Uh, recess for 5 minutes Uh, MR. Rick Stark, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please. Oh, I m calling these special meeting to order that uh 7:13 P.M. Ok, on the roll call to, uh. For attendance Student directors of visibly are absent. Direct the ladder. Director Williams. Present, sir. Director Hutchinson, excuse me, Director Perry. Present Director Thompson. Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor. And PRESIDENT Proja.
Thank you, MR. Hollis, do we need a translation interpretation check, please. Uh, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, uh, for tonight s meeting, we have 3 languages available which are uh Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. Uh, we will start with Cantonese, uh, live interpretation. I will lower on Attendi s hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Cantonese, and I asked MR. Yuwen if he can come off mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese. Igaholitoui gao wai ying wei wei yi. You go to San Qu Yinche so you Gong Dongwa pan it Cheng Lei Hengji yin. Leng to Yeboaotadino you know
gan to you have a Ti they ve been hoed in Tongong Shenguyanxi haoando Gong Tong Wagapane. You got to say you go to Magapanekindulu jing pingohafong didn t get yote kao yang zhong of uho, you know, Xinjia Kong Tongwa it s a hoyao teno gong to magapani. Because so you Gong tong wawaifomopani good guayo yo so you you got funding from more funding Go funding. Kennedy s announcement is done, MR. Hollis. Checking attendees to see if there s any hands raised in Cantonese interpretation on Zoom. There ain t no hands who will not have Cantonese interpretation at this time.
Moving forward to 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 ll ask MR. Tareq if he can come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic. Thank you. A ceremonic Jamiyan Eid Mubarakhajabalikima of the habits for Shaha all items of Kora ale and interpretation language interpretation and mute and mute original audio and mute and mute original audio and mute and mute original audio. Shokan Arabic contributation is over. Thank you Thank you, MR. Tareq. Checking the attendees on Zoom 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 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 asked MR. Copenhagen if he can give the announcement give the announcement for Spanish. Yes, thank you. Um, Buenos Aes uh Tamosasinona nuncio paraversi alien necessiteric interpretation simultania uh but um euja del ericiolodicona interpretation is tan la part inferior de la ventana selection and elboton conglobo racio e e ran unallita de maexion in Spanish para cuchar and espanardino ve el econo ang
clique in refund supensanta satrajesus cellular I a traveseboan de la repundos. Podran incontrela obion interpretation. Er versa personas in estaronian querequireel serviio por favor levante la mano virtualmente enestte momento or criban in a in la caja de commentarios quene esidan. El ericio de traduinolopiente momento no se pretara urrante la siente partte de la gena. Parala persona presentesenela auditorio. Ineidanel ericio detraluxium. Ionbutadoradipoles part of
terres mucha gracias. Thank you, MR. Hollis. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there s any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Being no hands, we will not have any interpretation at this time that concludes the third interpretation announcement for this evening, and I ll pass it back to you, MADAM PRESIDENT. Thank you. And on tonight s agenda, we have item 26-1322. 3rd interim financial report, Oakland Unified School District as of APRIL 30th, 2026, fiscal school year 2025, 26. Tonight, the superintendent, deputy superintendent of
Business and operations and cfo Ryan Wynn will present the 3rd interim report. Following this presentation, we will have board comments and questions followed by public comment. Budget discussions have been heated at times, and too often we have not truly listened to one another. It is important tonight that we take the time to listen carefully to what is being presented. To consider the information thoughtfully and to ask questions with the intention of hearing and understanding the answers. While we MAY not yet all agree on the path necessary to achieve the financial stability of our district.
Needs to serve the 34,000 ousd students. I encourage everyone both on the dais and in the audience to remain open to seeing our financial picture positively. I am encouraged by this report tonight. When the board voted in DECEMBER to approve a qualified 2nd interim and move forward with the planned scenario 3. The focus was on keeping the district out of receivership. Toy I see something more a path toward restructuring not only our budget. But also the budget practices that have kept this district in a cycle of crisis for far too long.
Tonight, for the first time in 22 years, the board can vote to certify our budget positive. And with continued disciplined and thoughtful decisions. We can certify positive for the next year s out. A financially stable district allows us to focus on what matters most. Meeting the needs of our students and retaining the staff necessary to support our students. We must continue to be thoughtful and disciplined in our spending decisions. So that we can maintain stability while serving students. For too long we have moved from one budget crisis to another, often without the ability to
focus on student outcomes, including graduation rates and academic achievement. It is difficult to make strong long-term decisions when you are constantly trying to dig your way out of a financial crisis. A stable budget creates the conditions for better decision making and stronger outcomes for students. I encourage everyone tonight to listen carefully to the presentation asked thoughtful and probing questions. Listen carefully to the answers and continue engaging in productive dialogue with staff and with one another. Finally, I want to express deep appreciation of the
superintendent, Deputy Superintendent Tara Guard, general counsel Janine Lindsay and cfo Ryan Nguyen and Doctor Ruben Fructos. This has been extraordinarily difficult work, and there is still more ahead of us, but their leadership and commitment have helped move this district onto a path towards long-term sustainability. And with that I ll turn it over to, um, Superint deputies. Yeah. Oh, can I have a motion to approve So moved I second it MISS Gard. Good evening, board and community. I, uh, Tara Gar, Deputy Superintendent Business
and operations, and on the Zoom with me is Ryan Nguyen, our chief financial officer, and then our fiscal advisor, uh, Doctor Ruben Frutos. So tonight, there s 3 things that we would like to ask the board to do the first is to review the 25, 263 interim budget report. Next to receive and discuss our myp that we ve put in this report. And then to approve and we re recommending a positive certification for our 3rd interim. So, uh, I wanna just go over again, so our report support,
we believe our report supports a positive board certification for the 25, 263 interim. The recommendation is based on the updated 3rd Interim multi-year projections. The current year and reserve test But the first thing is just to quickly talk about the timeline just to set everyone in t timeline. Right now, um, what we follow this California, all California school districts follow, um, the state guidelines, and we re accountable to it. So if you have to qualified budgets, which we did. We had our qualified second interim. Then you do have to do a third interim, and that s what we re
doing here. Some people call it just a report. Oftentimes they say interim, but it s really it s a report. And um you have to do that by JUNE 1st, so that s what we re doing now. And then we will have our budget adoption coming up before JULY 1st. We ll be at the next port. Meeting. Ok, so this is a first look at our unrestricted unrestricted general fund. And, um, here we just wanted to show you at 2nd interim, what we, what we re reporting on 2nd interim and then what we were reporting on 3rd.
If you look at our um revenues, you can see revenue at 860,000. 2nd interim, then projected at 878003rd interim. Our expenditures have gone up, um, with 962. Did I say 1000? I m sorry, million. Excuse me. And, uh, 978 million in third interim, so they have gone up by 15 million and our expenditures. Then if you look at our revenues minus expenditures, you can see in our second interim, it was about 102 million and we came down a difference of 2 million. So we did a little bit um better.
