001Hello, I d like to call the MAY 14th special meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee to order. Um. MR. Sey Chou, can we have a roll call to establish Quorum, please? Yes, on the Rocato status quorum, Director Berry. Director Bruhar. And Chairperson Lauda. Coral present. Do we have any interpretation requests? No interpretation request. Ok. So there will be a time for public comment on each item we ll be discussing. You can sign up to speak using a um card at the front desk by the door or using um the um uh it is too late to sign up for the e-coment feature, but if you re on Zoom, you can um raise your hand. And as this is a special meeting, public comment on non agenda items is not typically included in the agenda.
002However, I will give time for public comment on non agenda items and after we finish our business, but before adjournment at what was that, MISS Obala I I am gonna do it. Yes, I was in um I, I was, I was counseled not to put it on the agenda, but I do think that since we didn t have a regular meeting. This is the only time in MAY that the public can comment on non agenda items at a budget and finance meeting, so that s why I, um, am going to use my privileges chair and, um, and allow it. Um, but I wanted to let everyone know upfront just so that it s not, um, so that people are aware. Um, we will move on to any modifications, um, or are there any modifications to
003the agenda? Ok So, um, the first item tonight is item 26-1176, um, it, um, for the Budget and Finance Committee, the financial stabilization Implementation Plan Protecting equity, maintaining local control, prioritizing students ousd structural deficit, a 25-year fiscal archi oh, there s our presentation. I will um uh, we ll start, this is not a non-voting item just for discussion only. Um, we ll start with the presentation by our deputy superintendent of Business and operations, uh, MS. Tara Garden. You Hey Uh, thank you for having me here this evening. Business and Finance Committee meeting. I I m going to go through uh this presentation, which is focused on where we are currently in Novi. I don t know. I was, is the mic on? Ok, there we go. Maybe I wasn t speaking quite in it. Um,
004excuse me. I wanted to start with just the context really does matter about what s happening in school finance in general and what s happening at school districts and because it s uh it s very difficult for us in Oakland, um, as we ve gone through so many budget challenges. That sometimes you feel like you re alone on a ship, um, and the only ones, and we re not the only ones, so, um, many districts right now and surrounding us. Our challenge with enrollment, um, inflation, the cola adjustments, which we will talk about later. Um. Post pandemic, one time funds. That was really, you know, we were living um really well when we got the, the pandemic funds and. We knew we wouldn t have it at a certain point, but it s hard to
005undo when you. Um. When you get so much, so it s been still a struggle even after this pandemic has been passed for a while now. Uh, we, the rising special education cost. That s something that has come up, um, a lot and in previous um people who ve been in this role that I hold, have talked a lot about it, and I just want to say um when and we should spend some time looking at the special ed contributions that we make, but it s not to say that we should fund it less. It s not at all to say that. It s just to, we should get a better understanding of why the costs have are moving the way that they are and how and what seems like um outpacing other increases, and
006just to really understand that. So maybe there s other ways we can address it. But it s happening in many other districts. And then finally our labor costs, um, because employees do deserve a fair wage, and when you have all a declining enrollment and less funds in our general fund than it does make it more challenging, but. These are the topics that many school districts are facing. I wanted to spend some time here in Uffe, I m not sure if there s a can, can you click the here? This is um this is a document that we put together to take a look at the story of Oakland Unified and where we ve been over the last 25 years. Because what I believe, and this isn t I statement. What I believe happens is we
007get to facing a deficit that s impacting our employees, or we have um, a change in who our superintendent is or something happens and we we see a lot of um almost infighting and we forget that we ve been going through this for so long that we actually. Need to stop, take a look at what s been happening with us and then how do we change this? This look. So, just to walk through it and the top half, um, will show you and we started this from 2000, which was before the um state receivership. And we were showing a positive budget for those 1st 2, and this is all 2nd interim. Um reporting and it s all right from cde. Um, but we were showing two positive budgets. Some people might say we didn t
008really have a positive budget. I don t know, but we were showing it and then um come the negative budgets and we had 1234 there. And that s where we took our state loan. and you can see um uh, sorry, Ethan. It s below, you can see who the um who was here. So we had DR. Randy Ward came in. I m not gonna to name all the different um state administrators, but we had 4 that I could recall. And somebody might remember someone else, but that that is also one of the issues that we ve faced is that we ve had so much leadership change. D you know one having been so many state administrators and then we went to superintendents when we got back local control, but we still had the loan, so
009you then have trustees um and our chief financial officer actually let me know that I missed a trustee, Carlene, who was here before Chris learned. Um, so we ll have to update that. That s, that s correct. I d forgotten. Um. Carlene. So, but this shows an Ufin, I m sorry, will you go back where all of the small boxes, yes, that um we have had a qualified budget really since. 2006. Um, we had one positive 2014, 2015. But other than that, even through, if you really think about it, even through the pandemic funds. We had a qualified budgets. Um, and we also had a lack of going concern. Which I believe had a lot to do at that time with we did have such, you know, the pandemic funds, and we hired a lot
