OUSD Board Of Education

Mister Rick Stark, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please? Oh, I am calling the special meeting to order at 07:13PM.

Okay. On the roll call to for attendance. Student directors visibly are absent. Director Ladder?

Present.

Director Williams? Present, sir. Director Hutchinson?

Present. Excuse me. Present.

Director Barry?

Present.

Director Thompson?

Present.

Vice president Bachelor?

Here.

And president ProHeart? Here. Form present.

Thank you. Mister Hollis, do we need a translation interpretation check, please?

Yes, madam president. For tonight's meeting, have three languages available, are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. We will start with Cantonese, live interpretation. 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 Cantonese.

And I ask mister Yuan if he can come off mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese.

Announcement is done, mister Hollis.

Thank you, mister Yu Nguyen. Checking attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation on Zoom. Seeing no hands, we 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 mister Tarek if he can come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic.

Thank you. Mute original audio. Arabic interpretation announcement is over. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Tarek. 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 ask mister Copenhagen if he can give then announce give the announcement for Spanish.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mister Holz.

Thank you, mister Copenhagen. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing 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 two six dash one three two two, third interim financial report, Oakland Unified School District as of 04/30/2026 fiscal school year twenty twenty five twenty six. Tonight, the superintendent, deputy superintendent of business and operations and CFO, Ryan Nguyen, will present the third 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 second interim and move forward with the plan scenario three, the focus was on keeping the district out of receivership. Today, 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 twenty two years, the board can vote to certify our budget positive. Positive. And with continued disciplined and thoughtful decisions, we can certify positive for the next years 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, ask 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 to the superintendent, deputy superintendent Teragard, general counsel Janine Lindsay, and CFO Ryan Nguyen, and doctor Ruben Frutos.

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 will turn it over to superintendent, deputies. Yeah. Oh, can I have a motion to approve?

So moved. I second it. Miss Garden?

Good evening board and community. I'm, Tara Gard, deputy superintendent business and operations. And on the Zoom with me is Ryan Nguyen, our chief financial officer, and then our fiscal adviser, doctor Ruben Frutos. So tonight, there's three things that we would like the to ask the board to do. The first is to review the twenty five, twenty six third interim budget report.

Next, to receive and discuss our NYP that we've put in this report. And then to approve, and we're recommending a positive certification for our third interim. So, I wanna just go over again. So our report support we believe our report supports a positive board certification for the '25, twenty six third interim. The recommendation is based on the updated third interim multi year projections, the current year end reserve test, the district's implementation controls, projected deficit spending, and the May revise information which we'll go through in this presentation.

But the first thing is just to quickly talk about the timeline just to set everyone in the timeline. Right now, we follow this California all California school districts follow the state guidelines and we're accountable to it. So if you have two 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 you have to do that by June 1, so that's what we're doing now. And then we will have our budget adoption coming up before July 1. We'll be at the next board meeting. Okay. So this is a first look at our unrestricted and restricted general fund and here we just wanted to show you at second interim what we what we're reporting on second interim and then what we're on third.

If you look at our revenues, can see revenue at 860,000 second interim then projected at 878,000 third interim. Our expenditures have gone up, was 962 did I say thousand? I'm sorry. Million. Excuse me.

And 978,000,000 in third interim, so they have gone up by 15,000,000 in our expenditures. Then if you look at our revenues minus expenditures, you can see in our second interim, it was about 102,000,000 and we came down a difference of 2,000,000. So we did a little bit better than that by just by 2,000,000 for third interim. And the ending fund balance, you could see at 5 the difference of, 5,000,000 there, and then our restricted reserves, we had, increase in our restricted reserves of 8,000,000. And you will also see our reserve of economic uncertainty there are it's called our r e REU, and we are meeting our REU, which I'll show you in the next couple of slides.

Okay. 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, so for the you can see the first column in the row where it says line a six minus line b 11, it's a 100,000,000. That was our 2526 projected year deficit, a 100,000,000, and then we are projecting in 2627 37,000,000 and going down further in twenty seven twenty eight sixteen million. If you look at the very bottom line where it says yes, yes, yes, those words, that means we put all of our information in SACS in a reporting, and it also goes to the county office And it looks to see, do we meet our our EU, which I talked about.