Not by just by 2 million for 3 in a room. And the ending fund balance, you could see at 5 the difference of, uh, 5 million there and then are restricted reserves. We had uh increase in our restricted reserves of 8 million. And you will also see our reserve of economic uncertainty there it s called our reu and uh we are meeting our reu, which I ll show you in the next couple of slides. Ok, this here is our unrestricted and restricted general fund. And it is showing you, if it s hard to see, I know, I hope you
have it in front of you as well. But if I point you to what our deficits are reporting to be. Um, so for the you can see the first column in the row. Where it says line a6 minus line b11. To 100 million That was our uh, 25, 26 projected your deficit of 100 million. And then we are projecting in 26, 27, 37 million. And going down further in 2728, 16 million. If you look at the very bottom line where it says, yes, yes, yes, those are words that means
we put all of our information in sacks in a reporting, um, and it also goes to the county office and it looks to see, do we meet our reu, which I talked about. So above that you ll just for everyone to know, the state requires school districts to have 2% in reserves, our board requires us to have 3%. So we are meeting our 3 % in each year, and you can see that in um number 4, total available reserves, and you can see the percentage. So this year we re going to end the year at 3.02%. Next year, 3.67%, and the
following year, 3.07. % So we are um we are projecting that we meet our reserves. We have a good ending fund balance, but we still have a deficit. And that s important. We can t forget that, but our deficit does seem to be manageable and something that we can work through together if we decide that we are going to work together as a district. Um, I talked already about the 2nd interim and this is in the 3rd interim, but this is just again to say, that we are required now to do a 3rd interim report. And to also reiterate that we believe that that is a positive
certification. So we re asking the board to concur with that. And, um, our recommendation is based on the financial information presented to the board at the time of the 3rd interim. And one is that we have a positive current year combined ending balance, a positive unrestricted ending balance sufficient to cover the estimated minimum reserve test, which we showed you in that previous slide. A positive projected ending balances in 26, 27, and 27, 28. With the ongoing solvency actions, which is important, and I slow down to say ongoing solvency action, so we still
need to continue the work that we re doing. And the board directed fiscal stabilization plan, implementation and monitoring framework that controls the remaining of our fiscal risk. This is our multi-year projection. And um it s just another way to look at the information that I ve just gone through. But in this uh slide, what I would like to point out is a few things. So you can see how we re projecting, um for 25, 26, 26, 27, 27, 28, multi-year projections are over a three-year period. And you can see where it says board directed stabilization. There s $30 million in both 26,
27 and 27, 28. That s to say that we are going to have a deficit, so we need to have, uh, find it at least 30 million in those years just to make sure that we re in a in a better place and in a stronger place as we move forward. Um, but it s also what I d like you to look at is on the bottom where it says MAY revision. Um. So the governors MAY revise, he came out with what is called a supercola, so. Uh, districts are hoping to get 4.31% as a coa. But it has been recommended by
the county and school services and others that you, we should not book. That 4.31% in our current projection, so we did not. We booked what s recommended, which is 2.87%. And so what we re showing you here is if we are, if after the final governor s budget were able to um take in 4.31% of that of that supercola, then we would have an additional 6.6 million. Next year The other thing that we did conservatively is um there is a discretionary, uh, funds that will come and that
s uh $900 so we actually booked that at 750. Instead of putting in for the 900. Um, so should we get the 900, then we would have an additional 4.5 million, but we did not put those into our projections. We also did not include the increase for special education. And we did not include, um, the grants for community schools and some other grants that are coming up where we want to be conservative there. Uh, we re waiting for the final budget. And for a multi-year projection, um we do want to name steps that we need to continue to take.
So for 25, 26, we have a positive ending balance of 153, 153 million. And a positive unrestricted reserve, 29.5 million. And JUNE ending cash of 151 million. But, um, and not really a but, but we want to say that we cannot so there cannot be any new off-budget commitments. Um, we need to continue to do weekly, year-end, close monitoring. Monitoring our payroll and contribution reconciliation. This is all the work that we are doing. Um, we re restricting spending. And even though can see that
spending has gone up, it doesn t. Spending can go up and spend spending can go way up or it can be contained down. So we ve been holding it as, as well as we can right now. Um, and then we re working on at the start of the next year, some more parameters around how we re spending so we could really address, um, spending that s happening in our district. 26, 27, the nyp um projects a positive combined ending balance of 116 million and available reserves of 31.9 million after a 37.1 million net use of fund balance.
And in 26, 27, we should adopt the budget with the board. With the solvency directives. So this is really to say that we need to continue on with the work that we re doing. Um, it s, we can t think of it as um having a positive budget doesn t mean that we don t have to make additional changes coming up. And so we re going to have to work together through that. And then in the, in the last year of 207, 28. The nyp again projects a positive combined ending balance of 100 million and available reserves of 28.8%
satisfying the third year test. And we will maintain a structural discipline. We need to work on aligning our labor commitments. To reoccurring revenue and protect our ada and continue restricted resource maximization, which is something else that we ve been working through. Um and it s just, and I, I just want to reiterate because there was a lot of difficult decisions that were made this year. And we have to stick to them. Uh, I trust that the board will and being in this role, I um will be signing off on affordability, and it is important. That we stick to what it is that we
re committing to do. Excuse me. I am going to turn over to Doctor Fructos for this next slides. Are you there? Yes, we can hear you Colleagues, uh, next slide please. So, one of the things that we wanted to mention to the board is there s been a lot of conversation about how does the budget get balanced in a span of about 5 months, and one of the things that we did from the beginning when we started working on on this processes was the explanation to the board that our district had grown significantly on the restricted side and had a really uh.
