Oakland Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the June 24th meeting of the Oakland Unified Board of Education, our last meeting of the year. Mr. Rakestar, can we have a roll call to establish quorum?

Yes, on the attendance roll call, Student Director Simmons, Student Director Smith. Director Lara.

Present.

Director Williams. Present, sir. Director Hutchinson. Director Berry. Director Thompson. Vice President Batchelor.

Here.

And President Brohard. Here. Quorum present.

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

Yes, Madam President. For tonight's meeting, we have three languages available for live interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. We also have a translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. with that we will start with uh we will start with live interpretation we'll start with cantonese i will lower all attendees hands on zoom please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time which is cantonese and i'll ask ms hope she can come off mute and give the interpretation announcement for cantonese

The Cantonese announcement is done, Mr. Hollis. Thank you, Ms. Ho. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation.

Seeing no hands, we will not start with Cantonese interpretation at this time. Moving forward to the next language, which is Arabic, I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Arabic. And I will ask Ms. Abdi if she can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. We offer you the translation of the Arabic language. Please pay attention to the instructions and the following instructions. At the bottom of the screen, search for the circle with the shape of the globe. Click on it, then choose the translation word, and choose the Arabic language. If you are standing apart, there are three points at the bottom of the screen. Click on them, search for the translation word, and choose the Arabic language. Please confirm the original voice so that you can hear us clearly. Perfect structure is that.

Thank you, Ms. Abdi. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to the next language, which is Spanish. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need a language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And I will ask Ms. Alejandra if she can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish.

Interpretación simultánea al español en esta reunión, pero les pedimos que por favor levanten la mano ya sea en persona o virtualmente para saber si vamos a dar el servicio o no. Para acceder la interpretación, si alguien levanta la mano, van a ver en la parte de abajo de su pantalla un icono que es como un globo terráqueo. Si lo presionan, dice interpretation, o sea, interpretación. Y cuando lo presionan, se va a desplegar una serie de idiomas y elijan Spanish, que es español, y ya van a poder escuchar la interpretación. Pero nuevamente, necesitamos que levanten virtualmente o en persona la mano Thank you, Ms. Walker-Marquez. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation.

Seeing no hands, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes the first interpretation announcement for this evening. We will have more interpretation announcements as the meeting goes on, and I will pass it back to you, Madam President.

Thank you. Tonight in closed session, the board will discuss the following matters. Under Labor Matters D125-1864, Conference with Labor Negotiators. d2 23-2491 conference with legal counsel existing litigation d3 26-1554 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation under pupil matters d4 21-2596 readmission student f d5 25-0724 readmission student q d6 25-2635 readmission student y D7, 25-2844, readmission student FF. Under real property matters, item D8, 25-1579, conference with real property negotiators. The board will reconvene to public session at 5.30. Mr. Sechow, are there any public comments on closed session items?

Yes, we have one registered speaker, Kerry Kaufman.

Okay, two minutes please.

Hello, all right.

Hello board, thank you so much for the time. Kerry Kaufman, President of the United Administrators for Oakland Schools. I know you're about to go into closed session and I implore you to make a decision to allow for us to bargain We have not been able to get any responses because there has been no money authorized at the table. It feels like bargaining is in bad faith. We are here. We're ready to bargain. We're ready to bargain all summer. We have not gotten any responses. We would like the board to authorize the district to respond to our requests, and we haven't heard anything. We cannot start the school year with assistant principals and principals making less yearly. than teachers, not hourly or daily, yearly. We cannot start the year with supervisors making less than supervisors yearly and still working 20, 30 more days. We need this resolved, we need this resolved now. Please authorize the district to bargain, thank you.

Thank you. Are there any online comments?

No, that can include public speakers.

Okay, with that the board will go into closed session and reconvene at. uh i'd like to welcome everyone to the board of education meeting for september for june 24th sorry moving through the summer there uh mr rickstraw can we have a roll call to establish quorum please yes on the roll call to establish quorum student director simmons student director smith here okay director lotta present director williams

President Sir. Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Present. Director Thompson? Vice President Batchelor? Here. And President Brohard?

Here.

Quorum? Present.

Thank you. Mr. Hollis, can we have a interpretation check, please?

Yes, Madam President, for tonight's meeting, we have three languages available for live interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic and Spanish. We also have a translation closed caption feature on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. With that, we will move on to announcements for live interpretation. We will start with Cantonese. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Cantonese. And now I'll ask Mr. Yuen if he can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese.

大家好, 這是屋林聯合校區教育委員會會議。 如果你身處現場而需要廣東話的翻譯, Can any announcement is done, Mr. Harris?

Thank you, Mr. Yuen. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will now start with Cantonese interpretation at this time. Moving forward to the next language, which is Arabic. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Arabic. And I will ask Mr. Turek if he can come off the mute and get the interpretation announcement for Arabic.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Turek. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to our last language, which is Spanish. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And I will ask Ms. Walker Marquez if she can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish.

Yes, of course. Ahora bien, si piden el servicio para poder escuchar la interpretación, vayan a la parte de abajo de su pantalla y van a ver un símbolo que dice interpretation, es como un globo terráqueo, dice interpretation, o sea, interpretación, presionen ahí y elijan el idioma español, pero está en inglés, dice Spanish, entonces elijan. And there you will be able to enter the Spanish interpretation channel. You will also be able to listen to English, but at a lower volume. If you don't want to listen to English, you can turn it off where it says Mute Original Audio, that is, turn off the original audio and then press Done, and you will only listen to Spanish. Sí, pero nuevamente tienen que pedir el servicio, ya sea si están presentes, levanten la mano y les van a dar una computadora para que puedan escuchar la interpretación. O si están en Zoom, levanten la mano virtualmente. En la parte de abajo de su pantalla van a ver un símbolo de una manita y ahí está la opción de levantar la mano virtualmente. Si no, como ya dije, no se va a dar el servicio en esta primera parte de la reunión. Muchas gracias.

uh spanish announcement thank you ms walker marquez checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for spanish interpretation seeing no hands we will not start with any interpretation at this time that concludes the second interpretation announcement for this evening and i pass it back to you madam president

Thank you. At tonight's meeting, there are several allotted times where you may make public comments, provided you preregister to speak online before the meeting started, or if you fill out a comment card, which you can find on the table by the entrance. You can submit those cards at any time. speaking will happen after closed session item which was completed earlier adoption of the pupil discipline consent report public comment on all non-agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board special orders of the day there are four items the district's twenty twenty five twenty six annual california school dashboard local performance indicators report the 2024-2027 local control and accountability plan financial stabilization implementation plan progress update and path 2026-2027 fiscal year district budget all funds there will be public speaking after new business five items board policy 5131.8 students mobile communications cell phones application for provisional internship application for a variable term waiver amendment for measure y spending plan request for proposal adoption of the general consent report and superintendent's report please be aware that in compliance with the brown act board members may not respond to comments regarding issues that are not on our posted agenda for tonight i ask all speakers to keep their comments to the scope of the item if a speaker speaks to a different item the chair will need to ask that that speaker either speak to a specific item or hold their comments until the appropriate public comment period I would ask my fellow board members to help and support me in this regard. If you don't get a chance to speak during public comment, I want to encourage you to use the e-comments feature on the Legislative Information Center on the OUSD website. And of course, you can also email board members directly using this format, firstname.lastname at OUSD.org. report out of closed session items for june twenty fourth twenty twenty six labor matters on item d one number twenty five dash eighteen sixty four conference with labor negotiators the board discussed this matter Under legal matters, under item D2, number 23-2491, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, the board approved the settlement in this matter, motion by President Brohard, second by Director Lara, vote of four in favor, zero abstained, and three absent. President Brohard, yes. Vice President Batchelor, yes. Director Berry, absent. Director Hutchinson, absent. Director Lara, yes. Director Thompson, yes. And Director Williams, yes. Oh, sorry, I said absent, sorry. Director Thompson is absent. On item D3, 26-1554, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. The board approved a settlement in this matter. Motion by President Brohard, second by Director Lara. Four in favor, zero abstained, and three absent. President Brohard, yes. Vice President Batchelor, yes. Director Berry, absent. Director Hutchinson, absent. Director Lara, yes. Director Thompson, absent. And Director Williams, yes. On pupil matters, items D4 through D7, the board heard these matters and will vote on the matters in public in section I on the agenda. Under real property matters, item D8, number 26-1579, conference with real property negotiators, the board did not take up this matter. That is the end of the June 24th, 2026 closed session report out. Next on the agenda, we have any modifications to the agenda? And I understand we want to withdraw item Q5. Are there any other modifications to the agenda?

Apologies. Okay. I'd like to withdraw Q5 for consideration at a further time. Okay. It's a withdrawal for consideration at a future time.

Director Williams.

Yes, I'd like to pull 910 and pull 2728. We need an alpha, please. Yeah. Oh, R910 and R27 and 28. I also like to pull R250 and like to pull R70, R73 through R78. uh... are sixty one through our sixty nine they're all package very similar items so they're all package together note in each block sixty one to sixty nine i will consider those package seventy 73 through 78 is a package. They're all about furniture. 250 is separate. Seven and 28 is together. Nine and 10 are together. Yes.

We'll make sure. Are nine and 10 together? R27 and 28 together. R70. R73. Through 78 together. Whoops, R61. There's 69 together.

Yeah. I heard that the. Members who want to confirm the so 70 and 20 and 250 or stand alone.

Yes.

OK.

I mean, let me just read it back to you. Make sure I got it OK. Yes are 9 and 10 together. Are 27 and 28 together. are 61 through 69 together, are 70 separate?

No, 70 is included. In what? 70 through 70.

So it's 70 through... Oh, okay, I'm confusing myself.

Okay, 61 through 70, that's what I'm looking at. 61 through 70.

Okay.

Yes, thank you. That's all transportation.

Okay, R73 through 78.

Correct, furniture.

And R250. Correct. Okay, got them all. All right, any other modifications to the agenda? Director Hutchinson.

Yes. Hopefully when we get to the consent report, if not now, there can be a ruling on the many items that still don't have a proper fiscal impact analysis included. i don't need to pull all of them now but i'll be asking for that ruling later so i wanted to pull r1 r2 r62 r84 r94 94 r113 r115 R-122, R-126, I'm sorry, R-226, R-239, R-247, R-248, R249 and R250. And next time, for an agenda, when I get an agenda, not even sent to me, but posted publicly 72 and a half hours before the meeting, and there's 262 items in the consent report, besides having a full budget, an LCAP plan, and other measures, it is impossible to be able to do this in the right way. So that's why now I'm forced to pull all of these items. Thank you.

Ask you a clarifying question. Director Williams also pulled 250. Can any of the 247, 248, 249 be taken with 250?

No. Okay. 247 is the OEA CBA. How can that be included with something else? And I'm surprised nobody else pulled that.

I just want to read off what I have from you. R1. R2, R84.

R62.

Oh, that's already been pulled, sorry.

Okay, thank you. So I'm sorry, then yes, R84. Yeah, R94. R113. R115.

R122. R226. R239. And are 2, 47, 48, and 49. 50s are even bold. Correct. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Are there any other modifications to the agenda? Okay. With that, we will go on to item I, which is the adoption of the pupil consent report. Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. Second. And public comment.

Yes, we have two registered speakers, Sheila Haynes and Asala Labala.

Okay, we'll take Ms. Asala first and then take Ms. Sheila. This is the pupil discipline report. Yeah. Did I? I'm sorry. Oh, it's the pupil discipline consent report.

clearly alright so at this point you are engaging in determine whether or not students who had been expelled from the district now can be readmitted back into you're not saying if they're coming back into the district are they going to be an alternative programs are they going back to their regular schools are they going to get moved to other school districts because you have that option SO IN YOUR DECISION-MAKING PROCESS, IS THAT PART OF IT OR DOES THAT FALL ON THE SUPERINTENDENT OR SOME OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE PERSON? YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER ME. THESE ARE QUESTIONS THAT YOU'RE NOT OBLIGATED TO ANSWER ME, SO I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. BUT THAT IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING. YOU SHOULD BE REVIEWING THE REMEDIATION PLAN. I MIGHT NOT BE SAYING THE WORD CORRECT, BUT A PLAN FOR THEM TO BE ENGAGED IN NOT ONLY THEIR ACADEMIC uh... pursuits but as far as their if it was behavior related how during the course of the expulsion the behavior actions were in place to correct and to uh... guaranteed no other problems would be coming forth i don't know how y'all do that in that short period of time you up there where you sit down and discuss each child, plus your lawsuits, plus all the other things you're dealing with, how you actually give the attention to and take the responsibility that these young people coming back into our district are adequately prepared to come back, and we have in place what's necessary for them to be their best performances and deal with their issues that caused them to be expelled in the first place. I don't know if that's happening. And at some point, Superintendent, we need to get a report on how that process works for expulsion as well as how students are guaranteed. And I hope we don't lose these students, but I don't know if that's being considered at all.

Thank you. Ms. Haynes?

i do not see miss haynes hands therefore that include public speakers on the motion to adopt the pupil discipline consent report student directors are recused director lotta yes director williams yes sir director hutchinson abstain

director barry yes director thompson is absent vice president batchelor yes and president brohard yes motions adopted next on the agenda we have public comment on all non-agenda items excuse me within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board how many uh do we have public speakers we have six speakers and do we have any online

I'm currently checking online. We do not have any online.

Okay, two minutes each.

For the speakers, for public comment on non-generate items, Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, Lisa Spielman, Mario Capitelli, Asalo LaValla, and Leanna Powell. Those are the six speakers.

If you heard your name called, if you could approach the dais, please.

Good evening. I am Lisa Spielman. For 35 years, I have been a history teacher, a teacher leader, and since 2019, I have been the leader of strategic resource planning. I built systems to eliminate $5 million in federal grant cost penalties. But equally important, I'm a lifelong believer in the power and necessity of high-quality public education. I am shattered that as of July 1, I am leaving. I want to tell you why. Our responsibility is not only to cultivate knowledge, but also to teach young people the vital skill of how to think in our highly diverse and complex world through critical thinking skills and civil discourse. OUSD is failing at this, and OUSD has failed me personally as an educator and as a Jewish employee. I am leaving because there is a culture of discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students and staff. I am leaving because the district's negligible response to the lawsuit was a professional development where some staff members turned the training against Jewish and Israeli staff. In this Equity First District, no leader intervened. No one sought to stop the bullying, even though we'd all agree equity does not allow for bullying. I filed a uniform complaint and there has been no response. By my count, 100 Jewish students have either left the district or chosen not to enroll. In November 2023, I formed a support group for Jewish staff who continue to be traumatized by the hostility at school sites. I am the seventh Jewish staff member to leave. If we were people of a different minority group, OUSD would bend over backwards to remediate the problems and repair the harm. In OUSD, though, Jews don't count. My departing wish for Oakland Unified is a commitment to two priorities. OUSD must build a culture where every single community is equally protected, valued, and welcomed, including our Jewish students and staff, and for all OUSD staff to be held to high standards, teaching students how to think, not what to think, and a modeling respect for all identities and opinions. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

I'm staying I'm staying and I will never give up Never give up of pursuing the issues that impact African Americans in this district I've gotten little results at this podium or at City Hall related to African Americans the fact that African American students are are not achieving, I just saw the student plan for McClymonds. 80% of the students that are there, over 70% is the population of African Americans, but 80% of them are reading three grade levels below where they should be. I'm staying in spite of the fact that the majority of the students who are suspended and expelled are African Americans. I'm staying in spite of the fact that you give more money to newcomers and very little money to any programs, in spite of the fact that you took away the African American studies and replaced it with ethnic studies, in spite of the fact that McClymonds High School just started that you were supposed to start a year ago and you haven't remediated the soil. In spite of the fact that when a teacher came from Fremont and talked about the anti-blackness going on at the school, they lost their job. But when a Jewish person comes here and a teacher, there's no retaliation against them losing their job. In spite of the fact that we are 70% of the homeless in this city, we got 10% unemployment, we have the highest rate of foreclosures, the highest rate of people losing their homes, We have the highest rate of people who are dealing with suicide. Listen to this one. Just came out last week. The highest number of suicides for boys, black boys, are the highest number between 16 and 24 committing suicide. Higher than white boys. I'm staying. And I'll stay until something changes. I'm 81 years old, and I'm going to stay until something changes. I was City Hall. She knows I was at City Hall beating up on black people that's not doing what they're supposed to be doing. The NAACP came here and sat with the Jewish community. They never come here and sit with me about black issues. So I'll be back. I'll never leave.

Thank you, Ms. Asada. Next speaker, please.

Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Liana Powell. I'm a District 6 resident. I'm a parent. I have two littles over there, as well as my husband. I have an adult child who also was a OUSD student. My kids currently attend Burkhalter, and we've been very lucky to find that school and the community that we have found there. However with I know this is later on but I want to make sure that I can get this out because I do have a special needs kid over here who I don't know how long we'll be able to stay so it's it's in regards to the contract for teachers. uh... i'd often kai p meetings i feel pretty confident in doing that however when there are other issues and resources that i want to bring to the school it for my principal to share with other families may not you know have you know all the words are the knowledge to fight for their children uh... i learned that my personal will not be meeting with her teachers as of next year and for me i rely on my principal being able to speak to her her teachers as a manager of the school. So I know this is later on in the agenda, I don't know that I'll be here till 1145, but I just, for the non-agenda items, I wanted to just bring forward that I do not agree with that part of the contract in terms, I want my teachers to be paid, I do. However, agreeing for teachers in elementary to not have to meet with their principal is completely ridiculous to me. Their safety depends on it. Today, I'm a little late because there was an incident at my kid's school where a person was walking past, taking pictures of the kids. They're outside. It's hot. They have long shorts. Some guy is up there taking photos. I worry about their safety. And so when I go to the principal with concerns, I expect her to be able to have time to meet with the teachers.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

All the speakers' names were called. Okay, I see speakers coming up. They were called.

Good evening, Board. I'm speaking very much as an individual. You usually hear me comment on the budget, but if you know me well, you would know it was probably inevitable that at some point in a meeting I would be talking about the Talmud. I brought some stickers, and I want to offer them tonight to President Brohard. They remind me of two kinds of flowers. The Babylonian Talmud speaks of an exceptionally beautiful flower growing in the land of Israel. It's called the kalanita, or little bride, and in modern Hebrew, the kalanit. It grows in many colors in the north, but the red flower grows specifically in the south, close to the area that was destroyed on October 7th. And survivors of that attack look at it as a symbol of their resilience and return. The Talmudic discussion focus on the importance of distinguishing the seeds of the colonite, which are not edible, from other seeds, which are. But these sketches could also be taken for the poppy, pear egg, botanically unrelated and producing delicious seeds. recognized first by the Greeks for their healing properties. It comes from a colder climate and grows in many areas of the world, except not in that particular area, the southern Negev. The poppy has also been adopted as a flower of remembrance and hope by Americans, Canadians, British, and also by Palestinians as a flower of solidarity and endurance. I've heard several recent speakers, including myself, express what we feel when we see the only country that some of our families had or have access to erased, as we do at each board meeting when the president opens her laptop. So this is what I offer as a compromise to cover the land with flowers. This is my suggestion and only mine. Thank you for considering it.

Mario Capitelli, employee, parent, taxpayer. Last week's facilities meeting represented two labor violations and four Brown Act violations. Before we innovate our way out of planning and resource appropriation problems, we should make sure we've covered our bases and handled the basics. Those innovating our work right into a potential lawsuit and complaint aren't solving the most basic problems of their scopes of work, so please don't underthink the complexity of what ours is. I have delivered innovative solutions to document, broadcast and stream every meeting since I arrived here 17 years ago, allowing for less staffing, improved engagement and transparency and improved working conditions all at the same time. If you want to talk innovation, let's talk about how we expand our capacity to tell stories, improve attendance and enrollment, employ youth and provide proper coverage to all of our Brown Act in meetings a Proposal I've been asking for months to be heard that solves numerous problems for free to OUSD That's the kind of innovative solution I'm ready to talk about So if people want to really innovate, we're here. We're ready. If you want to toss half-baked, failed, problematic technologies for meetings where hundreds of millions of dollars are discussed and voted on that don't allow for public engagement, review, or transparency, I will respectfully pass.

We'll move on to special orders of the day where we have a few items so the first one we'll take up is K126-1167A which is the district's 2526 annual California school dashboard local Performance indicator report by our chief academic officer. I don't see her in person superintendent Who was gonna lead us through this presentation?

My understanding and Diana Sherman was going to be making this presentation.