So above that, you'll the 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 three percent in each year. And you can see that in number four, total available reserves, and you can see the percentage. So this year we're gonna end the year at 3.02%, next year 3.67, and the following year 3.07%.

So we are we are projecting that we meet our reserves, we have a 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. I talked already about the second interim and this is and the third interim, but this is just again to say that we are required now to do a third 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, our recommendation is based on the financial information presented to the board at the time of the third 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 2627 and 2728 with the ongoing solvency actions, which is important, and I slowed 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 it's just another way to look at the information that I've just gone through. But in this slide, what I would like to point out is a few things.

So you can see how we're projecting 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 $30,000,000 in both '26, '27, and '27, 28. That's to say that we are gonna have a deficit, so we need to have find it at least 30,000,000 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. But it's also what I'd like you to look at is on the bottom where it says May revision. So the governor's May revise came out with what is called a super COLA.

So districts are hoping to get 4.31% as a COLA, 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 projections, 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, we're able to take in 4.31 of that of that super COLA, then we would have an additional 6,600,000 next year. The other thing that we did conservatively is there is a discretionary funds that will come and that's $900. So we actually booked that at 750 instead of putting in for the 900.

So should we get the 900, then we would have an additional 4,500,000, but we did not put those into our projections. We also did not include the increase for special education, and we did not include, the grants for community schools and some other grants that are coming up where we wanna be conservative there. We're waiting for the final budget. And for our multi year projection, we do wanna name steps that we need to continue to take. So for 2526, we have a positive ending balance of $15,353,000,000 and a positive unrestricted reserve 29,500,000 and June ending cash of a 151,000,000.

But, and not really a but, but we want to say that we cannot so there cannot be any new off budget commitments. 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. We're restricting spending, and even though it you 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.

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 spending that's happening in our district. 2627, the NYP projects a positive combined ending balance of a 116,000,000 and available reserves of 31,900,000 after a 37,100,000 net use of fund balance. And in, 2627, 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. It's we can't think of it as, having a positive budget doesn't mean that we don't have to make additional changes coming up, and so we're gonna have to work together through that.

And then in the fall in the last year of 2728, the NYP again projects a positive combined ending balance of a 100,000,000 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, is something else that we've been working through. And it's just and I I just wanna reiterate because there was a lot of difficult decisions that were made this year, and we have to stick to them. I trust that the board will, and being in this role, I 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 Frutos for these next slides. Are you there?

Yes, we can hear you.

Colleagues, 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 five months. And one of the things that we did from the beginning when we started working on these processes was the explanation to the board that our district had grown significantly on the restricted side and had really become very, very lean on the unrestricted side because a lot 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 124,000,000 in restricted.

Now you saw because the board directed that we need about a 3% minimum reserve, which is about $29.30000000. If we can go to the prior slide for a second. 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 124,000,000. 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 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 of 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 want to 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 charge. That's auditable, that's legally, 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 Tara explained that that our margins 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 need to continue 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 solvent. 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 amounts that will get audited and become the figures of record for the district for the fiscal year. And as you can see, we have some significant 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 as 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 us an element of solvency. So when we look for example, our restricted general fund, you can see that although we have had a variety of expenses 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 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 fund 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 sad. Most districts have to contribute. In Oakland's case, those contributions continue to increase every year. Right now, it's going at around $139,000,000 So when you look at the size of the district's budget, 139,000,000 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 facilities and construction. And the actions that the team has been taken, and I think the board is part of the plan of solvency and stabilizing is to reduce, some of these challenges to create more optimized expenses, making sure that the expenses are charged appropriately to charge eligible costs and to make sure 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 spend 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 dollars 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 projection as has been mentioned in this presentation, the ending balance is what will continue to show the solvency of the district. 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 two, but three is is good. It's a little a little more conservative. It's very easy to fall below those 29 to $30,000,000. So you see that we have one side of the house with well over a 100,000,000 and the other side is 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 visualize in a transparent way, the revenue versus expenditure trajectory of the district, As you've seen '25, '26, the red being expenditures is significantly greater than our revenues. As we look at 2627 with all the approvals that the board has made for cost reductions and shifts, that number is now stabilizing a bit. And as we look at 2728, 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 and 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 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, 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 2728. The super COLA and for those of us that have been around for many years, we've seen a few super COLAs before where their 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.