Become very, very lean on the on the unrestricted side because a lot of charges that could have been done to some restricted funds were being done to the unrestricted side of the house. This slide presents that information and I wanted to give you a little bit of context. At this point we are at approximately 124 million in restricted. Now you saw because the board directed that we need about a 3% minimum reserve which is about 29 $30 million if we can go to the prior slide for a second. Um, so in DECEMBER when we first started working the restricted was about 105 by
second interim it was about 115, and now we are at about 124 million. Now why is that important? Well, if you notice our unrestricted is making progress but a very slow pace and we ve taken a lot of our shifts and budget balancing by looking at areas that were considered restricted that uh can benefit by shifting those costs and then benefiting the unrestricted. That, even though we ve done that, the restricted continues to grow. So one of the things that we are looking as the years continue is to continue with the board s
direction a balancing. The restricted funds are not unrestricted. They have guidelines. They are designed to support and protect a variety of programs that grant those funds and typically serve programmatic liquidity, meaning that when we have a program that money allows for the program to pay. In our district, however, we have used sometimes unrestricted funding before we use the dollars that were allocated for that particular program, and that has created an imbalance in our budgets, so part of what we wanna do is to start a budgeting process where not only do we use the cliche term of the most restricted dollars first, but we begin to
think of when the dollars came, what is the program that benefits from those dollars. And it allows us to do proper charging that s auditable, that s legally uh done and it allows also to reduce a little bit of the pressure on the unrestricted general fund. Now our board since DECEMBER recognized that we have narrow reserve margins you just saw Terra explained that, that our margins are, are narrow so but it s not a reason to avoid a positive certification because as we will see in the next few slides, we meet our ending balances, but we uh need to connue that fiscal oversight, that planning, that structure of budgeting and to make sure that when we make necessary expenditures that
they are charged to the right area to make sure that the unrestricted general fund continues to be solved. Next slide, please. One of the things we d like to present to you and this is a slide that comes at almost every report is all the funds so that the board can see in one picture where we are. And if I can take you to the last column. Obviously the first column is the revenues, then we have the expenses, we have excesses and deficiencies and then you can see the beginning fund balance, but at this time in the year, one of the important elements is to look at the end balances. Why? Because we re almost at the end of the year pretty soon our fiscal team will be closing the books and why is that important because once that
happens, that s unaudited actuals those are the, the amounts that will get audited and become the the figures of record for the district for the fiscal year and as you can see we have some significant uh amounts in several categories as you look at our unrestricted, it s a lot smaller than the restricted part. It s a lot smaller than some of our other funds, so it is very important that it s a budget philosophy, we continue to work towards charging the funds that benefit from the expenditure that we do and in many times where the money came from to spend and that s something that we will continue to do. The board has
given us those directives as a matter of fact, today they re taking an action on that particular strategy and it s a strategy that I believe will continue to support Oakland s solvency. Next slide, please. So this also tells us why is this important? Well, the strength of the carryover for the unrestricted is the one element that all the reports show as an element of solvency. So when we look for example our our our restricted general fund, you can see that although we have had uh a variety of expenses and, and we have benefited from some of the transfers, the ending balance that was at the beginning of
the year as I mentioned 115 is now 124. So as we close the year that has been growing, whereas the unrestricted, we re doing a lot of work to keep it uh in, in good shape this and in the next couple of years, but you see that need to create a more balanced budgeting system. Next slide, please. One of the challenges and this is an area where I mentioned to the board when we did one of the first presentations is that if the unrestricted funds sat on its own. Oakland would have a very balanced budget because without contributing to other funds and without some of these impacts of restricted funding
by itself the expenditures of the unrestricted fund are, are less than the revenues that the fund brings every year. What happens to the rest of the money? That s probably the question that anybody would ask. Well, one of the big impacts is the contributions to restricted programs. So there are programs that are unfunded. Now in some cases, especially at everyone knows the mandate from the federal government under idea has never fully funded the program, which is, which is sad. Most districts have to contribute in in Oakland s case, those contributions continue to increase every year, uh, right now, uh, it s, it s going at around 13 $9 million. So when you look at
the size of the district s budget, 139 million have to be taken from unrestricted and placed in restricted to be able to fund those programs. That includes special ed operations and transportation expanded learning parts of the lcap facilities and construction and the actions that, that the team has been taken and I think the board is part of the plan of solvency and stabilizing is to reduce uh some of these these challenges to uh to create more optimized expenses, making sure that the expenses are charged appropriately to charge eligible costs and to make sure uh that the costs are supported with funding. An example is
when we get a grant and if the grant is of a certain amount we fully spent on personnel and then there s a step in column or a salary increase. Now there s not enough money on that grant, and the general fund has to cover that increase, and that s something I, I see our cfo nodding. Ryan has to sometimes figure out how do we use unrestricted to to cover these deficiencies and, and the, the goal is that in the future the funding will stand on its own so that the unrestricted general fund doesn t have to cover all these expenditures through the year. Next slide, please.
So as we look at our multi-year projection as, as has been mentioned in this presentation, the ending balance is what will continue to show the solvency of the district and, and what is very important to remember is that although we look at restricted and unrestricted revenues and expenditures at the end when the reports are done, the end balance that counts for the reserve of economic uncertainties is unrestricted, so we could have a significant amount of restricted money, but if the unrestricted continues to be below a certain amount in in Oakland, the board desires 3% even though the, the, the
regulation says just 2, but 3 is, is good. It s a little, a little more conservative. It s very easy to fall below those 29 to $30 million. So you, you see that we have one side of the house with well over 100 million and the other side is a little diff a little more difficult, but when we look at the ending balance, you can see that the totality of the ending balance in our district continues to be strong enough to support our programs. Next slide please. So one of the things that we wanna make sure that we show all the time to, to, to visualize in, in a transparent way the revenue versus expenditure trajectory of the district as you ve seen in 25,
26, the red being expenditures is significantly greater than our revenues as we look at 26, 27 with all the approvals that the board has made for Cash reductions and shifts. That number is now stabilizing a bit. And as we look at 27, 28. If we continue those fiscal austerity measures and stabilizing the budget. It is almost impossible because again of some of the programs that are unfunded, not the district s fault, but the federal government or the state, the general fund unrestricted will have to contribute, but as you can see, we re getting closer and closer to a more balanced place where their
revenues in the expenditures are closer that allows the district to maintain solvency in the long run. So we will continue coming to the board with reports that allow, uh, showing clearly where the recovery process is going and where it will go is that these bars will get closer and closer to each other. Next slide, please. So we talked about the state, um, MAY revision and the fact that the district is being conservative by not budgeting everything that was proposed and why? Because it s proposed it hasn t been finalized, so it s a wise maneuver to make sure that we can stand by our numbers, but what, what it does
is that it allows because it is a good state budget to support the solvency pathway in a little bit more of an accelerated format for 26, 27, and 2 728. The super coon and for those of us that have been around for many years, we ve seen a few super colas before where the receipts at the state level are so high that the state has to because of Prop 98 give us more money than our cola, which was 2.87 and now you see this 4.31 being proposed that allows the district to really accelerate the stabilizing process a little bit more as long as we continue to manage and not do what sometimes has been done by some districts which is accelerate
expenditures and then you go back to a situation that s difficult. Um, next slide, please. One of the things that we started doing, if I recall correctly, when we reviewed the second Nim is to start talking about fiscal risks. What, what are challenges that can that can bring some problems to the district, and I m going to turn it back to Tara, and if you need me, Tara, let me know, uh, to explain what are some of the mitigation practices that we will be doing as we present a positive 3 in. Share that a lot of what we re talking about, it shouldn t be new to you. We