There she is Thank you, good evening, my name is Diana Sherman I am the coordinator of the local control office local control and accountability plan. Um, and tonight we are here to do our annual presentation on the local indicators for the plan. Um, I think as we may remember from prior years, this is a required presentation, um, under California ed code. Um, and we present each year twice, once in the winter on mid year updates, and then once at the close of the year, um, to let you know where we stand on some of our local indicators. Quick refresher, the state has a series of indicators that are used as part of the California school dashboard. These also help determine differentiated assistant status for school districts as well as individual school status on some of the comprehensive support and improvement and targeted support and improvement metrics. These are our district level indicators that are used as part of the LCAP. Um, and so tonight we are here to talk about the five local indicators that are specific to OUSD. Um, the six state indicators you can find on the California school dashboard. First is our measure of basic conditions for student learning. Um, and we talk about teacher miss assignments. Um, 2324 is the most recent year for which there is data available. It lags by a couple of years. And at that point, we had 44.8% of teachers misassigned, which is a significantly higher number than in prior years. So just identifying that as a big change. Percentage of students and number of students without access to their own copies of standards-aligned materials. This is part of what we are assessed on for Williams each year. And we were at 0%. That is our target. We'd like to be at 0%. All students have materials they need. And the number of identified instances where our facilities, meaning our school buildings, do not meet the good repair or the excellent repair status for the quality of the physical building, we have six this year, which includes both minor deficiencies and extreme deficiencies. My memory is that these are all buildings that were at fair, meaning that they are relatively minor deficiencies, but still they are not at good or excellent. And go through their implementation standards. This is where we are on implementing our curriculum. And so I think over the last several years, we have made a lot of headway on adopting new curricula in a number of different areas. And so this is an area where we really have grown significantly. I think the first year that I began this presentation in 1920, a lot of these were twos and threes. Four now is full implementation. And you see that across the board in all of these areas here. English language arts, English language development, mathematics, science, and history and social science. We are obviously looking to get to five eventually, which is our full implementation with sustainable long-term plan to continue that implementation. But four is definitely a big piece of progress. This is implementation progress on some of our other focal areas. You see we have a few still at three. Health education and physical education, which continue to be areas of growth. to get them up to full implementation. We also have our support for teachers administrators on identifying professional learning needs, meeting these needs for individual teachers and providing support for teachers on standards. And so we still have some of these that are areas of growth as well. These are all on the upward trajectory though and so either they're the same as last year or they have grown from last year. Priority three is parent and family engagement. This was a state priority that grew out of a lot of the deep work in Oakland, in part based on some of those relationships that were established. This is how we measure that. And so we look at the capacity of staff to build trusting and respectful relationships with families, how we create welcoming environments for all families, how we support staff to learn about families' strengths, cultures, languages, and goals for their children. and how we develop multiple opportunities for parents and the schools to engage in two-way communication to make sure that families are involved in children's education. The first and the third of these areas are at full implementation. This is work held by the Office of Equity. And then the second and the fourth are areas where we continue to develop that, and we are working on initial implementation, not yet to full. Similarly, these are partnerships for student outcomes. These are also part of our work of parent and family engagement. The first two have to do with how we provide support to our teachers. The second is on how we provide support to families so that they understand what students are learning. If you have a child in the school district, you undoubtedly get some of the emails and you are invited to some of the sessions to try to educate parents around the types of assessments we use, the types of work we are covering, et cetera. So the first two again full implementation and the second our policies and programs that we are still working to develop and ensuring that families Understand and are using their legal rights to advocate for their students. Those are both areas where we are still growing Parent and family engagement input for decision-making This is the capacity of our families to be engaged in both the district level decisions and also in the site level decisions and And again, we have some areas here that we are still developing, specifically how we really ensure that families are engaged in planning and designing and implementing family engagement. This is a work that has been a focus this spring at the district level. It's an ongoing focus at the school level to really ensure we are hearing from all families and not just a very small subset of those families. So that is an area we continue to grow. We do have a lot of opportunities existing and so that one is a full implementation there. But again, it's how do we get engagement in those opportunities. Whoops. I don't think that was me. Priority six is school climate. We use the California Healthy Kids Survey in Oakland to measure this. We look at the same questions year over year and we ask those questions of students in grades five through 12. This year we have current data because this survey had already closed at the time we prepared this. So we had 25, 26 we administered it to all students in grades five through 12. We had about two thirds of students district wide participating and 56 schools where at least 70% of students participated. Um, we have similar to past years, about half of students feeling connected to their schools. And we do see the same trajectory that we have seen over time, which is that that percentage is much higher in elementary school. It drops off in middle school and high school is the lowest. Um, we also ask if students feel safe. Um, this is up a little bit, I believe. Um, but again, two thirds of elementary school students report feeling safe, only half of our middle and high school students. So we want to get those percentages up significantly. And then last, we have our broad course of study. This really looks at, are we offering a comprehensive set of courses at the high school level, and really secondary broadly, but specifically with our A to G offerings, looking at our graduate capstone work, our linked learning pathways, do all students have access to those classes, and are they representing a broad array of offerings? And so this is work that we measure through a number of different metrics, particularly looking at electives, what elective students that different schools have, ensuring that they are available at all of our schools, ensuring we have ethnic studies and computer science across the district, and really measuring how students are enrolling in those courses and are students enrolling consistently across different student groups and across our focal areas. This is some of our status here. There's a lot of access to courses. We continue to work on ensuring that students are actually taking that access and making sure that they really are enrolled in those classes and seeking them out and able to enroll if they're interested in them. We continue to have challenges around funding and staffing. These are consistent across the district in terms of making sure that we can, particularly at our smaller secondary schools, offer all of the elective students are interested in taking. That is just a math game of trying to figure out how to ensure that we can have a fully enrolled class and still have the offering And career technical education is another area that is an area of learning and growth for the high school network and the linked learning team as They figure out how to embed that in the graduate capstone and ensuring that that is really part of the integrated pathway work at high schools and that work is continuing to grow And then this is some of the strategies and actions for this year that you'll find in the LCAP. A to G, again, continuing our investment in career technical education. You'll see many of the grants that are at the state level coming in in the LCAP itself. Also our linked learning pathways and really looking at our underrepresented student groups. In particular, our focal groups within the LCAP. Our foster youth accessing those courses. How do our English learners access those pathways? How do our low income students across the district have access? Ethnic studies is a relatively new requirement. I think, as you know, we are continuing to expand professional development for teachers and understanding how that will be taken up at our high schools. And then multilingual education is an area of focus that is our dual language programs, understanding how those are functioning, how they can be improved, how they are impacted by things like the downtick in the number of newcomers in the district, which sometimes has fed those programs in the upper grades. and really understanding that work. That is the close.

Thank you. Are there public comments?

Yes, we have two registered speakers, Sheila Haynes and Osala LaValla.

We'll take Ms. Osala, please.

I want to address the area of safety. based on what's in your two hundred and fifty something consent items hazardous material removal environmental site assessment geographical and geohazard consulting services removal of contaminated asphalt fire alarm replacements needed disposal of contaminated soil 24 cameras at one school, inspection of asphalt, saw vapor probes, sewer repair. This is tonight what you're dealing with in terms of environmental safety and general safety at your schools. I'm saying that there is a vast amount of safety issues. I'm not talking about everything. I'm just talking about what's on here tonight. One of the safety issues that I take, lastly, take tremendous issue with is your voluntary, your volunteers policy where you do not do background checks. You have an item on here where an agency is going to be doing services for you and they identify that they fingerprint everybody that's going to be involved with the service to your children. That's identified as part of how they they identify credibility for the people coming to deal with these children. You cannot, state law says everybody that volunteers in the school district throughout the state has to have a background check, and you don't do it.

Thank you. Ms. Haynes?

Yes, Ms. Haynes, if you can go ahead and mute yourself.

Hi, can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, thank you. So, for me, school safety continues to be my priority for my student learning online and everything. I really pray that the schools can be a place of love and respect. Since the last board meeting, I learned a dear parent who was working at a school site passed away. I'm still not understanding the details around it, but I was closely connected to him at my son's last in-person school site. I really urge the district to adopt my resolution in mandating a joyful environment that doesn't cost any money. My ongoing push for the district to mandate a culture shift, like students and adults should never be in an environment where language triggers violence to happen. And although I wish you could fully fund the arts, my hope is that at no cost to the district, the district can reinforce respect. There's just so much uncertainty about the budget and the financial challenges, but truly the mindset of a person is triggered by what they hear. So please just reinforce love and respect. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other public speakers?

No, President Brujaha, that concludes public speakers.

Are there board comments? Director Berry?

hi thank you for the presentation i do have a few questions i don't know if we have time for this but it would be great um so the first is regarding what's on slide seven priority two implementation of standards particularly because it's some of this is implicated in the oeata that's on the agenda for tonight the my first question is how do you identify teachers and groups in need of specific professional learning opportunities. And then it says those were measured at 433, and so I'm curious for those in the initial implementation phase, what is being implemented, how is that going, what are you learning there? And then my second question is about slide eight, completely unrelated, because that's on parent and family engagement. And I'm asking because this came up during our retreat, Last. I don't know when it was, it doesn't matter, a recent retreat and there was some conversation that was inspired by the students on our board who spoke about how important and significant their relationships with teachers are and some of the necessary work that they hope to see occur there and so similarly curious what's being implemented to facilitate the development of staff to build trusting relationships with families.

Thank you. I'm going to let Dr. Aguilera, who's on Zoom, address the first question and I think possibly the second as well.

Thank you director Barry for the question. So, in terms of professional development, we have a menu that is considered our foundational professional development. And that ensures that all of our staff are trained in the same areas. These areas are named also in the cap, which is coming up next. And so we focus on the implementation of the training specific to those areas. So. We have, of course, standards-aligned professional development that's connected to the implementation of curriculum, but then also what we call the pedagogical approach, so the style in which you deliver instruction, not only based on the curriculum. We also have RJ, so restorative justice for our secondary schools is considered to be foundational. We also have our equity series of training that the Office of Equity delivers, and that's also considered foundational. We also have PBIS, so positive behavior incentives and support. That is another style of training to foster positive culture. So that's what we consider foundational and that's what we track and we aim to have all of our staff trained in those specific areas that we consider foundational. Does that answer the question around how we decide it does?

And you would observe those things. Because someone is in the classroom, observing, delivering observations.

Correct and there's also our evaluation system. It's cheap. So the teacher growth and development system, it's area 2 that focuses on the classroom culture and that's where you'll see the connection between. What is named in the evaluation process connected to the professional development that we are providing. So it's culturally responsive pedagogy and the way that a teacher conducts the classroom. So that's the area that you'll see that measured.

Okay, thank you. The other question was regarding parent family engagement, slide eight.

So we have had opportunities for families to access centralized gatherings for parents to learn more about a certain topic. And so we have been trying at a central level to provide some of the more general opportunities for parents to access a report cards, how to interpret it. Any sort of like test results, and then really at the school site level, it is school by school where they are implementing. Monthly activities, and that is a measurement that we do. That's how we come to this score. We do expect for every school to offer at least 1 opportunity a month to engage with the school through school wide events. And then there are 4 opportunities that we look for for the more teacher to parent connections that we actually measure. Of course, there are more interactions with families and our teachers, but the way that we have approached measurement of that has been through those 4 activities and principles have to submit their activities for us to come up with the metric that we use in the local indicator. So that's the way that we have measured the connection. We don't specify what the connection should be, but we do provide a menu for school sites to choose from in case they're wanting to improve a certain area. And then the Office of Equity is instrumental in helping to implement If a school site has a question about how do you actually implement this option here? They will consult with school sites to implement those activities. And so we have had some staffing changes that are going forward for the upcoming year. And we are shifting some of those responsibilities to partner with the community schools office, because there is still, you know, grant funding that's associated with improving the connection between families and school sites. That maybe doesn't so much get to the question about teachers, but we do have an expectation of four events per school year, and that's what we measure towards and help school sites if they're not reaching that metric that we have put out as an expectation.

director hutchinson yes thank you um you know i want to again um cite my frustration that the first time i saw any of the items on the agenda including this report was sunday afternoon when it was posted publicly And so, you know, President Brohard never sent out a draft agenda, never even got anything emailed to me in terms of an agenda for this meeting at all. And so it makes it very hard when I'm given all the documents 72 hours before the meeting and the first thing I have to try to go through is actual budget, which I also only received 72 hours before the meeting. And along with that, last week's committee meetings, I would have assumed that this would have gone to the Teaching and Learning Committee, but last week that meeting was canceled. And last week's facilities meeting was in violation of the Brown Act, because there was no live stream, so it means there's no real minutes of the meeting. No, there wasn't a live stream. Zoom isn't live stream. So when I clicked on the district website and tried to watch the meeting, we watched the district advertisements that run, And there was no notice on the live stream saying it was not working, please use another form to participate, which makes the meeting in violation. And so you can keep talking while I'm trying to talk and try to disagree with me, but I'll be bringing that up later. One of the things here is we have to remember this is self reporting. So this is just the district saying this is how we think we're doing on these things. And really what I wish the real question was right now is based on this report and this dashboard. how are the cuts that have been announced and the changes going to impact that for next year going forward because i hear lots of the key departments and and people who carried out the work referenced in the dashboard are now positions that are being impacted um and even more importantly as a board and as a district this is our last board meeting of the year and we still haven't had one conversation about what our schools are going to look like next year And again, with all these changes that have been made, eliminating a network, cutting middle school electives, all these jobs that we saw laid off and impacted, attendance specialists, literacy coaches, a number of positions, there hasn't been one discussion about what are we doing as a district to accommodate that so we're ready to open school in August. And I'm not going to have time to talk about that tonight because I'm going to have to talk about the budget numbers. But I just really want to put that on the record, which really impacts what we just saw in our dashboard. Because we know what's going on now with the way things are being mismanaged by the lack of planning and governance anywhere. I can only imagine how the dashboard's going to reflect that next year, when again tonight, not one conversation about how are we reopening school in August, what is that going to look like? And when I get documents, including a budget of a billion dollars for all funds, 72 hours before I'm supposed to vote on it, things are seriously, seriously wrong.

Thank you.

Just note quickly, it was agendized for teaching and learning, unfortunately, that was canceled. And we have made an effort throughout the LCAP to identify in the goal analysis for each section what has been reduced. There's a section, the last section of each goal analysis is what is changing for next year. So we have made an attempt in each section to identify what is going away and what will be done differently as a result of that. That can absolutely be fleshed out, although I will note that the LCAP is 300 pages already. So we may look for other spaces for that, but that work is ongoing.

I had one other question. It's a small one. I'm just curious, in all of the areas of instruction that had fours, except for instructional delivery for history, social science, and I'm always concerned on a district level how much we actually pay attention. I mean, again, I know with staffing, but how do we see improving our history and social science delivery, I guess, all the way through for elementary, middle, and high school?

I will also defer to Dr. Aguilera on that question.

Yes, thank you, Diana. I can take this question. So, for social studies and for history, we offer far less opportunities for professional development. And we're very knowledgeable about the fact that we prioritize our English language arts Spanish language arts for our dual language schools and math more so than other curricular areas. And so there is definitely a lopsided focus on English language arts and math as compared to history and social studies. So in our offerings, we try to increase the number of opportunities we have for those specific teachers, especially at the secondary level. But we know it's not at the same level as our ELA and math opportunities. So that's how we could improve that particular area. We also have pretty outdated curriculum in the elementary level. And we have put off doing any adoptions because the state is going through An updated framework, so they update the framework every 7 to 10 years. And so we're anticipating. That final framework, so that way we can update the elementary curriculum. We believe that our secondary curriculum will be fine through that updated framework. But we know that. our elementary content has been more out of date. And so that's how we'll be able to get to a higher number is through more relevant adopted curriculum and then the associated professional development for elementary and then at secondary, having more content-specific professional development that's not asking teachers to kind of blend the content because of time. So that's what we've named in our self-reflection.

I guess one further question, Dr. Aguilera, is that, I mean, I think one of the ways to increase our literacy skills is also through history social science. So is there a plan to actually integrate those two pieces as we improve our instructional services?

Definitely, especially at the secondary level, there has been an ongoing discussion really since I ready became a tool that is used at the secondary level. We didn't have a way to measure student literacy at the secondary level. And so now that we have, I ready to do that. There is more of a focus across grade levels on how to teach literacy and the secondary schools have been having the discussion of. We're not only content teachers. We are also. Teachers of literacy, so that is the focus for secondary content. We do have our standards and equity training that happens every summer. And that is the focus and has been and for. Elementary, I would say that we have taken this approach to try to blend through the units and using the literature that's connected to teach through a novel or a book about a specific historical time. And that's where I would say it's a little bit more weak. um because it's not so much on the history that has happened it's more so on um the literacy skills that we're trying to develop at the lower grades so that's um the approach so far and really a discussion that's somewhat new at the secondary level and more of a focus because we're now seeing how students are achieving in literacy at the secondary level especially high school thank you

Are there any other board comments? Okay, with that, we will move on to the next item. Thank you, Diana Sherman. Next on the agenda is item K2, sorry, which is the 2024-2027 Local Control and Accountability Plan, year three. And I believe you're back up here again, right? Oh, is there a motion to adopt?

So moved. Second.

Thank you. Again, my name is Diana Sherman. I coordinate the local control and accountability plan or the LCAP. And this is our presentation for our final draft that we're bringing to you tonight for adoption. So tonight we are going to review briefly some of the changes to the LCAP. And then our ask of you is that you do adopt this plan to cover our third and final year of this LCAP cycle. And then next fall, we will be back with more to begin the start of the next three-year cycle. Much of this we went through at the public hearing. This is just a refresher that we are near the end of our cycle, so we are not making significant changes to our goals, metrics, or actions. Doubly so this year with spending reductions, we're not looking to introduce new work at this stage. And so that's a lot of what you will see here. And learning recovery, again, we've covered this in the past, but just a quick reminder, this is now subject to particular restrictions at the state level that govern its use. It has to be aligned with the needs assessment that was developed by the state to settle the lawsuit around the use of these funds. So we do ensure that we're compliant with that in our use of that money, which does preclude some schools from receiving that money based on performance. And most significant change, again, in the LCAP that we bring you to this evening is the introduction of five new program areas You will see those both in next year's planned spending but also in the current year. Those shifts were made current year for the 25-26 school year in order to alleviate pressure on the LCFF-based budget and to spend down some of the carryover in supplemental and concentration. Those investments are six small elementary schools, seven alternative education high schools, which includes our continuation programs and also our alternative schools of choice, with the exception of one continuation school that is our quote-unquote base program. Noon supervisors at our elementary schools, this includes all noon supervisors, all attendance specialists across the district, and our substitute teacher incentive program or STIP subs, which there are 44 of them across the district. We have added a couple of new metrics, but primarily we are tabling that for next year's LCAP cycle because we will be at the start of a new So you will see a few metrics that have been added to measure some of the outcomes that we are hoping to see with these investments, as well as with some of our investments at our new equity multiplier schools. But broadly, that is work that will begin in the fall to develop a set of new metrics to measure whatever goals are established for the next three-year LCAP cycle. And that is in part because the closing year of data for this LCAP cycle is the 25-26 data. And that makes it very difficult, obviously, to measure something you're doing in 2627 with 2526 data. We covered these already, so I will not go further into this, but we do just want to kind of highlight that we did have to end or reduce some of our existing supplemental and concentration investments to make room for these ongoing investments. They are covered here. They were also covered at the public hearing. And so some of these include reductions of positions, reductions particularly in our non-labor spending, which is things like curriculum, like our contracts for work around safety, like our contracts for work around licensing, those pieces that live within that space, as well as the elimination of many roles and positions that were either related to early retirement or were related to other reductions that were made within each department. uh... we've also eliminated some district-wide investments like uh... our teachers for late arriving continuation students like our attendance case managers which were new investment in twenty five twenty six uh... and like our community school managers and our attendance specialists and supervisors that were over and above the base at our schools that didn't qualify for targeted funds like learning recovery we've talked about all of that at prior meetings so i won't go through it again now but it is just a reminder that that as part of this shift. And so we'll go through this. We do have new equity multiplier schools. We talked about these earlier this month as well at the public hearing, but we have shared their plans for their spending. We have also since received some plans from some of our exiting schools around carryover funding and have added that to this draft of the LCAP. So you'll see a few schools that are no longer equity multiplier but have some remaining money. You'll see small amounts invested there. And we have adjusted the goals as needed and the metrics as needed to accommodate these schools. And then most significantly, we are updating the supplemental and concentration carryover projection based on the LCAP action tables. We are now projecting between 2 and 3 million remaining in carryover. So the first question of that is kind of why that difference from prior years when it was closer to 30 million. The most significant piece of that is that we have wound down things like COVID one-time funding that we were using to shift costs into out of, if they were eligible, out of our supplemental and concentration dollars to ensure we were using those one-time COVID dollars first before tapping into our unrestricted dollars. The second for this year specifically is, again, that we did make current year shifts of those investments for small elementary, alt-ed, attendance, noon, and stip subs. In this current year, which used up the carryover that remained from last year in its entirety. We've also reserved already funds for retroactive pay related to the OEA tentative agreement that is on your agenda later this evening. And that is already earmarked and accounted for so that there is funding set aside for those positions. The reason we are up a little bit from zero, which is what we were projecting at the public hearing, is simply that we have some investments specifically around some district-wide licensing for software that did not go through before the June 30th or will not go through before the June 30th deadline. They will be in July instead. And so because of that, they shift to next year. That money is already earmarked for those investments. And so that is not new money to spend, but it is money that will pull into the 26, 27 year and then pretty immediately be spent when those materials and licenses are received and are booked. So questions around that we will return also mid-year next year with further details It's the clothes for any questions Thank you, is there public comment on this For public speakers, we have two registered speakers Matt Glaser a solid ball Two minutes

Hello there, Board, Superintendent, Matt Glazer, the delegate of the PSAC, good to see you all, happy summer. I just came up to briefly express some gratitude. We did actually get the response to the PSAC's feedback and it was very thoughtfully put together and it was representative of a pattern this year of great engagement and partnership during our meetings. Our meetings have all been wonderful and civil. We've had the superintendent and other district leaders, board members at many of the meetings. And I really believe that the uh... plan to meet with us in in august around many of these items uh... that has been pledged by the superintendent is a real signal uh... that the engagement here is real and that the work being done is uh... it's is being respected uh... it was a very difficult year uh... to deal with the l cap specially when you're new around here like i am and so i wanted to say thanks to everybody for helping us through this uh... it's a lot to chew And I'm just going to hope that it's not quite this hard every year. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker.

So on your consent agenda, item number 247 is your tentative agreement with OEA and OUSD. Now, within that agreement, you're going to be agreeing to allow for preparation time professional collaboration class size reduction support for students with disabilities new support for students who are newcomer students expanding provisions uh... i don't know what that means safety provisions i'm sorry strengthening educators working conditions and where's the Fiscal financial breakdown for accommodating all of those items That are in that item number 247 that you're gonna rubber-stamp whatever did anybody pull that one You pull 247 good. We're gonna have some discussion on that. How would you put that item? That's so crucial for discussion with 250 something items to be, and not independently discussed. We have on this item K3, defer new programs and activities that are not yet underway. You can't defer reparations for black kids. That's never been on, it's been on the agenda, but it's never been dealt with. So I hope you're not saying that you're going to defer reparations for black students as a recommendation because you never started. Okay. It's not new. It's something that's been in place for years, but it's never been dealt with. Reparation for black students should get some attention this coming school year.

Thank you. Are there any other comments?

No, that includes my speakers.

Okay, are there any board comments? I'm sorry.

Thank you, I appreciate the presentation, but I'm just a little confused on the priorities that OUSD has moving forward in our budget and with everything that's just going on. I'm just confused on how we're prioritizing non-student facing positions like attendance specialists. When we have these positions that we're okay with losing, like our special education teachers, our supporters, our foster youth, they're gonna be alone if we're taking away our social services teams. All of these things are actually student-facing. These are the people that come and make our students feel safe at schools, and I'm just confused on how we're okay with letting go these very, very important positions, but we're putting more funding towards these other ones. It's just not working for me, and I'm just wondering what OUSD, what's the goal for the students, what you guys are working towards next year and the years to come?

That's a really timely comment because I think we're coming into the next LCAP cycle to really reestablish priorities. And I will say it is definitely I think not okay with anyone that we are removing things like the attendance case managers. Those were really critical positions. There were a lot of really, really difficult decisions and tradeoffs that had to be made. The attendance specialists I think were prioritized in part because of the role of attendance taking as a mandatory activity and as kind of ensuring that students are actually in school and attending school. but I think they were working together, and so you do have part of that puzzle that will be missing if we're not able to figure out how to fund that ongoing. We are definitely in a space where most of what we fund as a school district is student-facing or family-facing in some way, whether it's direct or a step back from there in a role like an administrator for assistant principal, for an attendant specialist, different ways that families and students are reached by that, so that leaves very little to be reduced, especially in the LCAP, where almost everything is one or two degrees removed from students. There's very little there that can be cut that is not going to directly affect student experiences. And so some of that had to do with figuring out how to weigh those things. That's a conversation that can continue into the next three-year cycle to see. And it may be that those of you here, those out in the community have a different set of priorities and want to shuffle that for the new three-year cycle. This year, I would say we were really just trying to get to the end of this three-year cycle and not restart decision-making, but that's gonna be a space to do that next year, absolutely. It does not solve, obviously, this year's problem.

Are there any other board comments? Director Berry?

Along those lines, and especially as we enter the stabilization and plan and budget conversations, Given all of the significant changes that you presented that are included in the LCAP, what is the process that you are undergoing, you and your colleagues are undergoing, to build and maintain coherence across the system and to fill the gaps that have been created by all the changes? What's the plan and what's the process to build and implement?

I'm going to have Dr. Aguilera answer this one as well.