Next slide please. One of the things that we started doing, if I recall correctly, when we reviewed the second interim is to start talking about fiscal risks. What are challenges 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, to explain what are some of the mitigation practices that we will be doing as we present a positive third interim?

Thank you. I wanna really share that a lot of what we're talking about, it shouldn't be new to you. We've talked about these strategies before, and it's a matter of us continuing them. So for payroll and staffing increases, we that's a risk, and we really have to and will be looking closely at our position control. We already have, after budget development, we have sites asking to add positions and to change them for the next year.

So we're taking a more I'm trying to I don't wanna say harder approach, but stronger approach around that. And vacancy capturing, so really thinking about vacancies as they come about and not just, 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, release it. So there'll be work around that. Where we're seeing frequency monthly, you'll see ongoing for special education contribution. We are intending to and have not started intending to work closely with special ed.

Special education's been on the attachments and work we've said probably for the last five years, think, when I looked back, that we would do an an audit. We would do work to see not to try to 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 enrollment in ADA in her reports, and we'll be presenting monthly around that. And then our state budget. So just monitoring what that what we're gonna get from the May revise and how it will update our NYPs going forward. Dates coming up. We're right now in May.

I already talked about this as well, so we're doing our third interim now. We'll have the end 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, in the beginning of next year. And also, I I can understand 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 second 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.

Just wanna add on to the presentation just by 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. 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 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 wanna 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. 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 reach require that, at this juncture, that we stick to our plan.

And it's hard. There are a lot of people who are gonna wanna add things. I've talked to so many people who have great ideas, wonderful ideas. But we gotta 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 wanna thank our staff for this presentation today.

And at this juncture, we would ask for questions.

Are there any board questions? Director Barry.

Thank you. And I just wanna publicly acknowledge you because I've been telling everybody I had a great budget and finance committee meeting because of the way you showed up and addressed questions that night. So I wanna start there. I also wanna 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 wanna name that I think it is possible for in a single board meeting for us to take up student outcomes and the budget in the same session. And in fact, if we were more focused on student outcomes, 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.

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 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.

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 got a preference?

Probably. I think that would be helpful. Okay. We also have our CFO online.

Okay. So the first question in no particular order. So on slide nine, 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 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?

And can we see that in like the dollar amounts, the cost savings, or it's sort of its impact to the budget.

So Peter Beck, you're asking if on our slide nine if we put in everything that we've done in order to get where we are?

Yeah, because before I got to slide nine my big question was like well how did we get here? And then on slide nine there's like five or six things. I don't have it right in front of me. Five things that the list begins imbalance improved by roughly 5,400,000 from second interim and the question is like how are all of these the is it a comprehensive list of the strategies that were implemented to yield the positive ending balances?

I wouldn't say it's comprehensive because we did a lot of work. So going one by one in expenses and looking through it all. Right? So I mean, it it does have most of everything we've done. So as an example, the board voted on our workforce reductions.

Right? So we can't forget that that was a significant deduction into the next year. I believe it was Brian, am I right to say 42,000,000?

Results of the reduction year to date is about close to 30 something million dollars, and this is shifting from unrestricted into semi restricted and into restricted programs. We've also combed through our, our transaction, searching for confined expenditure that, should have been charged to restrict the programs, and we've done that. We've actually, shifted, those expenditure in into the restricted program, which yields additional, cost savings to our unrestricted fund balance.

Okay and just the second part of that, not to overwater the plant. Okay. 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 even all been implemented yet.

Okay. Yes.

So for for the the various plans that we how would I say this, the yield that a fund balance positive fund balance for fund one, we have implemented that into the the third interim budget as well as the budget that's being adopted for 2627. And we definitely could provide a list of of the strategies or, you know, the method for for for for reaching 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 embedded or included or related to the structural deficit work that we need to do that's beyond just the individual cuts that need to be made.