ve talked about these strategies before, um, and it s a matter of us continuing them, um, so for payroll and staffing increases, we, that s a risk. Um, and we really have to and will be looking closely at our position control. We already have after budget development, we have, um, sites asking to add positions and to change them for the next year. Um, so we re taking a um, more I don t wanna say harder approach, but uh stronger approach around that. And, um, vacancy capturing, so really thinking about vacancies
as they come about and not just um holding them there but talking to departments about does it really make sense to have this, this position or not, and then. Perhaps not, and we can um release it So there ll be work around that. Where we re seeing frequency, um, monthly. You ll see ongoing for special education contribution. We are, um, intending to and have not started, intending to work closely with special ed, um, special education s been on the um attachments and work, we ve said. Um, probably for the last 5 years, I think I when I
looked back. That we would do an audit. We would do work to see um, not to try to uh reduce special education. There s laws around that. Also, and they need the support, but to be able to plan so that we re not at the end of the year, having to give more where we weren t expecting it. So that s really our goal around special education, restricted resource allowability. We talked about this, so I m not gonna bring it back up again. Enrollment in ada and our superintendent has presented on um enrollment in ada in her reports, and we ll
be, um, presenting monthly around that. And then our state budget, so just monitoring what that, what we re going to get from the MAY revise and how it will update. Our NYPs going forward. Dates coming up, um we re right now in MAY. I already talked about this as well, so we re doing our 3rd interim now. We ll have the ending budget in JUNE and we will be back starting with budget development in the beginning of next year, and then we ll have our first interim, uh, in the beginning of next year. And also, I, I
can understand um some confusion around how we got from where we were to where we are now. Keep in mind that everything that we are doing and I m presenting goes to our county office. They review. They will determine if there is an issue and we saw that in the 2nd interim, they asked for more information and we provided it. We re very confident of where we are now. They will get this, they ll review it. The board will know if there is any questions from the county, and we ll answer them. And lastly, we just wanted to state that what we hope for as
a team is that we can get to stabilizing our budget where the budget isn t the first topic of a board session, and we are talking more about how we re educating our students and less about how to stabilize our budget. So we hope that we can work together with you and the community. So that we are a stable, well-funded district that s serving our children well. And thank you for the time and I ll stop for questions. I want to add on to the presentation just by um underscoring the absolute focus on student success. We are now in our graduation week. Tomorrow is the last day
of school. And it is important that we keep our eyes focused on what we re here to do, and that is school. I was at a graduation spoke at Sankofa this morning. Um, I m aware of all of the graduations and I m working with several different other organizations to think about how we can continue our focus on students. And make sure that we are leveraging every single dollar to that end I want more for our students. I want us to be thoughtful about how we spend our money. I thank our staff for doing this, uh, work to figure out how we are spending our money and how we can do it
differently. I m looking at operations. I m looking at staffing. I am looking at retention of staff. And what we need to do to support all of our staff. I m looking at how our unions work together. I m looking at everything. I m looking at the community. This is what we do at school. And I want to be able to get to the point where our priority is all about. I see the students every day. As I said, I have been to almost all of our schools. Um, I ve worked at every level, and I see the needs. And we can do this. We can do this together but it s gonna require
that at this juncture that we stick to our plan. And it s hard. There are a lot of people who are gonna want to add things. I ve talked to so many people who have great ideas, wonderful ideas, but we ve got to stay focused. We don t want children just in school just to be in school. We want outcomes. And that starts at preschool. Through adult So I encourage all of us as we think about decisions that we re making keep in front of you what i keep in front of me. Students and families that we serve.
Thank you. I want to thank our staff for um this presentation today and at this juncture we would ask for questions. Are there any board questions? Director Berry. Thank you. And I just want to publicly acknowledge you because uh I ve been telling everybody I had a great budget in finance committee because of the way you showed up and addressed questions that night, so I m going to start there. I also want to comment on what you both just spoke about regarding student outcomes and just naming because I don t think you were saying this, but I just want a name that I think it is possible for in a single
board meeting for us to take up student outcomes and the budget, um, in the same session, and in fact, if we were more focused on student outcomes, I think we d be more focused on the right things when it comes to the decisions and the difficult decisions we need to make around the budget. Um The other thing that I wanted to name is I know part of what we re doing tonight is voting on the positive certification and I think I I still think there s this, uh, preoccupation is probably too strong of a word, but for lack of a better one, preoccupation
with like whether we re qualified and positive and not enough focus on the discussion of the material changes that we need to make. I do see a lot of that in the presentation though, and I do appreciate that. I think what s not there are the things that I that aren t giving me enough confidence for positive, which per the presentation that you all delivered a few weeks ago is about is the the signal that we believe that the district will cover its financial, meet its financial obligations. And right now there s a lot of uncertainty, even embedded in the presentation and the data
itself. Um, so with all of that, the questions that I have. And I m gonna ask them and then, do you want me to ask them one by one, or? You better have a preference I think we also have our cfo online. Ok. So the first question, in no particular order, so on slide 9, you all list what changed and how we got here. And so my first question, is that all of the things or were there other strategies that were implemented to yield the positive um ending balances and related since I m sure it s a contributor. What s the status
of each of the budget adjustments and fiscal stabilization strategies that were part of the plan at the beginning, um, and can we see that in the dollar amounts, the cost savings, um, or it s sort of its impact. To the budget So Peter You re asking if on our slide 9, if we put in everything that we ve done in order to get where we are. Yeah, I got to slide 9, my big question was like, well, how did we get here? And then on slide 9, there s like 5 or 6 things. I don t have it right in front of me. Um
5 things that the list begins in balance improved by roughly 5.4 million from second interim. And the question is like how um are all of these, is it a comprehensive list of the strategies that were implemented to yield the positive ending balances. I wouldn t say it s comprehensive, um, because we did a lot of work. So going one by one in expenses and looking through it all, right? So I mean, it does have most of everything we ve done. So as an example, the board voted on our
workforce, um, reductions. right? So we can t forget that that was a significant um reduction into the next year I believe it was. Uh. Brian, am I right to say 42 million? Results of the reduction uh of year to date is about uh close to the 30 something million dollars, and this is shifting from um uh unrestricted into semi-restricted and into restricted uh programs. Uh, we ve also combed through our, our, our transaction, uh, uh, searching for confined expenditure that uh should have been charged to restricted
programs, uh, and we ve, uh, done that. We ve uh actually uh shifted, um, uh, those expenditure in, into the restrictive program which yields uh uh additional uh cost savings to our underrestricted fund balances. Hm ok, and just the second part of that, not to overwater the plant. But I think it would be helpful even in as a board to evaluate the planning and where we re at and what work needs is left to see all the strategies and the cost savings, it s yielding in the implementation process and even whether they re even, they ve all been implemented yet.
So for, for the uh uh the various uh uh plants that we um how would I say this, uh, that yielded the, a uh fund balance, positive fund balance for uh fund one, we have implemented that into the uh the uh uh 3 interim budget as well as the uh budget uh uh that s been adopted for 26, 27, and we definitely could provide a list of uh of uh uh the strategies or, you know, the metaphor for, for, for. For uh reaching uh those numbers. Thank you And then related to strategies. What are the remaining strategies that we re exploring to close the deficit that we have because approving positive
certification with deficits, the size that they are, I think is a lot. So just curious what plans we re exploring for that and how much of that work is or included or um related to the structural deficit work that we need to do that s beyond just the individual cuts that need to be made. I ll answer you and I think it would be good to come back because what we ve been doing is going not only looking at the plan we ve been working through, but going back, into all of the other plans that have been approved. To see are there actions there that we didn t do? Um, and then does it make sense?
