Hi OUSD families,

We know life is full right now. Our hope is that this newsletter gives you context for the current challenges facing our district, so you can decide where you want to invest your time and energy.

OUSD board meetings are typically held on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. The next one is this Wednesday. Below you'll find everything you need to join and what to look out for. Later this week we'll share our full recap.

How to Join the Meeting

Here's the link to join online: 3/11 meeting Zoom link

If you want to go in person, it's in the Great Room at LaEscuelita Education Center, 1050 2nd Avenue, Oakland, CA (entrance at or near 286 East 10th St).

It officially starts at 4:00 PM, but the board usually meets privately in “closed session” until around 6:00 PM. We’ll post here on Bluesky when the public part of the meeting begins.

What They’ll Be Talking About

Here's the 3/11 meeting agenda.

The Second Interim Budget will be Item T. The Board must send this to the County Superintendent by March 15. Here’s the presentation deck if you are curious in advance.

We’ll keep an eye on all of this and share updates after the meeting.

Bonus Recap: March 5 Budget and Finance Committee meeting

We don’t cover all OUSD subcommittee meetings, but last week’s Budget and Finance Committee caught our attention, because the committee reviewed the superintendent's Financial Stabilization Implementation Plan. You can watch the Budget & Finance subcommittee meeting recording on our Youtube Channel.

Context: In December, the District hired consulting firm HYA to evaluate our financial situation, after Chief Business Office Lisa Grant-Dawson resigned.

What was presented: HYA presented updates on the ongoing work to stabilize the budget. The next milestone in this work is the second interim budget, to be discussed on Wednesday 3/11 at the Board Meeting. This budget report is a snapshot from the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1, 2025) through Jan 31, 2026. It will not include savings or costs from agreements or decisions that took place after Jan 31, such as the reductions in force (400+ layoffs) approved on Feb 25 or the Tentative Agreement currently being ratified with OEA.

Why this matters: Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different opinion on if we are going to be able to produce a balanced budget for the 2026-2027 school year.

The district’s newly negotiated contract with OEA gives teachers a much-needed raise, and OUSD will need to make more cuts to pay for those raises. Since the new agreement includes money due by June 30, 2026, there is new uncertainty about whether we'll have enough money in our reserves through June, much less approving next year's budget.

If the District does not have the funds to pay its bills through June 30, the County could intervene. We don’t really know much about what that process will look like. (If you, like us, are curious to learn more about the Alameda County Office of Education’s plans for OUSD, we encourage you to join the Q&A with County Superintendent Alysse Castro at LIFE Academy on March 16.)

Thanks to Rachael Kirk-Cortez for contributing to this bonus recap!

Also this week

The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) is meeting Monday March 9 at 6pm. Here's the Zoom link to join. They are discussing the high suspension rates of black disabled middle school students.

See you in the room or on Zoom,
Anna, Bekah, and Jess