The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has a $23 Million budget deficit and has posted $60 million in new expenses.
That’s the primary information based on documents sent to me by Mike Hutchinson. Mike’s best described as an “Oakland Education activist,” founder of Oakland Public Education Network, and one who recently ran for the Oakland School Board, District Five. He lost to the incumbent, Roseann Torres, but never stopped caring about the Oakland Unified School District.
In an effort to sound an alarm, Mike Hutchinson sent over two emails that contained some rather disturbing information related to the OUSD Budget. Here’s the information, in Mike’s words starting with his first email, 22 hours ago:
Oakland’s school board continues to mismanage the district’s finances and we are less than 5 months away (March 1) from again being taken over by the state. At Wednesday’s board meeting they will announce revisions to this year’s budget. In the four months since the budget was approved expenditures have shot up by $60M. The 2018-19 budget that when approved projected a $22M surplus, is now projected to have a $23M deficit. This is unacceptable, and honestly unbelievable. We need to pack the house for the school board meeting at 5:30pm on Wednesday and demand answers to some serious questions. Where’s the $$$?
Then, he sent this email a few hours ago:
Yesterday the agenda for Wednesday’s school board meeting was released and it contains an item “budget revision”. The presentation for revision shows that this year’s budgeted expenditures has risen by $60M and that we have gone from a projected $22M surplus to a $23M deficit. Last night I questioned school board president Aimee Eng directly about this information and she said that from me was the first time that she was hearing about it. I also sent an email to all of the school board members asking them about these new budget numbers. Today, not only did I not hear back from any school board member, but the link to the budget revision presentation was taken down. All I have left is these two screen shots I took.
What is going on? Was the link disabled because we started to ask questions? Why have expenditures risen by $60M? Is this to put us back under state control under AB 1840? Where’s the information and where’s the $$$?
Please come to Wednesday’s school board meeting. Both the county and the state will also be at the meeting to talk about the budget. We need to pack the house and demand that our questions are answered and that our voices are heard. The important items are at the start of the meeting at 5:30pm (at The Great Room, LaEscuelita Education Center, 1050 2nd Avenue, Oakland, CA).
#FailureByDesign
#NoIncumbents
And Mike included two images, an overview budget and a detailed budget. Both are here:
Stay tuned.