Thank you for the question director Barry. So what we have been doing is adjusting what we call the scope of work. That our departments and individual staff will be taking on and then naming specifically the areas that we will not be able to continue based on the reductions. We did do a preview of that work in and so our parent. student advisory committee. So that way we could go through each of the goal areas to name specifically the shifts that would be happening in that particular goal area. So we are not sidestepping the conversation that there are going to be changes, but the way that we are regrouping is to go through the specific work that is implemented to improve Each of the cap goal areas, and being specific about how we're going to need to adjust and possibly not do all of the activities, the actions and services that are listed within the cap. And we have named that specifically also in the areas of the cap in connection with the reductions in staffing and non labor costs as well. And then, oh, go ahead.

Did you have something to add?

I was just going to add that I think that last point is very important, which is that we absolutely are not going to be able to do all the things we have been doing with fewer people and fewer resources. And so I think that's important for everyone to kind of understand and acknowledge. We've tried to name that throughout the LCAP where we can, but it will affect metrics and outcomes, and we will be discussing that in next year's LCAP as we look back and have some of the 26-27 data.

So you just addressed one of my follow-up questions, so thank you. And just at an even higher level, if from your perspective you believe that what is before us, that it is possible to fulfill the LCAP even despite the gaps?

That's a tricky question. I don't think we will meet the metrics in some of the areas. Some of those we were not making progress towards regardless, like before this year. I think we will see an impact there. We will still, because we have very broad action areas, there will still be work happening. We don't have any action areas where we've ended all work. We definitely have action areas that have been dramatically reduced, and you'll see that if you compare year-over-year dollar amounts, for instance, between the action areas. We also have some that appear to be much inflated but aren't actually. An example of that is alternative education. We are doing less, not more, in alternative education, but if you look at the LCAP, it looks like we are doing a lot more. That is simply an artifact of the movement of those costs from the base budget into supplemental and concentration, which meant they moved into the LCAP. That is not because we are dramatically expanding our investment in alternative education. And in fact, that's an important one to highlight. We're actually not doing our late arriving teachers for continuation students. So that's less than we were. We're staffing at higher classroom sizes than we were this year. But that's not going to be visible in the LCAP because of the way the funding structure works. LCAP encompasses all supplemental and concentration funds. It does not include the base. So if that's not clear, I'm happy to talk offline with folks to kind of work through that particular piece, too, that is an oddity.

And then the final question, follow up to what Sandra shared is will the do and won't do list be publishable to us so that as we are assessing metrics and what we're meeting and what we're not, we have context for what the inputs are.

I know we've had that asked already and I will see if Dr. Aguilera wants to speak a little further to it since she's been most involved in the work of how those scopes of work are shifting for staff.

I would also suggest that the area or the space that we can have more of those in-depth conversations is in the teaching and learning committee structure. That's where we've also had the conversations around the shifting of the scope of work in addition to PSAC. So yes, we can have more of that specific conversation. And I believe the forum would be teaching and learning as the best structure to kind of contain that overall needed discussion about what we will be implementing and what we will not be implementing.

Director Simmons, so I just want to ask some things for. Verification. So with your significant changes in ending S&C investments, these goals, are these, it's the elimination of so many things. And when you're saying goal, reductions and eliminations, are these things that, that we want to eliminate, are these things that we're seeking to eliminate actively, or we want to eliminate, and it's just a want and it's just a recommendation, or are these things that we're actively seeking to eliminate?

Things included on the list in this slide deck have been eliminated for 26-27. And I would say those are things, not that anybody wanted to eliminate, but just for the scale of magnitude, our annual budget for supplemental and concentration is about 120 million. We had about 30 million in carryover from prior years that had accumulated during the COVID years. So we were working with a budget of about 150 million this year. We moved in about 30 million, 25 million, I think, of investments from base So not only did we spend all our carryover back down from 150 to 120, we also had 25 million of new things that we had to pay for, which meant we had to find 30 plus 25, 55 million in cuts across the programs.

Okay, and then I have one extra question. And I say it is want because I believe it is a want because we need to eliminate some things, and there are things that we want to get rid of rather than others. So that's why I use want. But when we sought to eliminate these things for 26-27, Was there any time in which the people who made the decisions to eliminate these positions went to any of the school sites or any of the places and spoke around, just spoke around and asked about and asked the people who worked there and the people who were receiving how they felt about the positions that were there in total. Not just the positions that were seeming to be eliminated, but every position in total. Which positions do they feel the most effect from? And which positions, not just which positions are most expensive, but which positions are most effective for the people that's in that community? And I just want to know when we made these decisions, were there anybody who, not just once or twice, but consistently went to these communities and asked around, talked around, and just understood?

I'll let Dr. Aguilar describe how that process worked.

A point of clarification, Director Simmons. We as a school board voted in the layoff list to make this decision. It wasn't anybody else. These positions were eliminated through March 15th letters that the school board is required to vote on by law. So all of these cuts in positions were voted on by the board. That was the reason, and I said it at the time, that I didn't vote for those layoffs because we didn't even have a conversation about half the positions. So, I just want to make sure that you all understand it wasn't somebody else that decided that was a school board vote.

Let Dr answer that question.

So, prior to entering in the conversation around budget reductions, we did a survey of principles to ask for them to in the way they see the services at their school site. If they would name their top priorities. And so that was the extent of the engagement that happened to begin the conversation around reduction. So I felt like I had a sense of. The services, especially for students that our principles felt were the most impactful and helpful. But then the way that you described the question, there wasn't a lot of. Iterative or back and forth conversations that happened with school site leaders and beyond the to the school site staff. Um, you know, as you described it, it didn't happen in that way.

All right, and. So. I just want to leave a little bit of a recommendation. And I am aware that we are the ones that made that decision, but there are a lot of people who make recommendations to us on the things that we should eliminate and the positions that people feel that we should get rid of. But just to kind of Just a small hint to solving a puzzle. I think we get rid of so many positions and we move so fast. And I think we spend so much time thinking. that by the time that it's time to make an action we haven't laid down any test runs we haven't laid down any foundational pieces except thoughts and there's no we haven't done anything actionable to help us make our final action to give us evidence and allow us to make a logical action based off of that evidence so when And I say this because so when we finally make the decision to get rid of certain positions and we look back, as we often do look back now, and we see that there are so many positions that we shouldn't have cut, if only we had just talked to somebody to understand the importance of that decision, program of that position of that person then we would avoid a lot of things and I just we need to stop thinking so much and to just start acting and to get out and you know actions doesn't mean that we're implementing something actions can mean that we're just going out and talking to somebody and we yeah Yeah, that's my piece.

Thank you. I want to name also that you have kind of touched on one of the single biggest challenges that lies ahead for the new three-year LCAP, which is understanding whether something is having an impact or not, how we understand how to measure that and whether we can measure that. I think a great example is the attendance case managers who came in for just the 25, 26 year and then were gone again. From an LCAP lens, they're not even in the data. We will not have a concrete way to measure what impact those had on students, on attendance, because it was just the single year. We don't have any longer term data. We don't have a great set of here's some schools who had them and here's some schools who didn't or other kind of comparative pieces. So I think it really will be a dilemma for all of us as a community to hold when we look at the LCAP and try to weigh that. And then I will just say anecdotally, just because I think it's important to name, that I think every position we fund at school sites is incredibly important to somebody somewhere. And if we had cut a different set of positions, if we had said we're not going to have the community school managers, but we're going to keep the case managers, we would have had a different set of frustration and challenges. It's really hard decision making, but I absolutely agree with you that there should be a stronger engagement at school sites specifically to understand. And it may be that it doesn't look the same at every school site and that we need to kind of acknowledge that piece too.

thank you diana i just wanted to make a couple points related to this part of the process had to do with the fact that we had a major deficit and we're also dealing with one-time funds so i think it was really a positive thing that when we received had one-time funds to support students specifically you know for instance with case managers um there was action taken to say with those funds let's make it good for this year that we have the funds unfortunately those funds weren't extended for follow a follow-up period the other piece is that i had a chance to participate in a student-led process actually it was at castlemont And one of the major leaders was Director Williams. And so I wanted to say that the students at that time had a process they went through. Troy Christmas and Director Lada were participating in that. I believe Director Williams was in attendance. where students actually went through the process of looking at what would they do if they had only certain monies to work with and they had to make some decisions it was a really good process in terms of they understood the dilemma from going through having to make those decisions and i think there needed to be more of those kind of engagements that was with acc but maybe that kind of engagement process would have been really helpful and something to think about in the future at every single site because the students really did a great job in participating and prioritizing what they would do if they were in charge of a district And I thought that was really thoughtfully done, and I'm really happy that I had a chance to observe that. I absolutely believe that the students felt it was a real dilemma to make those decisions, because they felt that everything was important. I also want to acknowledge that the students thought that many of the students who needed a lot of attention, like special needs students, et cetera, they were very sensitive to making sure that all students were getting support. So I just wanted to remind everybody that along with the outreach with some of our parent groups, there was really specific work done by students, which represented all of our schools. And I was glad I had a chance to observe that.

Thank you. With that, Mr. Raichster, I'd like to call the vote, please.

Excuse me. I've been waiting to speak. I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Simmons and Director Smith, for bringing up a really important issue. To me, it kind of feels like another attempt to gaslight you for what you just said and brought up. I just want to make really clear that we never had a discussion about what position should be cut. We haven't had a real discussion about what we saved from it. This isn't a new thing. This is something that's existed in the district for over a decade. So the fact that a response to what you brought up would be, oh yeah, that's a good idea. We should think about that in the future. It's actually what we used to do every year. And this is another one that's very difficult for me because, again, I just got these documents 72 hours before the meeting. I thought it was very interesting in the presentation to hear that we burned through $30 million worth of carryover in the S&C. That's one-time dollars that we had built up and something that we always had in the past. But this year, that money's been tapped. I also heard these funds have even been tapped more than that because I know what's been happening is somebody in the district has been raiding other funds and restricted dollars to mask the problem. Because I'm sorry, Superintendent Sadler, you misspoke before. The problem with this year's budget was you've allowed over $60 million in overspending. A balanced budget was passed before you became superintendent, and that overspending has all been on your watch. That's what's happened this year with the finances. That's why S&C carryover was burned through, and now not only do we have the same level of commitments for next year, not only do we not have enough funding for it, we've burned through our carryover so there's not even a cushion left, because that's how the finances and the budget works. So I wish I would have had more time to go through this report ahead of time. I turn to the bottom where there's some of the financial numbers. For me, it's page 295. And it has the list of last year's total planned expenditures and total estimated actual expenditures. So I assume when we're referring to last year, we're referring to 25, 26. So what I saw was planned expenditures were 356 million, but the actual expenditures were 332 million. Now I just cited how we've overspent all over the place. So the only way I can figure that we wound up spending less on the LCAP than we budgeted for is if that money was taken and we didn't receive those revenues and so everything was lowered. Am I correct in assuming the reason why we underspent the estimate for LCAP is because we didn't receive those revenues because they were used for something else?

No, I don't believe so. I would have to go through line by line. We do have a line item analysis that is in the LCAP folder, but primarily that has to do with money. So a good example, for instance, we received the Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI, grant that is fully in the LCAP, as is our equity multiplier grant. Both of those were underspent in 25-26, which had to do primarily with hiring freezes and spending freezes, and also with schools that just simply weren't able to find candidates for positions. So they ended the year not having fully spent the money that they had planned to spend. So that money shows up in planned but unspent. It does roll forward to next year, and you will see it as part of the planned money now for 26-27, and assuming they do spend it, It will then become part of the spent money for 26-27. I would have to look to get you to, I think, the 30 million difference there. Each of that, it's all across the different resources because it's also grants. It's also other restricted dollars that sit in any of our LCAP action areas. So I can only speak most intimately to the... pieces that I manage, which is the supplemental and concentration budget, of which we had a budget around $150 million, and we're on track to spend about $148 of that $150. And then our title budget, we are working very hard to make sure that we do fully expend that. We did have spending that slowed down on that in part, again, because of some of the slow freezes during the year where people were not able to get spending done that they had planned. And so that was also underspent this year, for instance. And then we have an ongoing challenge in this district with vacancies. They tend to hit the LCAP resources, which are the supplemental concentration, those are unrestricted, but they are LCAP resources, and the things like the title grants, like our tax measures, et cetera. That is because, for instance, if you are an elementary school principal and your third grade teacher resigns on the second week of school, you often pull, for instance, you might pull your teacher from special assignment and put them back into a classroom. Now you're paying for that position out of base. You're no longer using the Title I money that was paying for your TSA. You might post that position the third week of school. You might not hire until January. And that just has to do with the cadence of how that works. And so every year it is typical that We see some shift into the base when people resign and people need to fill those core roles. That is what makes them based roles is that they are essential. So that is a normal piece. But to my knowledge, none of it had to do with revenue that did not materialize.

So thank you for your careful words. And I appreciate your answer there. I'm just really concerned because as you bring up how S&C carryover was attached this year, and we know other restricted funds have been swept. What I heard you say also is that the funds that you're directly in charge of did almost fully spend. So I'm just really concerned when we see, when we know overspending every place, every dollar's been attached, and then I see overall underspending here. It just makes me concerned. And the last question I have that I don't want an answer for now, but the budget numbers changed from the presentation two weeks ago in the public hearing. So I haven't had time to check, but I'm I want to know if the overall LCAP numbers have changed to correspond with the changes in the budget overall, which was eliminating $60 million in expenditures and unrestricted.

I will answer that one just because it's an important one. And so our LCAP numbers changed slightly between public hearing and final adoption because we continue to refine those dollars. Supplemental and concentration have not changed in between those two drafts. That is because we are still working off of the LCFF calculator, which is done by FCMAT for all districts in the state that was run on third interim, and so we are still using those numbers. Our fiscal team will talk more about that when they present the budget, but it does not include what we call the super COLA, meaning the increased cost of living adjustment. SNC will go up when that is applied, and that will be when we come back to you in August or September, for the 45-day revise, we will bring you updated SNC numbers at that point. All of the other changes you see in the LCAP between the public hearing draft and now have to do with things like notification of a new grant. I get that information from the staff who manage that grant. I add it to the LCAP. Shifting of a position from one resource to another that fiscal may catch in their final cleanup, I make that change in the LCAP. I am checking constantly against our budget model, and then as soon as we roll into the new fiscal year, I pull the live budget, and I check it again. We correct all the things that are not as they should be, and we reflect any intentional changes. And then the last piece I do just want to say, absolutely, we do not ever want to be overspending our LCAP resources. We do want to be fully expending supplemental and concentration. $30 million was far more carryover than we ever should have. in those resources because they should be spent in the year they're generated. 2 million is a healthy amount, I think, to have on $120 million budget because it does give us leeway for some variance there. But the main reason we have been carrying that significant carryover for the last five years is because we've had a cascading set of ending COVID grants that we have been furiously making sure we don't give any money back to. So if it's allowable, it goes into the grant. If it's allowable, it goes into the grant. So we've been sweeping essentially each year. If those monies are not spent as planned, we find things that are eligible to move there. And so that's an ongoing process that will slow because we are almost to the end of that cycle. We have a few one-time grants like learning recovery remaining, but every year when grants expire, we do go through that process. If there's something eligible that we can move in, we do do that. That is part of how we manage the restricted side of the budget in pieces again that touch the LCAP. So I think that's just important to acknowledge that we don't want to be running carryover broadly speaking for S&C. So I think that is a, how we got there is a bigger conversation, but it's not our goal to ever be back in a space where we have carryover at that scale.

Director Batchelor? Director Williams?

Yes, I just have a question regarding our targeted academic intervention programs. So my question really is about the metrics of how do we, what metrics will we use for those students receiving targeted intervention? Like what are the warning signs? Is there gonna be like an interim way of us measuring that? Is there these conversations with our principals, administrators? And how will we mitigate those impacts, potential impacts that will come about?

Can you clarify, are you talking about the targeted intervention that the Office of Equity holds? Yes. Um, so for those currently we measure them against district wide metrics for those focal student groups. Um, we don't currently have a great way at the student level to measure students who actually participated in receiving that measure, um, or that intervention versus those who may be in that same demographic group, but who didn't receive that. So for instance, a student who is participating in AMA programming versus one who is not. We have that same challenge in things like students who participate in RJ versus those who don't, or students who receive tutoring versus those who don't. We're measuring all of those at the district level right now at a very high level. The Office of Equity does do work on trying to look at a much finer-grained detail. I think one of the places we've been most successful in this is with our athletics investments, actually, with looking at participation in the Oakland Athletic League and how that impacts student performance. And that simply has to do with do we have the data in a way that we can access it and really run that analysis. We don't for a lot of our focal student groups, in part because there's a balance of privacy and also capacity. With all things metrics, I think I caution that we are stretched very, very thinly in our research and data team right now. And they, again, have lost positions going into next year. There are many things in concept we could measure, but in practice we can't because we do not have capacity to do that. So I think that's just a piece to name, that where they're able to, they do a great deal of work at adding do-it-yourself dashboards, adding anywhere where we're already collecting the data, making it accessible so that we can measure it. But it becomes much more complicated when we're looking at, for instance, needing to pull from ARIES, which is managing our case, our classes, system, like who's enrolled in that class? What's their outcome of their test scores? How do we match that here? That's a much more complex piece than simply looking at, let's look at how all of our African-American ninth grade boys are performing across the district. And so those are pieces we have to kind of balance with how much are we able to do ongoing so that we can compare it year over year. But next year is when we will begin that conversation again for the new three-year cycle of what metrics do we want to prioritize And how do we choose some over others so that we match what we've prioritized to the capacity of our data team?

Thank you. Just real quick, in teaching and learning, Office of Equity came in and did a presentation and showed us the metrics that they have. So I just was wondering if you're going to partner with them. We do have regular engagements that we share the student data with various organizations that come in and do the work. So I know that you would have more access to that than they would. And so understanding that many students have decreased their chronic absenteeism, many students have increased their academic outcomes, the question really is, Even though you are short staff, it seems like there's an opportunity to build a partnership with the Office of Equity to understand the impacts of how these particular changes are going to affect our young folks who have actually been in very highly sophisticated classes to increase their academic outcomes. I would just hate to see that we just leave it to we're just short staff and we're not able to gather that data because that data has been going on for the last decade at least in regards to the work that's been happening in office equity.

And they do develop those metrics themselves, so they choose kind of what they have capacity ongoing to be able to report on.

And they will share that with the LCAP as well. Is that correct? And then you use that to make the decisions moving forward. Yes. So that's what I'm expecting.

They manage goal three almost in its entirety, which is where most of our family engagement and then the targeted work lives in goal two. And so each action within the LCAP has a lead, and that lead is responsible for helping to determine what the metrics are for that action. and they choose what they want.

Right and so my concern though is I don't want us to be here at this year from now and saying we don't have any metrics of how we you know how these cuts have impacted our students right like or if we have like an interim way of finding metrics as early warning systems so we can make the necessary investments adjustments to find out so I just don't want to wait till the next year at this time and say we were short staffed

Network will start very early, but again, it will be a prioritization task of identifying which measures we are able to continue and which we don't have capacity to do. We also have a set of metrics that we have to measure because they are mandated at the state level. And so those are not optional to say, even if they may not be as important to us, one of the ones that comes up. frequently is that we have to measure seventh and eighth grade dropouts that is not ongoing been a high priority for the district in terms of it's not a huge challenge that we have it is a mandated metric so it is there

And we also know that our African-American, our Polynesian, our Asian students, our Latino students, we've all put a lot of energy and a lot of work into that. And so for that to just be erased, that there is no particular way to capture what has gone on from this point on would be a tragedy.

Those are all mandated.

Correct.

So that would not go away.

Thank you.

And with that, Mr. Rickshaw, can we have a roll call on the vote, please?

Yes, on the motion to adopt the LCAP for next school term. On the roll call, student director Simmons. Abstain. Student director Smith.

Abstain.

Director Lara.

Yes.

Director Williams. Yes sir. Director Hutchinson.

Abstain.

Director Berry.

Yes.

Director Thompson is absent. Vice President Batchelor.

Yes.

President Brohard. Yes. The LCAP for next year is adopted.

Thank you. And with that, we will move on to item K326-0106M, financial stabilization implementation plan progress update and path forward. Is there a motion to adopt?

So moved. Second.

I believe Superintendent Sadler, you have some opening remarks.

Yes, I just have some remarks I want to make. Good evening, President, Vice President, members of the board, staff, and members of our Oakland community. Tonight, we present our fiscal stabilization plan, and it's not simply as a budget document, but as a roadmap for protecting the future of the Oakland Unified School District and the students we are privileged to serve. Our purpose this evening is twofold. First, we want to demonstrate the significant progress we have already made in strengthening our financial position. Second, we want to present a thoughtful, strategic approach for addressing our structural deficit in the years ahead while remaining focused on our highest priority student achievement. The fiscal challenges before us did not emerge overnight, nor can they be solved through a single year's budget decision. They are the result of years of changing enrollment. Rising operational costs, the expiration of one time pandemic funding and increasing obligations that now require long term structural solutions. At the same time, we recognize that behind every budget decision are people. students, families, educators, and staff who rely on Oakland Unified every day. That understanding has guided every recommendation before you. Over the past year, we have taken meaningful steps to improve our fiscal outlook, We have strengthened financial oversight, increased transparency, closely monitored expenditures, aligned spending with available resources, reduced unnecessary costs, and begun making difficult but necessary organizational decisions. These actions represent the beginning of a larger transformation, not the end of it. Tonight's plan builds on that foundation. Our fiscal stabilization plan is designed around several key principles. First, we must eliminate our structural deficit through sustainable solutions, not temporary fixes. Second, we must preserve investments that have the greatest impact on student learning, safety, and well-being. Third, we must continue improving organizational efficiency by examining every department, every program, and every operational practice to ensure our resources are aligned with our priorities. Fourth, we must continue to engage our board, labor partners, employees, families, and community in this work with transparency and honesty. Fiscal stabilization cannot happen in isolation. It requires collective responsibility and shared commitment. This work is not simply about reducing expenditures. It's about redesigning our organization to become stronger, more efficient, and more sustainable for years to come. Throughout this process, we have continually asked ourselves three guiding questions. Does the decision improve outcomes for students? Does it strengthen the long-term financial health of the district? Does it position Oakland Unified School District to thrive, not just survive, in the future? These questions have guided every recommendation in this plan, and we know these conversations are difficult. Change is never easy, particularly when resources are limited. However, delaying action only increases the magnitude of future reductions. Responsible leadership requires us to make thoughtful decisions today so that future generations of Oakland students inherit a district that is financially sound and academically strong. This plan reflects a multi-year commitment, not a one-year solution. It represents disciplined financial stewardship while continuing to invest in the instructional core of our district. As we move forward, we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting classroom instruction, accelerating student achievement, strengthening attendance and supporting our educators, maintaining safe and welcoming schools, and ensuring every student has access to the opportunities they deserve. Fiscal responsibility and educational excellence are not competing priorities. They are inseparable. Strong finances create the stability necessary for sustained student success. I want to express my sincere appreciation to our Board of Education, to Tara Gard, our deputy superintendent, and fiscal services team, our executive leadership team and department leaders, our labor partners, and our community for their dedication throughout this process. But there's more work to do. Their collaboration and willingness to confront difficult challenges must strengthen our resolve this evening we will walk you through not only the fiscal stabilization plan and our recommended budget our goal is clear stabilize our finances restore long-term fiscal health ensure oakland unified remains a district that fulfills its promise to every child Together, we can make the difficult decisions required today while building a stronger, more sustainable future for tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you.