010of people with those funds, and then it was, ok, where concerned because what are we going to do if we re not going to continue it. Um, up until now. So speaking to today where we are 2nd in interim, we certified as qualified. Uh, but this gives you a good look and then finally, last time I m going to ask you, Ufin, if you could go towards the bottom half. Um, towards the bottom of the page. Wanted to put in the different plans, at least that I could fight. Um, and the reason is not to say that we don t need and shouldn t be operating from a plan. Cause we absolutely should be. But um I believe that we get a plan, we talk about a plan, we do a plan. Just enough to
011get us through. And then we re not carrying the diligence of that plan forward, and then we make another plan, and we ll, you ll see some more about that in a little bit, but there were, and you could see how the plans pretty much have overlapped, even though they re over a period of time, um. They re just overlapping. And then the last thing in here, um, that I always think is important because when I first um. Worked and started working with the budget office. I talked to, I won t say who it is, but I talked to one of our um one of our trustees about why there seems to be so much focus all the time at the board meetings about budget, even though I understand it s important. But not as
012much about academics. And the response I got is, you will not find a superintendent who s fired over academics. They re fired over budget and that hurt my heart, because what we re here to do is teach our children and so and it shouldn t really be one or the other. We really need to start more talking about our budget along with our academics. So that is why you d see I d put here an enrollment. These aren t the markers probably that and our chief academic officer, I should connect with her and like, what would you? Want to put up here, but what I put there is just our graduation rates and our a to g. Um just so it s, you know, you can look at it. And then um I said it
013was the last time Ufin and I, now I m going to ask you to go to the top again. And then the pink bar um shows where we um, started our differentiated assistance, which we are still in for our academics. Um, and so all of that put together is I believe how, you know, we just need to we have to learn from our, our past or we re never going. To make the change that we need to make. And this is the time where we re going to have to make the change we need to make for students I ll move to the next slide. Thank you Thank you, Finn Um, I don t know if, if you in the audience were at the last night s meeting, so I might repeat a few things,
014but this is um just to talk about when um where we, where I believe we were in the beginning of the year, sort of, well, DECEMBER-ish time. Where um we learned that we had $100 million deficit. And there were a couple of different um uh, I don t know if you want to call it a plans, but a couple of different recommendations that were coming to board and one was um that leaned more towards we would have to get a state loan because we weren t able to move. In enough time to fix where we were. Or, um, and then the other was what we called at that time scenario 3, which is we believe we can remain solvent. If we focus on what s in this scenario 3 for now. And not that it
015s a promise we can, but that we believe there needs to be an effort to do so. So that s where we were and at that time, the board voted to go with the um scenario 3, which is now out the plan. And then we started getting to a lot about is it a plan? And I don t disagree that um scenario 3 started out. With shins or you know, this is what we re going to do, this is the things we need to do. And um, it could be we need to expand on how we re writing it, and I heard um. Director Barry last night talking about, where do I see who s responsible for each. Action that you re taking and where is it at? So that s my responsibility to bring
016that back, and I will. Um, so, but we do. Have a plan that we re working from. And um we re just gonna need to I will need to make sure that it s written out in a way that um everyone can file follow and then also put on our budget. Website um with updates because that is our plan. Ok. That is the plan. Um. Going forward I won t spend much time here. This was really so that people can look at, uh, generally what we said, each of the other plans were. And the goals of them, but generally, it s because we were trying to fix a structural deficit. Um, and we call them different things, but and so this is a blueprint, but blueprint was more about school closures. So I wouldn t,
017I don t, but it was a plan, um and that was I don t think there was another one after Blueprint. Specifically around school closures, not one that I can recall or find. Um. Fiscal vitality plan, that one came in um when our superintendent, I believe, Kyla Johnson Trammell started as superintendent, and we worked with the county office, um, there s some oversight as well. And we work through the fiscal vitality plan. And then there was the fiscal sustainability plan that started in 2023. Um. And still we ll look at some of the goals of it. And then we had, which is the budget balancing solutions. Um and even and I I will tell you, I ve worked through a lot of these plans, and then I got myself confused if we were calling the
018budget balancing solutions plans or part of the fiscal sustainability plan, um, because we were naming the attachment abc as its own things, but um so I put them there as as a plan, but it could be that they were really meant to be falling under the fiscal sustainability plan And then Director Hutchinson brought forward the three r s, um, and that the board approved to work through Um, and then following that came where we are now, which is the, we call the financial stabilization implementation plan, protecting equity, maintaining local control, and prioritizing students. That s some of the history of plans. And this is just a high level of looking at um all the plans that I, I mentioned. And what was showing up? In them. That are the same Um, and so most of