I think it would be well, 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? And then does it make sense to bring it back forward and do it? So we do have a running list from all the way back from the by fiscal vitality plan, which actually in that one in 2017 said to 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 slip back. Whatever it is, we're going through them all, so I'd be happy to to bring that and I should. But to answer your question in top of mind for me is I do believe in the work of the contracting out committee. I do think that we need to look closer at our contracts and what we're doing there.

And and so that's that's one of the areas I think that we could capture some savings there. There's there's there's other things that there's just 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, I there's there's a lot of things. So going back through that, director Lada has talked to me a lot about it as well through budget and finance. So I can probably bring it there first and then to the board.

I hope that answered.

Appreciate that. And then I'll make this my last question. 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 risk to maintaining fiscal controls?

Are they all addressed on slide 18? And how costly are those risk and the threats to us mitigating them.

Okay. 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 their frequency is that we'll be reviewing them, but I didn't we did not put cost to if you fall off, and that's something that we can work on.

And it may be non consequential.

It could be an estimate. I mean, just but still it's important. We just gotta keep at we just have to keep at what we're saying we're gonna 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. Doctor Thompson?

Yes. Somewhat tangential to what, director Berry was saying. My first question that I asked myself that I wanted to ask you, 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?

Positive is that we can meet our reserve and the state reserve is 2%. We're meeting three. And it's really positive as meeting the state reserve, which is 2%.

Okay.

And that we have an ending fund balance, strong ending fund balance, our cash is okay, and it it is not aligned to whether you have a deficit. It the deficit needs to be manageable.

And and I I think that's the one thing that I really wanted to hear because I didn't want anyone to go away thinking positive meant that you had all of this money Right. Above and beyond Right. What you needed. So I wanted people to understand Yeah. Exactly what what that meant.

Right. Now allow me, I'm gonna be kind of picky a little bit.

Okay.

But allow me to be a little picky. So if we could go to slide nine just for a moment. I'm I'm asking this for myself and also for the audience. I'm really wanting some elucidation around some things. I note under normal circumstances, when we have a budget, that we have seen before, we see, the ending balance of something at the very end.

And so I'm wondering how do we get to the ending balance in 2026, 2,027 of $18,768,307.

Oh, no. That's the 2% reserve.

That's the 2%? Yes.

Okay. So you see on the left side it says r e u?

Yeah. This one right here.

That's that's how much for the 2%.

Okay. That's the May that's the May revision after that's the instead of the four point whatever, we're taking the 2.6?

That's 2%

of Or 2.8.

No, no. That's the state Oh, sorry. Director Lotto went in.

It's just the very, very bottom column for 2627 that you're referring to.

Mhmm.

I think it's hard because we don't have a pointer, but just the difference between the 30,000,000 that's booked here as a possible as a deficit reduction. And then if these other sources come in

Mhmm.

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 $66,681,143 to $44,550,000 50,550 thousand $550, you come up with $18.76. 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.

Okay. Yes.

Yeah.

Yes. I'm sorry. I was on a whole different line.

Okay. And then if you don't mind, if I could go to page 16. Okay. And am I correct in assuming those bar graphs

I'm sorry. This isn't working for

me. Oh,

here we go.

Yeah. Right here.

Oh, 17.

Yeah. Yeah. Those histograms actually with those bar graphs, actually are reflection of the cuts that we've suggested and making sure we maintain the cuts. Am I right?

Mhmm.

And as I'm looking at those bar graphs, it looks like, 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 and the revenues are not even, but but you are proposing that that they are approaching being even Yeah. In 2027, 2028.

Yes. We wanna get to even, and then hopefully one day Mhmm. The other way.

Yeah. Go the other way. Okay. 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.

Right. Whatever. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Sure. Thank you very much.

Director Lotta?

Yeah, thank you. I think this presentation is quite helpful. So I just wanna appreciate all of the work that went into it. I did have a couple of questions that I would love for you to answer. I think the first question is that there's mention that the third interim includes all of our, 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 third interim and the MYPs do include the most recent OEA tentative agreement?

Yes, it does. And the AB1200 is at the county office.

Great, thank you. I think the other question that I think would be helpful is that you and Mr. Nguyen and Doctor. Frutos have talked about the fact that we are working to close our books and book all of our expenditures earlier than we typically do. And obviously the numbers aren't final because there's still some expenditures that are pending, some balances that we need to address.