A point of clarification before we start. Just in the background memo to this information, and then listening to the superintendent, in the background on the memo it says the 2026-27 budget is balanced and legally supportable. The next sentence says the multi-year projection, however, shows continued net deficits of $36.7 million and going up. The budget that's coming up for adoption shows a surplus. The CFO on June 3rd here said we have a $30 million deficit for next year. we can't have a surplus and a balanced budget at the same time as we have a deficit all through this document it references deficits so how can we say there's a balanced budget you cannot have a surplus and a balanced budget at the same time that you have a deficit so we just need clarification because that's a mistake right here in the background and in the presentation It should be easy. It's a point of clarification that somebody easily should be able to answer this.

Director Hutchinson, that will be absolutely clear through the presentations this evening. So please allow us to give the presentation.

We'd like to start your presentation, Ms. Gard. Yes, thank you.

Okay, so again, so nobody's going to say, excuse me. No, I'm not going to excuse you. Can we start a point of clarification and a point of order? So I'm asking a question based on the document, and I want a clarification of what's listed on the document that's being presented. My question is the most essential question. Do we have a surplus or do we have a deficit? Because your documents now show that there's a surplus when everyone else has a deficit. That's the only question I want, and when we use those terms, we're referring to the same fund. You cannot have a surplus and a deficit in the same fund. It's impossible.

What's going to remind us that we have an order that goes presentation and then we have ample time for board comments. It is not appropriate to start off the question with the presenter.

What's not appropriate is we were supposed to get a draft agenda according to the board bylaws at the second meeting in May. There was supposed to be a public hearing where the final numbers would be presented for a first read. And I got these numbers 72 and a half hours before I'm supposed to vote on them.

for a billion dollar in total funds.

And that fact that nobody else is concerned proves my point.

Thank you, could we continue with the presentation?

Good evening, board and community. Tara Gard, deputy superintendent of business and operations, and I'm here to talk about the financial stabilization implementation plan. And I wanted to start with that we've, many people know, but in Oakland we have had struggles in our budget, deficits in our budget for many years. And as a result of that, we've also had quite a few plans. So what's important to think about is that we went back and looked at all of our previous plans to identify things that maybe we could continue to do and i'll talk about that as i continue on so we looked back at the fiscal vitality plan that was started in twenty eighteen and then we went on to attachment a b c and our current plan uh... here we are talking about uh... deficit we do have And the county office, when we did our interim reports in April, the county office actually wrote a letter and they identified that we had a $20 million structural deficit. In our current budget, it actually aligns to what the county said. So we do have a structural deficit, which we need to work through. So what is important for this board to address is that we have to continue the plan that we have right now because we were able to get to a better situation than we would have been otherwise. And we need to continue that. We felt good about where we are, but we have a lot further to go.

Can we have a point of clarification on this document?

She's going to continue with the presentation.

No, excuse me, where it says 20.6 million at the bottom and it's listed as a structural deficit. I'm going to call for a recess. It doesn't identify what.

Time to recess.

Mr. Breakstar can we have a roll call to establish quorum please Present Here Present Director Williams Present Present Director Berry Present Director Hutchinson

Present.

Director Thompson is absent. Vice President Batchelor?

Here.

And President Brohard? Here. Form present.

Thank you. I'd like to remind everyone that we will first hear the presentation. There will be ample time for public comments and ample time for board comments. But we need to hear the entire presentation. Thank you. Ms. Gard?

Thank you. I'll continue. So, excuse me. For the plan, we have grouped it in three buckets. So we have the actions from the financial stabilization implementation plan, which was approved 25-26, and the work that we've done there, what we would like and what we are bringing forward or bringing, I should say, bringing back from previous plans. And then another that's gone across all plans, which we'll talk about. So if we look at, this is what we brought to the board and the board approved and had us taking action on and the work that we did to reduce for the general fund and has helped us to get to where we are now. Don't forget we started with about $100 million deficit and we are in much better shape. It is true that a lot of the, not a lot, but much of the work that happened was about using restricted dollars first. And that is actually shown up in previous plans. It's not new. It is something that the board, we had talked about doing before. It was just a matter of taking care of it. So when we used restricted dollars first, it is moving expenses to restricted dollars where it is allowable. We did not do anything where it would not be in line with the rules around those restricted dollars. I don't want to really go through all of them, but I'll name a few. The feasibility study for NPS, we've gotten far with that. We have one NPS now that will come forward to the board that wants to work with us next year and then another the following year. One thing that's been on plans that we're still working towards is the centralization of materials and services. So we did not get any savings from that this year, but it is a primary focus coming up. And I'll name also the TK hubs, which is a revenue generating hub. process that we're working on. We have two TKHubs that will be opening up this year, and we're excited about that work. We did not name funding there because we want to just be sure about the numbers of students, but we are confident that that's gonna help us in our budget, but we just, we're being a little conservative on putting the numbers there. Diana Sherman talked about the shifts of small schools and into SNC, so you can see there. And the other thing is that we did reduce we had staff reductions so we did quite a bit of reductions in employees and we had about 25 million in savings and one thing to note and you see it in red is that we're still working on our actuals so this is um not the actuals we're going through our actuals now and then our auditor will be looking at that as well So and just to note to the board, we will continue into the next year on the actions that you've already approved for us to work towards. And so in 26, 27, we're showing you where we believe, how much we believe we could do in those years. And then you'll see we, on the use of restricted dollars first, we're not anticipating having to do more of that because we've aligned a lot of that now. On to the next. So these are actions that are previously approved by the board and we stepped back and we looked at all of the previous plans and pulled out some that we know either we didn't completely finish or that we believe could have some more work to help us with our budget. So you can see we put the plan on the left side so you can see where it was prior and that this is work that we would intend to do coming up this year to help us with the 30 million that we need to look towards. And finally here, it was just two, Ms. Assata actually named one about the delaying the start of new programs and initiatives, and to explain that a little bit more, it's to look at, and it came up also when we talked about the LCAP, but what we need to do is slow down on bringing in new initiatives without knowing how the current ones are working. So that's really what that is about, and it's not to, Not to say that we won't, but we need to see what is working, because we can't do, as we know we can't do everything, but we need to name it. And the other about management positions, this has always been a point of contention where we have what some believe is more management. So we'll do a study across schools in central office looking at the structure, the management structure throughout. And so we, for 25-26, the actions that we've taken has generated 92.3 million for the general fund. And we can show, we keep a documented list of everything. So if asked, we can provide that. The next, but I want to say that, and again, we're doing our actuals, so that is before doing the actuals. And then into 26-27, we're identifying 41.5, and the projected savings target for the fiscal year in the general fund, and then 13 million in restricted. And it's more than what we need, because you don't know, we don't know for sure that we can get that amount, obviously. This is what we believe we can, is looking at it, but as an example, when you're laying, as an example, when you have, when you're looking at management positions, and we put an estimate of what we think could, how much we can save in that, but we don't know at that time, is it gonna be vacancies there? the cost would be different than if somebody was in there fully with full benefits is what I'm naming. But we do have that there. And so the slide is black, I'm not quite sure why. But this is here to say to the board that we'd like you to look at our current actions, what we're carrying forward, and support the work that we have been doing and going into the following year so that we can get to a district that isn't doing this every year. And this is just about our timeline. Tonight we're talking about adopting our budget. bring back updates on how this implementation plan is going. So we plan on doing that throughout next year. So you will hear about it frequently. And then we'll be back in the fall doing quarterly reporting. Thank you.

Can I now please get a point of clarification before any public comment or board comment? We heard in this presentation a $20 million structural deficit. We heard a $30 million deficit. And the background says we're going to pass a balanced budget. And the budget coming up for adoption later today says an $8 million surplus. So those all can't be true at the same time. Can we please at least frame this in what we are saying our current position is when we look at next year's budget? Is it balanced? Is there a deficit? Is it still the $30 million deficit that Ms. Gard just referenced and that Mr. Nguyen brought up on June 3rd? What is the position for next year's budget?

Thank you, we have a $22 million structural deficit. We have 30 million that we need as a plug or a balancing solutions so that, and when we have a 30 million balancing solutions and you have 22 million structural deficit, we've put the 30 million into the budget. We'll leave you the seven million as what seems like a surplus because we have to cut the 30, which is absolutely correct. And everything that we have done in our budget Right, it's in the SACS forms. We can't type it over. We can't manipulate it. Our county office has looked at our budget. They will come back again in September and you'll see at that point that it's all correct.

I just want to understand correctly, if I heard that right, if you overlay the deficit or the plug, as you called it, with the structural deficit, that leaves $8 million, which is being perceived as a surplus. Did I repeat back what you said correctly? Because I've never heard anything like this. I really need an answer to this question, and I'm a little bit shocked here. So what is our position for next year? No such thing as a plug, no such thing as a structural deficit when we're talking about a budget deficit, and the documents say a balanced budget and a surplus. What is our position for next year's budget? Is it a deficit, is it a surplus, is it balanced, and how much?

Yes, I answered. Thank you. I think I answered you. Absolutely.

Are there any other board questions?

No, that was my point of clarification. Those aren't my questions. So if we're to question time after I got that clarification, I'm ready to go. But, or do you want to do public comment before board comment?

I'm going to take board questions first. Director Latta. Yeah. Director Williams. Okay, Director Berry.

Thank you for the presentation. And I was asking President Brohard what one round meant, because I have five questions, so I don't know if I can ask them all right now. The first thing that I want to say is that I appreciate the plan, because we've been talking about it for a long time, and I feel like this is approaching what we've asked for. And for me, the vote on the budget is dependent on my understanding of the stabilization plan. One thing I want to pull out to highlight that is that in the memo it says, you know, or I think it's actually in the presentation, it says the budget does not equal fiscal completion and that the budget reflects the plan. And so to me, there is no one without the other. So a lot of my questions are so that I understand what's happening with the plan. The first question is around the use of the word target. So when you use target, are those estimates, are those firm or aspirational numbers? And depending on how you answer the follow-up question is like what are the assumptions upon which those targets are based?

So the target, it's funny when you say, I'm trying to hold all the question in my head. It is a target, and it's an estimate, because we have to estimate how much we think we can get on the target number. And what was the second part of your question? Sorry.

So if it is an estimate, what data, evidence, information, insight are driving, especially that total, the 41.5? You want me to, I can go back.

Because, I mean, each one is a different, you look at it differently because they're different actions.

And on the assumption slide, a lot of it focuses on revenue and not expenditure. And so I'm primarily asking about the expenditure assumptions.

Okay. But I'm going to pull it up so I can. What were you looking for, Director Berry? Okay.

So I'm talking about right now, if for instance, Go on slide 18, and it says $92.3 million in the general fund that we've taken action on. I have a question about that, but I'll put a plug in it. And then the 41.5 million projected savings target for next fiscal year. And at the beginning of this document, there's a list of dozens of items of solutions that we plan to implement to generate this number here. And so I'm wondering, my question is about how you got to 41.5, not just because you, you know, implementing TK hubs or, you know, shifting dollars here, but what are the other assumptions that make you think that we can get 41.5 million through the collective of?

It's through each one of these.

actions and forgive me if i'm not understanding which but it is through each one of these actions so okay so let's use another example okay so ada on the presentation uh which is more revenue than expenditure but use it as an example it's flat for three years why do you think enrollment's going to be flat for three years oh okay because this is a

Because we were trying to be conservative. So we said that we were looking for, because we're trying to stay conservative in our numbers. We've in the past said that, I don't want to say in the past, but we've given numbers about we can cut X amount and it was more than we would get to. taken, looked at each one, and when I say that, I'm trying to give an example, like the, for the contracts, for the freeze, I looked at everything that was spent in contracts in the last couple years. How much we actually held on that review of 15 to 25,000. We went back and looked how many in the last, because we actually only did it for about five months, so how many were we able to hold back and why? And then by looking at that to think about, okay, if it's looking the same, how much do we think we could save in that regard? So each one we're looking at closely. I feel like I'm not answering you.

Or, yeah, another example is the management positions, and look, the assessment of the management structure, both school site and central office. Yes. So, you know, what are the questions you're gonna be asking to evaluate that that make you think that the exploration is going to yield cost savings?

Okay. looking at the all the management positions in central office in the department how many people are reporting to each are they in the right what's the leveling that you do is there more management in a department is there managers and that's it and why is the classification need to change it's more of like a classification study you also can look at schools where they have APs, community school managers, I hate to name positions because it doesn't mean we're gonna be getting rid of, but some schools might have TSAs, APs, community school managers. This is work we've done before. And then see what is needed at the school sites as far as management level positions.

One more example. Sure. School site reductions. Is that a flat school site reduction? Are there certain things that you will propose?

We would propose. Okay.

Can I keep going or should I let someone go and then come back?

Let's do a second round. We'll get you on the second round. That's okay. Director Batchelor.

No questions at this time. Oh, I do have one question. I apologize. I was trying to get something else done. Superintendent, can you look at slide number six? There are strategies listed there that are previous strategies. Which of those strategies is currently underway at this moment and which are on hold?

Currently we're looking at, at this point, the curriculum adoptions, not doing any new. We are not doing any curriculum adoptions as was stated by Dr. Aguilera. We also have been looking at our, I know our consultant contracts, they are being reviewed regularly. we in addition to that we are looking at our staff attendance student attendance looking at leaves we in addition to that we have been reviewing actually our overtime how are we addressing needs that we have and how we can work smarter so that we don't have overtime. We also have been looking at our health benefits costs. In addition to that, we currently, as a part of scenario three, are you talking about just this particular? Just this slide, yes. Okay, and then we've also looked at the reduction of positions at school sites. in terms of where we have had one-time funding or not. We've looked at what the needs are, and this is something that we'll be looking at later on tonight, each of the school site plans. The SPSAs are very specific in terms of what the school feels that they need, and we're looking at those in terms of where we have overlap. So those are the kinds of things that we're evaluating at every school site.

Thank you so much, that's it, thank you. Director Simmons, Smith?

Director Hutchinson?

Oh, sorry, Director Simmons.

Apologies, I'm gonna get quick. I just wanna say, you're gonna get hounded with a lot of questions, so take a deep breath. Thank you. If you need a moment to answer, take a moment to answer. Because we're trying to uncover, just in a time of, I just want it to, I just want us to be moral. In a time of so much confusion, we're looking for an answer and a reason for the confusion. And you're a person who could provide us with answers. And I can see it's getting stressful. That's why I say this. So thank you. And that's also just a heads up for us to, you know, we can ask our questions, but let's, you know, we're humans.

Thank you. Director Hutchinson.

Yes, thank you. I honestly don't know if I'm more angry, frustrated, or embarrassed right now. So we just have to refocus and bring some reality back to things. So we need to remember that Superintendent Sadler promised to put a fiscal solvency plan before the board by February 22nd. We need to remember in January, that's why HYA was hired, we were told to help develop a fiscal solvency plan. If we go back to Scenario 3 in December, we need to remember Scenario 3, which didn't have details and came out of the blue, said that we needed to make $27 million in cuts this year and $103 million in cuts for next year. Since Scenario 3 in December, we've added a new SEIU contract and a new OEA contract. And on top of it, we know we've overspent by more than $60 million this year, this year, above the adopted budget. So, I mean, there's a page right here that says we carry a deficit into 2026-27. The budget presentation that will come next says there's a surplus. The memo at the start of this says there's a balanced budget. i can't believe i just heard it repeated back to me that there's a 30 million dollar plug and a 22 and a 20 22 million dollar structural deficit and that produces an 8 million dollar surplus on paper i heard audible laughs from the audience and what i've realized in the last week especially in talking with folks I actually don't think anyone up here even understands the terms and where to find the proper number. So we need to understand when we're talking about the budget, and we use the term budget deficit or surplus, we are only talking about the unrestricted number. Just like when we talk about the reserve for economic uncertainty, that is only unrestricted. Restricted dollars aren't included in our official numbers to the state, a surplus or a deficit. It is only unrestricted. Which means it's impossible to have a deficit and a surplus at the same time. Because all of those terms refer to the same fund by definition in California. And to hear that the person who has been recently promoted to head budgetary policy in our numbers. I can't explain this and stated that because we have two deficits overlaying each other, it means it shows a surplus. I'm not sure what else to do, but like I told everyone, if you knowingly put forward fraudulent numbers in the budget, that means you are committing fraud. And this is very serious because we're talking about a billion dollars. And this is the kind of oversight that we have. This is the plan that was supposed to be done months ago that doesn't do anything. And just lastly for this round, to see a list of numbers with decimals to the tenth and say that's millions and things and it doesn't correspond to anything, in here it says we've made $42 million in cuts for next year. We came into this school year knowing we needed to make 75 million And we know now it's a lot higher. So again, I ask, do we have a budget deficit or a surplus for the 26-27 budget? Because if we have a deficit, it's not a balanced budget, and it's automatic that the state steps in. And if people have changed numbers in these documents to make it look like a surplus, especially since I put them on notice at my meeting with them on Monday, knowingly putting forward fraudulent numbers, is committing fraud which is illegal in California in school districts proceed carefully.

There is no effort to commit fraud.

Superintendent Sadler, do we have a deficit or a surplus or a balanced budget for 2627, the budget that you're presenting later? Because your person just made a presentation saying both things are true at the same time. And I asked you at the last meeting over and over to explain which numbers we were using and you couldn't do that. So somebody please answer the question. and I put everyone on notice so when you vote and do this anyway it doesn't really matter what you say to me there's gonna be some explaining to other people when they look at the numbers because you've been put on notice Actually our staff person Ryan Nguyen would like to give you some specifics

Good evening board members and a member of the public. I'm Ryan Wynn, current CFO for Oakland Unified School District. I'm scheduled to speak a little bit about the expenses, but since Director Hutchinson has some questions regarding the ending balance, I will walk through a mini reconciliation of how we arrive at the both the REU and a additional reserve. So let me share my screen real quick.

Excuse me, point of order. That's not actually, excuse me, point of order. He's going to talk about the budget later. I was talking about the fiscal vitality plan and what was said here. And so that's not what I asked. I don't need anyone to go through that. If you wanna go out of order and present something now, but my only question is for everyone, I can ask it of him. How can you have a surplus and a deficit at the same time?

I can show you, I will show you right now. Okay, so thank you for that. Let me go first here to share my screen. Okay, does everybody see what's on the screen currently? Okay, this is form 01. This is a CD.

So again, point of order. This is the budget, the next item. That's when it's appropriate to bring it up. We're on the fiscal vitality plan. Everyone watching doesn't have any idea.

He's attempting to answer your question. Yes. Could you? He's answering your question. Let's see what his answer is.

He said he would like to show you. If you have a follow-up after that, that would be appropriate.

Yes, it all is related. And sometimes there's a lot of dimension, a lot of variables that we have to keep track of. And I do understand sometimes it can be a little difficult. So form one, this form, a software from the California Department of Ed, it's a SAXA reporting. We can't touch this. We can't touch the underlying programming. Basically, it takes data from our system of record, ESCAPE, pops it into this software, and it's spits out these financial reports. And the financial reports uses are different for different purposes. Right now we're specifically looking at Form 01. So Form 01 on my screen here, you can see different columns. On the left side is our estimated actual, what's going to happen by year end. This is still just budget. And then on 26-27, this is our adopted budget, what we're trying to adopt. So going top down, we have our revenue. And since we're speaking about expenses, I won't go into details there. When we scroll down, here are our total expenses, right? And when you look at books and supplies, you see this 81,000 there. Take note of that 81,000, so we have our revenue plus our, our expenses. We come up with access and deficiency of revenue before financing and other uses. So as you can see, structurally...

Wait, you need to scroll down to net increase for unrestricted, which is $7,900,000. That shows the surplus here.

I will get to that, sir. I just want to make sure that I confirm knowledge of certain items before I move forward, or else we'll go in circles and we'll just go back and forth. And so so that's a surplus and then as we scroll down. There are non operational things that we have to pay for. And what are those things? Well, there are about 3.9Million of, how would I say this contribution to different programs, different funds that we have to do our school board directed us to. fund major maintenance. So it used to be 3 million. It was reduced down to 1 million per board guidance. And then what else makes up this 3.9 million? It's a risk management. So there might be other self-insurance transaction that the self-insurance fund cannot fully fund. And so we will project to partially fund for those. And then what else is in this uses and sources? Well, special ed. What is in this special ed? Well, there's 147 million or so, and this actually breaks out a little bit more. So just take note that the combined balance is about 151 million. that unrestricted Fund 01 must pay that are not really operational. It's more like uses and finance, which is why the SAC software has this category. And then, as we go down to the next item, this is the item director Hutchinson would like to point out here. Why do we have a 7.9Million net increase in fund balance? And then where's the ending fund balance? Well, if we start with the ending fund balance as projected for 2526 of 29Million. And after revenue and expenses and uses nets us $7.9 million, we therefore end up with $37.6 million. That $37.6 million, well, the state department says, hey, for your school district of a certain size, about 29,000 ADA, 30,000 ADA, you must set aside 2%. And so in addition to 2%, our board has directed staff to also set up an additional 1%. So what is that total? We calculated it out. It's the total of expenses and uses. Comes to about almost $30 million. And so we set aside $29.94 million for our REU. What's left is $7.5. Now, going back, The question is, how could we and with a positive in addition to the fund balance, if there is a deficit.

No, the question is, doesn't this document then show what you just read over that there's a $7,900,000 plus surplus next year on these books?

Yes, and when we- Thank you, wait, wait, thank you.

That's the answer to the question. And that was after June 30th, you told us on June 3rd, you told us that there's a $30 million deficit.

And I'm getting there.

And I was looking at the same number from the same fund.

Please let him finish.

Yes, sir. And I'm answering, where this $7.9 million?

No, it's good. Do we have a surplus or a deficit?

We have a surplus if the board vote for this budget plan to go through and the additional $30 million that must be reduced from the budget for 26-27.

And isn't the reason we need to reduce $30 million because that's listed as a deficit. And isn't that minus $30 million also listed in the unrestricted?

Yes.

Madam President.

Sir.

Ryan, would you hold on for a second, please?

One second, Mr. Ryan.

the uh... the appropriate parliamentary protocol at the moment is is to allow the staff member to do the presentation and when there is board member round for questions then it would be appropriate for all of the questions that a board member has in the allocated time to be asked when the board member has the floor it is a breach of protocol to keep interrupting without recognition and without being in the broad protocol of board member allocated time to ask the questions and we want clarity of answers so i would strongly suggest that we observe the protocol

Thank you, ma'am. So now going back to this reconciliation, so we can clearly see where the additional seven.

Your screen is not sharing.

Do you want to? Yes. Let me see. It should be sharing. Can you see my screen now?

Yeah, there you go. Thank you.