019the plans going back to the vital fiscal vitality plan. You ll see um, the same, you know, we re saying we re going to be looking at and I m not saying that we didn t. Cause that is not what I m saying, but I do believe it s it s just the discipline of continuing. Because sometimes you can um fix something or make some reductions as an example. Let me give a good example. Um i will say the workforce reductions, the layoffs. Of course, that s in every plan. Um, when you re trying to correct a a a structural deficit, but how it if you go back and and we can do some of this, but when you go back and you look at what we were cutting in those plans, every time it
020s saying central office. But then we I don t believe we ve come back to to show, ok, we said we were cutting central office. You saw that these cuts came. And then sometimes we get new funding. Or grant or something and we start bringing some things back. Um. And then we get to another deficit and then we re back at Central office and did you ever cut it, right? Because why am I seeing these people still here? Um, and that s just part of the discipline of us all communicating, showing, bringing to the board. More information and details when it s happening rather than when we get to the situation and then you see it. So just to go over and you can see this is the um other pieces we ve done hiring
021freezes. We ve done um one thing that we actually, so the special, you see there is this bad program audit. Um, we ve done that in pieces, and this year s plan, we are gonna really bring in an external um person to to, I don t like the word audit for this, but it s to look at the model. And the money. And then seeing how we re doing the work, and it s a good time, um, because the MAY revise is is supporting special ed programs, so it s good time to do that so we can. Level set everything. Um, it s not to take away, and I know. You know, but it s to be able to project better, because the other thing would specialize is that at the end of the year,
022oftentimes they need more money and we we need to figure out why that s happening. Um so let me see So what this plan, which is our plan, is um as is everyone is the same thing. So what we really need is to stay with stay with it when the early reductions hurt. This is what we need from everyone to stay with it Stay with it when pressure builds to differ. Stay with it through leadership transitions. Election cycles, and the next downturn. And I want to make a point of saying election cycle s not about the board. It s about our just in general, what s happening in the state and everything. And then when circumstances require a change of course, change course openly and on the record. And for me, that s the biggest
023one. And one that will all work towards together. So I will stop there if there s any questions. Yeah, I think we ll start with a round of board questions or comments. I m Doctor Barry, do you have just so that I m focused on the right things. The because I could go anywhere with this is the this is a context setting, presentation, right? Ok. One thing on the plan. Uh if you are receiving request when you, when you go back to do the articulation of the plan. i also think that it would be important for our culture, for clarity, um, for trust building, for us to have a plan for what implementation looks like. So we cut a bunch of things, and so those things will be implemented in a way that impacts what
024school looks and feels like, and what direction are principals getting from network soups from Sandra about um like what the standard of a certain thing is or. Yeah, like where the district is going. On certain things Um because I feel like there is some ambiguity there that in this moment, is within our realm of control to address. And I think because we re in transition and things are, some things are uncertain. If we could just clarify the things we know or can know. I think it would be helpful for culture building. Yes, thank you. I was thinking about on our website. Adding people can just ask questions and we ll post the question and the answer there s so many out there that I m not always sure. Oh, someone you know thinking about that
025um, and other than the board setting I we re not really receiving. Oh, you re not receiving questions. No, other than being at the board, and that s the community s fault. That s because we haven t communicated or given a structure where people can ask us directly that are doing the work. What s what s happening. So I m just thinking about how to do that well, so that we can at least have that. To your point Yeah, because what s happening a good principle is going to protect their site. There there s chaos going on and they re going to like, but I m going to make things work here so that their students and their educators can thrive in their building What then we create is an opportunity of fragmented program, and
026then the board is gonna say something or staff is gonna give them direction and it s going to create more disruption because everyone just had to make things work in the moment, so it feels it s, it s not just um, I do think what you just described is going to be helpful. But I also think a broader organization or system vision, which I do think we have to like push and advance on the board side in collaboration with the superintendent, I think. I think that s what s needed. It s the missing thing upon which the future decisions are going to be aligned so that this time next year, folks didn t create something that will then get disrupted again. Yes. I had a couple of questions, but I think one addressing that, I