To bring it back forward and do it. Um, and so we do have a running list from all the way back from the fiscal vitality plan, which actually in that one in 2017 said to um focus on restricted funds, right? Like the proper use of restricted funds. So you ll see a lot of what we re doing, repeated back. And I m not saying it didn t always happen, but there are some things, maybe it happened and then we slipped back. Whatever it is, we re going through them all, so I d be happy to to bring that, and I should, um, but to answer your question and top of mind for me.
Is I do believe in the work of the, um, contracting out committee. Uh, I do think that we need to look closer at our contracts and what we re doing there. And um and so that s, that s one of the areas I think that we could capture some savings there. Um. There s, there s there s other things that s a lot on the list that we could talk about, but the last thing that I d like us to get to is impacting our staff again, so that s why for me, I m, I m, it s very important to go through
everything that we ve committed to years past to now? Because it seems like our actions have been impacting staff, and then there s all these other things like consolidating supply materials and supplies or, you know. There s, there s a lot of things, so going back through that, um, director Lauda has talked to me a lot about it as well through budget and finance, so you can probably bring it there first and then to the board. I answered. Appreciate that. And then I ll make this my last question um in the report, or the presentation, I can t remember which there was language around the
forecast remains conditional and there s like all this if this happens contingency language. And so I want to understand, and there s also a slide 18 on risk. What are the risks to maintaining fiscal controls? Are they all addressed on slide 18 and how costly are those risks, um, and the threats. To us mitigating them ok. I ll have to come back on what the cost of the risk would be, but I really wanted to make sure to put out risks. Because we, we talk about plans so much, we MISS That, hey, if we don t do this, there is a risk to it, and we fall back. And so that s to to show you
really unique we re thinking about what the risks are and how to, what the frequency is, that will be reviewing them, but I didn t, we did not put costs to if you if you fall off, that s something that we can work on. And it MAY be non-consequential. But still, it s important. You just got to keep at, we just have to keep at what we re. Saying we re going to do It is because of this conversation, these kinds of questions that I m not at positive yet, but it s not because I m dismissing all the work that y all are doing. I think you re doing the work, and I think we
re still in it. And I don t think there s anything we should not be ashamed of being at qualified because we re doing all the work and it is material, but and I think it s important to acknowledge honestly, where we re at and how much further we have to go. And that s, that s just where I m at right now. But I appreciate the conversation. Thank you. Thank you Thank you uh, Doctor Thompson Yes, um, somewhat tangential to what um, Director Berry was saying, um, my first question that I asked myself that I wanted to ask you, um, quite some time
ago was what exactly is positive? Because I think that s gonna help elucidate what our audience is wanting to know. So what exactly is positive? That we can meet our reserve and the state reserve is 2%. We re meeting 3. And it s really positive it s meeting the state reserve, which is 2%. And that we have an ending fund balance, strong ending fund balance, or cash is ok. And it is not aligned to whether you have a deficit. It s the deficit needs to be manageable. I think that s the one thing that I really wanted to hear
because I didn t want anyone to go away thinking positive men that you have all of this money above and beyond what you needed, so I wanted people to understand exactly what, what that meant. Now, allow me, um, I m gonna be kind of picky a little bit, but allow me to be a little picky so if we could go to slide 9 just for a moment. Um I m, I m asking this for myself and also for the audience. Um, I m really wanting some elucidation around some things. Um, I note under normal circumstances, when we have a budget, um, that we have
seen before, we see, um, the ending balance of something at the very end. And so I m wondering, how do we get to the ending balance in 2026, 2027 of $18768,0307. Oh no, that s the 2% reserve that s the 2%. So you see on the left side it says reu 2.8 No, no, that s the state, oh, sorry, Director Alatto wanted. It s just the very, very bottom column for 26, 27 that you re referring to. I think it s hard because we don t have a pointer, but just the difference between the 30 million that s booked. Here. As a possible, as a deficit
reduction, and then if these other sources come in, then it would be. 18. And the only reason why I asked, well, one of the major reasons why I asked that is because it looks like if you add 66 million $681,143 to $4,550,000 50,550,000. $550 you come up with 1876, but that s not the case. And I really want individuals to understand that it s not a matter of adding those two numbers up. Ok. Yeah. Yeah, I m sorry, I was on a whole different line. And then if you don t mind, if I could go to page 16.
Um, and am I correct in assuming those bar graphs. I m sorry this isn t working I m sorry. Oh. Yeah, right there. Yeah, those Yeah, Yeah those Yeah, histograms actually were those bar graphs, actually our reflection of the cuts that we ve suggested. And making sure we maintain the cuts. Am I right? And as I m looking at those bar graphs, it looks like um they re becoming, they re they re getting closer together in 2027, 2028, but we re not, am I correct in assuming the
expenditures of what in the revenues are not even but but you are proposing that that they are approaching being even in 2027, 2028. And then hopefully one day. Look it the other way. Go the other way. Ok. I just wanted to make sure that all of us in the audience were actually looking at the pictures, and we re, and we re seeing them, and we re understanding what they re actually saying, instead of just going away with. Whatever. Ok, so thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Um, I, um think this presentation is
quite helpful. So, um, I just want to appreciate all of the work that went into it. Um, I did have a couple of questions that I would love for you to answer. Um, I think the first question is that there s mention that these, that the 3rd interim includes all of our, um, not just the reductions that have already been made and the shifts but also our ongoing labor commitments. So just to confirm, because it s not clear in the presentation that this 3rd interim and the NYPs do include the um, most recent oea tentative agreement. Yes, it does, and the um ab 1200 is at the county office. Great. Thank you. I think my, um, the other question is that I think would
be helpful is that you know, you and, um, and, um, MR. Nguyen and um Doctor Fructos have talked about the fact that we are working to close our books and book all of our expenditures earlier than we typically do. Um, and obviously the numbers aren t final because there s still some expenditures that are pending, some balances that we need to, um, address, but, um, and we know, of course, that when we get to our audited budget numbers, um, we have to wait till all the actuals are finish ed And I think to clarify, we know that the numbers move throughout the year as we get our ada, as we have different
revenues, as we have the MAY revision. But I do wanna just ask that, do we think there will be any material changes to these numbers. Obviously, there ll be some small changes, but I think my question is, will there be material changes, significant changes from these numbers and what we anticipate will be the audited numbers in their final. I don t believe there will be, but I ll also have our cfo answer that. He ll be working on it. Ryan, are you there? Yes, I m here. Hi, Reuben. You were going to speak, uh, uh, I ll wait for you. I m, I m happy, uh, director Lara, we, we hope there are some material changes. One of the things that
we are doing right now is looking at the expenses through the year and as we explained to the board now a couple of times is to look at some areas where perhaps the unrestricted general fund uh was charged and now we are looking to see what can pass uh a complete audit what is legal and and my hope is that when we close the books we will have a little more advantageous position on our unrestrict and now it might not be uh to the point and I love the way director Thompson mentioned that the two bars are equal, but every dollar that we are
able to assist the unrestricted not only helps us this year but it helps us in the subsequent years because it becomes the beginning balance of the next year. So to answer your question, it might not be a large, but since that is the process, uh, one of the board directors asked what is our methodology for the future, which will is continuing to develop more and more balanced approach to budgeting that actually respects the source of the funding and the charge, so my hope is that yes, it will be materially different between now and when we close the books, but to the good if I MAY, and Ryan, I ll stop there because I know you, you, you have probably a little more than that.
