think we all understand colas and what they're going to do. But when we operationalize all of the things that we talk about, it it actually gives feet to those things. It brings them it makes them alive. Then you know we are able to look at them and say okay we should do X Y or Z even though sometimes the X YZ might be an AB and C for someone else and so we're going to go XYZ instead of ABC because it's been operationalized.

Thank you Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. Um, I mean, first I I'd challenge Director Lada to let us know the last time a refinery was put in a neighborhood in Oakland and how that's impacting anything now. Um, you know, I really want to thank uh, Director Smith and Simmons uh, for your words today and appreciate you both individually. Um, but what you said today just really resonated with me. Um, for everyone, this is literally the banana in the tailpipe. literally um there is no plan. And so just to recap some of the facts, um we were told by the superintendent and the consultants that they hired on January 20th that on February 11th there'd be a final vote on a fiscal solveny plan to address the $und00 million budgetary shortfall. Then we were told at our last board meeting on January 28th that today would be the first read of a fiscal solveny plan so we could have a final vote on the 25th and here we are on the 11th and we don't even have something that's enough for a first read. Um I disagree uh Superintendent Sadler. We don't have a multi-year plan and we don't need one. What we need right now more than anything is to address the budgetary shortfall that is looming for 2627. And the fact now that we've hired outside consultants who um have been present at meetings that we used to have with staff. There's no staff there anymore. consultants who were present in close session advising on things outside of fiscal solvency who we signed a $400,000 contract with and their contract expires May 1st and doesn't even take us through budget adoption season and you can hear from their language they're angling for an extension and this all from the board

that has railed against contracts and consultants for over a year then when we actually look at the numbers and what's being presented Ed today. There are specifically $25.1 million in cuts listed on today's fiscal solveny plan. According to their numbers, I'll even give them credit for the 12 million they said they found at the last meeting. 12 + 25 = 37. We need to find over $und00 million. That's roughly $70 million short for the promised plan. Now, what everyone needs to understand explicitly is in order to approve a fiscal solveny plan that can lead us to budget adoption, we have to do it by the end of February so we can issue the accompanying March 15th letters. And here we are and nothing has been done. And if we look at what's actually be done, I'm going to take an extra minute or two like other directors. When you look at the list of supposed central office cuts on this document, you find items like case managers, social workers, family engagement specialists, 20 stip subs. This is not what any of these folks even promised anyone when they failed to develop this over the last 8 months. and the one pages that were sent out to our school sites, you don't see those jobs listed anywhere in any of these documents. I have asked the superintendent multiple times, who is making these decisions? Where does it come from? And I've gotten no answer. And from all I can see, since there's no district staff here to present, this is coming entirely from outside consultants who has spent one month in Oakland. I've been speaking on this exact issue for the past eight months from before

budget adoption. The board was warned about this multiple times. The board then forced out our chief business officer and was still warned about this. We were promised a plan and here we are and and the truth of the matter is it was too late 4 months ago to start this work and it still hasn't been started. And then today, as people will be hearing very soon, this board in close session just voted tens of millions of more dollars out the door on top of this deficit with no way to actually pay for it. And we do know what to do. We had it on the books with the three Rs. The way you start this is by creating a base staffing formula through community conversations. We hold a series of conversations and we decide as a community, how do we want to staff our schools? What positions do we want at every school? And then we figure out a way to fund that. We put an equity lens on that and we de develop a plan for all of Oakland going forward. Instead, we've had a board where now literally a month before the deadline and we still don't even have a comprehensive plan and at best we're still $70 $70 million short. So, the only thing I can figure is when intentionally people make these decisions and take these votes that they mean it. There's intention behind it. And for me, every time I connect these dots, it draws the same picture. I've been trying to say it over and over. I need more people at the meetings and to escalate the advocacy because if people aren't going to manage our finances, if people don't care enough about our community, if they don't care enough about the job that they ran for, then they shouldn't be here. And if a superintendent can't produce a fiscal solveny plan, she should resign. the situation is that serious. And lastly, I really appreciated the comments about Elise Castro. She had a statutory responsibility to step in at the beginning of November. Here we are in February and still nothing. And these people are willing to let us go bankrupt

and not be able to make payroll before they do anything. This is unacceptable. Unacceptable. It's lowhanging fruit, y'all. But only we can save us. Thank you.

Thank you, Director. Vice President Bachelor. I think I think our microphone's wrong at the same time. Um, I want to first and foremost appreciate community for being here and board comments and the many emails that we've received. I also want to thank the Skyline community, the MLA community and the multiple staff engagements that I've had over the not last few weeks. um and even the kitchen table conversations that have been popping up uh to make sure that we have um all voices being represented in these conversations and I appreciate all those folks who've been putting those together. I also want to thank our superintendent and staff who've been working diligently to implement our direction and I see I just want to say I see so much of our direction here and what we've been talking about. So I appreciate the thoroughess of that. Um, I want to piggyback on Director Lada's uh comments around uh school closures. This has been coming up in every conversation that I've had and I have I double tap say yes to what Director Lada has mentioned. But the other pieces that I would add to it is as a public education in the city of Oakland, we are the education safety net for every single student in the city of Oakland and those yet to be born students that are going to be in the city of Oakland. And so it is our duty to make sure that we have quality schools throughout the district and that we have school sites that are easily accessible for our students with programs that are there to support them. We cannot litter this community with ble. I have one of the school sites that um has been closed, Edward Shans, and constantly I'm being asked by community what we're doing there. multiple fires, multiple encampments, multiple millions

of dollars that we have spent to secure sites just like that because we've had no plan whenever we've had school closures. That's why I've also moved the feasibility study so that we can see what we're going to be doing with our school sites that unfortunately had to close so that again we can activate those spaces for community and not have them continue to be ble on the community. Um, I also want to bring up this uh small schools and why I'm a supporter of small school programs. Um, I know Dr. Lada mentioned elementary. I'm going to mention our high school programs. Our continuation programs are amazing and they need to be impleed and implemented. Um, something that has been brought up to me is board policy 5116.1 that talks about u the additional seats for newcomers um in 612 as well as for our continuation programs. I just want to make sure that as we're moving forward with any one pagers with any reductions in central office, we are making sure that that we are adhering to all of our board policies around um making sure that there are spaces for all of our students in our continuation programs. Um, so I just want to make sure that staff hears that and um we can have uh those conversations around making sure that our continuation programs get all the funding and support that they are need um in order to make sure that those programs can continue to function for our students. Thank you. I too want to thank the people for coming tonight and for the people who have I've had a chance to talk with in the last two weeks. um including principal lie and as we as she and I have talked I have also raised those same concerns with the superintendent and we've also had very good talks. Um we've had parent meetings

at Lincoln. We've had parent meetings at Crocker last night. Uh I've met with case managers at high at a high school. Um as well as meeting with other principles individually at at Crocker and other schools. Um, I think this is a really these are really hard choices. Um, I want to really thank the superintendent for having the leadership um to begin to address these issues. And I think for those of us that have been in the district a long time, um, I've been in the district almost 40 years. These these concerns, these issues have have been with our budgets for since that time. And while I think these decisions are difficult, I think that reigning in not only just reigning in the money, but thinking about how our money is directed, how what are our priorities? I think other board directors have spoken to priorities. And as I spoke to some um central office leadership uh last week, you know, I realized for me the priorities are really attendance, safety, and literacy. And I think those do speak to the speech to the the positions that people were talking about tonight. the case managers, the community service managers, the literacy tutors. And I think again as I see those three priorities, um I do have to deprioritize other things. So I think part of our issue in the district for many years has been that we've funded lots of things that we didn't have the the money for. I think we've moved around money and not in shady ways. We've done things to pay to certain programs that were important. I mean, as we speak, you know, I can again, I think to a lot of our community, it's it's the school staff that is extremely important to our families. I think though that we're at the point

right now that we don't have any more money to move around to pay something. I mean, I to me it feels like, you know, when um you're moving your own budget around and you're trying to pay different things and all of a sudden the rents do and you're short. And I feel like right now the rents do. Um so what I appreciate and this process is complex and messy, but I appreciate the consultants, both of them. I appreciate Dr. Sadler's leadership in this. I appreciate the hard questions. I mean, as I've had to go out into the community and talk about this, um, last night's meeting had many difficult questions and people were very angry. These I get it. These are your children. These are your, you know, for teachers and staff, these are your students and we all care deeply about them and and feel very strongly about them. Um, but again, I appreciate taking this step to begin to identify how we can really have an efficient and streamlined budget that we can sustain over the years. I know there's a a request for a second round, so I'm going to go in the same order again. Director Simmons, Director Smith, after

do we have to vote for a second round? Uh, I was just I can do that. Yeah.

