Education

OUSD Clamps Down on School Spending to Stay Solvent

Published

7 years ago

March 28, 2017

School district leaders sent a “critical budget” memo to all staff this week announcing an immediate freeze on spending at schools and central office departments, saying the freeze is necessary to save $10 million in the next three months to keep from going into the red.

Effective Monday – the day the memo went out – schools and departments can no longer transfer money between funds or create purchase orders.

The “bottom line,” according to the memo, is that the “district must realize a $10 million reduction in spending/expenses … to achieve a balanced budget for FY 2016-17.”

“At minimum, we are at risk of Alameda County Office of Education not approving our 2017-18 budget. This could limit our ability to make decisions regarding district programming.”

The freeze, called a “spending limitation protocol,” would not impact restricted, state and federally mandated program funds.

In January, the district had instituted a less rigid spending protocol that urged schools and departments to avoid unnecessary expenses.

“Unfortunately, current budget analysis is showing that the (protocol) is not yielding its intended results. In fact, it may have had an opposite impact, with many central and school staff encumbering more funds, instead of working to conserve resources and limit spending,” states the memo.

“We don’t want any school to operate without essential needs, but in the measures we took January we said we wanted to limit spending. But spending went up 250 percent compared with the same time last year,” said School Board President James Harris in an interview with the Post.

Harris said the goal of saving $10 million by mid-June is realistic, and that the spending freeze, along with some other measures, can keep the district solvent through the end of the school year.

“We have to be disciplined,” he said. “In a couple of weeks we’ll be able to say with certainty that this is working. We’ll actually see the impact.”

“I don’t think we’re (at a point) where the state is going to come in and take over.”

Trish Gorham, president of the Oakland Education Association, told the Post that she was concerned that nobody is being held accountable for making budget decisions based on inflated student enrollment and understated special education and early childhood program costs.

“They made decisions in order to have money to play with based on false figures,” she said.

The district still has a state trustee who is supposed to oversee the budget. “What was she doing? She needs to be asked some questions publicly,” said Gorham.

Former School Boardmember Sylvester Hodges also called for accountability.

“They need to set up a task force to review what got them into this crisis so this kind of stuff can’t happen again. It wasn’t the kids who messed up – it was the adults in charge,” he said.

In addition to the $10 million that must be cut by June of this year, the district is already getting ready to lay off employees to cut $14 million to balance to the 2017-2018 budget.

Last week, the district sent layoff letters to 36 certificated administrators, and classified administrators will be receiving notices at the end of March, according to Joanna Lougin, executive director of United Administrators of Oakland Schools, the school administrators’ union

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Bay Area

Faces Around the Bay: Sidney Carey

Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland. Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.

Published

5 mins ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Courtesy of Sidney Lane.

By Barbara Fluhrer

Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland.

Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.

He graduated from McClymonds High with a scholarship in cosmetology and was the first African American to complete a nine-month course at the first Black Beauty School in Oakland: Charm Beauty College.

He earned his License, and then attended U.C., earning a secondary teaching credential. With his Instructors License, he went on to teach at Laney College, San Mateo College, Skyline and Universal Beauty College in Pinole, among others.

Carey was the first African American hair stylist at Joseph and I. Magnin department store in Oakland and in San Francisco, where he managed the hair stylist department, Shear Heaven.

In 2009, he quit teaching and was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. He was 60 and “too old for a heart transplant”. His doctors at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) went to court and fought successfully for his right to receive a transplant. One day, he received a call from CPMC, “Be here in one hour.” He underwent a transplant with a heart from a 25-year- old man in Vienna, Austria

Two years later, Carey resumed teaching at Laney College, finally retiring in 2012.

Now, he’s slowed down and comfortable in a Senior Residence in Berkeley, but still manages to fit his 6/4” frame in his 2002 Toyota and drive to family gatherings in Oakland and San Leandro and an occasional Four Seasons Arts concert.

He does his own shopping and cooking and uses Para Transit to keep constant doctor appointments while keeping up with anti-rejection meds. He often travels with doctors as a model of a successful heart-transplant plant recipient: 14 years.

Carey says, “I’m blessed” and, to the youth, “Don’t give up on your dreams!”

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Bay Area

Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 40 Years Serving Oakland Families

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Published

16 mins ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Live music was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, on April 27, at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue and 29th Street. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50^th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Attending the Saturday, April 27 celebration were current and past students, families, faculty, and supporters of the school. The school is located at 417 29^th St., and the celebration was held nearby at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

For more information, go to www.streetacademy.online or call 510) 874-3630 or (510) 879-2313.

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California Black Media

State Ed Chief Tony Thurmond Pushes Bill to Train Educators

State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) Tony Thurmond is advocating for comprehensive training for teachers in reading and math, emphasizing the urgent need to improve student academic outcomes across California. On April 24, during testimony in the Senate Education Committee, Thurmond backed Senate Bill (SB)1115, which aims to provide evidence-backed educator training. The committee passed the bill with a 7-0 vote.

Published

19 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

By California Black Media

On April 24, during testimony in the Senate Education Committee, Thurmond backed Senate Bill (SB)1115, which aims to provide evidence-backed educator training. The committee passed the bill with a 7-0 vote.

Thurmond pointed out to the committee that existing funding for educator training in literacy and math only covers about one-third of California’s educator workforce. SB 1115, Thurmond said, would fund the remaining two-thirds.

“This is an issue of moral clarity,” according to Thurmond. “In the fifth-largest economy in the world, and in an age when we have access to substantial brain science about how students learn, it should be unacceptable to train only some educators in the best strategies to teach essential skills.”

SB 1115 incorporates multiple research-backed methods, including phonics, and it aligns with the California ELA/ELD Framework, which encourages biliteracy and multilingualism.

Thurmond emphasized the moral imperative behind the push for enhanced training by noting that 70% of incarcerated adults struggle with reading or are illiterate.

“Every child should feel supported as they learn to read and every teacher should feel confident in their ability to support students’ foundational literacy,” Thurmond said. “SB 1115 is about ensuring that all children have the opportunity to read by third grade, and that all children have a shot at the life-changing outcomes that come from early literacy.”

The next step for SB 1115 is a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 6.