And we know of course that when we get to our audited budget numbers, we have to wait till all the actuals are finished. And I think to clarify, we know that the numbers move throughout the year as we get our ADA, as we 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 the 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, Ruben. You were going to speak? I'll wait for you.

Go ahead. I'm happy. Director Lada, 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 was charged.

And now we are looking to see what can pass a complete audit, what is legal. And my hope is that when we close the books, we will have a little more advantageous position on our unrestricted. Now it might not be, 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 large, but since that is the process, one of the board directors asked what is our methodology for the future, Will is continuing to develop a 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 have probably a little more than that.

Yeah. And, just as, doctor Rubin mentioned, I'm also hopeful that the financial will come in a little bit more positive. We have some incumbents there, there's probably revenue that we haven't looked at but you know a budget is a point in time estimate It's just based on all available information that we have at this moment. And based on those that information, we create a budget. And by year end, the actual should align with the budget.

If there isn't if it doesn't align, then there would be a budget balance in the negative, and we'll definitely take a look at at why those has occurred. But based on all known variables and information we we have, the budget should be accurate. You know?

Great. Yeah. And I think that was my that I mean, I think, obviously, any variance to the good, which obviously, you know, assuming that the super COLA comes through and we have the other booked expenditures with the May revise, I 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. So thank you very much.

Those are all my questions.

Director Hutchinson.

Yes. Thank you. First, I wanna remind everyone of board policy thirty one fifty. And number six, 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 second 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 develop the budget for next year.

I

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, I fear that it shows a lack of understanding in a in a lot of people. So if we could put up page number six of of the or I'm sorry, number five of the presentation.

This has the revenue. So yes. So if we look here, b, expenditures. This year, on the budget, we were budgeted to spend $916,000,000 this year. Then at the second interim, that number had grown to 962,000,000.

That is the overspending happening this year. Now we see it's increased even more to 978,000,000. So this year, at a time when we've been told there have been measures put in place, and scenario three called for lowering spending and closing this gap by 27,000,000, we can see an explosion in overspending to the tune of $60,000,000 and counting. Not only has there been no acknowledgment 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 six. On line b, expenditures. We have for 2627 an expected expenditure of $869,000,000. I wanna know where that number comes from. On the second interim report, this number for our projection of expenditures for 2627 was 914,000,000.

That's the number that you had on the second interim report. Since then, we now have an approved budget or approved new contract for SEIU and the pending contract for OEA, which would add another roughly $60,000,000 to expenditures for next year, which would bring that number up to roughly 970,000,000. Why is this number here 869,000,000? Where did that $100,000,000 in spending cuts come from? We haven't seen anything.

All we heard is maybe $32,000,000 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 a $100,000,000 out in spending to justify, oh, we really can 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 twenty four 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 three months ago and nobody seems to be able to answer it. So why is the projected expenditures for next year $869,000,000?

Where are the $100,000,000 in cuts that would have needed to happen over the last three months to justify that?

Is that the question? That was the question? Okay. Brian, CFO?

Yes. I'm here.

Hi. Could you, did you hear director Hutchinson's question?

In order for me to answer that question, would have to, I guess, how would I do this? I would, I could sit down with him and go through the numbers of which position has been eliminated, which one came back, which funding resources has gone away and the associated expenditure has gone away. What I do know is in the system in our escape accounting system we have implemented the budget balancing solution as well as each program, each site's budget for that particular site for next year. And based on the assumptions in Escape for what the costs labor costs are, then Escape lets us know what the budgets will be like for '26, 27 by fund, by resource, by program. And, maybe, we can look at that in summary or in detail, where needed.

But I do know that, yeah, that is the case. Yeah. Especially where it is is a concern, though. But 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.

Okay.

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 978,000,000 to 869,000,000 back up to 938,000,000.

It's not that no one can answer it. I believe what he just said to you is if you'd like to sit down, can go through it with you.

So nobody has a document readily available

Hutchinson, we did not come with a breakdown of every single, number to

just I'm not asking every single number. This is total combined expenditures. This is the only number that matters.

Okay.

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

Okay.

And is really frustrating. Again, when I get documents twenty four 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 970,000,000 to 869,000,000?