Okay. So I made a screenshot of Form 01 on here. And then Um, I extracted data directly from our escape accounting system. And now we can go down and verify some number 1st of all row 13 here. You see 183Million that ties perfectly to the certificate 183Million. And if we were to do that, then everything, all the numbers were tied. But the number that we want to look at specifically is this $81,000, right? Why is there just $81,000 in supplies? And so of that 81,000, what is this object 4,300 that shows negative 4,346,000? So lock that number in your mind. Now I'm going to show you where that 4.3 million, okay? So when we go to the next tab over, we will see a reconciliation or a itemization of the related budgets. The 4,000 object code, as you can see here, is comprised of what? The 4,300. If you look at row cell E27, you'll see that 4.3 million there. That 4.3 million ties exactly to the 4.3 million rollout. And what makes up this 4.3 million? Well, this 4.3 million is comprised of supplies and books and supplies for all unrestricted resources. That is resources 000 through 1999. So that when you look at it, we go, oh, there's two items that are very important for us to take a look at. It's the four object 4394 and four object 4395. Object 3494 is our labor negotiated set aside to pay for the OEA contract. And so we put in there, there's a 20 million. And then we go, oh, where is the 30 million budget cut that needs to happen? Well, that's where we put in object 4395. of 28 million. Why is it 28 million only? Well, it's because this is for all unrestricted resource. Therefore, we have to break up the unrestricted resource again. We're going from summary down to detail, down to detail. Okay, kind of like an onion if you wanna visualize things. So now that we're gonna break this unrestricted resource open, what is resource 000, GP, unrestricted? that we have to manage. But when we look at the 4,300 object code and we go top down again, we see that the budget reserve for OEA here is 16 million on rule 46. So this has been set aside, it's in the budget, we're gonna pay it next year once the system updates and once payroll and every other processes are in line. Then the next line is our object 4395. this is where the 30Million dollars shows up. And so if we're saying the question is, how do we end up with a positive. Fund balance if there's a deficit well, because there's if we were to cut 30Million from our budget, then we will end up. With this amount, 10 million. And so when you look at the resource 000, oh, we have to cut about 10 million net. Well, that's because in resource 002 and through 1999, the other portion of the unrestricted, There's actually six million in there, okay? This table D basically takes the information in summary from these categories and it adds it up. Well, resource 00, net, we have to cut about 10 million. And then resource 002 to 1999, it's 4.3 million. That 434 million, let's do a real double check to see if our number's correct. We look at the detail, we look at the calculation above, the variance is zero. The 4.3999 ties back to our summary, which ties back to our forms here. And where is all this data? We can take a look at it. Anybody with authorized access to our system, ESCAPE, can run this data, this report, and the county office and the CDE actually gets a copy of our data file for our SACS, and they can see all this data. So if I were to run it for objects one through six, I would see that 81,000. When I run it for 4,300, I see that 4.3 million again. When I run it for the 4,300 specifically just for resource 000, I see it there. And then you can see the search criteria down here. So it's ran by Ryan Nguyen at 1 p.m. today. Fund 01, Object 4300, Resource 000. The $10 million is there. The $30 million that is needed. The reserve for the OEA is there. And then what about the other unrestricted? Well, same concept. We go Fund 01, Object, Resource. And we see that $6 million. Net those together down here, and you get your 4333. Flow it back into the main financial report. And you see that there. And then there's all these other assumptions here we've already presumed that they're accurate, right? Because LCFF is audited, federal revenues, state revenues audited, local revenues audited. We even have various committees managing this. Therefore, the certificated expenses are being reviewed. Our program teams, are allocated funds to spend on certain programs. They drive this. Imagine we have 200 resources, about 200 program, you multiply that out exponentially, you come up with about 50,000, 60,000 account codes. All that flows in and becomes this summary financial statement for us to review. And if you believe that the CDSAC software is accurate and you believe that the revenue is projected accurately, which will be audited, by the way, Then we have to take the expenses projected by staff, various programs. We have 80 some odd school site, and we have 40 additional departments. We have about 120 cost center here. And they, you know, between 5 to 10 people each in those departments coming up with all this data of which the business office aggregates and report on it. So now you have your revenue, you have your expenses, you have your ending fund balance projected at 2526 plus projected increases in 2607. You end up with what we see here. I hope that's clear and I can take questions.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. We'll have a second round of questions.

no we started if director barry had a question yes okay so my next question and i do have four more after this it's important so the memo it says there's a line that says the district can't rely on one-time measures to carry ongoing costs And so I want to understand the ongoing value of the use of restricted dollars first. And so what I see in the budget, and this is related to the plan, but what I see in the budget is that the $92.3 million actioned in 25-26, it's broken out in the plan. How much of the $92.3 million actioned in 25-26 is one time versus ongoing? What I see is that a lot of it, that $43.3 million is this use of restricted funds first strategy, but the memo also says that these shifts are not additive to ongoing structural reductions. And the number for 2627 and 2728 is not in the presentation. So I want to understand the ongoing value of that. I also want to call out one of the reasons why it was alarming to me is because of that, the fall of restricted carryover from 79.5 to 18.2 by 2829. Thank you. Ryan, do you want to pick that up?

Yes, sure. Hi there. Okay, so the $93 million from the previous board meetings, I believe in various PowerPoint, we list out what What balances were, you know, reconciles back to 1 time funds to reduce actual expenditure in resources. 0, 0, 0, through. For fiscal year 2526 that would help us end up with about 30Million dollar. Those shift, I can get a detailed itemization for the board at the next meeting. But essentially, they were for shifting costs, alt ed, small school into S&C. Some costs were shifted into professional development block grant. Some were shifted. And all of these are compliance costs that are shifted into these restricted funds. Another big funding source was Medi-Cal billing that we can use. And then, of course, our parcel tax had a lot of carryover that wasn't spent timely. And so the board directed staff to spend down the carryover compliantly. And so we shift the cost into the parcel tax to spend down COST COMPLIANTLY. AND THESE ARE COSTS THAT NORMALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED THROUGH THESE PARCEL TAX, BUT, YOU KNOW, FOR WHATEVER REASON, WE CHARGE THOSE COSTS TO RESOURCE 000 FUND 01 AT THE TIME. AND SO BY YEAR END, WE'RE GOING TO CHARGE IT TO THESE RESTRICTED PROGRAM. AND I CAN GET THE DETAILED AUTOMATIZATION FOR THE BOARD Where needed.

Then to follow up questions one. I think it would be helpful to understand what we plan to do when. We've implemented that we've exhausted that strategy. And we, but we still have cost to cover. And then, because you mentioned parcel taxes. As I read this, it's clear that, and per Ryan, what you just said, we're leveraging parcel taxes for 25-26. But I don't see, and hopefully rightly so, that there is no plan for 26-27 and beyond. That's correct. Okay. Two more. so the 41.5 general fund target for 26 27 um oh sorry i asked that one can we get the unrestricted structural gap year by year and i don't need this for today but this this question and the next one are for the when we come back for 45 day revise it would also be helpful to see not only that broken down, but how you are, how we can interpret the relationship between the eight million that Mike is talking about, but the 36.7, 39.3, 28.7, the 20.6, it's all these numbers, and I just want a sentence or a paragraph that conveys the relationship between them. What I hear Director Hutchinson saying is that the eight million dollars it to your point it's a real number but it's only a real number if this board approves this point so it seems like the decision before us today is to decide whether work our level of comfort with that yes uh director hutchinson

can i ask a question since i haven't done that yet if we're doing rounds please um i want to just clarify the um plan for bringing back the updates because i think both you and mr wynn have referenced that these that there'll be updates coming back october 1st i think that lots of i think one piece of good news that you referenced but isn't in the budget yet is that the once the state does their final budget adoption there will be included in our budget some increase in revenues through the special education per pupil increase there'll be the super cola and we're only using in this budget 2.87 and most likely it seems like that will be at 4.31 which will be a significant all of those will be significant increases to our budget obviously then reducing our need to to fully implement some of these items that are in here. Can you clarify what is the plan to bring those back to the board and then presumably have another vote as a board about what items we're going to be moving forward with?

Yes, I move that to Tara. Tara, can you speak to the strategic plan?

Sure. We'll come back to the board. We'll just set a date in August and then in September. And we'll just come back monthly and we'll go through it.

I think one other thing I just want to clarify is also around the reduction targets so for example one of the things that we you know that obviously I've been spending a lot of time on is around reducing our spending in the kind within contracts and in the five thousands in the current current budget has a significant reduction in that spending However, those aren't audited yet, so when I look at the 2627 plan for reducing contracts, is the just to clarify, is that over and above whatever we've reduced this year and whatever we've reduced this year will be again confirmed and unaudited actuals? Yes, OK, thank you.

Director Hutchinson.

yes thank you if we could please put up uh i have it as page three of the presentation it's titled we carry a deficit into 2627 now this document very clearly says we carry a deficit into 2026-27 Then the first paragraph reads, the first sentence, the 2026 budget is balanced and legally supportable. How are we carrying a deficit and the budget is balanced? And then it goes on, but the district is not fiscally complete. I don't even know what that means, but it's been clear that AI put together this presentation because nobody has been able to talk about what's actually in here. and then it says the multi-year projection shows continued deficits and the going notice concern directs ongoing reductions the plan must keep moving and that requires board action now now if there's a deficit in the budget especially a deficit in the unrestricted that means by definition you do not have a balanced budget that's what the definition means That's school budgeting 101. That's the law. So then I look farther down this page, and it says net change, 36.7 million. That's not a financial term when it comes to our budget. And I can see what happened. Somebody took the number of total expenditures over total revenues and put that down as some net change. But that's not the number that we track, because we track the unrestricted, which makes our reserve. Then we go further down, 20.6 million structural deficit, what is that? And cited by ACOE as the core structural gap requiring resolution, actually in their latest letter that they sent us last week about AB 1200, they cited a $30 million deficit. And then next to it, it says out-year reductions required, additional reductions needed across multi-year projection window. What does that even mean? What does that even mean? So what I've heard so far is staff agree that you can have a deficit and a surplus at the same time. That's what I've heard repeated back to me. It's really hard to even know what to do with that because by definition you can't have both a surplus and a deficit in the same fund. to hear people repeat back to me if you cut the deficit then you'll have a surplus that's why it's listed like that and i've been actually tracking budget and in presentations i think longer especially in this streak than anyone else up on here combined And so this is very basic, and I'm very disappointed, Ms. Gard, that you said that you can have both a deficit and a surplus. I'm very disappointed that the CFO said that, because on June 30, he said there's a deficit. And now the budget document that people will be voting on later today shows an $8 million surplus. That means these numbers are wrong, and I've tried to tell people that they're wrong. This is the plan that was supposed to be done to even make the budget and to develop it. Excuse me, Director Berry was allowed to speak almost five minutes extra on top of her time. And so this is a game that people are trying to play. And again, this was developed by AI. It doesn't even make sense. This isn't how we list stuff. And I'm waiting for somebody to please tell me that we can't have a deficit and a surplus at the same time.

Thank you. Thank you. If there are no other board questions, I'd like to hear from the public. So, do we have public comment?

Yes, we have three registered speakers. Carol Dunn, Leanna Powell, and Asalo Labala.

I'm sorry, how many speakers are there?

Three speakers.

Two minutes each.

Good evening, everyone. So I would just like to call out that Yes, this budget wasn't as early as the much ignored board policy states. However, it was the earliest budget in at least three years. And the numbers were placed before you several weeks ago. I understand that in my household we could have a structural deficit because we know that there are ongoing expenses and yet we have the means of covering them for a short time or we have a means of rebudgeting to meet those expenses which i think is what's happening here uh... i have a couple of specific questions One is the 11 million plus in projected savings and so on, is that additional to the thirty million or is that uh... part of chopping away at the thirty million that's one uh... second that i asked an e-comment uh... we've acknowledged that there is more ongoing money coming from the state uh... and that is ongoing both restricted and unrestricted because the bulk of unrestricted and restricted money is also ongoing uh... In addition to the COLA, there is ongoing additional special ed money. Is there a minimum number that I know that this team wants to be very conservative and not to speak out of terms in terms of projecting numbers. Lastly, I do want to address the parcel taxes because they weren't listed in this plan Although they were listed previously and were in fact used by the previous CBO to balance last year's budget I know that was very upsetting to the parcel tax committees at the same time as Mr. Nguyen said appropriate expenses should be charged to the parcel taxes and the parcel taxes could be doing more to parcel tax committees could be doing more to impinge less on the general fund in terms of how they structure their meetings and how they structure their contributions to the agenda. Measure G1 should be used as a model for the other committees because they do it in an extremely efficient way. measure h and n uh... i'm i'm not sure that the district can sustain them meeting as much as they do in a time when we are uh... reducing other things thank you uh... next speaker please i'm confused and i really

try to listen, but clarity in explanation is not what I can receive and get an answer to some of the concerns. But I did hear something that said, in order for this budget to be balanced, you're going to have to take an action to eliminate thirty million dollars and then i heard another time eight million dollars has to be eliminated so at this point you do not have a balanced budget you have the potential for a budget being balanced if father actions are being ought to be taken that's what i understand also understand that It is not enough to stabilize the budget. You have to produce what is called, because the city does this, you have to sustainability. So you can present something tonight that says this is where we are and where we are, we're fine. But you have to go further than that and you have to produce the sustainability plan where you stay solvent or you stay without producing another deficit. And so you're not finished until you do that. But I do not understand how you can approve something until you take the step to deal with the deficit that you have to deal with. And... I don't like being in this position because when I'm speaking right now, I'm not sure of myself. So I don't know how y'all have, you have board members, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but nobody has demonstrated other than two, three people speaking that you have some kind of understanding of what's going on, but you're going to vote. So the rest of you that haven't said anything, will you please say something to what is your understanding, and then I can get some kind of collective understanding of what the hell is going on.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hello. I'm Liana, District 6 parent. And the decisions that you make today will absolutely impact my family. directly my kids are in fourth and fifth grade they're going to be going into middle school work but things are already cut in terms of electives that was so confusing I planned to come here you know after what public information was available but to see you all sitting here I don't know how many of y'all have kids in the district currently But if you were a parent, if you did have kids, this would not be okay. I was over there and I was getting really upset. And over the time that I generally watch this at home, I try to understand where you all are coming from and I see sometimes Mike, you get very upset, but again, I've heard, I think, you Patrice, for a few budget meetings ask about clarity of this document. And today, looking at this page where it says 20.6 million, but reading the Alameda County down in the county office of education it that it doesn't match and then having whoever that was go on and on and on and on i have no idea what we're talking about i would really like to see what you guys actually understand about this so maybe again like miss assata said we can understand what do you understand what do you understand what do you understand what do you understand about this budget because it doesn't make sense it does not make sense and you're playing with our kids' lives. I don't know where y'all are from, but I'm from here. I'm running for District 6 because this is BS. Do something.

President Buhari, we have one additional speaker, Oliver Brennan.

Good evening, board and community. Oliver Brennan, parent of two. I just have a very quick comment. I listened to a lot of discussion there about the plus eight or the 30 million. And I've been debating it with a lot of the community since the last 72 hours, and none of us understood it then. And I think finally we might understand it. But the math is pretty simple. There's a claim that we have an $8 million surplus. but you have to subtract the $30 million of yet unassigned cuts. It's really minus $22 million. So it really is a $22 million deficit, but we're putting a plug to call it an $8 million surplus. Now, I've been following this district's budget cycle for five years now, and the predecessor in CBO, Lisa Grant-Dawson, did come up with some creative ways the last few years to balance the budget. Last year, it was even using ballot money, ballot measure money. That was controversial, but at least it was a plan to balance the budget. So we really do not have a surplus. We have a deficit of $22 million, and it requires... 30 million of cuts that have yet to be defined. The county have sent us a letter, and they have asked us that if we ratify the AB 1200 process for OEA tonight, that we should itemize how we're going to do those 30 million. And by the way, you started with 22 million from the county as the structural deficit. That's where you started, and you came up with $30 million Adjustment to get a surface you really only needed to come up with 22 million dollars actually of cuts To get to zero instead of getting to plus eight, but we we really do have the deficit not a surplus Thank you very much Are there any speakers online that include register speakers with that I'm going to call the question Extra can you

i'm going to call the question i just want to name for the record two things respectfully i have additional questions i said at the beginning of this evening that the way i measure the proposed budget is dependent on my understanding and my comfort with the plan. I would love the opportunity to ask remaining questions. I would also, similar to what I heard in public comment, love to hear for those who care to share, speak directly to the requests that other board members comment on what they understand about this plan, because the public also deserves clarity.

That's noted, and we'll call the question.

Thank you, Director Berry. I want to second those comments, especially since we only received this 72 hours ago, and we've had no opportunity to ask staff any questions about this document at all.

That's not, we did have two by twos. The two by two was about the proposed budget.

So this is again what President Brohard has done, has led us to the last meeting, has made it where there's no engagement. This packet wasn't even discussed at the last budget and finance committee. And now you can see where people can't even answer basic questions about it. Let's be clear, this is a superintendent's plan that's being put in front of us. And we can't even ask questions about it or get clarity.

I'll go ahead and take a recess for five minutes.

Madam Vice President I would recommend you not take the recess however you would allow for a second round so that people would have their questions and enforce the board rules of recognition and time limits to respond and ask questions Thank you Mr. Eggstraw I see a motion to do a second round I see a second can we take a roll call on the vote for a second round

uh right and the president is no longer chairing the meeting so i'm going to go ahead and share and have a second round uh vote on the second round true colors we will presume

that director hutchins is it correct to presume that director hutchinson and director barry are the makers of the motion for the second round okay if that being the case uh without further debate i'm going to call the roll on whether or not the board shall have a second round and it requires four votes to do so uh director latter yes director williams yes director hutchinson yes director barry yes director of vice president bachelor no okay the motions adopted and the second round is authorized thank you go ahead director barry so my first question and this might be my last uh

So something was just raised and I just want to make sure there's clarity for the benefit of the public and the board because numbers are being thrown around. So the $30 million that we're addressing for next year is different than the $20.6 million deficit cited in the ACOE letter. And so if someone could come to the mic and explain the relationship or the difference between those two numbers.

superintendent who from your team will be able to answer that question.

I'm going to ask staff to answer that question.

Greetings board members. To answer your question, Director Berry, the The deficit is one and the same, so I'm going to very briefly explain how the budget is working and then, if I may, and then maybe you can clarify if I'm answering your question. Is that okay?

Sure. And I think with a particular focus on how the plan addresses the 30 million in your, how you define. Absolutely.

So as Ryan explained, I'm going to try to condense all that explanation into a couple of sentences. Our budget, as we've explained over the last several months, has a deficit. And the deficit grew from, I'm going to take you back to around January, an estimate of around $100 million. We made a variety of cuts. At one point, we presented the board with about $65 million in reductions. And as we got to third interim and budget adoption, we still had a deficit. Two things happened that we mentioned. one the structural deficit continue and then we have to add the necessary funding for the settlements so as we finalize the budget we have uh... two things that that happened one We have a conservative budget that doesn't fully account, as Director Lara said, some of the revenues that we're going to get. So we expect to get a little more revenue. We still have a $30 million projected need to make reductions.

So if you look... Continue, Dr. Frutos. Thank you.

Thank you. So... Thank you. So when we look at the budget and we came to the board and said we are going to have to make a series of ongoing reductions, the original estimate is that we were going to need $30 million because that was the original estimated deficit for 26-27. We did a presentation a few weeks ago when we said we are going to maintain that 30 million because that's the estimated deficit. But at the time, the governor was announcing a better COLA, more money for special education, what is now a grant that will be a discretionary grant. So if the board remembers, we said, even though we're estimating 30 million, it might go as low as $18 million. So we continue to look at the state's budget adoption to allow us to redefine our deficit and lower it. What happens with that? Well, if the deficit lowers in a subsequent year, we had originally estimated, if you remember, $30 million and $30 million were going to be the necessary cuts. We are estimating now $30 million all the way down to $10 million. Now, why do we have that 7.9 million differential? Because we are still coming to you with a $30 million cut. And I agree, a member of the public said, when you do the math, that comes to about 20-some million. Absolutely. But right now, in the budget, there's a direction to reduce or undeficit the budget by $30 million. If the state budget passes, as it's predicted right now, when we come to you at the 45-day adoption, that $30 million might be reduced significantly. And I think all of you have made that point, that the budget is structurally better than it was when we started the year. So again, to be very clear, we had a $30 million projected deficit for this upcoming year. That's before the governor announced all these differential numbers that are beneficial to Oakland. If all those pass, we will be coming to you and say, the board makes a decision. If we still cut 30, that means less to cut in the future. But we could cut less technically. That's why this is evolving. As the state presents new numbers, our budgets adjust. But the $30 million is right now in the budget as the structural need to continue to maintain solvency. Now, I've heard this, is the budget passable or not? Absolutely. Your budgets have had deficits in the past. You have to...

I would like to ask board colleagues to let the presenters speak. Go ahead. Then I'll say it on the mic.

That's not true. We've never passed a budget with a deficit in the unrestricted before because state law requires that we're not allowed to do that.

So one of the things that will happen is the budget, when the board decides to approve the budget, it will go to the county. So if something is being done that's inappropriate, they will not approve it. The budget will be audited. If something is wrong, it will show in the audit. As Ryan was explaining, there are a variety of measures to review the budget process that the board will be well aware because you will get an audit report, you will get a letter from the county, and everything that we do is based on the accounting system. There are no handwritten numbers or anything like that. So, again, to clarify, and it was a very good question, Director Berry, right now there's a $30 million reduction. What is it made of? Well, we have already come to the board and the board directed the staff to continue looking at places where the unrestricted side of the budget paid amounts that should have been paid by other areas. You had a very good question regarding restricted. What is the strategy of restricted dollars first? That's a forever strategy because if the unrestricted fund pays for what restricted should pay, you'll be back in this situation again. So the recommendation is when something should be paid with restricted, it's legally allowed, and the standard is very simple. It's an accounting standard. Whatever program benefits from a service, that program should be paying for that if the funding is allowed. Now, we know there are some funds that will use deferred maintenance where not enough money comes in. Well, then the Board makes the decision to use unrestricted dollars to pay for that needed service. And there are others, of course. But that is a strategy that I think has served the district well. It wasn't implemented before. I don't know why. And as you know, and it was clarified by our colleagues from instruction, you were building very significant balances on the restricted side. And in some cases, there's a concern that that money can be recalled. Now you've taken a strategy where that is being adjusted. Now, at no point should a restricted dollar be used that's not authorized by the granting authority. So it all has to be legal and followed. But if a dollar is used for a restricted purpose, The restricted amount should pay for it so that you don't build the reserves that the district had been building for many years So this strategy is change.

So thank you last question your three minutes is up though, but we have Correct, but we have other board colleagues that also had questions. So director Hutchinson you had a follow-up question. I

Extremely rude and disrespectful to your colleagues on the board.

You have a question.

Excuse me, you recognized me. I don't need you to interrupt me anymore. And I'm asking if you have a question. Excuse me, I have until my clock's up. Because you can give the time to the colleagues if you'd like. And my clock should be restarted. Are you going to keep interrupting me or am I allowed to have my time? Please restart the clock. Excuse me.

I said restart the clock.

