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April 22nd board meeting links and district updates

By Rebekah Otto —

Hi OUSD community, 

We hope you had a restful Spring Break! We're back with info about the board meeting on Wednesday, and some quick recaps of meetings that have already happened this month.

🗓️ Wednesday April 22 Board Meeting

We’re looking at closely at these items at Wednesday’s meeting:

  • O.-82 Resolution No. 2526-0226 (aka “Cool the Schools”) about improving classroom conditions as soon as this summer. More below about last week’s Facilities’ Meeting and steps you can take to support.
  • S-2 Resolution 2526-0181 about Special Ed program stability. The Community Advisory Committee on Special Education first asked for this resolution 3 years ago. Oakland parent Matt Glaser supports this resolution, and you can read about his perspective.

How to participate

We will send a recap after the Board Meeting this week.

👨🏽‍🏫 Parent Student Advisory Committee (PSAC) on April 15

On April 15th, the Parent Student Advisory Committee held their monthly meeting. It focused on the impact of budget cuts on the Academic Division of the Central Office. This Division covers everything from school networks and Special Education to English Language Learners, counseling, and early childhood education.

Based on the Board cuts from February, the Central Office now has to consolidate staffing. Last week, Dr. Sondra Aguilera presented on impacts to these two parts of the Academics Division:

  • Community Schools & Student Services (attendance, behavioral health, and safety)
  • The Office of Equity (targeted strategies, engagement, translation) 

Here’s the full deck from last week if you’re curious. (If you want to know what actually gets cut, that answer isn't available yet. They are still developing the budget for next year.) The two other areas of the Academics Division. school network offices and K-12 literacy/math, were covered at a prior meeting on March 18th. PSAC will present their report back at this week’s board meeting.

As one parent noted, cuts have hit positions that support attendance, equity, and behavioral health. The PSAC wondered, what changes should parents expect in those areas? The group asked Dr. Aguilera about specific expectations in this new environment. The general sentiment was: The district’s going to do the best it can, work to triage and prioritize everything, but bear with us because we’re not sure how it’ll work yet.

PSAC is also helping lead the Multistakeholder Engagement Planning Group (MSEG) — parents, students, teachers, staff, administrators, and the board — to shape how OUSD engages and makes decisions heading into the next budgeting phase. They released their recap from the March 31 Community meeting and dates for upcoming opportunities to plug in:

  • Wednesday, April 29 at 6pm on Zoom: This meeting will repeat the content and activities from the March 31 meeting for people who cannot attend in person.
  • Wednesday, May 6 at 6pm for multilingual Zoom with similar content from March 31
  • Monday, June 1 at 6pm, in-person meeting, location TBD; This meeting will help define the key questions and goals that will guide the Fall 2026 engagement process.

🔥 Facilities Committee meeting on April 16

As shared by Oaklandside, at the April 16 Facilities Committee meeting:

  • Director Berry’s resolution passed 3-0 with Director Bachelor signing on as a co-sponsor to the resolution. 
  • The Facilities team presented draft 1 of the heat mitigation implementation plan that would support this resolution.
  • Parents, teachers, community members and Citizen Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) leadership also provided additional feedback to shape the next draft of the implementation plan. Cool the Schools parents encouraged OUSD to focus on a smaller list of tactics spread through the highest number of schools in need and to not stop until work is complete/money is fully spent if the work isn’t finished by the first day of school. 

This resolution will be voted on at this week’s board meeting on April 22. Here are Cool the School parent Rachael Kirk-Cortez recommendations for how to support the resolution:

  • Leave an e-comment in support of this resolution and ask for broad implementation to impact as many students and educators as possible. 
  • If you are associated with a single-story elementary school, a middle school, or a high school and want to advocate that your school receives investment this summer, now is the best time to speak up! 

🔍 Interim budget review from the ACOE

On April 16, Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro sent OUSD a formal letter about their second interim budget that does two things at once: accepts the district's "Qualified" budget certification, and issues a Going Concern notice. A Qualified certification means the district may or may not be able to pay its bills over the next three years. It's a yellow flag. A Going Concern notice is the county saying: we're watching closely, and if things get worse, we're ready to step in. 

The good news: The district did reduce its current-year deficit from $36.8 million down to $20.8 million.

The bad news: There's still a $20.6 million deficit this year, and the plan to balance the budget in future years requires $36 million in cuts in 2026-27 and $57 million in 2027-28. These cuts haven't been identified yet, let alone implemented.

What's making the county nervous: The OEA teacher contract, tentatively agreed to on February 27th, hasn't been publicly disclosed or added to the budget yet. Nobody, including the county, fully knows what it costs. The county was blunt: the district is making new financial commitments without a clear plan to pay for them.

The bigger pattern the county called out: This isn't the first time OUSD has made a plan and then abandoned it. The letter names the 3Rs Plan, the Fiscal Vitality Plan, and the Blueprint for Quality Schools which were all started, none finished. The county's framing: "This is not a revenue problem — it is a decision-making problem." With over $800 million in annual revenue, OUSD is one of the highest-funded urban districts in California.

What happens next: The county is requiring OUSD to submit updated financial projections and encumber all contracts by April 30. A Third Interim Budget Report is due by June 1.

In our read: This letter is careful and measured in tone, but the substance is pretty stark. The county is essentially saying: we've given you room to lead, you keep making promises without plans, and we're running out of patience. We will be looking to see if the Board addresses this next week, and how they respond by April 30.

Hope you’re hanging in there!