Yeah, and uh just as uh uh Doctor Ruben mentioned, I m also hopeful that the uh the uh uh financial will come in a little bit more uh positive. We have some encumbrance, uh, there. There s probably revenue that we haven t uh looked at, but, um, uh, you know, uh, a budget is a, is a point in time estimate. But it s just based on all available information that we have at this moment. Uh, uh, and based on those, uh, that information, um, we create a, a, a budget, uh, and, um, by year-end, uh the actual should align with the budget. Um, if there isn t, uh, if it doesn t align that there would
be a budget balance in the negative, and we ll definitely take a look at uh at uh why those uh has occurred, but based on the all known uh variables uh and uh uh uh information we have, we have, the budget should be accurate, know. Great, yeah, and I think that was my, that, I mean, I think obviously any variants to the good, which obviously, you know, assuming that the supercola comes through and we have the other booked expend expenditures with the MAY revise. I would, I would, you know, assume that it will get better. I think I was mainly just putting a finer point on, we don t anticipate it getting kind of slipping backwards, um, so thank you very much and, um, those are all my questions.
Hutchinson Yes, thank you. Um first, I want to remind everyone of board policy 3150. And number 6, the final clause, the superintendent shall provide the first draft of the district s annual budget and the local control accountability plan to the board and community of Oakland. Each year at a board meeting no later than the 2nd regular board meeting in MAY. That s tonight and unfortunately we haven t had anyone enforcing any of our board policies for a long time. So what we re actually supposed to be doing tonight is seeing the first version of a draft
budget for next year. Instead, what we re listening to is a conversation about what people plan to make happen when they actually developed the budget for next year. I So there is no way when we are still increasingly overspending more every month than the month before, and that we still have a projected deficit for next year. That s unaddressed. There s no way we fit the definition of a positive certification. It s impossible impossible So I m really troubled by a lot
of the conversation, because to me, after spending this many years tracking the budget, um, I fear that it shows a lack of understanding in in a lot of people. Um, so if we could put up page number 6 of, of the, or I m sorry, number 5 of the presentation. This has the revenue uh so yes, so if we look here, b expenditures. This year on the budget we were budgeted to spend $916 million this year. Then at the 2nd interim, that number had grown to 962 million. That is the overspending
happening this year. Now we see it s increased even more to 978 million. So this year at a time when we ve been told there have been measures put in place and scenario 3 called for lowering spending and closing this gap by 27 million, we can see an explosion in overspending to the tune of $60 million in counting. Not only has there been no acknowledgement of that. This is why we haven t seen any documentation that shows we ve made any cuts in this school year, because this number shows expenditures has ballooned. If we could please turn it to the next page, page 6. On line b
expenditures We have for 26, 27 and expected expenditure of $869 million. I want to know where that number comes from. On the 2nd interim report. This number for our projection of expenditures for 2627 was 914 million. That s the number that you had on the 2nd interim report. Since then, we now have an approved budget or approved, uh, new contract for seiu. And the pending contract for oea. Which would add another roughly $60 million to expenditures. For next year, which would bring that number up to roughly
970 million. Why is this number here 869 million? Where did that $100 million in spending cuts come from? We haven t seen anything. All we heard is maybe $32 million? in laying off people. To me, this looks like a number that was intentionally put here that doesn t fit the other numbers around it. To try to justify that there s not really a deficit to take $100 million out in spending to justify, oh, we really can t afford oea s contract. This number doesn t track with the numbers that you produced in the last second interim. I asked you at the last board meeting to explain the
variation in the numbers that you ve been putting out. I got no answer to that. And this number here doesn t make sense. Doesn t make sense So when I combine the fact that we re still overspending even more than we were overspending at the start of the year. When I throw in that, I only saw this document 24 hours before this meeting. This was supposed to meeting be the meeting where we actually have a draft budget. And this number is mysteriously lowered here. For projected expenditures last year. I have serious questions and as one of the seven people responsible for the district s
finances, it s really troubling that I ve asked over and over this question. I sent the superintendent questions 3 months ago. And nobody seems to be able to answer it. So why is the projected expenditures for next year $869 million. Where are the $100 million in cuts that would have needed to happen over the last 3 months to justify that. I That ok. Um Brian cfo. Yes, I m here. Hi, could you, uh, did you hear Director Hutchinson
s question. Um in order for me to answer that question, I would have to, um, I, I guess how would I do this? I would, uh, I could sit down with him and go through the numbers of uh which physician has been uh has been eliminated, which one came back, which funding resources has gone away. Well, uh, and uh and the associated uh expenditure has gone away. What I do know is, uh, in the system, in our escape, uh accounting system, we have implemented uh the budget balance, uh, budget balancing solution as well as each program, each site s, um, uh, budget, uh, uh, for, for that particular uh site for next year. And uh
based on the assumptions in uh escape for what the cost of labor costs are, uh, then, um, escape lets us know what the budgets uh will be like for 26, 27. My fund, my resource, my program. And uh maybe uh uh we can look at that, uh, in summary or in detail, uh, where needed. Um. Uh, but I do know that uh yeah, uh, that is the case, yeah, especially the way it is, is a concern though, but um yeah. Excuse me, so nobody has any documentation or anything readily available to justify this number, and when I asked to meet with Ryan months ago. The chief of staff at the time
told me I was not able to meet with him because he was too busy. And so now when we re supposed to be voting on this today, and I m getting an answer that, oh, we can give you that information later. That is a key part of the information, what our projected expenditures are for next year. That should be driving the budget development work and to hear that nobody can answer what should be a basic question. I mean, the numbers from year to year go from 978 million to 869 million back up to 938 million. No one can answer it. I believe what he just said to you is if you d like to sit down, he can go through it with you. So readily available breakdown of every single, uh number to just I m not asking
every single number. This is total combined expenditures. This is the only number that matters. We are looking at expenditures over revenue, which the bar chart that you showed showed that every year projecting out, we are still spending more than we re taking in. This is simple arithmetic, and is really frustrating again, when I get documents 24 hours beforehand. I do my due diligence to understand the numbers. I even sent out the questions that I was asking and what I was saying. And still people show up and they can t answer the question. Well, at a certain point, if people can t answer
the question, that s either that they are hiding the answer. Or they don t know the answer. Either of those options are unacceptable, and at this point, having been told for months, oh, we ll let you know, we ll get that information to you, and you have provided none of that information to me. I don t believe it anymore. So how can we have a third interim when the head of our financial department cannot tell us how we are reaching this number for projected expenditures, and how did this number go from 970 million to 869 million. That s $100 million variance. Director Hutchinson, I hope that the entire board can realize
how serious this is. So, sitting and attacking people. Isn t going to solve and I m still speaking attacking anyone. I m asking for the people in charge of our finances. Excuse me, I m asking for the people in charge of our finances to give me the information that I need in order to do the job I was elected for. I have judiciary responsibility, not you and not the superintendent and this rude and disrespectful tone that you want to keep carrying with me, that s fine. But to this point, can you produce the numbers to justify this or not? Director Hutchinson thank you very much. You can continue to yell at me. This has been a habit of yours. I am
not, I am not a habit of yours, not to have the information that your job should require. So if you want to play this game with me in front of everyone and make this something personal. I am asking for the numbers that were all responsible for and you said now for 5 minutes. That is unacceptable. This is what you do with me every time, and what do you do? How about when you warned me not to take this job because you were training ar for proving my point. How about that? Um, welcome back, MR. Rakestra. Can we have a roll call to establish quorum please. Yes on the roll call, attendance roll call to established corp. Student directors are absent.