I don't really care what you say. The whole point is you shouldn't say anything once you acknowledge me.

You can go ahead and take a seat.

So when we were in December with the first interim report, and we were, excuse me, this is my time. Excuse me. Can my time please be restarted again?

Thank you. Please restart the clock.

So when we got our first interim report in December, and scenario three, and we were told there was $103 million deficit. That $103 million deficit back then, that was a deficit in the unrestricted, because that's the definition of the term. So you can go back and check. When we approved this year's budget, we did not have a deficit in the budget. We approved a budget where we could cover our reserve, and we only had 300,000 above our reserve in the unrestricted. We knew we had no flexibility, but it was a balanced budget. Then we overspent by over 60 million this year. Then this whole placeholder plug, $30 million, let's take a step back. We know that the deficit is not $30 million even. That's not how budget numbers work. On the second interim, they listed the number as $36 million even. I challenge you to look at the SACS report, the budget report, and find any other number on there that's even to the million. So either it's an estimate or a made up number to begin with. Now, I've sat through every budget and financial presentation in OUSD since 2011, every single one. Every committee one, every single one. The fact that we're being told now that we have a deficit and a surplus at the same time, it's hard for me to even explain how crazy that is because anyone saying that shows they're either lying directly or they have no understanding how the budget works because you can't have a surplus and a deficit at the same time. You don't have on your documents, well, if we make $30 million cuts, we have an $8 million surplus. That's just not true. That's not what the documents show. The documents show an $8 million surplus and there's no notation of a $30 million deficit. That's what the budget numbers today show. I can show you how the expenditures for unrestricted, which at the June 10th on the multi-year projection, two weeks ago on that document, It's that we were projecting expenditures at unrestricted next year of $430 million. Now tonight, the projection is a little more than $370 million. Somebody lowered the amount of total expenditures in unrestricted for no reason and no justification, and the numbers don't add up. And because they lowered that one specific number, when they re-ran the budget, it popped out an $8 million surplus. Because you can't have a deficit and a surplus at the same time. Try to meet with them all and show them Nobody wanted to listen. And then we have this show tonight where I have staff and a consultant up here proving they're either a liar or don't know what they're talking about for our billion dollar budget. Thank you.

Director Lotto? Director Williams? Board colleagues, you can cede your time to Director Berry for her last question. Thank you. Go ahead, Director Berry, for your last question.

My last question was just spoke to the sustainability point which helps assess the merit of some of the solutions in the plan. The ultimate question being to what extent do the strategies of the solutions in this plan contribute to reducing the structural deficit. I understand that the use of restricted funds is an ongoing practice but per the report provided by staff, it is not additive to the structural deficit work. So I want to understand how the work we're approving or not approving today is advancing the longer term work that we need to do.

Superintendent, is there anyone from your team that will answer that question?

Yes.

Dr. Frutas, I see you coming up, thank you.

i do want to say while he's coming up i do want to say one of the things that was discussed earlier was that we are we looking at our operations our staffing our scope of work and required by individual staff and so we're looking at new ways of getting the work done at our school sites and in central office and it's going to require that as well as looking at specific ways that we're spending monies but we have to look at our operations there's a lot of work that has to be done to get there so it's not just one thing it's not just one budget action it is also the operations it's also figuring out what our priorities are is also it means looking at the achievement of our students and what's working and what's not working there's there's so many factors that are going to drive the ultimate decisions that are going to be made in the future

Dr. Fritos, you can add.

I think, Director Berry, your question is probably the most important question for budget development for ongoing years. And there's a reason for it. The structural imbalance on our budget has been reduced but not eliminated. And we mentioned this to the board when we started working on making reductions. And the settlements came. We used the word bifurcation at the time. The effort was let's pay the salaries but continue working on the structural deficit. And does this need to make reductions? And the reason why the amount is a solid amount is it's an amount that we're bringing to the board for approval to reduce 30 million. It's not an amount that's computed in any other way than a solution that continues the process. To your point, our ongoing solvency. If the board continues the stabilization measures that have been implemented since at least December, January, two things will happen. If the state budget is as good as we've estimated, the board will be able to have some flexibility over the next couple of years for implementing programs that are desirable, even with the reductions you have. However, because our enrollment has contracted and Unless we have a spike up, you will continue having a challenge with your staffing. And that's something that all of you have commented on at different times. So as difficult as it sounds for those of us that are working with your staff, some of this will have to be governance questions and governance decisions. Do we keep the same number of support systems? You heard from our colleagues in the academic side that significant positions were cut that were serving a good purpose. And it doesn't matter if they just serve for one year or for many years. It will be ultimately a governance decision to say what gets compressed if our attendance continues to decline. Now, the board put together something that hopefully will create an attractor, and we will bring some students with the TK hubs. That will be very apparent the first couple of weeks when all the scheduling is done and the placement of students and staffing. So when we say that coming back to you and informing you is important, it's incredibly important in a lot of categories. Are we overstaffed? Do we have the students? Did the state budget pass in a favorable way? You have three factors that will significantly color the amount of cuts that you need to make in the next couple of years. So I'm hoping that's helpful, Director Berry. It really is based on some unknown factors right now, but all of which are accounted by making that potential reduction of 30 million, which, by the way, has been addressed in a lot of categories by coming to you and saying we use the wrong kind of funding to pay for things in the past.

Thank you. Director Brohard, any questions? All right, I will go ahead and call a question.

On the motion to approve the financial stabilization plan, per the resolution that's in the packet, Director Lara?

Yes.

Director Williams?

Yes, sir.

Director Hutchinson?

No.

Director Berry?

Yes.

Vice President Batchelor? Yes. And President Brevard? Yes. Motion's approved.

to item K-4, the 2026-27 fiscal year district budget, all funds, deputy superintendent, business and operations. Before we start, I want to begin by thanking the finance team and Superintendent Sadler for the tremendous amount of work that has gone on into this proposed budget before us tonight. We are a long way from where we were when we began.

I'd like to make a motion to add this item, to approve this item.

There's a motion to approve the budget.

Motion to approve, yes.

Second. we're a long way from where we were when we began this work in October of 2025 at that time the board adopted budget scenarios aimed at achieving a positive certification from the county and moving toward a budget that better centered the needs of OUSD's 34,000 students we also hired HYA to assist with this effort Together, the finance team, the superintendent, and the board have made significant changes to OUSD's budgeting practices. That work has resulted in a qualified second interim and now a positive third interim certification. This is an important accomplishment and reflects the months of hard work and difficult decisions. We have also absorbed the cost of labor agreements that include significant salary increases and improvements to working conditions for our teachers, psychologists, counselors, speech and language specialists, buildings and trades, and SEIU members. These investments will help us retain talented staff, and we know that a stable workforce is critical to improving student academic achievement and supporting students' social and emotional well-being. The proposed budget before us tonight is another significant step in restructuring our finances and moving closer to a budget that truly centers the needs of OUSD's 34,000 students. At the same time, we recognize that much work remains ahead. We must continue to rein in spending across the district and ensure that every dollar is aligned with student outcomes. This fall, we will open TK hubs and we will need to carefully monitor this financial impact. We will also open non public school program and evaluate the financial implications of that work as well. In addition, we must improve student attendance, which will increase our LCFF revenue and strengthen our long term fiscal stability. I am confident that this board is prepared to do this work. We will support the finance team through strong governance, thoughtful questions, careful analysis of data, and meaningful engagement with our students, families, employees, and community members. Tonight, we must pass a budget. State law requires that we adopt a balanced budget by June 30th, and this is our final board meeting before that deadline. I urge all of my colleagues to vote yes on the budget before us tonight, and while this budget is not the end of our work, it is an important step forward in ensuring both fiscal stability and our commitment to serving the students of Oakland. Do you have comments, Director?

At this time, because I want to make sure that we have plenty of time for discussion, I'm going to ask staff to come forward to make their presentation.

Good evening, board. Thank you. So we're here for the 2026-27 proposed adopted budget. And I'd actually, before we start, I'd like to have a statement that I'd like to read to the board. For the benefit of the board and the public, I would like to clarify several statements that have been made regarding the proposed 26-27 budget. The district's budget was prepared using the California Standardized Account Code Structure, or SACS, and is supported by detailed object level budget documentation. The figures presented are based on those official records. First, the approximately eight million figure that has been referenced represents the projected change in the unrestricted general fund. It does not represent the overall financial position of the combined general fund. The same SACS Form 01 reflects a projected net decrease in the combined general fund at approximately $36.7 million, largely attributable to the planned use of restricted funds as part of the Board's adopted fiscal stabilization strategy. Second, statements that unrestricted expenditures were reduced by approximately $60 million are not consistent with the SACS budget documents. The budget reflects unrestricted expenditures decreasing from approximately $406.2 million in the estimated actuals for 2025-26 to approximately $369 million in the proposed budget for 2026-27, a difference of approximately $37.2 million. The multi-year projection and the object level report do show a $30 million budget adoption adjustment in object 4395. The SACS report does not allow the adjustment in the 26-27 year as in the next two years, so staff for the years has been adjusting in the 4000s. That adjustment is reconciled in the detailed object code report provided to the county and to the auditor for review and verification. and not part of the major object code budget reports, but the total reconcile to the MYP. But it is labeled in the budget detail. It is not hidden. The same object detail also includes approximately 15.94 million object 4394, which the district identifies as a reserve amount for the OEA settlement. That means the budget did not erase the OEA settlement. It reserved for it in the budget model. California law requires a hearing on the proposed budget, board adoption of the final budget, county office review, and a 45 day revision after the state budget when needed. Just as the LCAP, as just explained, may be revised after a public hearing and before final adoption, so can the adopted budget. The detailed budget also includes a budget adoption adjustment recorded in object 4395. This adjustment is identified within the object level budget detail and reconciles to the multi-year projection. It is provided to the Alameda County Office of Education and the district's independent auditors as part of the district's budget documentation. In addition, approximately 15.9 million is included in object 4394 to reserve for the anticipated OEA settlement. These items are identified in the supporting budget detail and are not omitted from the district's financial records. The budget adoption process established under California law contemplates continued review and refinement. The board conducts a public hearing, adopts a proposed budget, the county office reviews the adopted budget and revisions may be made following adoption, including those resulting from the enacted state budget. Budget revisions during this process are a normal and expected component of school district financial administration. If anyone believes there is a specific accounting error or legal violation, staff welcomes identification of the particular line item calculation or accounting treatment at issue so it can be reviewed. We are committed to correcting any error if one exists. At this time, however, staff believes the budget presented is supported by the district's records and applicable accounting requirements. A concern was raised about a staff perceived error in a line item staff has carefully reviewed. The concern that has been raised and has not found evidence that the budget contains the alleged error We remain committed to correcting any verified mistake should one be identified, but we cannot represent that an error exists when our review and supporting documentation demonstrate otherwise. Finally, I understand there are differing views regarding the budget assumptions and presentation. I would simply note that the district's adopted budget is subject to multiple independent layers of oversight. Following adoption, the Alameda County Office of Education will conduct its statutory review and determine whether to approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the budget. In addition, the district's financial records are subject to an annual independent external audit. We welcome those independent reviews and remain committed to providing complete supporting documentation to both oversight agencies. And the last thing I'd like to say is I thank our chief financial officer who has more than 20 years in school finance and Ruben himself with probably about 40 years. And thank you and we're gonna move on and Ruben's gonna take it from here.

I'm going to go over the budget prior to the board taking action, but I did want to say something. The board has worked very, very hard in the last few months, I know, because we've received your guidance, and I think some of you have said that where the budget conditions were back in January and December are significantly improved as we are about to enter 26-27, regardless of the comments that sometimes are perhaps based on information that's not the credible information we used, you are entering into a budget that's a lot more sustainable, and we'll describe it right now. And some of the information we just covered in the prior report, so I will move expeditiously so that you can have opportunity to ask questions. The timelines include the public hearing that occurred on June 10, and finally the adoption that will take place today. What is the current status? Well, in a nutshell, we are coming to you with a precautionary note. We need to continue the stabilizing processes for the budget.

Why?

Because although the budget is in better condition, it is adaptable. It can be reviewed by the county, and we expect that the auditor will see it as a favorable document. There's still some challenges that need to be addressed, as were just discussed in the prior report. One of the areas that we wanted to mention is there have been a lot of discussions regarding discrepancies. And one of you a little while ago said we need to be clear so that the public understands the budgeting process. So we have two examples. There's a green line. Above the green line is the first example, and there was some criticism that our numbers didn't match. And there's a reason for that. The numbers are designed to be different in different reports, case in point. When you look at our financial reports, our total is $885 million. When you look at another report, it's 800 or 981. There's a discrepancy of close to $4 million. Without looking at the detail, that $4 million was addressed several times as a big error. But in reality, the budget reporting doesn't allow us to change it. As Ryan said, it comes from the financial system. The $3.9 million are expressed in a separate area as transfers out. When you add the two numbers, it completely matches the number in the budget. So I wanted to use that example because there's been a lot of confusion as to whether there are errors in the budget or not. It is very clear that our financial system transfers the data to the budget report and the budget report then allocates the numbers in different categories. And sometimes the totals don't seem to match, but when you add up the amounts, they're exactly the same. The second category is the bigger one. When we were talking about, well, how come the $30 million that we have used as a reduction need doesn't appear everywhere? If you look at the multi-year projection, it appears in the subsequent years, but in the budget year, there's a gray box. It just cannot appear. It's shaded. Well, as has been explained in the prior discussion, on the left side, you see all the categories that comprise that area. And right there, you see the $15 million that were reserved for the OEA payment and the $30 million that are the necessary next steps to stabilize the budget. And as we discussed, that will be impacted by what happens in the state budget and what actions the district takes. So when you look at the right, you see that thirty million and then you see ten and that was another question well it used to say thirty thirty thirty but as we explained in the last uh... presentation now with all the improvements in the state budget with all the reductions that have been made with some of the cuts we believe that on the third year out you will no longer have to reduce by thirty at this point we're estimating ten caveat I'm a temp, I won't be here, but your team at the time might come back to you and say, it's not 10, it's 15. If something happens with the state budget or with the district budget over the next year, and I'll give you one example, right now the federal government is shifting how they allocate funding. That might have an impact on how we project for the future. So that $10 million might be more or less, it's a projection. But it's the best projection the team has based on current information. So I wanted to clarify those two because there's been a lot of conversation about the district is making errors. And in reality, if there's an error, it has to come from the financial system, which, by the way, is what is used every day for all the accounting. These reports are simple transfers of all that information to come to you with a comprehensive budget. As we look at the actual planning factors, the most important one right now is the COLA. We were conservative in the development of the budget with a 2.87 COLA. And the question is why? When the governor said 4.31. Well, any of the many advisory groups that have been informing the development of the budget are saying stay with 2.87, but note, That's why it's being noted that there's a proposal for a 4.31. The same goes for the ratchet up increase in special education. It's not an additional $900. It's a differential between what the district has received and $900 plus. And the discretionary grant, which will come and hopefully will be fully funded. So all this are based on the estimations that we've received from the state. The same goes for contributions, as you know. We have a mandate for a reserve for economic uncertainties and this board has been very prudent and increased it by 1%. Right now our reports show that that is met for each one of the three years. As you look at the balance summaries, this was discussed before, right now we expect to have a net balance for the budget year and then a decrease in the next two years. Because you have a deficit doesn't mean you don't have an approvable budget. It just means that it needs to be addressed. So the next one is the revenue and expense. One of the challenges that we brought to the attention of the board from the first time we made the presentation is the fact that the board is aware that we have been spending more money than we get in the past and right now it's projected to continue. That reduction of the differential between expenditures and revenues is why some of these actions need to take place. So we wanted to make sure that the board continued to see that there are some challenges to the budget and thus the need for those $30 million and other measures to continue to address the structural deficit. This $8 million has been discussed at Nosham is not a surplus. It's an increase. It's an increase. It's an increase of our revenue based solely on the fact that there are $30 million in reductions. The unrestricted general fund for revenues and expenses continues to have a significant amount of expenditure in the areas that are traditional, salaries and benefits. So it is important, as we mentioned in the last presentation, that as we continue bringing you the correct information for our enrollment, our attendance, and our staffing, that that is managed because it continues to be the largest portion of the budget. The summary of the general fund continues to show that we started with a beginning fund balance of $124 million, and our expectation is an ending fund balance of about $79.5 million. Now on the restricted side, one of the things that we've mentioned to the board is that in Oakland, the restricted and unrestricted side have very different behavior. If the unrestricted side existed on its own, you would have an incredible amount of revenues over expenditures and very significant balances. Where the need comes is that on the restricted side of the house, our expenses continue to outpace our revenues. So there has to be a balance that is normally done with the unrestricted part. That continues. And that's one of the reasons why I think Director Berry's question was very important. What do we do with the restricted and how do we continue that strategy? This shows that that differential is something that will continue to need to be addressed. Our staffing, again, is an issue. So Tara's team put together the certificate of classified and total of salaries. That amount with the reduction in force and the retirement incentive is helping the budget. But it is important that that area, as well as benefits, which now pass classified salaries in size, continues to be managed and addressed. The proposed budget summary, as presented, includes on the unrestricted side an excess in revenues. Again, the unrestricted side is solid. But on the restricted side, you can see there's a deficit of $191 million. When you do the combined, you see there is that deficit of $36 million. That's addressed in the different manners that we've explained, the $30 million. So what are the big changes between the third interim and the proposed budget? The most important element is that some of the board-directed initiatives are taking hold. There are savings, there are some reductions in expenditures, and that hopefully will continue to create the stable budget that the district desires to have. When you look at all the funds, one of the issues that we brought to the attention of the board is that you have some funds that have very significant balances. So we wanted to show it in a manner that a full comparative could be done by anyone between the general fund and all the other funds. One of the reasons why it's important to make sure that the expenses track the funding source is that you have some categories like nutrition services where the fund balance has increased a lot and we find ourselves in difficulty transferring expenditures because of all the federal regulations. But if you notice, that balance is very significant. And as I mentioned before, we are concerned that when the balances are too high, there could be a move to say, you know, some of it needs to be returned. So we will keep bringing charts like this so that the board can see that the balances are continuing to be managed. There are two categories, and we wanted to make sure we pointed them out. One of them, by the way, has been pointed out by our labor partners, contracts and services. But if you look at two categories, they've grown significantly. Let's start with employee benefits. At almost $275 million, it is a category that we're recommending that there's a lot of review. Now, in some areas, it's absolutely mandatory. But in other areas, like, for example, workers' compensation, we can review the contracting that has been done and the processes to see if there can be some savings that can be achieved. The other one is services and operating. This is one that the board has heard many times. This is where contracts come in and all that. That needs to be addressed. Once again, the growth of that bar is now well over $200 million. So we wanted to point out two categories where the fiscal team can continue to focus to bring to the board some ideas for cost containment. Now when we look at the balances, one of the reasons why we continue bringing this to your attention is although the balances are declining, they still are above the three percent. the mitigation measures that we are recommending will hopefully stabilize that upward. But if you continue to look at the bars, you see that the unrestricted part, it continues to be outshined by the restricted except in the final year where there's a balance. So that's why those strategies are recommended. And then when you look at the available reserve ratios, as I mentioned to you, in each one of the projected years, we are above 3%, and that expectation is part of the 2% mandated and the 1% that the board has directed that we continue to have. So in any budgetary projection that is brought to your attention, one of the goals is to always make sure that we meet that 3% reserve. What are the next steps? When the budget is adopted, it will be submitted to the county. We made a recommendation to our superintendent to continue working with the auditor at the same time. So we're not going to wait until audit time. We want to make sure everything is reviewed because there are some strategies we continue to implement. So you basically are having the numbers aside from the county in discussion with the auditor. prior to the audit report. We're finalizing the year activities around August, and as the board has indicated, come back to you with where the recommendations are taking hold and what the outcomes are. And finally, in September, the unaudited actuals. And with that, we will entertain any questions or comments. Sorry I went a little fast, but most of it was covered in the prior item. Thank you.

I will take public comment first.

For registered speakers, we have Carol Delton, Arsal Obala, Matt Glaser, Oliver Brennan, and A.B. Ringer.

Two minutes each, please.

Good evening, Board. So the numbers are being clarified now, and it's still uh... eight million minus thirty million is twenty two million deficit and yes the super colo four point three percent and the sped money at the may revise based on the number of students in OUSD and the number of uh... sped students will be between twelve and fifteen twelve and fourteen million estimate ballpark into the district and that's why the finance team are budgeting twelve million off the thirty million but that's still a ten million dollar deficit And that's just the restricted fund where we have to have a surplus in, and I don't think we have that. But let's look at the general fund, which Dr. Frutas was just talking about, because it's very concerning when you look at a general fund. Next year, we're going to spend down, based on the numbers, $37 million. The following year, $38 million. And the second out, you're $29 million. That's $105 million total in this budget cycle that we're going to reduce our funds by. By the way, this year that we're closing out, $25, $26, with all the $92 million moving funds around, we have spent down $100 million this year. That's $205 million between this year and the next three years that we're going into. $105 million is an interesting number because that's about the cost of the OEATA, which we have signed up for. It's like we have to pay our teachers. We have to give them a raise. They have to live and stay in Oakland. But the funny thing is, the irony is that our fund spend down over the next three years is the cost of the TA. So really, could we afford that TA? Had we enough work done to afford that TA? And yes, our teachers do need to get paid. But it's very concerning that our fund, and you see the charts that are presented, our general fund is dropping down to below $49 million at the end of this three-year budget cycle. We have done a lot of cutting this year. We've cut the district to the bone. What else are we going to cut to get rid of this structural deficit where we spend about high $30 million every year over the next three years? What else have we left to cut? Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

What frustrates me is you are dead set on not considering certain things. And you have no ability to justify, except that has been made clear to me. And I'm talking about closing of schools. And when your principals, you have 60 principals ask you to consider it, And you have on your agenda your 260 consent items, infrastructure issues that are very overwhelming. And these issues include safety issues with lead, asbestos, and other concerns. But you won't consider it. You have 20 schools with less than 300 students. You have some schools with 150 students, and you're saying we're going to keep the schools open. In a last meeting, you spent $81,000 to have a survey of who's going to be coming back to your school district. You're going to survey 1,000 potential and already existing parents. And you act as if you're going to grow your enrollment and attendance when all of us understand that declining enrollment is an ongoing thing. The birth rate is dropping. People are moving out of California because of the cost of living. People's lives are being interrupted with ice because we depend heavily on our community our spanish community in the past has been growing tremendously that's going to be cut but you won't take into consideration things that have to be considered

So state law requires passing the balanced budget by June 30th for the following year. That's so the county and the state can be sure that we've got enough money to make it through the next year. So the community can make sure that we have enough money to make it through the next year. But what's the point of doing this if you can just put in a $30 million plug? Balanced budget doesn't mean anything. particularly if that $30 million has nothing behind it, no itemization, no plan, why wouldn't every organization just put an un-itemized plug into every budget? Why not just put a $100 million plug into this budget? Because even if your super COLA, your discussionary grant comes through, it might go down to $12 million that we need, right? What indications are there that we're going to be able to find that money? Every trick and tactic has already been tried and they've come up with about 40 million dollars for next year Where are we going to find that 12 million dollar more? You'd think that part of the presentation that we would have just heard might have talked about that. It wasn't even mentioned Right, so that makes me very concerned This is not something we can rely upon It makes me concerned as a community member and a parent makes me very nervous Doesn't it make you nervous?