Um, no, I would like to before even that happened, I would like to say there I don't think there's no reason for a second round. We've been we've been up here giving political answers, just straight political answers the whole time. We not saying nothing. I think if you if we want a second round, just say your questions to the superintendent. We don't we don't need any of the political answers to make it sound good or the or the apologies or anything like that. We've been sitting we've been sitting here since 5:30. We left our meeting early. We could have stayed We could have stayed at our at our meeting. We've been here since 5:30 waiting to give our report. We don't need a second round. You can pass if you'd like.

Yes, I'm passing. We would like to get our report done. Thank you. Uh Director Barry,

they're next. That's where we want to wrap this up. Yes, we're changing the order again. Sorry, just want to understand um Director Simmons, are you asking that Dr. Sadler address questions already raised in lie of a second round? I'm saying if you want to speak for a second round, just say your questions. Got it. Just say your questions. Dr. S.

I'm just going to um make sure my questions were captured. Um so the first I asked about and uh a report on the impact that the plan is already making on the deficit. I heard director Hutchinson said we still have 70 million to go. I heard Dr. Futo say earlier we've reduced 64 million. I just I want to know what it is and it would be helpful if that was itemized so we know where the reductions are happening. This the second thing is the plan for programming for the gaps created by the cuts that we're making. How are we supporting our staff in preparing for what school might look like in the absence of some of those positions? And this is important because if we can't come up with good answers before we vote on this, that means there's still work to be done. And so I feel like there's a lot of urgency around that. The third is information about how we're tracking and monitoring compliance with the SNC movement, the bonds and measure, use of bonds and measures, the special education, um other things. And then three questions that I didn't raise the first time is how much of this addresses the structural deficit because if there's an opportunity for us to make decisions today that make it easier for us later, I think we have to prioritize some of those decisions even if we didn't give that instruction or that guidance in the initial resolution. Um because the bottom line isn't necessarily the integrity of that resolution. The the bottom line is this structural deficit. The second question I have is if we anticipate, there have been conversations even today about making additional cuts to central office, making additional cuts to

contracts and services. Um, what additional work do you think is even possible? Um, and what else would you recommend that this board consider that we did not instruct you to do in that initial resolution? Um, again with the bottom line being a balanced budget and and correcting the structural deficit. And then finally, I think that's it. I think I'm going to stop there. Thank you, Director Barry. Director Lada.

Yeah, I just want to um raise a few questions. The first is around the TK hubs. Um, Dr. Sadler to just make sure that I share other people's confusion that my interpretation of that direction was expanding enrollment but the way that it's listed in the scenario talks about savings only. So I know that there'll be a fuller presentation about that but I do think it's important that um we are in a world in which we have to address you know and we have to address our revenue as much as possible that I think that's important. And I think the second thing is around I share people's concern about um the work that we are trying to do around attendance and we have I have asked the question and I just want to raise it again is what is working and why are we continuing to fund certain things and not other things such as case managers or fully funding attendance clerks because I think that's a critical piece for us to um and the community to support any of these reductions. I think the other thing I would just say is that as much as we do need to stabilize our financial house, we can't forget the fact that we're running a district that is about supporting and educating young people. Um, and we I've said this before, we have a strategic plan with five different priorities. And I would just ask that we're clearer about what is the priority that we are funding underneath each one of those parts of our strategic plan and why is that and what are we tracking moving forward because again I think that part of having a vision for what we're why we're doing all of this painful work right now is that we are going to somewhere better for our students and for our district moving forward. Um, and that, uh, is all of my questions. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Thompson. Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. Uh, respectfully, Director Lada, if that's what you wanted, that would have been a great presentation to agendaize at the budget and finance committee meeting. And respectfully, Director Barry, if there's not a document, it's not true. And so the where I get $37 million from is from the two documents that Superintendent Sadler has given us. It doesn't matter what anyone stands up and says, especially when they're not even a district employee. And what people are doing is people are trying to fill in the gaps for the fact that the work still hasn't been done after all of these months. After all of these months, I started asking Superintendent Sadler and President Brohard in September to take action to develop a plan. I'm I'm from this seat. There's a dozen videos of me saying the same thing. And here we are weeks from the actual deadline and people are talking about, let's ask a question. Let's figure out how to do this in the future. acting like it's some abstract exercise or we have a benign role in this. There's seven fidiciary agents of OSD who are charged with managing over a billion dollars a year and that's the seven school board directors. So to turn around and ask an interim superintendent to ask her outside consultants who have been here for a month a question about what we should do. I I don't even understand this exercise. We've never seen anything like this before. And you throw in on top of it um the mistruths that have been spoken, the fake virtue signaling, and the lack of understanding. So, there's some core problems. You know, um people have talked about central cuts, central cuts,

then they see a plan that actually cuts central spending because that's what the word actually means. And then people react like they didn't know that's what was going to happen because there is no firm distinction between central and school sites the way our district is organized. People want to talk about school closures. Not only am I here because my schools were closed. I authored the resolution to resend the past school closures. I had the deciding vote to end the blueprint process and I also authored the three R's resolution so we could have a new way going forward. And at a certain like I I told myself I'd be under control tonight, but um this is embarrassing. It's heartbreaking. But more than that, I can't believe that Oakland is not up in arms. There was a time in my city where we would have run folks like this out of town real quick. And we've allowed this to happen. And here we are over a year deep. And we will be taken over by the county sometime within the next 6 months. And that will happen less than a year after we finally got back local control after 22 years because we did prove we knew how to do things. And this board with their new way of doing things is why we're in this situation. So, I don't know why anyone sitting out there would accept that your elected official would sit here and ask questions or talk about their theories on school closures when we're facing a $100 million budgetary shortfall. And we literally have two weeks to figure it out. That's our situation. This is unheard of in California. And this is the abnormal behavior that we've allowed to happen here. And it becomes more and more apparent every day that I'm the only Oakland native and only OD graduate up on this board. And at a certain point, I just have to question whether people actually care about us or if they're

just operating under their other agenda or operating for the people who actually pay their salaries. Thank you,

Director Williams. Thank you very much, Vice President uh Bachelor. Um yes, I I agree with um with the statements that we have some tough decisions to make. Um the the the thing that I I just don't want to slip our mind is that we have actually cut $100 million previously. We've cut 100 million. And when we actually came back into the school year, there was a another cost that we had to cut. The hund00 million was previous to what we are today. And I think it's it's we get lost because we are so focused on you know how to take care of this budget today. But really what it is is this has been coming the the the bill is due. It is coming to us right now and I think it has been a challenge. Yes, I admit that it has been a challenge, but we've also had opportunities from previous uh leadership to redirect us in the right way and it just did not happen. So, I'm going to own up to this. I'm going own up that these are tough decisions, but you know, I'm not shying away from it. I think it has put us all in a position to look around and see how we going to work together to move this forward.

So, you know, it it it is something that we will have to deal with and uh I look forward to working with you on this as we move forward. Thank you. With no other board comments, um I think we're also going to switch up the agenda a little bit because I know we have our student board directors that need to get back home. Um so we're going to move on to K unless there's any objections from my board colleagues. Seeing none, um we are going to go ahead and take the student board report. Take it away, amazing young people.