Director Lauder present Director Williams present, sir Uh, Director Hutchinson present. Uh, Director Berry ok Director Thompson PRESIDENT Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor uh PRESIDENT Brohar. Yeah. Forum present. Thank you. So point of clarification because it was in the it was in the middle of my time there and I ve never seen a recess because a presenter got upset like that, but I, I would still like an answer to my question, Superintendent Sadler, of How
did we get to a Number of projected total expenditures and 2627 of $869 million. That seems to be $100 million less than what it should be, and this is a very basic, uh, a very basic question, and I just have to say, and then I ll be done the fact that nobody can provide an answer to that basic question, really worries me since the same people are trying to argue that we should have a positive certification. So if we do have a positive certification, the major numbers, there should be an explanation that everyone can understand of how we arrived at those numbers. And so when can I get that answer? When should I expect it? Because I haven t
gotten any questions answered in Hutchinson. Uh, MS. Garre. I, I, I was, I was asking Superintendent Sadler. I m going to point aboard I m going to ask, uh, MS. Gar to come up to I asked, I asked Superintendent Sadler, so if Super Sadler, Superintendent Sadler wants her to do it, that s fine, but this is kind of what s going on in this game. Uh, Director Hutchinson, I m going to ask for the answer right now, so that we can get this clarification. Staff, um, I would appreciate a response to Director Hutchinson s question at this time. Thank you. Doctor Fructose, are you able
to come up and MISS Gard is also here. Doctor Futtos. Sure. Uh, good evening again, board members. Uh, I m going to take you back a few months. One of the things we did is the board was very good at asking for us to give you a precise report on the cuts and shifts that we did over the last few months and if you recall we came to you first with a with around $20 million. Then we came with about 40 and when we got to 65, the board said we really wanna see a precise report of how the shifts impact 2526. And 2627. Now, uh, i m, I m a
little bit confused because I, I, I, I was trying to listen to uh the director, uh, bring up the issue, and I thought his issues for all the past meetings were about 25, 26 and 2526 we re almost done and it s going to be solvent so I hope that s now put at peace for 2627, the majority of the $65 million shifts and reductions we made actually hit 26, 27, and that was one of the concerns that if you recall we had that will we have enough to finish the year strong in 20526. Those reductions significantly reduce the budget on top of that you have the reef that the board approved. You had about 45 million with uh that 65 had about 45 million that impacted
this upcoming year, the rf, again I m right now I I wasn t expecting a, a question of our 26, 27 because it s projections the questions have been about 25, 26, and I m, I m not hearing a lot about that, but for 26, 27, we also have the risks that will create a significant cost reduction for the district and one of the most important ones that we re casting at now is the retirement incentive in addition to that we are projecting to reduce some contracting and I ll give you an example. The, the district has probably been very generous with some of our contracts and our expectation is to renegotiate in them to reduce costs. That s what a projection is 2627 is a projected amount,
so it, it, it can be confusing So when I was listening to some of the questions, it sounds like there was some confusing and misunderstanding that 26, 27 is a projection year so you cannot set in stone s numbers on top of that we have projected 26, 27 in a fairly conservative way. Our expectations is that more revenues will come which if the expenses increase that will still cover it. And I also wanted to clarify a question. Uh, one of the, the, the, the mentions about the shift from the beginning of the year was that we went from an expenditure of just above 900 to 978, um, and then we went a lot higher and I, I wanted to
remind the board that our revenues also went up. So if you look just above it, it answers the question expenditures have gone up and we ve been very clear because when new revenues are received, some of our teams have increased expenditures and in part we re trying to control that. So I d hope that helps the board I just want to clarify on, on what you said there, which, ok, I m sorry, I thought you were done 25 you were you were done 25, 26, we re almost done and it will be a balanced year up up until now again, the majority of the questions and the comments that we are bankrupt and that we will not be able to be solved and have been about this year and I ve appreciated them because they ve allowed it
s allowed us to really check and now that we re about to close the books the year looks good. Now the questions are about 26, 27, so I just wanna remind you that it is a budget, it s still a projection, but some o the questions are answered in the same chart when the expenses go up if you just look one line above the revenues are also going up. Um, anyway, thank you Bors. So I just wanted to clarify what you just said there. So are the 45 million that you claim from rif even though earlier you said it was 32 million. So now the 45 million that you claim from Riff that is separate from the 65 million that was claimed before, or is the 45 million
part of the 65 million. Great question. Now that, that s a clear question. The 65 million included about 45 for next year. So I, I, I think I said, so you can t list them, so that s the same 65 million. So again, that doesn t explain why we are projecting so much lower in expenditures for next year. And let me just be clear, the board didn t approve to increase spending this year because we received more revenue, we were supposed to be engaging in cost saving measures so we could address these budgets going forward And that is the whole problem and the last thing, because, you know, people want to be rude or whatever. Actually, the
question I asked at the last meeting that went unanswered was the discrepancy between the cash fund balances, uh, for a year from now, at the end of next year s budget. So that s what I was asking. It never got answered. And again, we don t have a document showing how expenditures are being decreased for next year, Director Hutchinson, we re going to move to public comment, um, how many speakers do we have, uh, MR. Seho? We have excuse me, we have 6 speakers. Uh, 2 minutes each. And do we have any online? Um, right now, no hand is raised at the moment. Um for Polish speakers we have
Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, Avian Ringer, Assalo Lubala, jd Winson, and Ron Muhammad. So the 6 speakers. And I do see two hands online. Let s go with uh in-person speakers first. Um, the names are Carol Denton, Sheila Haynes, Avi Ringer, Asaodabala, jd Wolinson, and Ron Muhammed. If you re in the audience, if you would come up to the, uh, uh, dias jd Mississaua, Jack. Greetings to the uh superintendent and to uh my. Um
school board director Um, my name is Ram Muhammad. I just left, uh, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street. And there was an example there in the museum. Um, that the do had circulated 14 days, 14 days. And then now circulates under 6 hours and what happened is that they utilized everything inside of their incubator. Everything was all about them. And the reason why I brought that up is because I m born and raised here. Um I know almost every square inch of the properties. That ousd has.