I got my start in working on budget and finance issues when I was employed at San Leandro Unified District and I represented the union on those issues. I feel pretty confident because I know that School Services of California has certain projections that they advise all districts. I wish the state would pass its final budget in March or April. That's the biggest thing, in my opinion, that it could do to help districts so that you actually know what you have. Because one thing you don't also want to do is you don't want to further cut positions more than you need to only to hire them back or have to go to contracted staff that will cost you 20, 25% more per person. But that's what has often happened. So hand in hand with the budget goes the plan and sticking to the plan. And prior to this year, too much of the time I heard great ideas that weren't followed through. I still don't know what's happening. We talked about the printer consolidation and the copier consolidation, and nobody's mentioned that. And nobody's mentioned the elevator phones. Nobody's mentioned solar. But those are all things that have been on the plan that provide real concrete savings every year. In its own way, the agreement with OEA is already showing some benefits. There are close to a million dollars in savings among speech language pathologists who are signing on as employees for next year versus being contracted in previous years. There is a very high return rate among special education teachers for the first time which means there will be more credentialed people in the classroom. And you won't need your most expensive substitutes, the administrators, to come in for those many extra days of training that the first year teachers get. So one last point, OUSD already has a dozen empty properties. I'm not saying there will never be a time to close schools, but you need to think first of all, of what use the buildings will be put to so that you don't end up with the costs of blight and a vacant building that you've been dealing with on several of your properties this year.

Thank you. Are there any other public speakers?

Yes, we have Matt Glazer, if he's still here. If not, our name has been called.

Thank you. Board comments? Director Berry? We'll go this round this time.

First a comment, one, teachers do need raises and I do poverty abolition work for a living. which is ironic it shouldn't be necessary and there's just it is unfortunate that school districts are doing the work that other people responsible for this mess should be doing and that includes our state and that includes the unreliable federal government that we have That said, the board also needs to do its job. So I want to pay teachers and therefore I'm committed to doing the things that we need to do and for me that means all the things are on the table. I care less about what the specific thing is and I care most about how we do that work and we need to be having that conversation instead of making excuses for why we can't touch certain things. I also think that there are other things that we're experiencing the impact of raises in the budget but there are other things in the TA that I also think we need to consider and so part of the board doing its job is taking that other work seriously as well which includes serious engagement with the full breadth of stakeholders who are impacted by those changes positive and otherwise and so for me this budget I'm not concerned I mean I have serious concern for all the reasons named about the 30 million dollars but I have confidence given all of my conversations with staff and others and people across the state that that 30 million dollars this deficit is manageable what I think is a more serious concern is how we manage and the deficit, contain it so it doesn't grow year after year, because the plan, as it was clear today, after today's conversation, is really just getting us through next year. There needs to be additional intensive work beyond next year, and it does have to start today. It should have started yesterday. So you will see me likely pending the outcome of this conversation support the budget, but it's because I'm wholly and deeply committed to the real work that all of us need to do.

Mr. Williams.

Thank you, President Brohardt. so you know one of the things i i'm just listening and uh... hearing the questions and you know i really understand there is this complexity here it's not really clear it's not a step-by-step clarity of what we are doing uh... and i can agree with many of you who uh... are questioning what the strategies are when it's not as clear but you know one of the things I just go back to is we're at a time that we really were fighting for our survival a couple years ago we had certified negative which was very close to a state takeover we had the CBO actually encourage us to take a hundred million dollar loan out from the state and we chose to move in a different direction it could have been easy it could have been over it could have been over we could have just taken a hundred million dollar loan out and just paid it off and we would be back under state receivership that's the easy choice but we took a different choice and at the time we had to cut not a hundred million but two hundred million I think we've come a very long way in the last two years to cut close to $200 million. We cut $100 million last year, and we're very close to balancing it out. You can go back and argue over the $30 million or the $8 million, but it is not necessarily the complete amount because we still have the state revenues that are coming in that haven't been actually as calculated in. And we did have a community member bring that up, but on a conservative level, we do what the numbers tell us to do but in the end it actually will most likely balance itself out because what has happened year after year after year is that the unaudited actuals will show that there is additional money in the system it may not be captured right now and a lot of folks are looking for all the worst scenarios but i think you know where we need to be actually is saying, can we make it through the end of the year? Yes. Will we be able to make it at the beginning of next year? Yes. Will there be some adjustments again next year? Yes. But the fact is, We have communities out in East and West Oakland that want to keep their schools. They really feel that it's valuable. They see that school choices hurt them because they don't get the same opportunities. So I think we also as a board keep our minds and understanding that decisions that we make are for those who may not be sitting right here today, who may not be the strongest advocates, who may be working two or three jobs. And so there are also folks that we haven't heard from And if you go into those neighborhoods, you'll find out why they want their school to be there. And it may be small, but it is mighty. And it may be a long time that they've had. But there is a long history and tradition of us really supporting the working class folks who really need the schools in their neighborhood. Not everyone can get in their car and drive across the city. you're right and you know we we should actually be moving back to a neighborhood school district i appreciate that thank you let's work that out thank you director williams uh director lata so i um i would just like to say that i

think that the work that um that our staff have done supported by the board of you know by board decisions but really the work that our staff has done to get us to this point is remarkable and i just want to make sure that the people in this room and the people who are not in this room who've helped tighten up our fiscal practices who made a lot of very difficult recommendations and restructurings to their own departments and to their schools are appreciated even though they're probably not listening to this because we have made incredible progress it is true that a year ago and even in december i like most many of my board colleagues were very concerned about the direction we were taking and how we were getting closer and closer to a precipice where our school district felt very unstable and as somebody who has three kids in this district impacts my kids and their friends and the people who work and rely on this district and I think that it's understandable that you know to have made this big of a change in the way that we spend our money in this district in the amount of months that we've done it is messy there have been decisions that have been implemented very quickly it's very i accept the criticism that we could have engaged more people that it should have been done slower that it should have been done over a longer timeline that's all very very true and we had a responsibility that to make sure that our district remained stable and so that has happened we can and i you know i think a lot of people even people in this room didn't think we were going to get to the point of adopting a budget that says we can meet our financial obligations this year next year and the year out and i do think that it's true that the way that we sequenced the votes was very good because we all recommitted to the stabilization implementation plan that has specific actionable items yes of course we'll get more fleshed out as we go through but it makes real the commitment to bridge the deficit in the out years and so i just um wouldn't would say that the fact that it was messy that you know things are happening very quickly that numbers have changed from this year you know this meeting from the previous shouldn't detract from the work that the real work that has happened to stabilize our district um and i would just you know be remiss to say that yes that the engagement is ongoing so um i would just like to put a plug in for the multi-stakeholder engagement group that our district advisory committees are running supported by our superintendent um but really held independently as one of the places that people can get involved in to really engage with what does the future of our district look like and i just want to lean into the work moving forward for our students and our whole community who relies on this district thank you dr hutchinson

Thank you. I just want to point out again that I only received this final budget document on Sunday when it was posted publicly. That means as one of seven people with fiduciary responsibility, I don't have the ability to introduce a budget adjustment resolution or change anything that's being put in front of me. That's unacceptable, and it's never how things have worked in the past. I've listened to a lot of people in here tonight try to talk about how things used to work. Wow. I also know none of them were here in the past times when things actually did work. So let's just remember a couple of things. We just left receivership after 22 years, less than a year ago. Next week is the one-year anniversary. We must pass the balanced budget, according to state law. And by definition, if we pass a budget that requires mid-year cuts next year, that's not a balanced budget. I worked really hard to make sure staff was on the record over the last month at meetings. On June 3rd, the CFO said, we have a $30 million deficit for next year, and you find that deficit on line B10. We also know $30 million, that number, it's not a plug. It's not a placeholder. It's a budget designation, a budget notation. That's why it's in parentheses. And it actually means minus $30 million from expenditures. It's not something you can just take away because it's a plug. It means something. And so when you take that minus 30 million in expenditures off the budget, you have to add 30 million dollars to total expenditures. That's how the math works. And if you look at any multi-year projection, you can see that this deficit, what they wanted to call a plug, exists only in the unrestricted because that's the numbers that we look at to determine these things. So if you look at the multi-year projection in the packet from the public hearing on June 10th, it said in unrestricted expenditures, a total of 401 million was planned on being spent. It also had the minus 30 million notation. Now on today's multi-year projection, they took away the 30 million dollar notation. And what should have happened is then you add 30 million into the total expenditures to make it work. But instead, when you look at the math, they subtracted the 30 million. That's how we got a $60 million less expenditures for unrestricted. Then when you run those numbers, it produces a surplus instead of the deficit. That's what happened in the numbers. I can show anyone on the documents. You all can go look it up. It's the facts of the situation. And so what we just heard tonight is everyone talking in a way that it's clear to me they don't understand what number to even look at. So let's just be very clear on the budget. The SACS report for the budget that will be adopted tonight. When you look at the unrestricted dollars, you go down the column and the net increase of almost $8 million, that's read as a surplus. Where on this budget in the SACS form is there any plug notation or anything about $30 million? That notation has disappeared and because of it, it has produced a surplus on paper. Or the other option is somebody can stand up here and tell me how in two weeks the number of projected expenditures has gone down by $60 million. And the reason why those numbers were different last time on June 10th is those were actually the same numbers that were used in the third interim report, which were the same numbers sent to the county. That's why the county's saying there's a $30 million deficit, because that's what the numbers showed until tonight when this set of numbers was dropped on Sunday. So to hear everyone say you can have a deficit and a surplus at the same time, Um, it's impossible if you read their own documents for this budget, it says $8 million unrestricted operating surplus.

Director Hutchinson, your time is up. We can take a second round.

Well, we will take a second round, but please everyone just read through the documents. So we hear all of this word about how the 30 million is listed on the budget that's going to be adopted tonight someplace. I challenge anyone to find it in the document that was just handed out. And we are talking about $900 million in our general fund alone.

Director Hutchinson, there are two other members who would like to speak. Director Batchelor.

Thank you. I'd like to appreciate my board colleagues for talking about not only the hard choices that we've made so far, but the staff work that has gone into the budget and the documents that we have today. I will be voting to support this budget, knowing that we do have that hard work ahead. based on again conservative financial projections we will have to make reductions in future years and i'm committed to implementing the fiscal stability stabilization plan and ensuring that revenue truly reflects the revenue that we are getting in a multi-year projection for members of the public who want to support a healthy budget for all schools in california i urge you to flood the governor's office with calls demanding that proposition 98 be fully funded we need every dollar constitutionally promised to california students as early as possible so we can make the most impact in our classrooms directly with our students our students educators and families cannot afford another round of budget maneuvering at the state level that short changes public education

now is the time to make our voices heard and demand that california keeps its promise to our students and our schools thank you i've been in the district almost 40 years as a parent as a teacher now as a school board director and this is the first time i have really felt that we are grappling with problems that have plagued our budget over the years in particular I think the district has often had for many years had a practice of just spending we needed reading in K-3 we put teachers in K-3 we put programs we paid and then suddenly we needed you know so to support middle school students so we put money over there but we never looked at where we had to move money from we never and you know people keep talking about trade-offs and those trade-offs are real And as a teacher, I felt that we could go from one thing to another. We would have books in our textbooks room that would be a cultural history of the district. Teachers would take them out and recycle them because you needed more bookshelves for the next books coming in. We had one program after another. And we were constantly chasing the bandaid we were constantly chasing where we thought the problem was and as we shifted we didn't take away from the other pieces of it so that we just added on i think one thing that became apparent to me in in our past spending recently on the board is that because we had one-time money we had esser money we had covered money We spent down our reserves because we had them. It's like my savings account. You know, if I have $10,000 in the savings account and I spend it down, at some point I don't have it. And I think that's where we are now. But what I really want to express to the people who've worked on this and to the board is that we said two things would not happen. We said we would not go into receivership. We would not take a loan. And I deeply respect the leadership of the district, the superintendent and our finance team for honoring that. That meant, I mean, that had not happened in the past. And that means a lot to me as a board member that the direction that the board takes collectively is honored. I think the other thing, and we've heard this again, I think we hear, as a former teacher I heard this too, we must pay our teachers well you know what in this society your worth is valued by what you're paid and i get this as the principals have talked about this as well in their bargaining you know that there are principles that are paid less than a teacher and and again it's one thing it's it always felt like you know kind of heartfelt as a teacher oh we want to pay you more but we are doing it and not only that as a former special ed teacher I spent one year, I did 50 initials. I didn't get paid for that extra time. I didn't get paid for the time I took writing them. I didn't get paid for the time I took assessing the kids, the time I took away from the minutes that our students, like your students are deserved, they're in their IEPs. I had to do all that stuff as extra time. So this is why special ed teachers leave. It's an untenable job. speech and language pathologists will see 50, 60 kids when I started. And they deserve that compensation for that work. And we did that. We heard from our community. We didn't want to strike. Nobody wants to strike. I mean, I struck four times. I didn't want to do it. That was my first year I struck for six weeks. But we honored that. And yes, I think, like Director Lotta said, change is messy. And we'll go through this thing, and I'm sure next year there will be other things we will change as our practice and our experience goes on. But we did this. And more importantly, our district leadership honored it. So after 40 years in the district, I finally feel that I am being part of change. So thank you. Would we like a second round? Director Hutchinson.

Yes, thank you. And I appreciate the story, but it has nothing to do with budget adoption right now. And so unfortunately, after listening to everyone, I'm the only person that actually referenced the budget document. and this talk about the past i find offensive because again next week is the one-year anniversary of leaving receivership because we managed the district's finances the right way and left receivership early we should still be in receivership now if not for the work of dr kyler johnson tumel and lisa grant dawson as the cbo and tonight just so we're clear on the consent report just the items i pulled from the consent report encumber over four hundred thousand dollars worth of contracts school closures aren't in this budget and there's no designation for oea in here because we never did the work to do trade-offs to make money available for oea's contract because this board last year refused to put money aside in this year's budget for it so again when you read through here We just heard a lot of presentations from staff and the consultant talking about a $30 million plug or placeholder that they referenced that they said is still in the budget and that that leads to the surplus. So Superintendent Sadler, I would like somebody from staff to come show me in the SACS form for the 26-27 budget, where do I find that $30 million designation that we were just told exists? Because if it's not on here, it doesn't exist. So I don't see it. So can somebody please come and show me where that $30 million designation that we know means the deficit exists in the budget that's going to be adopted? Because I would argue if we can't find it on here, that that means there's something wrong with these numbers. So can somebody please show me? I might be mistaken. Where do I find it? The $30 million.

And I think Mr. Nguyen answered your question in the last question.

Excuse me. I don't know why you're answering me as a colleague on the board. Excuse me. That's not her job. That's not her job. That's either the board president or actually I'm asking a question in my time of the superintendent. And for every other question we had staff come up or the superintendent is welcome to answer. Where do I find the $30 million on the budget? That was referenced every place.

I was going to check and see if Ryan Nguyen is available, but it was discussed earlier. You asked the question earlier and it was responded to.

No, excuse me. No, I didn't. So we have budget adoption. of a $900 million budget, and I asked where to find the $30 million plug, placeholder, deficit that we've been told over and over exists. There was a whole presentation, he went off other documents. Where on the SACS form that we're adopting, where on the budget do I find that 30 million? This should be an easy answer for anyone. Because I don't see it on here, so maybe I'm mistaken. And the CFO, when he spoke about it, said you could find it on line B10, but line B10 doesn't exist on this form. So somebody please come tell me where I can find that designation.

If you're going to allow them to answer, Dr. Frutos, do you want to answer that? Thank you.

So staff, can we please bring up the general fund, unrestricted, restricted?

I'd like to answer without bringing anything up. No, excuse me, I asked specifically- No, he's going to answer, you asked a question.

Excuse me, my question was where do I find it on the form? So either you can point out on the form or you can give me a line. I don't want somebody to just come up here and talk. I want somebody to point out where I and the community can find this designation.

Director Hutchinson, can we hear a response, please?

So actually, Director Lara is correct, and Director Hutchinson, the full explanation was given by Ryan, so I'm really surprised that that's not clear. It's on the 4,000s. What line do I find it on? You know how to read budgets. Look at the 4,000s. I know, and I don't see it. Wait, wait.

So the 4,000s here in expenditure, books and supplies, it says 81,800. Exactly. It doesn't say 30 million. Where's the 30 million designation?

Can you answer the question, please? I'd like to hear the answer. Thank you.

Yeah, that's... When Ryan presented the accounting, he showed that there was $15 million for OEA, $30 million for the budget stabilization.

That's not on this document.

Again. That's not what I'm asking about.

I'm asking about the $30 million that keeps getting referenced. And if it's a plug, it needs to be listed.

Can he answer the question, please? Thank you. It was answered in great detail by the explanation of what all the 4,000s contain. As a matter of fact, he even went to the category of saying if it's 1 to 1,900s, et cetera. The number is just the total there, and the total doesn't include all the different numbers. In the presentation, I went over it again and cited the 15 million, the 30 million, ending in that amount.

So in the four thousands and unrestricted is that what we're saying this eighty one thousand represents the thirty million. And then we subtract that and do something with the other structural deficit and get eight million surplus. Is this are you telling me eighty one thousand eight hundred here. In the four thousands line before are you telling me that actually represents thirty million.

I'm telling you that it was explained to the resource level, and that number is...

So I'm asking on the top level form, Superintendent Sadler, where can we find this designation? What he just said doesn't say $30 million. And this is what we're being asked to vote on. So I'm really concerned if I've been told this exists and I look on the form and I don't see it. And this captures, this here is the top level, this captures the details of the other pages. So if it's not here, it's not going to be in further pages. That's how these documents work. That's why I said these numbers are fraudulent.

Thank you for your question, Dr. Director Hutchinson. It has been answered, and I'm going to call the question. Excuse me, it has not been, wait, wait, point of clarification.

As we're going to adopt a $900 million budget. We are. You all proved the point. None of you even spoke on it. None of you referenced the documents. When I ask of a specific number on the document, I get told it was already answered. And I have fiduciary responsibility of a billion dollars a year.

Mr. Raikstra, can we call the question, please?

on the roll call to adopt the budget as presented which is item k4 dot dash four item 26 1466 and the resolution thereof student directors are absent director lotta yes director williams yes sir director hudgenson no director barry absence Okay. Director Thompson is absent. Vice President Batchelor?

Yes.

And President Brohard?

Yes.

Motion's adopted.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda, there is no student report. There is no PSAC report. Do we have any comments from bargaining units?

Check and see if you have any comments by the collective bargaining units. If there is, please raise your hand. President Brewhart, I see no hand.

thank you uh moving on to new business we have item q1 26-0845 board policy 5131.8 students mobile communications cell phones do we have a presentation for this or i'd like to make a motion to adopt the motion made by director lotta seconded by director

yes there's a presentation we have um mr nelson allegria thank you i'm sorry do we need i just want to ask do we need a presentation for this or you um that is up to you guys i do have just um three new slides from the teaching learning committee where you did request data okay so i can update with those all right thanks

So again, this policy has been presented to the Teaching and Learning Committee. From that committee, there was a question asked, this is not loaded, around what feedback have we gathered and some of the other data pieces. Some reason this slide is not loading but this site is about our administration feedback and we did send out a survey to administrators about do they support this Bell to Bell cell phone ban and to what extent do they believe would be more effective than a partial ban? Which are the two options that the California code will allow starting July 1st? From the 38 responses over 26 responses said yes sorry 31 responses of 38 said that they fully support and as well as that would be more effective and most of those were from the high school and middle school level and some of the elementary. There was a clear need for more district-wide enforcement expectations to be sent out to sites, a need for a better family and communication plan and outreach, and the need for implementation guidance because that's what can be expected of our school sites. Laura Kleiman is a parent in that we've been communicating with as well as some other parent group members and they did a petition for this full cell phone ban versus a partial ban. From that we received 336 respondents from all the districts in OUSD that were in fully support and from that breakdown was 240 parents, 47 teachers and 11 other staff members. One of the last questions that was asked, again, this slide's not loading, is around cell phone discipline data that we've seen. There's been, at the bottom you can see there's the technology violation. Technology violation includes cell phone misuse. It also includes any computer misuse, but we did try to take some of those out. That was more seen at the elementary level, where it was either inappropriate content on laptops rather than just cell phone use. But the middle school had the highest rate of cell phone misuse, as well as 181 in the high school. There's two categories that we use in ARIES, so that's why both categories are here. That's the paging signaling device, and then technology violation is the other category we put in ARIES. From that, again, this is a timeline of implementation. Today at the school board meeting, we'll be just talking about, or that was the teaching and learning committee meeting. The law goes into effect July 1st, so how we decide how we move forward, it will still go into effect. We'll work on our implementation and parent notifications of what that decision was and what the expectations will be when school starts. In August, we'll be back again to be introducing that discipline matrix update that we talked about at the last board meeting. And this also will include some of the cell phone violations. And again, you can't be suspended for not having your phone on. But you can be suspended for other social media related things related to technology or anything from that. But that's some of the data requested. And again, attached to the rest of the presentation is what we presented at the Teaching and Learning Committee.

Board comments? Director Hutchinson?

Yes, thank you. This is another one of a continuing pattern of many of the items, and we'll see them later in the consent report, where in the fiscal impact for this board policy, it says estimated costs may vary depending on site. At this time, costs are projected to be $500,000. not one word any place of where that funding is coming from or how we're going to pay for it which seems to be a violation of board bylaw 9322.1 which requires a fiscal impact analysis before something can be approved and if it doesn't have one it requires a unanimous vote So I would like a ruling from the parliamentarian or general counsel because this clearly says it costs $500,000 and there's no funding source connected at all and I'm sure nobody can tell me where this is budgeted any place. So can we have a ruling please because the memo is very clear for this item.

It's dependent upon the answer to come from the superintendent. If the superintendent says that in terms of the funding source, if the superintendent can respond to that question, that will make it dependent upon my answer as to whether or not a physical impact analysis is needed.

First of all, I want to ask our legal counsel to give the discussion that we had regarding the implementation of this particular

Thank you, Superintendent. So yes, as you mentioned, Superintendent, this is a legal requirement effective July 1. Nelson explained the two options that are available. I do see that Dr. Aguilera is on with regard to the funding source and whether it's in the budget, she would be the best person to I did meet with or discuss with her or ask her about this earlier, and she did identify the funding source, which is supplemental. Dr. Aguilera, are you there?

But it's not on the document, which means it's not official in the document. Somebody just saying something doesn't qualify. Sure it is, we're on a public record. Excuse me, the board bylaw says that it's supposed to be actually done before it's even put on the agenda. And if the board president still agendizes it, then it requires a unanimous vote. So the idea that somebody can just come and verbally introduce it when it's not contained in the official document is a clear violation of the board by law. And it also lets me know that it actually hasn't been budgeted for, otherwise it would be easy to list the resource code under which the funding exists.

So I think just to reiterate what our parliamentarian stated regarding items that are in the budget, that bylaw- Easy, then show me where it's in the budget.