Good evening all. Thank you so much for being here tonight. During our reports, we will go over ACC updates and we will talk about the sale of civic engagement for students who are eligible and we will close with community events the click. Okay. To start, January 29th, ACC held their third high school meeting at Castlemont with 10 attending schools and 32 students. We had students from Castlemont, Met West, Fremont, Shouer Truth, Rugsdale, Life Academy, Oakland High, Oakland Tech, Oakland International, and Skyline. We also want to say thank you to everyone who attended and all the staff who made it happen. We had a lot of central office staff volunteers like Sarah, Nicole, and Jerome. Thank you for attending. And we also had some turnout from a few board members along with our interimm superintendent. At this meeting, we did a budget simulation so students can see the reality of making these harsh decisions on the board. And then later in our day, the high school super the high school network superintendent came by to give a presentation about the OSD graduate profile. Thank you, Jennifer and Vanessa, for the great presentations to ACC and our students. We hope you were able to gather a lot of information that will be helpful for our future generations. Please keep an eye out for our next email regarding our fourth meeting at Fremont from 11 to 2. Just as a reminder, this will be our last high school meeting before the youth action summit where elections will be taking place for next year.

So yesterday we had our fourth middle school meeting. Um, if you don't know what the middle if you don't know what the monthly middle school meetings are, it is a meeting where every middle school across OSD is invited to bring some representatives from their middle school, which are students. Um, it's usually leadership students or whichever students volunteer or whichever students a teacher may pick. They come to this they come to these meetings monthly and they do fun leadership workshops. They work towards the middle school ethnic studies conference which I will talk about in a little bit. But at this specific meeting, we talked about middle school ethnic studies conference. We planned and we finalized some of the logistics and information that will be presented at the middle school ethnic studies conference. We finished the program. Um the edutainment committee, they finished working on some stuff and then students were also able to practice some workshops that they want to present at the middle school ethnic at the middle school meeting. you can go. Um, but the Middle School Ethnic Studies Conference, what is it? It's a conference that happens yearly. It's planned by middle schoolers, as you guys just heard. At this conference, every middle school in Oakland is invited. It's kind of like the monthly middle school meetings, but on a very on a very larger scale. This is one of the first events I went to. This is one of the first events I was an MC at. And this is one of the first events I was able to find my voice at. So, if you have a middle schooler, niece, nephew, son, niece, I said niece twice, daughter, any of that, anything. If you know a middle schooler and you think you want them to go into leadership or they want

to go into leadership or just a fun little day to have, they can come to this conference. It's three sessions. The first session is restorative justice. The second session is about ethnic studies and then the third session are fun creative workshops that the students will participate in. They're all in the format of restorative justice circles. Um and it's a it's a fun day of games and workshops, good food, good breakfast. They do get fed so you don't have to bring so you don't have to bring lunch and they don't have to bring no money. So, if you want your student to come and enjoy a good time and learn some stuff, send them here and they get to miss school, so they'll enjoy it.

Now, we're going to move on to the seal of civic engagement. Some students may have received this email. If you haven't seen it yet, go ahead and search up in your email OSD civic civic engagement so you can go check it out. If you are, congratulations because that means that you are eligible for the SEAL. The SEAL is an award given by the state of California to recognize direct actions made by students who identified and address issues that affected their community. This award is for juniors and seniors. So, underassmen keep on working up to it. But the students that are rewarded receive a gold seal that appears on your high school diploma and is documented on your transcript. Please make sure that you're reading through this email thoroughly and make sure you fill out the personalized link attached to it. Um, in January, students will be receiving their email saying that they've met the first couple of steps to earn the seal. As a reminder, students must have satisfactory attendance rate with a 2.5 or greater GPA and a C or better in their history/government class. Now, from February to March, it's a rolling application. So, that means that you have until the due date, April 3rd, to fill out the form. Please, students, do not get the form mixed up with the mentor deadline. Students must submit their form by April 3rd, while mentors have until April 17th to get their verification form submitted. Now, in May, May 8th should be the day that students are emailed their confirmation saying that they've met all the requirements and they should be receiving their seal by the 15th. So, again, students, April 3rd is the last day for you to fill out your form. Please submit it that day and make sure that your mentors submit their forms by the 17th so you can be celebrated.

Some community events that's coming up. It's Black History Month. As some of you guys as some of you may know, I am the I'm the chair of Mayor Barbaly's youth advisory council. Um, this council is a council where we do everything youth. We have an initiative called help a teacher out where we are supplying OSD teacher classrooms with community funded supplies. This is essential classroom supplies. So, pencils, pens, paper, sanitation items, erasers, everything like that. We've supplied over 300 classrooms since August. We've raised over $10,000, and we're now doing our fourth school. So, each month we pick a brand new school to raise community funded supplies for. We do fun little events, fun fun fundraisers where you can come out, have fun, and we give you a reason to spend money. You know, we don't really we don't just sit around and talk for a bunch and tell you why you should donate. We bring you out. We give we give you a good morning, usually on a Saturday, and we give you a reason to spend money and donate to our cause. So, for Black History Month, we're partnering with the Oakland Roots to do a supply drive for Prescott Elementary, which is a majority black, which has a majority black student population. So far, we've received a $500 donation from one organization, which is our biggest donation. But if you would like to donate and you would like to put towards this initiative, you can scan the QR code. And just remember, I told Preston this. I know what some of y'all making here. So, I know y'all are able to donate to this cause, and I want to see some of y'all pull your phones out. So, we have a we have a couple of events this month. We have an event on the 28th, which is a art workshop where you

can bring your if you are an adult, you can bring your kid. All of our events are free of charge. Donation is suggested, but you don't have to donate. We're partnering with E14 Studio Gallery on 9th and Broadway. We're doing a fun art workshop from 12:00 to 3 on February 28th. We're also doing a free community workout on February 21st, which is at Providence Athletics Club on 2134 Market Street, right across the street from Hyburg. You can come, that's from 11 to 2. You can come get you a good little workout in on a Saturday and then donate. So again, we've been doing this since August. Um, and if you would like to support, we would really help. We would really love the support. Last month, we were able to raise $1,300, $1,300 for Global Family Elementary. So, we were able to send them enough supplies for about $1,300. Um, in November we were able to supply about $1,000 and a nonprofit gave a generous donation. October we were able to supply them with about $1,500 worth of supplies. So, we're spearheading this and we're going strong. So, please donate. It's all community funded. So, all of this has been from you guys. So, thank you. And then this is the poster for our other one. But thank you. That concludes our report.

You uh board comments. Uh yes, Madam President. We have four speakers. Sorry. Public comments first. I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh yes. Uh we have four speakers. That's uh Sheila Haynes, Neifa Kosua, Amiia B, and Assada Olala. Okay. Uh one minute each.

Uh Madam President, I see Sheila Haynes hand up. Yeah. Let's go ahead and start with Miss Haynes. Sheila Haynes, you're unmuted if you can speak. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hello.

Hi. Um, I appreciate both of you directors. I just want to first and foremost say I know your parents are proud of you guys. Um, it was nice to run into uh, Director Simmons last year at Oakland High as well as Director Smith last week and I just want to thank you for representing the voices of our students and the needs for us parents to trust the goals and work of the district. Um, there's a lot of distrust right now, but where trust is lost, um, we look up to the student directors to speak out and encourage the board to keep the students needs at the center and uh, safety first and foremost. our students need. I've been constantly hearing about the uh restorative practice um as our ongoing goal to keep our students in the moist joyful spaces. I request that the student board leaders also push for an official ban on hate speech um because it it would really help with violence prevention. I'm I'm proud that there's a zero tolerance of hate speech, but I'm really hoping an official ban will be achieved not only districtwide, but also nationwide. um the N-word, the B word, the R word, even special needs in the disability community, they're considered harmful words for our youths. And violence is also happening because of the N and B words with recent fatalities that happened right here in Oakland. Um with the uncertainty of the budget and upcoming cuts to services, our students have to be safe. And you know, as I said earlier, with it being Black History Month, I need to highlight that the needs of our most vulnerable black students to not suffer anymore. Um, it needs to be prioritized. Our black students with disabilities are dis disproportionately affected by not only being suspended at the highest rate, but also with the lack of services that they can't even receive. And that continues to put them at the highest disadvantage over and above all students. So, I

appreciate both of you directors and um please continue to speak out and uh thank you for representing our students. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next speaker,

can you read those names again please?