There are so many un us ed properties that we have. I mean so many and I think that it could partially address a lot of the discourse that we have. Um we simply don t have the population anymore. And for whatever MAY be. Justification to not to consider uh, maybe the unloading of some of the properties right now, potential simply means energy at rest. It could be doing something. But it s not And so if some of the properties are not being
utilized, that could be used. You should consider selling. I think it would. Deviate some of the pain Thank you Thank you. Speaker Hello, I m jd Waashan, and um I got a little thrown, um. By the unexpected behavior to um be as polite as I can be. Um and uh. So what I actually wanted to say is kind of um eluding me right now, but I, you know, I just I just heard an explanation of, um, the question asked by DR. Hutchinson, and there s an answer to it, and there s, I,
um and I don t know how to explain it, but um, it was reasonable about how these processes work with. Um computer programs and stuff. So anyway, um, here s what I ll say. I hear, oh, it s coming back to me. So everybody s been asking you all to make hard decisions. Just make the hard decisions, just make the hard decisions. You all have been making really hard decisions. And then people keep coming up and saying, oh, make the hard decisions that I want you to make. I want you to make the different hard decisions. Um, and, um, we re seeing the results and we re seeing that we
re not, we re the decisions haven t been perfect. I don t know if there are perfect, hard decisions that this board could make. Um. And but what I appreciate is the fact that this board is keeping us on a trajectory to keep the district stable so that we can get into a position where we re focusing on not cuts and cuts and cuts, but on, um, figuring out what kind of district that we want to be and how to move forward as a unified district and, um,
protecting all of our students. Thank you. And consent. A number of items are before you because of unforeseen. Circumstances So no matter what you put on paper numbers. There s, it s nothing that can be guaranteed. This is it. For a number of reasons. You re gonna have financial issues that come up. that you didn t prepare for, but they re gonna be there. So that s just one thing. So you can t speak as if I give you some numbers and that s gonna be the numbers for next year.
You have to be open to the fact that you re gonna have the uh what y all call restricted funds or backup funds or whatever, but I do know you have a need for $3.5 billion for facilities needs and all of these unforeseen, unforeseen circumstances have to do with our buildings. And you, uh, you won t move in the direction of you got 20 schools with less than 300 students. 81 buildings and you won t look at that. There s certain things you just won t look at. And that that s the issue for me. I m not good with budget.
I m not some of the people here. I depend on you, so tonight when this Barry spoke and MR. Thompson and then MR. Hutchinson, I said, ok, I understand. And that s what you have to do. You can t just sit here and approve this tonight and you haven t had a position that validates why you support it or you don t support it. That makes sense So I m confident in MISS Berry and, and, uh, MR. Hutchinson, you might have issues with him, but he knows what he s talking about. He knows budget MR. Thompson, your question, very appropriate. I appreciate that. That
s what you, people are depending on you. To do the work to get this right. Thank you Next speaker, we re going to Carol Dillon. Um, thank you. So I am the representative from the cac on the outsourcing task force. We went into that task force, knowing that ousd spends a multiple on contracting compared to other districts on a student by student basis.
As a relatively larger district that can hire in-house for some positions that other districts have to contract out. Other smaller districts have to contract out or share. It should be the same or lower. Two things came up that I wanted to make sure this board hears and that are essential for the budgeting of the future. One is not just, and these both of these do not just apply to ousd. There is actually a trend over the last 4 to 5 years of increasing expenditures. In contracting and there
s a trend in increasing expenditures in contracting over what was budgeted. So again, I m asking that there be a very clear variance report at every interim and perhaps more often. When there are these budget changes so that they re lifted up for you, the board, and you can make the policy decisions. That go behind whether that ongoing spending is supported or changed. I m also really asking to know. When you approve the contracts that are on the agenda. Are all of those contracts within the various departments
and school site budget caps. Thank you Thank you. Next speaker is Sheila Haynes. Hi, can you hear me ok? Ok, thank you. Um, so it s, it s kinda hard for me to um envision what MAY happen, um, although I have been pushing for the arts and funding. I know that now is not the time to really hope for much, but you know, I continue to worry about the uncertainty of the budget and the impact on programs that will um impact our most vulnerable students. I m concerned, as I said, about more cuts to the arts and services, um, services for students that help keep them
safe. I am really looking forward to the violence prevention presentation because uh besides anything else, our students need to be safe under any cuts that MAY happen. Um, but I also am concerned still about um the proposed cuts to measure nnh funding, um, students that have been facing trauma for many decades, you know, our students that um hope to go back to school in person MAY not get to that. Uh stage until the adult program. So I m, I m really hoping that, you know, there won t be any impact to those students that has faced the
long-standing uh trauma for many years. Um, it s just really kinda frustrating to not have true numbers in order to really know what to expect. Um, but I m hopeful either way that you would at least um prioritize student safety and I hope that um we get some true numbers and answers soon and just hoping that you guys can do what needs to be done so that there won t be much more trauma to our students that s already suffering, so, um. Please just get it done without hurting our students further and thank you. Are there any further speakers? Yes, we have av Ringer.
Alright. Thank you Uh, I was discussing with some other parents about the irregularity of having this as a special meeting. Uh, another in a long line of irregularities from this board. And one asked me why I would care so much about these irregularities and procedural violations. So I want to explain that. It s because these procedural rules, the Brown Act largely, is what protects the public s rights. You can t play games with these rules. When you do, you violate the public s rights. The courts have been very clear about this sort of gamesmanship of the Brown Act. And you can expect any action taken after
such gamesmanship voided under 54,960.1. Why not just have a special meeting concurrent with every regular thing and post notices of any substantive action in the agenda of the special meeting 24 hours ahead. Don t worry about the 72 hour rule. Clearly that would violate the spirit of the law. Just like last meeting, why not give one second for each public comment on the superintendent s contract, rushed through in 16 minutes at the end of a six-hour meeting when over 80% of the time was spent on non-deliberative matters. If this was in violation of the spirit of the law. In violation of the public s rights. This will have to be voided as well. But why do we have this meeting without sufficient time for the
public to review the substance? Was there some unforeseen or emergency circumstance that required it. I don t believe there was. So please don t play games with our rights. Just like I ll ask you not to play games with our children s education. Thank you. Questions No, that include public speakers MR. Rigstraw, can we take a roll call on the vote, please? On the motion to approve the 3rd interim report as stated. That the directors are absent Director Lana Yes.
Director, your answer was yes. Ok, sorry. Director Thompson. Yes. Director Barry. No. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Williams Yes Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor? Yes. PRESIDENT Brohart. Yes. The motion is adopted With the special meeting is adjourned. And we will return. We will need a few minutes. 3 minutes, 3 to 5 minutes. It will take a 5 minute recess and then we ll go into our public