That's a $100,000,000 variance.

Are we done? Because I will say this, 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

I'm not attacking anyone. I'm asking for the people in charge of our finances. Excuse me. 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. You very responsibility.

And guess what? And

not the superintendent.

Sign on and disrespectful tone that you wanna keep pairing with me. That's fine. But to this point, can you produce the numbers to justify this or not?

As we said, 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 wanna play this game with me in front of everyone and make this something personal

No. Am asking

for the numbers

that we're all responsible

for, and can't give me no numbers.

That is unacceptable.

This is what you

do Madam President.

Every time you're get the reason

How about when you warned me not to take this job because you were threatening me on my mess. My point. How about that?

Welcome back. Mister Rakeshtar, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please?

Yes. On the roll call, attendance roll call to establish quorum. Student directors are absent. Director Lada? Present.

Director Williams? Present, sir. Director Hutchinson? Present. Director Barry?

Present.

K. Director Thompson?

Present.

Vice president Bachelor?

Here.

President Brohard? Here. Form 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 in 2627 of August. That seems to be a $100,000,000 less than what it should be. And this is a very basic 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. Thank you. And so when can I get that answer? When should I expect it? Because I haven't gotten any question answered Thank you,

director Hutchinson.

Miss Garrard I I was I was asking No. Superintendent Sadler.

I'm going to I the point of where I'm going to ask miss Garrard to come up to

the Well, asked I asked superintendent Sadler. So if superintendent Sadler superintendent Sadler wants her to do it, that's fine. But this is kinda what's going on in this game.

Director Hutchinson, I'm gonna ask for the answer right now so that we can get this clarification. Staff, I would appreciate a response to director Hutchison's question at this time. Thank you.

Doctor Frutos, are you able to come up? And Ms. Garda is also here. Doctor. Frutos?

Sure. Good evening again board members. 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 around $20,000,000 then we came with about 40 and when we got to 65, the board said we really wanna precise report of how the shifts impact '25, '26 and '26, '27.

Now, I'm I'm a little bit confused because I have I was trying to listen to, the director, bring up the issue and I thought his issues for all the past meetings were about 2526. 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 $65,000,000 shifts and reductions we made actually hit twenty six-twenty seven. And that was one of the concerns that if you recall we had that will we have enough to finish the year strong in twenty five-twenty six.

Those reductions significantly reduce the budget. On top of that, you have the RIF that the board approved. You add about 45,000,000 with that '65 had about 45,000,000 that impacted this upcoming year. The RIF, again, right now I wasn't expecting a question about 2627 because it's projections. The questions have been about 2526 and I'm not hearing a lot about that.

But for 2627, we also have the RIFs that will create a significant cost reduction for the district. And one of the most important ones that we're costing 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 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 can be confusing. So when I was listening to some of the questions, it sounds like there was some confusing and misunderstanding that 2627 is a projection year. So you cannot set in stones numbers. On top of that, we have projected 2627 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. One of the mentions about the shift from the beginning of the year was that we went from an expenditure of just above 900 to $9.78 and then we went a lot higher. And 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 hope that helps the board.

I just want to clarify on on what you said there.

Let me finish. I'm sorry.

I thought you were done.

I can see you. So for 2526, 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 resolve it have been about this year. And I've appreciated them because 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 2627.

So I just wanna remind you that it is a budget. It's still a projection, but some of 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. Anyway, thank you, Boris.

So I just wanna clear clarify what you just said there. So are the 45,000,000 that you claim from RIF, even though earlier you said it was 32,000,000. So now the 45,000,000 that you claim from RIF, that is separate from the 65,000,000 that was claimed before, or is the 45,000,000 part of the 65,000,000?

Great question. Now that that's a clear question. The 65,000,000 included about 45 for next year. So I I I think I

Okay. So you can't list them. So that's the same 65,000,000. 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 wanna be rude or whatever. Actually the question I asked at the last meeting that went unanswered was the discrepancy between the cash fund balances 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. How many speakers do we have, mister Seychow?

We have,

excuse me, we have six speakers.

Six speakers? Two minutes each. And do we have any online?