Uh yes. Uh Nafia Akosua, Amy B, and Assada Olala. your name was mentioned like Miss Satada is doing, please come up or raise your hand on Zoom. So, um, Black History Month is Black History every day. So, one of the things that I have is I collect African-American books, different kinds of books on uh, our history. And if you ever have an event where you want to just give books out, I'd be happy to give them to you because I have a lot of them. So, if you just let me know at an event or if you know somebody that wants to read about their history and I do collect a lot of graphic novels because a lot of young people like to read comic books. So, just let me know and I'll be happy to give them to you. Thank you, Mrs. Sada. Do we have those speakers online?

There are no hands raised of the names I called online. Okay. Uh Dr. Hutchinson.

Yes. Thank you. Um, and like I said before, uh, I really appreciate, uh, both of our student directors and, uh, I think you fit right in with the legacy of student directors that we've had in OSD for many years. Um, but I'm I'm going to ask you to um to help us do better. We need to have students here and we need to have students here at our next board meeting on the 25th. Um, everyone needs to know and students need to know uh especially we have a budgetary shortfall projected for next year. We have to pass a fiscal solveny plan that addresses at least $und00 million in expenditures in order to pass a balanced budget for next year. And in OSD roughly 80% of our expenditures go to staffing. So by definition close to 80% of that fiscal solveny plan is going to involve staffing. The school board must approve a detailed fiscal solveny plan that informs the changes in staffing by the end of February because we must inform the impacted staff by March 15th. At best, the superintendent has only identified 37 million out of that so far in the presentation we received received tonight and the one that we received at the last board meeting because of the March 15th deadline. The deadline to present and approve a detailed plan to cut a hund00 million in spending has to happen at February 25th schoolboard meeting. No matter how people might feel about all the noise that's going on, there's only one of two things that can happen

at that February 25th meeting. Either the board will be approving $100 million and cuts to expenditures or they won't and will face the consequences. But either way, we need students here. We need the full all city council here. We need students from across the district so we don't let these decisions get made without the students having an opportunity to weigh in. It's easy to hear from the talk around here. It's easy to think that we have months to decide this that people can keep backing away and going in circles, but March 15th is a statutory deadline. There's no way around it. And if we don't issue those March 15th letters, our staffing levels are locked in for next year, which locks in the budget deficit. And now we have no money left over to cushion that. That's what we're facing. And it's unacceptable that we've gotten up to this point and there's been no engagement with students enough to have a real conversation about how do you envision us getting through this crisis? What are these cuts and expenditures going to mean to you? And what would you like to see both the student directors, the students at large, and the school board advocate for as we have to go forward? But there's no more time. At the next board meeting, these decisions are going to be made. And it could make a big difference having a large number of students here advocating for student positions. And I would argue very strongly this is now the moment that both of you were put in this position to be able to address. It's not fair, but this is where we find ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Thompson.

Yes. I just want to thank both of you for um a very well articulated report. But I I do have one question and perhaps it's um a personal brother of mine and that is the civic engagement seal. I'm really excited about that and so I'm wondering um how are you or are you pushing that among all of the high schools or the six high schools that we have here? I'm just wondering how it's being pushed because I think, excuse me, when young people get involved in things, they can help bring about change. And when change takes place, we know that things can either be good or bad, but in most cases, the change is always for the better. So, you would be in the front of bringing about a positive change in our communities.

Thank you, Director Lada. Yeah, thank you um Director Simmons and Director Smith for the report as always. I was a um just want to you know as was very lucky to participate in the high school meeting at Castlemont and the budget simulation I think was such a um amazing way to get students talking about some of the trade-offs that we have to make and making some of those hard decisions a little bit more real. I think I shared Dr. Sadler's um and director Williams sentiments that it would be we could you know do that in many more settings to help um with prioritization and um and then I think I also just you know I'll put in another plug for director Simmons is help out for Prescott you know I think full disclosure I have two kids there so um but certainly um because we don't do any we're not able to do any fundraising um those supplies are in in very very needed. So I appreciate that and um hope everyone will join and donating and uh can make it to some of your events. Um and also unfortunately I have to work during the middle school um ethnic studies conference. So unfortunately I'll miss it but um hope other directors are able to attend.

Thank you Director Williams.

All right student directors. Thank you. Um just appreciate uh Castlemont the coming and check that out. Really appreciate how you made that h work really engaging. Really was excited. I thought could we just bring that back to other high schools as well. I mean I think that would be for math or for government have individual students start to think about how decisions are being made. Um, so hopefully there's an opportunity to expand that conversation with young folks as well. Um, also just appreciate uh, you know, as you move it forward, I want to be at that next meeting. Um, try to attend a couple more meetings just to get a chance to talk to you and figure out what the vision looks like. Um, there's a couple things I still want to do with you, which is the stellar student award. I think there's a lot of students who are doing some fantastic stuff. Not only what uh Director Simmons doing, but there's a lot of students that are really in the community doing that work. Hopefully as a board we could take an opportunity to recognize that work. Um and just, you know, showcase the students. So hopefully whenever you're ready, you know, I can do that as well. Um so hopefully we can get that going. Uh thank you again. Appreciate it. Thank you, Director Barry.

Just want to say thank you for your leadership tonight and all the work that you're doing on behalf of students and in the community. I will be attending the conference and hopefully also the creative writing uh event with my kids. I am curious tonight if you have the app the energy for this if you're able to share how students are responding to some of the conversations we're having. Um Dr. Sadler mentioned some of the resources and services that staff impacted by what we may decide on the 25th um that they're providing staff. And I'm wondering if students, you know, could benefit from us resourcing some sort of conversations um around the adapting that all of us are going to have to do on the other side of this. Thank you. Um yeah, so I appreciate uh the presentation as always. Um, I want to uplift one of those amazing young people that director um, Williams talked about. Uh, one of our Mccclimman seniors was headed to the Super Bowl as a part of the coin toss. Um, events like that are really wonderful experiences for our students and I'm super excited that he was able to be at what I call Bonito Bowl um, and uh, witness some of uh, some of that amazing uh, night. Um, I really appreciate getting information about the seal of engagement. Um, the civic seal of engagement, I apologize. Um, and would be really interested um in uh supporting um the recruitment of more mentors. So if there's information that can be provided to the the full board as to um how we can um you know support uh folks uh becoming mentors and supporting

students in getting mentors because I want to make sure that every single student that is able to get the seal is able to get a mentor and be able to go through that process. I'm also happy to become a mentor if folks are interested in uh or in doing any work around housing or immigration. that's deeply important to me and something that I've been uh working on for a long time. Um I again commend you for the work around um in fundraising for our schools. I think every single school site that's been touched has been supported by you and I think that's really helpful. And I also appreciate the addition of um health events because I feel like a lot of times um there's just a lot of different types of events and I really think that um uh physical health equals mental health and that can support both of those at the same time. So I appreciate that. I would love to know when you're going to be in district 6 uh and which school you're going to choose in district six. Uh I I appreciate the the Deltas and the Divine 9 adopting Burkhalter. Um, but there are many different school sites in my district that would love to get some support as well. So, um, you don't have to answer now. Um, but just keep me posted. I would love to have you at one of our schools. Um, Director Bhard, um, thank you for your report and I apologize for the lateness of it. Um, but also thank you for the QR code. Uh, it was very easy to just do right now, so I appreciate that. So, thank you for making the donation easy. And with that, uh, I believe we're, um, headed to, uh, S3. Is that correct? Director Bard, would you like to take the chair? Uh, S3, which is, um, excuse me, the amendment to the district's early retirement incentive and administrative agreement, public agency retirement services, and the I believe Miss Gard has a presentation.

Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening. Um, could you pull up um please Doc Dennis Yu? He's been on hold for um he's from PARS. He's the executive vice president of um PARS and he'll just be sitting on with me. Start. I realized I my mistake in this. I need a motion to adopt this. Oh, sure. So moved. second. Thank you.

Okay, it's good. Is he on? Okay, great. Um, so we I'm here just to give an update on where we are with PARs. Um, and for the community, it's an early retirement incentive for employees who are 55 or older and have had five years in the district and also have a FTE of.5 or greater. And if they meet those requirements, then they can um go on to the early retirement incentive, which is uh 75% of your annual salary paid over time. And then the employee can choose the time that they want to do that. We have 1,66 employees that fit into that category. of that just 145 of them currently um want to sign on to the PARs. And so um what I'm here for today actually is to ask the board if we can extend the window because we have had some employees that have reached out after the window closed. Um so we want to extend till uh February 19th. We're gonna offer um three days um well for this whole time actually every day but we'll have dropins at Marcus Foster connecting people with PARs. They've been great and have been accessible um to meet with our employees and then we'll have staff also doing that. So, um I'm just here to ask for additional time and then we'll come back on the 25th and um be able to talk to you more about, you know, if we move forward or not. So, I'll stop there and see if you have any questions. Uh board members, I just want to indicate that um several of our

union leaders have um approached me directly requesting this extension and I'd like to recommend support recommend your approval of that extension. Since we've started, we'll take board questions first and then public comment. I have one question. I know that they'll be at Marcus Foster, but um is there also a Zoom option?

Yes, we we'll we'll be doing both. And what we're So the Paris team um Dennis's team are the ones that really can sit down and go through their um packets because that's how it works. But we're also available just to talk to people and help connect them to stirs and just, you know, some of their benefits questions. And it's just a a tag team. But yes, we'll offer Zoom as well. I mean, I guess I was wondering because I know are are they pl is the Marcus Foster planning to stay open later than 4:30 for a lot of We're we'll be there in we're saying until 5 because people can come in till 5 and then it'll be later and Yeah. All right. I hear. Thanks. Mhm.

Are there any other board? U Barry? No. Okay. All right. Um no other questions. Is there public comment on this? Yes, Madam President. That's Olaba. She's okay. She's passing. Um, are there any other board comments or uh public comments? Uh, uh, that's the only public comment before this item. All right. With that, Mr. Rickstra will take a roll call vote.

Yes, Madam President, I just want to note in the record that uh I I heard Mrs. Guard's presentation. It's more than just uh the uh the items listed as to what you're being asked to approve is in the resolution in the resolve clause. One of the additional ones as you're appointing the chief uh talent officer as the administrator of the plan uh and uh yes and extend in addition to extending the date and to have a final decision by the board on February 28 25th. That's all spelled out in the resolution. So, I just want to make sure that you understood that as you take this vote. It is two additional elements other than the extension of time. On the roll call, uh, director, student directors are absent. Uh, director ladder,

yes. Director Williams, yes, sir. Director Hutchinson, Director Barry, yes. Director Thompson. Yes. Vice President Bachelor. Yes. And President Brohart. Yes. Motion's adopted. Thank you. Next items. Um the next item on the agenda is item S2 declaring the need for emergency construction services for the repair of dangerous conditions Ralph J. Bunch Academy via demolition of existing structures to exist as modified. Are there public is there public comment on this issue? Oh, I'm sorry. Is there a motion? So moved. Second.

And are there any public comments? Uh, yes. There's one. Assad Olala. Okay. Uh,

we are on the demolition. Uh, S2. I'm going to repeat what I've been saying um about Bunch and you tend to ignore it but it's extremely important. Bunch had some issues related to hazardous materials at the campus. The students were removed from the campus with the intent of the issues being dealt with and the students returning to their school. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done. In the process of doing absolutely nothing, the school was allowed to deteriorate to the point of being blighted property. And then that followed with damages to the property, several fires on the property, hazardous materials being exposed today to the general public, including a public library right next door, and an outdoor facility, wreck facility across the street. There should be something in terms of accountability related to the facilities lack of uh performance of their duties. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Thank you. Are there any board comments? Mr. Rickstar, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes, this is a motion that requires four fifths of a vote, which means five board members in order for it to pass. Uh student directors are absent. Director Lada, yes. Director Thompson, yes. Director Barry, yes. Director Hutchinson is absent. Director Williams, yes. Yes, sir. Vice President Bachelor. Yes. And President Bhar? Yes. Motions adopted.

Thank you. Uh, the next item on the agenda are um comments from labor partners with five minutes each. Do we have any online? Currently, there are no hands raised for uh collect the bargaining unit commenters commenters. We have SEIU and UIOS.

We will give eight minutes each. I didn't get to share this earlier because of the time limit. So, I thank you for the extra time. Um, I also wanted to really paint the picture of the urgency that we face. Aside from our students being our number one asset and resource most important people at our in our district, the number two most important people is our staff. And I just really need you to understand the urgency and what we're feeling at the site levels so that you can use that to help determine your decisions. Um, so we are losing educators at alarming rates. We have vacancies we cannot fill. Every gap stretches the remaining staff thinner and every shortage chips away at the stability our students deserve. We are dying by a thousand cuts. We really, really are. We um OD is filled with extraordinary people, talented, dedicated, compassionate educators who show up every day determined to do right by students even when the system makes that work harder for us and harder than it should be. Great leadership inspires hope and gives people something worth moving toward. Right now, many of our educators, we feel that hope slipping away. We are the people leading schools every day and it's disheartening to join district meetings to hear that our that schools should prepare for more of the same and in many cases even less. If we continue to uh continue on this path, OSD will lose the very people who have been holding it together. Because the truth is this district has remained afloat largely due to the acquired heroism of our staff. Educators working the jobs of two or three people. Leaders sacrificing nights, weekends, and time with their own families, including this time now for our students and for our district. But even the strongest people have limits. And so, as I said before, we have reached a breaking point. And we

cannot you cannot continue to ask us to do more with less. If we don't change the way our infrastructure is arranged, we will continue with this vicious cycle of losing students, losing staff, losing students, losing staff, and it's going to get to the point where I don't know if we will have a district to save. Thank you. I'm going to um finish um the comments that uh Principal Shendria over at Walking Miller um had written but could not stay for. We recognize that financial action is necessary and that we cannot preserve every program or position. However, we must have an honest and serious discussion about what these reductions truly mean. Are we being transparent about who will realistically be able to serve well? About which services will be reduced in practice? about the students who will feel these impacts most acutely. As principles, we are asked to stand in front of families and staff and say that we serve each and every child. Looking at what schools will will be reduced to in this budget plan, that statement doesn't reflect reality. If expectations remain unchanged while resources are significantly diminished, the gap between promise and capacity will fall squarely on school sites. This isn't just running schools differently. This is running schools badly. We are not comfortable with normalizing that standard and we would hope that we as an organization are not collectively willing to accept that either. Thank you. I also had uh my own uh statement and comments that I wanted to read. Good evening board members and superintendent. Thank you for this time. First, I wanted to again uh congratulate uh SEIU on their historic raise and urge the board to pressure the county into approving their contract. It's an This is an investment that's long overdue and one of the necessary steps towards