027think. Since the Randy Ward days or even the Tony Smith days. We ve, this has been the culture though of schools competing against each other. And I think I mean, we used to actually have this kind of talk about it s like a free market thing, right? We had you know and I think that s kind of where school choice. I mean, a lot of what we have in our district is really each principal making their site work. And I think, you know, and we ve talked about, you know, being a unified district for a long time, so I think we could move in that direction, um, with this kind of work, but i think that is really huge culture change and important culture change in the district. Um, but I want to go back
028to something you had said, um, you know, learning from our past. Um I m curious to know how we went from the positive to the negative so quickly in those state takeover years. That s my first history question. And then my next one is, um, you mentioned something about uh another time that we had a a lack of going concern. Um. So what were the conditions in that and how was that, um, resolved, I guess Uh, I don t have the answer for both of those right now. I m trying to good, but um I don t, yeah, I. Thank you, Carol I The previous going concern, uh, was with, uh, former county superintendent lk Monroe. Uh, it was in 2021. And it was the district appealed to the state and it was denied. Um,
029I will just editorially say that a lack of going concern in the school finance contract context is very different than a lack of going concern in the business context and um probably Superintendent Castro would say she had to do it. Um, so I, um, I know that it was very small, but, but I do think the fiscal arc is an important, you know, I think one important piece of just holding ourselves accountable and having something that can be relayed more easily to the public about all the things that we ve done over the years to try to um uh address what has been a pretty persistent deficit, and I feel like people in the community for a long time have been like we took out a $100 million or we were forced to take out
030a $100 million loan and we still have a $100 million deficit and it s just we just keep moving it forward, um, I do think that you re the, the next thing was that, and I think, you know, while, you know, we just had MISS Delton at the mic, but one thing that you kind of start to get to here is all of the different plans that we ve had, the different strategies that we ve implemented and whether they were implemented or partially implemented and in progress. I do think that the next step would be at least for the items in the current uh fiscal stabilization implementation plan, um, that we have that we actually have the list of what those individual items are and where they re, you know, are they in progress and
031kind of have when, what have we achieved? Um, and some of that will be like, obviously we talked a little bit about with the reductions in force and people moving positions, it s going to take quite some time to roll all that up because if people are moving between positions or changing their FTEs. We can t, we have to, you know, you basically have to go through fte by fte. So I, I think I. I understand that, um. We can t just like you know, click refresh and get the answers on that. But I do think that additional level of accountability would be very helpful to, because we know we have a history of not implementing things and not following through. And so then I think that if we do commit to having a chart
032that we that is public that says here s what we re doing and here s where we are. That would be very healthy and would be a departure from what we ve done in the past. I could do that Um, we will do another round of board comments, um, but we ll take public comment. Now. Thank you. Um. How many speakers do we have signed up, MR. Secho? Yes, we have currently, we have 4 speakers. We have 4 registered speakers, um, Carol Deng, Diane l. Oliver Brennan, and Asalo Labala. Ok, we will do 2 minutes each. Presentation. Um, I very much agree that the district has failed to operationalize and implement a lot of the plans that have been made, um, I have been suggesting the tracker along the lines that, uh, Director Lada just
033spoke about for some time, like the one that s used by the audit committee, like the one that s used by the bond committee, um, and the reason for that is that I ve been sitting in board meetings for about 10 years following the budget, and sometimes I ll hear a budget plan and it proposes something that I thought was done the year before. How many times have the printer contracts been centralized, consolidated, how many times have the elevator phones been moved to a newer technology. Or not Um, and I think a tracker would really very much help Um, I also want to address, um, the issue of time. This district has a long pattern of last-minuteitis. The budget should be a year-round concern. It should be the concern of everybody who designs a program,
034um, it should be costs should be considered because the question is, are those programs going to be sustainable? And are and if not how are they going to be sunset. Regarding central office in particular, the state, the sax forms that are filed with the state show that central office staffing has increased. Over time. Maybe this year will be different, but despite all of those um all of those pronouncements. Um, and finally, I d like to say that while I appreciate the history, I think that what the community really desires is to know about now and going forward. Good evening and senior staff. Um thank you again, MISS Gard for the history, um, lesson and we got it last night as well, and it s good to know where we re coming from. But at least
035today we got the MAY revise and um we kind of know with certainty now where the present plan that has been talked about since JANUARY, where it has to go and at last night s meeting the myp at the buried in the uh consent report was showing that this year we still have 10.5 million to deal with between now and JUNE. But today s numbers, um, are pretty stark, uh they re better than what we expected all year, but what, what it means for Oakland with the Sed is 3 to 5 million annually extra income for Spa with our uh numbers of sped students and the increase in cola to the 4.3.1% super cola is gonna give us in total annually between 12 and $15 million extra revenue, ongoing revenue that we can use for