Then show me. But somebody saying it doesn't count. We just had it where people wouldn't show the three- I'd like to hear from Dr. Aguilera.

Yes, director had some sense to answer your question. It was missing from the. Item that was turned in, but we have confirmed that it is within the supplemental budget. And so we will be able to purchase the items for school sites in terms of the younger pouches or the, I guess they're called cubby. Wooden cubby mechanisms to hold the cell phones. So we have confirmed that there is funding, but I have fiduciary responsibility.

How am I supposed to confirm that? And if there was a mistake, and it wasn't submitted. Then then there should have either been a special meeting scheduled on 24 hours notice, or at least provide the document here.

I do want to remind the board that this is a law that was passed by the California legislature. We do have to have this in place by July 1st, I believe it goes into effect.

Well, if things were managed, we wouldn't be in this situation.

That doesn't mean we ignore the bylaw. I'm really tired of being interrupted. So I think again, looking at our responsibility to follow the California state law, that we do have a responsibility to vote on this.

And we also have a responsibility to follow our own board bylaws or change them.

President Brohard and Director Hutchinson, just to reiterate that the parliamentarian has already, and I agree, that bylaw applies when something is not in the budget and is being added afterwards. Thank you.

And I just want to point out that that's not what the board bylaw says. The board bylaw gives four things, four components that make up a fiscal impact analysis. And I read them at that last special meeting. But just because somebody here says it's in the budget, then this is a real simple solution. provide where in the budget it is. Provide a resource code, give me a document, because at this point, after what we just saw today, how can I trust anyone's word that it exists there with what we saw? And that's not how this is supposed to work. I'm sorry, I did not call on public comment. That's not how, excuse me, point of clarification. No, you've gone over your time, and we have things to move. You don't get to determine that, thankfully. So, General Counsel Lindsey, I warned you about this ahead of time. This is going to be problematic.

We have Leanna Zamorzetti and Asala Laba. get the record it in the record if people are going to talk all across each other can't describe it so and i was asked a question so i want to read the particular bylaw and i'm not going to debate the issue as to whether or not somebody is believable or not believable the board just adopted a budget for this year for the next year out of which this policy is going to be implemented as of july one so board bylaw number ninety three two two point one says the board approves the district budget each june for the upcoming fiscal year When the superintendent or board members introduce proposals that have physical impacts beyond what is in the district's latest approved budget, it is important that those physical impacts be known before the district staff or the Board of Education acts on those proposals. This bylaw is not applicable based on what the board has just done in terms of adopting a budget this year and district staff has said, believable or not, that the money is in the budget.

Thank you. Can we please have public comment?

Yes, we have two registered speakers, Leanna Zang-Rosetti and Asala Olaballa.

I'm trying to understand, are you buying pouches to put the phones in? Okay, because they say that these requirements only apply to classroom time. It also says that there are situations where the students can use the phones, and that's during emergencies, medical needs, the phones. can be used. So if the phone is in a pouch, how can that particular requirement be accommodated? It also doesn't identify if, I thought that children would not have the phones at all. Because if they do have them, if it's only saying in the rules classroom, what happens when they're in the assemblies? What happens after school programs? What happens when they're in the library? And then you come to the part where you have enforcement. And the enforcement is the teacher. I have seen many, many videos of teachers trying to deal with students with telephones. And it becomes confrontational a lot of times. And even to the point where they start fighting teachers about their telephones. If the enforcement person is the teacher and those phones are not in pouches, how does that teacher deal with it? You have to understand they're going to be confrontations around that. How does a teacher deal with this confrontation? And they says also that your policy must be updated every five years. once you put this in place every five years you have to bring it back for a review but i'm concerned about this because uh i left my phone home yesterday and i felt so lost without my phone uh i was at school board i mean city council and i was all you know i was crazy and i think it had a lot to do with i didn't have my telephone so this is challenging and i hope we don't take it lightly

Just an additional comment related to this. At several of our sites, we already have pouches, we already have lock boxes, we have evidence of procedures that are supported by teachers and students. in place at several of our sites so we had cell phone policies in place at different levels but this is a statewide process that will provide these regulations or procedures at all of our sites but we have a significant number of sites that already have the pouches and already have the systems that are supported by teachers and students and families

Mr. Richter, can we call the question? Mr. Richter, can we call the question?

On the roll call to adopt board policy 5131.8, students are absent. Director Lara?

Yes.

Director Williams? Yes. Director Hutchinson?

Abstain.

Director Berry?

Yes.

Director Thompson-Sapson, Vice President Batchelor?

Yes.

And President Brewhart? Yes. The motion is adopted.

Next item on the agenda, I'd like to take these up together, Q2 and Q3, and report out separately. Second.

I'm sorry, which items are these? Item Q2 and Q3. uh i would recommend that you double the amount of public comment time as a result of your uh is there board comment on this seeing no board comment is there public comment yes for public public comment we have osawa labala i don't think she's here right she's not here okay that includes public speakers okay uh can we have roll call on the vote please yes on the motion to adopt director lotta not here okay uh director williams yes sir director lotta yes Director Hutchinson?

Yes.

Director Berry?

Yes.

Director Thompson is absent. Vice President Batchelor?

Yes.

President Brohard? Yes. Motion is adopted.

Next item on the agenda is item Q426-1229, amendment number four, Measure Y Spending Plan. Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. Second. And I believe you have a short presentation.

Yes, good evening. Preston Thomas, Chief Systems and Services Officer, and Selina Dahl-Hayes is online if you have any questions about some of the projects. I will... I think there's five or six slides that are like deeply relevant to the item, and so as soon as it's up, I'll walk through them. Just to give kind of some background and context, the spending plan is updated somewhat annually, but really addresses the needs of the bond program. And here we go. This has been seen two times at the Facilities Committee and also reviewed by CBOC, who actually approved and endorsed the plan moving forward. So let me run through a few slides here. One of the things I do want to stop on this slide for just one second. When we look at Measure B and we look at Measure J and we look at Measure Y, we spent $239 million worth of Measure Y at this point. That means the Oakland voters have committed about $1.15 billion towards our schools. and so we're making steady progress around this and so this is the next iteration of how investing uh... the measure why dollars uh... a few things that we heard from the board here a couple of key themes that's driving kind of our recommendations here that we need to honor our commitments to the Oakland voters and school communities. We have heard a lot of harm from the community when we do not follow up on promises with named programs and named school sites. And so we stay true to that through this. This is the first time we'll be prioritizing investments using the adopted 2026 facilities master plan that the board has recently adopted. and you'll see that prioritization play out here. And then invest in projects that both align with the master plan, but also offset the general fund costs. And you heard it in public comment tonight, like how are we utilizing our bond funds to leverage reductions in general fund expenditures? And we are not making any, knowing that the board has made some reductions in fund 14, we're not proposing any reductions or changes and actually foreshadowing some future investments in deferred maintenance. tonight we've been talking in each of the previous revisions we've been talking about the measure wide bond contingency and that is a programmatic contingency that we've been using and we've used it to address shortfalls and projects why because in the past bonds we've learned that when we have these shortfalls and we have to cancel projects it's really harmful to the school communities that had those projects named and you've heard that repeatedly in public comment This plan, and this is before I came in, was structured so that there was $73.5 million to support these major projects that we're going to launch later on. Currently, right now, we have $62.8 million in the contingency. We've spent 10.7 million of those dollars in the contingency. And what we're recommending here is it's now the time that we have all of our major projects. They've gone through the guaranteed maximum price that the board should allocate that out in the spending plan to support the major projects. I just want to name these major projects are about a half billion dollars worth of investments in our schools. In that T-shaped framework that we talked about, this is where you address deep-seated issues at school sites, and we have slides that include all that. You all have seen those, and we can go into the specifics of them in a second. After you allocate this contingency, you'll still have $30.3 million remaining. in the contingency when we get to the fourth draw. And one of the things that we've gone through, and here's a little background on that, is a significant portion. It meets all the best practices, whether you're GFOA, you're looking at AIA guidance, or you're looking at CASBO. This is best practices around managing your bond program. We see that remaining $30.3 million for the Garfield project that is still in design development and will go into DSA in the fall. We know that, based on the master plan, we have about 5 million square feet of lighting that is still using fluorescent bulbs that have now been outlawed. And the Will Dan contract that you've approved is doing some deep investigations on how we might leverage other funding sources to be able to address that. The heat mitigation for HVAC that you've heard is the number one priority in the bond, some deferred maintenance, electrical needs across our school sites, TK expansion, and TK hubs in future cycles. Also, second priority is some of the comprehensive maintenance program and some other areas of access that are still prioritized, but probably there's less need right now. So here's the most important, and I'm gonna walk through this and then I'm gonna skip past all of the specific projects unless the board has specific questions around it. Claremont and Laurel while we did allocate some of that contingency to those projects they did end up coming under budget So that goes back into your contingency so you can see that they're about two million dollars goes back into the contingency we are recommending an allocation from a climates of 12.25 million would come out of the contingency we're recommending Roosevelt has six million a little over six million that comes out of the contingency CCPA an additional six million and then for Melrose Leadership Academy 2.7 the board has already approved the guaranteed maximum price for these contracts and that's different than past projects where you now know the guaranteed price that the district has for the construction on that project On the right side, there are other funding sources. And this is one of the things that I'm really proud that the facilities team has been working with Oakland Children's Initiative and some other funding sources with Office of Public School Construction. On that side of the equation, we're booking those projects and we're just adding them to the spending plan. And so the projects are the Garfield that leverages some developer fees, Fund 35, and the Oakland Children's Initiative funding. That total amount comes to $34.5 million. Fremont is using the remaining money that was in Measure J that had been savings from phases one through four, rolling it into this final phase, plus a reimbursement that has come back to the district from the Office of Public School Construction that we're leveraging to finish the work at that site. And then finally, Oakland Children's Initiative approved a new child development center at the previous Washington CDC. which is one of the vacant properties that will be demolished, and then a new early childhood center will be developed at the Bushrod neighborhood. So those are the big shifts in the spending plan. Each of the projects is specifically laid out here in this format. And if you have questions about McClymont specifically, because I know it's often been raised, Cele's online to be able to answer questions. And then I want to skip to So these are all the projects. I'm just flying through these so that you can kind of see where these investments are going. And then this is the last slide. Then there are some other investments that we are, we would suggest that the district move funding into these areas. One, as you've heard, the number one priority has been heat mitigation. We're launching, there's several contracts tonight on the board consent agenda about cooling roofs. We're still working around the window clings and some of the passive measures for this summer. We'll have learned a lot from those applications. And then we're already starting to plan for the following summer's work. And so that's the $4 million in heat mitigation. You've heard it mentioned around site stabilization and work at our school sites. We will need ongoing funding to address that, whether that be closing of campuses, removing portables. We believe that that should come out of the contingency at this point. We've had tremendous success and partnership around elementary turf fields that will save not only money from the general fund and investment around the upkeep of some of those places, but being able to transform a few schools by adding turf field in those locations. There's 12 million with the solar energy and infrastructure that it's already board approved. That was the special session that we had. This is just bringing it into the spending plan. And then TK expansion, $2 million that is fund 25 and developer fees, which is one of the uses of developer fees. All of those are either coming from contingency or earned interest that the district has based on the bond program itself because we do hold all the dollars right now for those projects. And so there is interest that accrues and we did receive that interest and we're applying it in the program here. So those are the main slides and so I'll turn it over to the board if you have any specific questions about the spending plan.

Thank you. Are there any public comments on this?

Yes, we have Mario Capitelli and Asala LaBalla.

Asala is here and I don't see Mario. Okay, we'll take board comments. Director Berry.

Just a quick question on the slide related to the priorities. What's the best way for us to track the implementation plan for those priorities? I'm thinking selfishly in particular about heat mitigation. And then if you could give a very quick update on that, that would be great.

Thank you. No, thank you for the question. two things one we intend on quarterly reporting to the facilities committee meeting around some of these updates and posting it on our websites uh... so that's one uh... i think also you can see some of the implementation and i know that the consent agenda is incredibly long tonight but you will see contracts coming through for the work there so uh... that would be kind of one way that you as a board director can like review it as it's coming to the board as it's coming for approval on contracts then you know finally I think one of the things is definitely we will be reporting out at the beginning of the school year not only to the board but also to school communities about some of the investments we've made particularly around the heat mitigation at the school sites so those would be the primary mechanisms we'd use to communicate back to the board into the community then status but i do mean very quick because people long oh and so one of the things is we we worked very because the board approved kind of the um when we had the third draw of the bond we moved forward with some of the third projects which is particularly the heat mitigation we went out to bid and we had success particularly around the cool roofs and have been partnering with buildings and grounds Some of the roofs are going to be done in overtime from our roofers. We sat down and we talked to them about what their capacity was and there was the whole project at Fruitvale Elementary will be done in-house. Some of the work that was done at Lockwood was one of the roofs that they chose to use. There are four contracts tonight that are following the cool roofs and then we'll continue to go out to bid for those that can go on going through this. And that's kind of a double support. It supports the roofing infrastructure for longer term, but also the cooling. Unfortunately, 1 of the challenges we had was specifically around the window clings that you've heard. We did put it out to public bid. We did not get any bidders on it because it was late in the season. So we're now working with individual. companies that do install those window clings and we're trying to get small contracts school by school to come through that would be able to be under the superintendent signing authority during the summer, but then more robustly going back out in the fall when the board comes back into session.

Director Williams, any? Director Dallata, Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. um you know honestly this really worries me here we are at the last board meeting of the year in the last hour nobody's here to engage i think even last week's facilities committee meeting was a brown act violation and the board thinks they're gonna make a decision on how to reprioritize the roughly 500 million dollars that are left in the measure y bond Not only is this not how we're supposed to do business, and not only did I not like some of the contracts, especially the contracts hiring for millions of dollars, hiring firms to help manage our bond projects. You know, I remember when we did our first prioritization for Measure Y, and it wasn't like we had a pot of money left over to say, hey, in the future, we want to save this for the future to see what other projects we want to add in. So as we've gone along over these four years, five years, there's been more and more projects added in, but yet the three major projects that were supposed to be handled first, McClymonds, Roosevelt, and Garfield, still haven't been completed. And it even makes me more worried to have a conversation about spending down the contingency when we haven't completed those projects yet. and so i don't think there's any imperative now to do things i would be very strongly against the superintendent using authority that was created for the superintendent during the pandemic to settle new contracts over the summer again especially with what we just had with budget adoption so it's not good enough um and the other thing is i'm really concerned with uh as more news of how we are mismanaging our finances gets out there in the world and to the bond market, that this is gonna cost us tens of millions of dollars more on our next sales. Because who's gonna wanna take the risk of doing business with OUSD with what we have going on now? So I'm just really disappointed that this is how we're spending our last hour of our last meeting of the year. And even with the conversations going on, the lack of seriousness that people take when we're talking about um expensive dollars our bond that originally was over 700 million dollars thank you

Thank you. I appreciate this conversation that we had at the Facilities Committee, and I believe CBAC also has been engaged with this, and I know many families who are here are also been engaged in a lot of this work, especially around the heat mitigation. I want to remind folks that we had an audit recently of our Measure Y, and there were zero findings, which is very, very good for the work that we're doing. And we are, yes, finally making headway with projects like MAC and CCPA, which will be having a groundbreaking tomorrow and then we just recently got some good news about mla which we will share with that mla community as soon as we're able to provide more information about that so we are definitely moving forward i agree though it is on a time frame that i wish it would be faster i'm always about going faster with these projects because i understand the impact that school facilities have on our students But again, there are many, many different factors, both within our district and, quite honestly, outside of our district, such as DSA, which is not the Democratic Socialists of America. It is the Department of State Architects that, again, really has thorough review of all of the projects to make sure that they are seismically fit for our students, that they have the most modern kind of technology, and we also are implementing our... climate resilience work within these projects such as the heat pump that's gonna be at CCPA, as well as some of the other work that we're doing with the heat mitigation. So I'm excited that we are able to leverage these dollars, and we are also working in partnership with other entities and organizations to better support our families. So with that, I don't see any other folks raising their hands for this item, so I will just go ahead and call the question on this item, Mr. Rakestraw.

can you take a roll call vote on this item which is q4 um the measure the amendment number four of the measure-wise spending plan yes on the motion to adopt the spending uh the measure-wise spending plan june the june june 2026 measure-wise spending plan uh director uh barry yes director hutchinson no Director Williams. Yes. Director Lara.

Yes.

Vice President Batchelor.

Yes.

And President Brohard. Yes. All other members are absent. A motion is adopted.

Thank you.

We're turning it back to you, President Brohard. Can I make a motion to extend the meeting to 11.45 p.m.? Second.

Mr. Raikstra, can we take a vote on this item?

Yes, I have board comment before the vote.

Yeah, it's debatable, yes.

Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. So, as some of us predicted many hours ago and even a couple of days ago, there's no way that we're gonna get through all of the items on this agenda. There never was going to be a way. and to keep pushing forward past 11 p.m. at the last board meeting where, respectfully, if we don't include staff, we have two people sitting here in attendance, kind of shows how bad things have really gotten here. And because the president has shown over and over all year long that she has the ability and the willingness to move items on the agenda to whatever order she wants, it's intentional at this point that our meetings are being run this way. Our last regular meeting, we didn't get through everything either. So we should be able to get through our agenda by 11 o'clock easily if things are managed the right way. And it's the board president's responsibility to agendize a meeting in a way where we can. so again the failures and the violations are just piling up but it really does continue to um to prove the point of how bad things have actually gotten that this is how my colleagues on the board think business should be done at the oakland school board thank you with that mr riggs can you take a vote on this item

Yes, on the roll call to extend the meeting to 11.45 p.m. Director Lara? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Berry?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Okay.

director thompson is absent vice president bachelor yes president brohard yes you said yes yes okay motions adopted meetings extended wonderful moving on to r which is the adoption of the general consent report is there a motion i'll make a motion madam vice president

Yes. Before you take the motion, I'm wondering at the hour, Director Hutchinson and Director Williams have pulled a total of what appears to be 19 by Director Williams and 14 by Director Hutchinson. I'm wondering if any of those items they are willing to consider withdrawing their pool. Director Hutchinson?

No, I was pretty explicit at the start of the meeting.

Okay, thank you. Director Williams?

Yes, I am willing to reconsider.

Well, then if that's the case, excuse me, if that's the case, then the two items that I also polled, that Director Williams polled, I still want those included in the polled list.

That's understood, Director Hutchison.

Director Williams, which of those items did you want to put back into the consent?

I think we're going R61 through R72 minus R62. So we're going R61 through R70 or 72.

Are you returning all those to the consent? R1 through 72. Yes sir. Minus. Minus. Minus. Except 62. Correct.

Okay. Any other items at all?

I think I have also R9 and 10. Okay. That's grounds, wanted to talk about that one. We need to, I want to keep that. I want to keep R27, 28. It's about system controls, giving up transportation. I'll give up furniture, makes me uncomfortable. We're spending a half a million dollars on furniture. I just cannot stomach that.

Can you just let me know which ones those are 9 to 10 and 27 to 28 you are retaining I'm retaining yes Plus 62 And then 73 to 78 Yes I am going to give up Okay those are going back into the consent

I think he also said 61 to 70. Yes. Okay, great.

Okay.

Except for 62, which is still. Exactly. And except for our 250, I think you pulled 250.

Well, it will stay out because Director Hutchinson has also pulled. Yes. Yes. Yes. Excellent.

Okay. Great.

So can I make a motion to approve the consent agenda minus the stated items?

I second it. Wonderful. Any board comments? Director Williams?

Yes. Here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. We have 11 transportation items. It just is very unfortunate that we are subcontracting 11 transportation items when we actually have a Zoom bus, which as I would talk about in 62, to do this work. This would actually save us close to $4 million if we actually started to put forth ideas for cost savings in our transportation system. This thing is a bit excessive, too, and our budget is where we constantly have reoccurring contracts that we commit to two and three years when actually we're at a budget time that we should actually be committing to one year at a time until we find stability and actually start to reevaluate how we're going to do our structural deficit and how we're going to do business so i just i'm not going to be able to vote for that You know, for those that are sitting on this, that are included, I just am very conflicted by that. So let's move forward.

Thank you. Director Hutchinson.

Yes, thank you. I think over the last couple of meetings when we didn't get to the consent report at the last regular meeting, and then at the last special meeting, it was actually voted down. And I haven't voted for a general consent report since April of 2025 because of all these problems that have been riddled through them. So I didn't pull every item today that I have an issue with or that I think is missing a fiscal impact analysis, but I will be pursuing it. And so I just want to make sure on the record that our 2, 4, 5, 11, 15, 22, 27, 31, 37, 47, 49, and 50 All our facility items that list two funds there as in the fiscal impact analysis. No dollar amount and nothing about which fund is paying in how much. And so there's no way anyone could know what's budgeted because it's not listed there. Are 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 81. All have multiple sites listed as the funding source.

Director Hutchinson, just to clarify, those are the items that you've pulled were on consent. So those do not include those items.

No, these are the items on the consent report that I'm speaking on, which is the item that we're on now.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. Go ahead.

I wonder if there'll be one time I can speak where you don't interrupt me. You like yelling at me about things. So all of those don't have a proper fiscal impact analysis either. I'm going to be pursuing that. I don't think it qualifies and together in this consent report are hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending. And I know if I ask the superintendent about each one, staff cannot come up and designate where to find the funding on the budget that was just adopted tonight. We've gone through that the last two meetings. So this is how we overspent by $60 million this year. This is the financial mismanagement. Consent report after consent report, spending after spending that hasn't been budgeted for, and then we show up at the end of the year and people are wondering why we've overspent. and it is really telling that the people in charge of the finances in the district i don't see them here anymore to answer any questions on these items as well and if the key staff people involved or the superintendent who's supposed to oversee it can't answer the questions aren't even present to do it i hope i've set off enough red flags for everyone at today's meeting thank you

I want to address this. I did go through every one of the consent items over the week while I was doing the proofing for the agenda and I did have those same questions about many of these contracts and the sources of them. and I just want to say I did give my list and make many phone calls to TerraGard who did explain them to me so again some of the ones that have multiple sites are because they're also site budgets and that they are master contracts so again these were I did take to heart I know that you have said before that people look at the consent agenda items and don't look at them i read every single one this time so and again i appreciate um terror guards um answers to my questions thank you director berry you had a clarifying question just wanted to clarify which items returned to the gen consent mr rake straw well can we do it by exceptions or was what was what stills out yes

Okay.

So as I understand it from Director Williams, which is to retain the removal from the general consent agenda items are 9 and 10, 27, 28, 62, and 250. Is that correct? all right for director hutchinson is r1 r2 62 uh which is the same as uh director williams 84 94 113 115 122 2 uh 26 239 247 248 249 and 250. is that correct sir all right yes it is so those are the exceptions everything else is uh up for vote on the general consent report

Thank you. All right, with that, let's go ahead and take a vote on the general consent.

Before we move on. There was a motion. Public speakers just want to clarify.

Oh, that's correct. I apologize. Public speakers on this agenda item, Mr. Sachau.

Yes, we have Jack Nelson, Sal Olaballa, and Mario Capitelli.

Come on up. We'll do two minutes.