rebuilding a healthy district and it is extremely important. But let's be clear, one contract approval or or settling another contract does not fix what is happening here. Us members are not seeing a path forward. What we are seeing is chaos, a struggle in leadership, no clarity, extremely low morale, and no vision. In my 18 years in this district, it has never felt this unstable. Our members are deflated. Many of them are grieving what this district is becoming. And people are losing faith, not just in leadership, but in whether there is a plan at all. There has been no meaningful engagement with the appropriate stakeholders around these cuts. Principles and central leaders feel unheard. We are not given context. We are not given clarity. and we're not giving the support to lead our communities through the decisions that we do not understand ourselves. Tonight is another meeting with more questions than answers. And we saw that when more questions were asked than answers provided. One week the cuts are 70 million, another week they're 50 million, another week they're 100 million. It shifts constantly. So I'll ask plainly, what is the actual number and what is the actual plan to get there? The presentation tonight makes it clear that even deeper cuts are anticipated for 2728. Yet still no roadmap, no articulation as to what work will stop. No prioritization of what this district will no longer do. Over 200 central positions are listed for elimination, but we're not being told as to what work disappears with them. Are we expected to believe that 200 fewer employees will somehow continue to do the same work? That is not a strategy. That is magical thinking. Where is the plan? And where are the sitebased impacts? Four weeks ago, principles received their one-page budgets,

the latest they have received that they have been released in a long time. Those budgets are already rumored to possibly be changing. Principles are being told to prepare for significant staff losses. Yet, there is no comprehensive site impact list that has been presented to the to the board tonight. How can this board vote on reductions when a full impact has not been publicly presented? How can the community engage in decisions that they cannot see? Meanwhile, three unions are in bargaining. One is past impass instead of discussing compensation, which for administrators is the lowest in the area. We are forced to spend our time explaining why we feel unsupported, undervalued, and disrespected. And now we are possibly looking at another labor strike. Let me be direct. When morale reaches this level, solidarity with labor actions become real. I would not assume that any group will easily cross a picket line under these current conditions. This is not sustainable. What is happening here is not a budget reduction. It's a crisis in direction. We need transparency. We need prioritization. We need an actual plan. And we need it now. Thank you. Hello once again, Vanessa Flynn from Sequoia Elementary School. Um, I just wanted to I'll be very very brief. Um, you know, us principles, as my colleagues have talked about, we work weekends, we work nights, we give up time with our families. Um, and we do this because we care deeply about our communities, our school communities. We love our school communities. But the funding and the FTE provided in this budget on our web pages, it exploits this deep level of care and it exploits our deep level of commitment and we're hitting our breaking point. Thank you.

My name is Phoebe Wen. I am an occupational therapist in special education and I am also vice president of SEIU and I'm standing here because I have a really big pit in my stomach. I don't have anything prepared because I didn't realize what I didn't know. There is a lot of confusion going on. Um, and I'm going to talk more specifically about case managers at sites and um, people are freaking out. They don't know what to do. There's not enough information. And so there's panic and right now I've spoken to two case managers so far and we don't know what to tell them. And that's that's just not right. I I can't even describe how upsetting this is. So, Mr. Eay spoke to you earlier. He works He's a community case manager case manager at Oakland High. He does really good work. He does home visits. He does um he works with students very closely. um truency um students who just need an extra um motivation push. I mean, he does it all. And he told me that basically he loves his job. And how is it possible that you're considering cutting a position that has such significance to students when you're talking about attendance and enrollment and you're taking away

supports that actually increase the supports I mean that increase the attendance to schools that that's that's you're these are relations right this isn't a transaction um relationship that we're trying to uh foster here. So I I I really don't understand this. This is like crazy. I don't understand what cuts are being made at the site level. People need answers. One of the operational goals that you have is improve finan fiscal controls, monitoring and transparency. I'm not I I don't I don't I don't I'm not feeling any transparency right now and a lot of people are upset. Um there's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot of instability. I think it's um not too much to ask that this board that this district provides some stability for families who are going through a whole lot of stuff that includes health care. It that includes prices to eat. Please think about the people at the school site who are caring for the kids and that provide valuable they provide valuable services to students across the board. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next we have on the agenda um public comment and are there any speakers?

Public comment.

Public comment and non-aggenda items. Public comment on on agenda items. Sorry. Uh, yes, Madame President. We do have public commenters who are speaking. Uh,

as of early 2026, the primary soil and environmental contamination of concerns at MC Mccclimman's high schools were TCE and lead. Let me tell you what happens possibly can happen if you're exposed to TCE. You can have kidney cancer, non-hoffskin l uh lymphobia, cardiac defects, bladder cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, retinal cancer, Parkinson's disease, ovarine cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, miscarriages, delayed reaction time, problems with shortterm memory, impaired immune system, skin disorders, all of That is a possibility that children at Mccclimmans can be exposed when they have tce. All of these diseases and illnesses can possibly be traced to TCE and it's still in the ground and you have done nothing to remediate it. Madame President, would you like me to call the names for public comment? Right. Um, so first five names are Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, Bedruden Cuyavic, and um, aside of all the biologist spoke and Jack Nelson are the first five. Uh, Carol Delton, I want to address uh some of the procedural things that I think have added to the upset and anxiety in the community. I think you could control those. Uh, and I think that it wouldn't solve the problem, but it would be

helpful. So the first one is I've repeatedly mentioned that other school boards have a practice when they can't finish their business their their um private business close session business before the the open session starts. They adjourn to close session afterwards or on uh another date. I strongly suggest you take that practice. Second, every meeting it seems the agenda is shuffled in a way that makes it very difficult for people to predict when items they're here to speak on will come up. I suggest that if you want to take financial items first, that's a valid issue. Please take the opportunity to change it. Third, I just would like to say that the f that that my colleague Phoebe Wyn who spoke up here before from SEIU, I think express some of the frustration that's out there. You've been working very hard. Different things have been brought forward every meeting. Please put them all together so the community can see that there's a comprehensive plan. Thank you. Do we have two minutes each? Is that right? Oh, just one minute. Wow. Um, so, uh, one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time once said, "I want to be defined by the things that I love, not the things I hate." So, with that, I want to talk about the Oakland High Math Club. Um, on Saturday, April 18th, uh, the Oakland High Math Club is going to be hosting a math tournament for middle school students. Um, it's called the Mega Math Matrix. They hosted it last year. Director Lot is familiar with this tournament. I know um as are are the students at WMS. And last year I took 13 students from Edna Brewer. Um and they had a blast. And part of what was so cool about it was mixing with

kids from other schools and teachers and and coaches from other schools. Uh and seeing that there were people just as passionate as I am, just as passionate as the the teachers at Brewer, making sure that kids understand that math can be cool and math can be fun and math can be challenging. We don't have to be scared about math. Um and it it was just great. So again, April 18th, um you know, you can reach out to me or reach out to director L. She'll point you in the right direction. Um and and the Ohigh uh students, they don't just run this tournament. They actually write the problems for this tournament. Um and they were inspired by going to a uh tournament UC Berkeley called the Berkeley Math Tournament, which is run by the university there by by the math club there, students. Um and there's a a middle school math tournament there in the spring called the Berkeley Mini Math Tournament, which I also recommend. So yeah, I guess in summary, um you know, let's let's remember the things that we can feel really good about. Um Oakland High is one of four, uh high schools in the area that offers the AMC uh 10 and 12, which is like the first in a series of of of tests that get you in the math olympiad, the math olympiad team. The the only other uh high schools other than than Ohigh that offer this are Bishop Odow, uh Headro, and Pedmont High. So again, we're in good company when we're doing the things that people think they can only get in private schools. Thank you.

Madame President, would you like me to call the rest of the names? JD Wosian, Arman Matthews, Anika Becker, Quentonelli, last name starts with a P. Ugo uh Agimi Assad Olabala who just spoke Oliver Brennan and Brandon Wall who just spoke. Thank you. If you heard your name and you're not in line, if you would get in line at the DAS, that would be great. Thanks. Uh one minute.