Right now, no hand is raised at the moment. For public speakers, have Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, Avy Ringer, Asala Olabala, JD Willinson, and Ron Mohammed. Those are the six speakers. And I do see two hands online.

Let's go with the in person speakers first.

The names are Carol Delton, Sheila Haynes, AV Ringer, Asala Labala, JD Willison, and Ron Mohammed.

If you're in the audience, if you would come up to the JD, miss Asana, mister James. Okay.

Greetings to the, superintendent and to, my school board director. My name is Ron Mohammed. I just left Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street. And there was an example there in the museum that the dock were had circulated fourteen days fourteen days, and it now circulates under six hours. And what happened is that they utilized everything inside of their incubate.

Everything was all about them. And the reason why I brought that up is because I'm born and raised here. I know almost every square inch of the properties that OUSD has. There are so many unused properties that we have. I mean, many.

And I think that it could partially address a lot of the discourse that we have. We simply don't have the population anymore. And for whatever may be the justification to not to consider, 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 alleviate some of the pain. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hello. I'm JD Wallachian. I got a little thrown

by the

unexpected behavior to be as polite as I can be. And so what I actually wanted to say is kind of eluding me right now, but, you know, I just just heard an explanation of the question asked by doctor Hutchinson, and there's an answer to it. And there's And I don't know how to explain it, but it was reasonable about how these processes work with computer programs and stuff. So anyway, Here's what I'll say. 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. And we're seeing the results, and we're seeing that we're not the decisions haven't been perfect. I don't know if there are perfect hard decisions that this board could make. 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 That's right. Not cuts and cuts and cuts, but on figuring out what kind of district that we wanna be, and how to move forward as a unified district, and protecting all of our students.

Thank you. Missus Sonoff?

I noticed in the, agenda today in consent, a number of items are before you because of unforeseen circumstances. So no matter what you put on paper numbers, there's there'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, which I'll call restricted funds or backup funds or whatever. But I do know you have a need for $3,500,000,000 for facilities needs. And all

of these

unforeseen unforeseen circumstances have to do with our buildings. And you, 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 care.

I depend on you. So tonight, when miss Barry spoke and mister Thompson and then mister Hutchinson, I said, 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 miss Barry and and mister Hutchinson, you might have issues with him, but he knows what he's talking about. He knows budget. Mister 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, please.

Next speaker, we'll go to Carol Dillon.

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 four to five 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, please.

Next speaker is Sheila Haynes.

Hi. Can you hear me okay?

Yes. We can hear you.

Okay. Thank you. So it's it's kind of hard for me to envision what may happen. 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 impact our most vulnerable students.

I'm concerned, as I said, about more cuts to the arts and services, services for students that help keep them safe. I am really looking forward to the violence prevention presentation because, besides anything else, our students need to be safe under any cuts that may happen. But I also am concerned still about, the proposed cuts to measure N and H funding. Students that have been facing trauma for many decades, you know, our students that, hope to go back to school in person may not get to that 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, trauma for many years.

It's just really kinda frustrating to not have true numbers in order to really know what to expect. But I'm hopeful either way that you would at least prioritize student safety, and I hope that 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 please just get it done without hurting our students further. And thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Haynes. Are there any further speakers?

Yes. We have A. V. Ringer.

Okay. Two minutes.

Hi. Thank you. I was discussing with some other parents about the irregularity of having this as a special meeting, 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 wanna 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 fifty four nine sixty point one. 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 twenty four hours ahead? Don't worry about the seventy two 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 sixteen minutes at the end of a six hour meeting when over 80% of the time was spent on nondeliberative 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.

Thank you. Are there any other questions?

No. That concludes public speakers.

Oh, with that, mister Rixtor, can we take a roll call on the vote, please? Yes.

On the motion to approve the third interim report as stated, student directors are absent. Director Lauter?

Yes.

Director your answer was yes?

Yes.

Okay. Sorry. Director Thompson? Yes. Director Berry?

No. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Williams? Yes.

Vice president Bachelor?

Yes.

President Burghard?

Yes.

The motion is adopted.

And with that, the special meeting is adjourned, and we will return

We will need a few minutes.

K. Three

minutes. Three to five minutes.

It will take a five minute recess, and then we'll go into our public hearings.