District Presents First Interim Report on Same Night Board Votes for Significant Budget Balancing Option

As we have been informing you since early this year, Oakland Unified School District is facing a historic $100 million unrestricted deficit, and there is no choice but to make significant changes to the budget to ensure our financial future. Our First Interim Report that was presented at last night’s Board of Education meeting shows that our situation is so serious that our Business Office recommended to the Board that it give our First Interim Report a negative certification, meaning that we will not meet our financial obligations in the next school year without a change in course. The Board voted instead to adopt a qualified certification, which is a grade higher than a negative certification, but still signals that we may not meet our financial obligations in the next two school years.

The news is not significantly worse than the last update we shared last month from Superintendent Dr. Denise Saddler, however, it confirms that we are on the wrong financial path, spending more money than we receive in revenues, and as a result, we are depleting savings to below required levels. Given that the vast majority of our budget goes to pay staff, there is no way to make $100 million in adjustments without impacting people, and by extension, how the District does business, especially the business of educating children.

And that brings us to the most significant thing that happened at Wednesday’s meeting. The Board approved multiple budget-balancing scenarios. They heard all of the scenario options provided by Dr. Saddler and voted to approve the scenarios that incur the most significant changes to staffing levels and potential budget savings. The scenarios include a historic $103 million in potential budget solutions heading into the 2026-27 school year, the largest proposed one-year budget shift in District history.

While earlier this fall, the Board instructed the Superintendent to keep any reductions as far from schools as possible, the integrated nature of our operations makes it impossible to make $100M in adjustments - fully 20% of the unrestricted general fund budget - without impacting schools to some degree.

While central office staffing and supports to schools were reduced significantly, the plan passed by the Board does include a 7.5%-10% reduction in school site budgets. Though the percentage may seem relatively low, that reduction will have a significant impact given how lean our schools already operate, and will most likely include the elimination of some positions.

All of this means starting next year, the District and its schools will not be able to operate in the same way they have in the past. Some programs will be reduced or eliminated. Many services will be slowed or operate at a reduced capacity.

While the ultimate goal is to restructure the District in a way that maximizes the success of students within the sustainable level of financial resources, such a complex restructuring requires more time. Meeting our financial reality now is the short-term requirement that will hopefully create the space for more thorough engagement and decision-making to address the structural issues that have plagued the District for years. While many focus on the number of schools OUSD chooses to operate, there are other structural areas related to facilities use, open enrollment, site autonomy, and our aspiration to be a full service community school district that all need to be assessed in the context of the financial realities of public education in California.

Over the coming two months, Superintendent Saddler will lead a team to determine how to implement all of the aspects of this plan, exactly what positions will be impacted by any reductions, what programs will have to change, and how the District will move forward. All that work will take place with the education of our children held as our North Star, guiding us to ensure we protect them first and foremost.