Okay. Good evening board Oliver Brennan. Uh it was very hard earlier to get our what we had to say in done in 60 seconds. And um I just want to um say we understand you've got a really tough job to do over the next few weeks, but it's obvious there's um confusion amongst you and I respect your honesty. You know, director uh Barry was saying she thinks that we're getting to 60ish million with what's being discussed here and director Hutcherson was saying 30. But where we're at is we have tonight been shown that 21 million cuts to central is amounting to 200 FTEEs. So we're going to have at least twice that when we do the 32 million plus the 12 million that is yet to come. But even with all of that, there's a gap of between 30 and 50 million that I hear we're depending on state um delivering in in in the spring which may or may not arise. And we're really budgeting then on future money. And even if we get all of that lined up, we have zero left to give OEA. We have no money left to give a raise to OEA and that is going to cause huge ramifications. Thank you.

Hi, before I speak, I thought I heard Sheila Haynes's name called and she's online. Is that correct? her name was called. Uh her hand is currently not raised.

Oh, okay. All right. Um so I just wanted to talk about um I'm a little confused because um on item T2, the school stability and belonging for disabled students in OSD. I thought that was um ready to be discussed and hopefully passed tonight, but I I heard something that there needs to be like a a fiscal impact done. And so I don't I'm confused and I don't want that um that should have been done already if that needed to be done and I don't think it needs to be done because um at the teaching and learning committee Sandra Aguilera flat out was asked that and said no that that didn't need to happen. So I don't know why that we would be informed tonight that that did need to happen. So, um, we need our disabled students protected. So, this should be passed.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers? All public comments names were called. Thank you. Oh, wait. Sheila Haynes has her hand raised. Okay. Go ahead, Miss Haynes. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can hear you.

Hi. Um, so I I just need to tell a story about my disabled student. School closures affected him so bad to the point where he was physically and emotionally harmed at a school where he ended up. He never recovered. He ended up at another school where he was safe but it lacked academics and he was there for two years just for COVID to hit. So he's lost many many many years of of education and being non-speaking I can't imagine the physical trauma that he had to go through. All I can say is that I wish that there was a plan, a proposal in place back then that would have avoided school and program closures and then a lot of harm would have been avoided in his life and in my life and it's long-standing trauma that we're still going through. So, I I just wanted to speak on the access resolution and I mean, I know that we're in a financial crisis, but um as much as possible, I whatever cuts that are made, I continue to ask that keep it away from our most vulnerable students. And um I hope that the district can approve uh I you know I can't even talk cuz it's so late but I I I hope that the the district can achieve uh financial stability so our students won't be further harmed. Thank you. Um I believe those are all one more. Um, oh, interpretation announcement. Um, let's do that now.

Yes. Moving to interpretation announcement. Uh, we will start with Arabic. I will lower all tennis hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Miss Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. for construction is done.

Great. Thank you, Miss Abdi. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with any Arabic interpretation from previous. Moving to Cantonese. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Miss Ho, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! the Cantonese announcement is done. Mr. Sea.

Great. Thank you, M. Checking attendees to see if any hands are raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, uh we will not start with Cantonese interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again, please don't raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Miss Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please.

Of course. Spanish. Language interpretation. Spanish. Gracias. Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you, Miss Vargas. Checking attendees to see if any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Uh, looks like we do have one hand that is up. So we will start Spanish interpretation and that conclude the interpretation announcement. I turn it back to you President Bhard.

Thank you. Uh we are now on item OT uh sorry consent item agendas consent agenda items I'm sorry. Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. And is there a second? Second. Is there any public comment? Uh, we do have three speakers for Oh, it's Carol Delton, Holly Wilson, and Assado Olafo. I don't see Holly Wilson here. Carol Delton. One minute, please.

Thank you. I was just typing out my comment because I thought I might have to leave, but I'll say it. Um, one, there are quite a number of items that are contractual items uh, regarding special education. Some of those add money, some of those reduce money. Uh, I calculated that it was about 9 million in reductions. Um, special education executive director Jennifer Blake told me that uh, it's actually closer to 13.5 million. This is huge. And some of that reduction um won't be a net reduction because it's happening because the district has been able to hire more speech pathologists and more uh behavioral analysts um directly. Those are M's level professional positions. I hope SPED can do more of that. I hope other departments can do more of that. Um, and I encourage peer-to-peer outreach with extended contracts for some of these specialized positions. Psychologists and speech therapists will trust a psychologist or speech therapist before they will trust a recruiter. Thank you.

Next speaker, please. I I think there should have been some discussion on several items. Uh D10, D13, D16, I'm sorry. Oh, these were items where you were decreasing money being spent for special education. Uh you have on the agenda the safety plans. is your safety plans are ridiculous. They're not safety plans. You don't have anything that really relates to how you going to deal with these kids. This is a generic document with no true specifications. You do have a a section that says yes or no. Do you have an evacuation plan site where the kids that can be identified? And that is you don't even have checks on there. This is a joke. This is serious. How we are going to evacuate these children if necessary? How we going to deal with the special? You have absolutely nothing. And I know you haven't looked at these plans. They don't. It's not really a plan.

Thank you. All names for uh consent Jenna have been called. Thank you. Can we have a roll call on the vote, please, Mr. Rickstra? On the motion to adopt the general consent report. Student directors are absent. Uh, Director Lauder, yes. Director Williams, yes. Director Hutchinson, Director Barry, yes. Director Thompson, yes. Uh, Vice President Basher, yes. President Brohard. Yes. Motion's adopted.

Thank you. On item P, consent items, facilities. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Thank you. Are there any public comments?

Uh, yes. There is one public commenter, Assad Olala. I'm confused with this issue with Garfield because in the meetings they keep bringing up that they're looking at getting $18 million from the children's initiative and uh they're working with the city to get uh access to a city park. I don't know where y'all getting this from. You're going to get $18 million because they have allocated a lump sum of money for the 2627. They don't give money to individual schools. uh this thing about uh delayed uh modernization uh or look at what's happening at another school. You're uh that's P3. You're delaying something. Uh you have a deduction change and uh change order for plumbing at Mccclimman's. How can you really reduce anything at Mclimins when you haven't done anything at Mccclimman's? Okay. So at some point you're going to have to close the school if you're not going to do nothing. You can't be that insulting. You can't be that degrading to expect when you feel like you're going to fix my climates. Close it. You don't have no respect for that school.

Thank you. Are there any other public comments? Uh no, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Rickstar. Can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Um I will go ahead and take the roll call for the adoption of the consent report. Um general obligation bonds measures BJ and Y. Director Lada. Yes. Director Williams. Director Hutchinson. Director Barry. Abstain. Director Hutcherson, is that you? Yes, it is. Abstain. Great. Thank you. Director Barry. Yes. Director Thompson. Yes. Vice President Bachelor. Yes. And President Bhar,

yes. The the general obligation bonds is adopted. Okay.

And with that, we move to item T, new business. Uh we're going to withdraw T1, which is board policy 0441, philosophy, goals, objectives, and comprehensive plan. Board policy 0441, artificial intelligence chief academic officer. We are also going to withdraw T2, school stability and belonging for disabled students, O USD special education programs. And I would like to make a request of the superintendent that we uh get a fiscal impact on this by the next meeting, February 25th. This is a an agenda item that has been before the board for at least the last year and a half. This is another another resolution was placed before the board on the same idea of our disabled students belonging and being able to stay um at their grades span level all the way through K5, all the way through 68 and all the way through high school. Uh it's withdrawn. It will be brought back to the I'd like to bring that back to the agenda to the um board on on the February 25th. chair. Um I believe that folks can still speak to an item even if it's been withdrawn. One minute.

Thank you. Um uh if I may, Madam President, I can call the names that were uh Yes. It's um Sheila Haynes, Matt Glazer, Carol Delton, JD Willian, and Anna Leilani. Uh one minute.

Thank you. Uh, I'm going to speak to this as a member of the CAC. This is outrageous. This resolution was drafted and reddrafted in collaboration with special education staff and administration. This resolution was carefully drafted to provide for those situations where there might be a fiscal difficulty in running a program. This resolution has been, as board president mentioned, in the works for 18 months. It is outrageous that it goes through teaching and learning. There's no mention of a need for further fiscal impact and we end up here tonight and there's no vote being taken.

