OUSD's 2011-2012 Budget

May 16, 2011

In Latest News

Have questions about Oakland Unifiedʼs (OUSD) 2011-12 budget? Below is an overview of both the OUSD and State budget contexts, as well as some questions posed by GO Public Schools.

Key OUSD Background
1. OUSD still does not know how much money it will get from the State of California.
2. Cuts are estimated to be between $349-844 per pupil (between $12.5 and $30.5 M for OUSD).
3. OUSD needs to be prepared to cut up to $844 in per pupil funding ($30.5 M total) from its budget.
4. On April 6th, OUSD staff gave the School Board a list of 11 possible cuts totaling about $60M.

The BIG Budget Picture
1. The State decides how much money OUSD gets.
2. The OUSD Board of Education decides how to spend the money it gets from the state.
3. OUSD staff gives the Board of Education options to create a district budget.
4. The OUSD Board of Education either (a) accepts the staff's options, or (b) asks the staff for more options.

GO Public Schools proposes the following questions:

1. Central Office Cuts: Why werenʼt more Central Office budget cuts proposed?
The Central Office is budgeted $33.7M of "unrestricted" funds. This year, every OUSD School Site had to look closely are each program and staff member and make painful cuts. The Districtʼs Central Office should do the same. As a start, OUSD should publicly, and in an accessible format, examine the budgets of (1) Professional Development; and (2) Full Service Community Schools. Both of these budgets are large, and it is unclear if they are providing core services (e.g., direct student services, mandatory staff support). GO understands that the Central Office needs funding so that the district can function.

2. School Site Cuts: Why do schools sites have to cut so much?
Why isn't reducing the current level of school site cuts--$349 per pupil--among the options presented? We do not have to cut school site budgets by $349 per pupil in order to balance the budget. For example, School Sites could reduce their budgets by $150 and OUSD could make other cuts to balance the budget. When the School Sites cut $349 per pupil out of their budgets it meant losing 137 teacher positions, and many classified staff positions.

3. Restricted Funds: Will OUSD give more "restricted funds" to school sites?
For example, "Title I" money is given to OUSD to help children in poverty. OUSD currently uses $2.9M of its Title I funds for "oversight" and "indirect costs." This is the legal maximum that OUSD is allowed to use for that purpose. If OUSD reduced the cost of its oversight, these funds could be given to the school sites to directly benefit students.

4. Structural Deficit: What will OUSD do to address the structural deficit before next yearʼs budget? A "Structural Deficit" means that the district spends more than it brings in. Right now, in order to meet community concerns, the district is suggesting that we use a lot of "one time" money - that is, money that we only have this year to solve our budget problems. As a community we have to think about what happens next year.

5. Temporary Teachers: What is the plan to help the ʻtemporaryʼ teachers who taught for most of the year return to their classrooms? Last year, OUSD hired both ʻpermanentʼ and ʻtemporaryʼ teachers. Some ʻtemporaryʼ teachers were in the classroom all year, but because they were temporary they are being removed from the classroom.

Click here to view this as a PDF in English and Spanish.

Posted by Admin - Permalink