Next speaker.

Um I mean I echo that sentiment. I'm I just want to say what I'll um something that I said at the teaching and learning committee when it came up and that um the first um version of this came up like two and a half years ago when classes were cut and moved um the to balance to help balance the budget. And so it was decided that it was okay to target disabled students and move them from their communities. And one of the um excuses given for that was that um special education is a service or placement and not a place. And this is language taken directly from the IDA, the Individuals with Disability and Education Act to protect disabled students from being segregated from their gened peers. And it's not meant to be used as justification for traumatizing them and their families by ripping them from their community. And you know, we're talking about keeping people in the same place. Um, yeah. Are there any other public speakers?

All public commenters have been called. Thank you. Uh, the next item on the agenda is item T3, application for provisional internship permit, California Commission on Teacher Credentiing named employees for school year. President Brohart. President Brohart, I have my hand raised for board comment. I'm sorry, we were not taking board comment. No. Yes, we can. We just had we just had public comment. Going to finish my sentence. I was going to say I was not planning on board comments, but since you have your hand up, please go ahead and speak. Director Hutchinson. Well, you could have just acknowledged me in the first sentence.

You could have just acknowledged me in the first place. We don't need sentences. So, I actually have a question for you, President Brohard, as the one person responsible for making the agenda. Why was this item put on the agenda with no fiscal impact analysis included? You knew this when you set the agenda. This is your job. And to now withdraw it after the expectation from the community that something would be addressed because you again failed to follow the basic procedures that we follow as a board. And so going forward, it would be beneficial if you showed some accountability for your role in all of this. So, as board president, you have the job of putting items on the agenda. And as board president, it's your job to make sure that everything has been vetted both legally and fiscally before it's put on the agenda. And so, again, it should be made clear to the community that the reason this was put on the agenda with no fiscal impact analysis is because that was the decision that the board president made. And I know part of the reason is there's nobody even left in the district to do a fiscal impact analysis unless you're going to ask the consultants to do that as well. So this is just um very difficult that things are being run in this sort of way that again the board has not addressed our financial responsibilities and instead this keeps voting millions and today tens of millions of dollars out the door with no care and no ability to pay for it at all. And so board bylaw states that nothing should be put on the agenda without a fiscal impact analysis and it's the board president's job to enforce board bylaws or move to change them. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Hutchinson. Uh moving on to item T3. Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. I'll second it. There any public comment on this item? There are no public commenters for this item, Madam President. Thank you. Are there any board comments on this item? Thank you. Uh Mr. Rickstar, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? I'm sorry. Yes. Student directors are absent. Uh Director uh Williams, yes. Director Hutchinson, abstain. Director Ladder, yes.

Director Barry, yes. said yes. Yes. Thank you, Director Thompson. Yes. Vice President Bachelor. Yes. President Brohart. Yes. Motion's adopted. Thank you. Uh we do have a president's report. I don't have anything to say tonight. Um are there board reports?

Um are is there any Oh, I'm sorry. I just wanted to say thank you to all the staff, the educators, the principles, the parents and caregivers who have been um sacrificing time to give me feedback on the budget process. I want to give a shout out to the students at Fruitville Elementary and Horus Man Elementary who I saw um show a lot of courage and creativity in delivering you know um presentations to the students in their community as a part of the MLK oral fest last week I think it was and shout out to um Fremont High School who was recognized for the work that they're doing as a part of the core network particular particularly the work that their educators are doing to reduce um D's and Fs at Fremont. In particular, Mr. Sunny Chan and Miss Sandy 2. These are OSD alum. They're veteran math teachers. They chair the department at Fremont this year. So, I want to give a shout out to them for all of their work. And then I also want to name that I have my next office hours on February 21. I've been getting a lot of feedback um or folks have been emailing um about interest in attending and so I may change location. So just look out for that. If you've emailed me, you will get an update, but I'll also post online.

Director Hutchinson, is your hand up? Yes, it is.

Do you have a board report? That's why my hand is up. I'm just waiting to be acknowledged to speak. That's the process. But I guess I'll just go then. Um, you know, it's uh uh it's been a rough while for us uh uh as a district and as a school board. Um I really appreciate all the messages I've been getting from people from across the district. Uh especially all the families in district 4. Uh I'll be meeting with uh a group of people at Walking Miller tomorrow and we have a parent meeting set at uh Sequoia Elementary next week on Wednesday. Um please for other schools in district 4, if I haven't had a chance to meet with you yet, um please reach out so we can set up a meeting. And um we're just in real trouble as a district. Uh we have this deadline where there has to be $100 million cuts approved and now the deadline is our next board meeting on the 25th. And this board has now two choices. Either they are going to um ensure that their superintendent produces a fiscal solveny plan that cuts $100 million and approve it at the next board meeting with no engagement, no vetting, no nothing. Or they're not going to approve that and we'll have no ability to pass a balanced budget, which means we will be taken over by the county. And once the community at large learns what happened in the vote and close session today, the irresponsible vote and close session, a vote I was already asked about from the media, and I wasn't the one who told them about it, it's going to be explosive because this board not only refuses to do their job, now they're um very irresponsibly voting more money out the door with no plan on how we're going to pass a balanced budget. For anyone who watched the meeting tonight, it was obvious that nobody on this board really takes the job seriously. Nobody

recognizes the March 15th deadline. Nobody wants to acknowledge that we had an October 8th deadline that we ignored. We had a November 17th deadline that we ignored. We had a before winter break deadline at December 10th that we ignored. That the superintendent promised we'd have a plan to vote for a final vote today. and none of it has happened. And now we're at a place where the superintendent and school board are solely relying on the financial advice of outside consultants who have only been in the district for a month. Um, not only is this unprecedented, there's not another district in California that's seen anything like this. And so now um we're going to be in a worse situation even than West Contraosta County who settled a strike with their teachers union and now must cut $60 million or Livermore which approved a contract with their teachers union and now must cut $20 million. But at least these districts going into those bad choices had done the work to create a fiscal solveny plan which now after eight months we still don't have as a board. And so February 25th is the deadline. I encourage everyone to engage and show up. And there is no having further discussions. Uh if there is not a vote on a fiscal solveny plan that leads to hundreds of March 15th letters, the game's over. we won't be able to pass a balanced budget and we will be taken over by the county again. Hopefully, everyone's time is going to be up very shortly. Thank you,

Director Lada.

Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to make a couple of quick um announcements. Um first, I um will be at Peralta Elementary next Wednesday um from 5:45 to 7:30. They'll be dinner starting with dinner. So the but to talk about the budget um I'll also be at Oakland Tech um meeting with um a handful actually bigger hand than a handful a lot of students um including from their leadership class um again about kind of what's going on in the district and the budget. So, um, if you have an Oakland Tech student, hopefully they are able to attend that. And then, um, just also appreciations to, um, the other folks that I've talked to at Pedmont A. Um, I had an engagement at Shabbo Elementary and appreciated people taking the time, um, in the PTA for sponsoring. Um, after school so that students, um, could still be, you know, having fun while their parents were talking about the budget. And then, um, my next office hours are going to be a little unorthodox. I will be at the Claremont Middle School pancake breakfast on February 21st. Um, so it's an opportunity for you to talk to me, but also you have to give a donation to the Claremont Middle School in order to do it this time. So hopefully I will see some of you all there. Um, and that is my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, is there any new business?

Um, thank you. Um I would just like to add that I will be uh again I appreciate all the school communities that have reached out to me for engagements. If that is if I haven't been to your school community, please let me know. Be happy to attend. I will also be joining MLA families at the um Black Joy Parade on February 22nd. Uh I hope to see my board colleagues there to support our amazing students who are be going to be performing as well as our families who are going to be enjoying the parade. Um with that uh is there any introduction of uh new business? Okay, with that we are adjourned.