036our structural issues every year, and we have a one time windfall of $30 million in block grants that can be used one off next year in restricted fashion. So, you know, where, where we re headed to now uh with the second interim as the numbers were presented, um, we have to find 10.5 million to get through this year, get through JUNE, and then next year we are looking at 11.2 million short of our 3% reserve, with 30 $36 million of cuts that you guys have budgeted for that have yet to be identified. That s 26, 27, and then 27, 28, the the year out, where we finally got the information about the oea cost of of the of the contract, the biggest cost, the 60 something million, in that third year, we re in the
037hole for 138 million two years out. Um, so, you know, presenting the budget in JUNE for adoption, which is next year, and the two outyears. We have a massive hole uh, to, to, to, to, to, to fill, and I believe your financial stabilization plan is doing it. We need to be told the details. We still are not aware of them. Thank you very much. I ve had some background with a similar situation. With the city of Oakland and the situation was they had to come up with a plan, not related to money, but related to the police department. 23 years ago and they had tasks that they had to accomplish. And once those tasks were accomplished, they had to go through a sustainability period. It wasn t enough that they accomplished it. But we haven
038t been able to do it in 23 years, 52 tasks. So I m concerned about capacity of our district to actually do the work. And with in the case of the police department, nobody within the police department, even within the city of Oakland. Created the plan It was an outside individual or individuals, I don t know exactly who came in and did the scope of work. So somebody s got to convince me we have capacity to do the work. And when you see some of the dysfunctionality in terms of changeover of staff. Board members, and ability to collaborate. Collectively This makes it extremely difficult. Now for me, I need to see certain things. To make sure we re doing this in a fair and equitable way. And the one thing I want to see, or
039what are the mandated spending. Items we have in the plan, there s certain things we got to do. Y all have a lot of unmandated things, but you, you just hold on to them. That s what makes me feel. I can give you an example, a supplemental buses. Your newcomer program your, uh, your efforts to do the feasibility study, and, you know, some of the things you do you re not thinking about the whole picture. You re thinking about this is what we wanna do no matter what. And you can t come up with a plan unless you re willing to put everything on the table. And not say everything but this. And I don t see that from you guys. My time s up And Diana, if you could. Bridge, ok Hello Today s
040lesson will be about risk. Did you know humans are notoriously bad at assessing risk. We rely on mental shortcuts called heuristics rather than rational calculation. Now I want to let you know that you have chosen a very risky path, much riskier than what your prior cbo proposed, because risk is not just about the probability of the bad scenario occurring. It s all, it s also about impact. So the severity of the consequences should that negative event come to pass. So here s my question In the words of Elise Castro, What are your contingency plans should your budget assumptions not materialize. What s your backup plan Yesterday you showed your critically thin cash positions during the year, which disturbingly, you are trying to normalize, like, oh yes, it happens every year we are perpetually maybe almost
041running out of money and trying to make it to the next day or week or month. That does not inspire confidence. Ok, so yes, let s imagine things don t work out in your favor. A worst case scenario, you are potentially really facing insolvency. When would you switch to your conting ency plan? At what point? What does that look like? How long would you be willing to forego paying your employees and your bills. If you re going down this route, I need to see your backup plans, and I want you to understand and adequately communicate the significant impacts this would have on the community. It s like gambling at the casino or day trading. You need a strategy, you need a plan, and you need to know when to pivot or exit. You need to
042understand how much you re willing to lose when you take on these bets. This is a bet. That is what you are doing. So I need answers, please. Ok, those were our public speakers. We ll go back to um one last round of board comments, Director Berry. You know what, MISS Asada said, not responding to her directly, because I m not allowed to do that. Reminded me of one of the things that I was talking about last night, which is like. Is the fiscal solvency plan. What we agreed on through passing the resolution in DECEMBER. Because if it s just implementing those things at a time when the numbers look the way they are, that feels constraining and limiting. And so because there s lots of things you could do that isn t on that
043list. That goes beyond, you know, cuts to central office. Like reining in contracts and spending, reducing special education. If it is more than that, then I m curious about what other things are being implemented and someone else mentioned the details. Like what s going on What s changing? What are you learning? What are you testing when you find that it s not working, what are you moving to? Like I don t understand what s happening. Um, and I think that gap and I said this to DR. Sadler too directly like it, I wanna have the same resolve and the same confidence that y all have about the plan working. I don t though right now. And a lot of it is probably because I m not up in the numbers like you are, so I
044want, please bring me along. So that I could be where you are at the level of confidence you are in about where this is going And I, because I, I, I wonder if it s ok with you, Director Barry, because I hear your question and I, I think that MISS Guard, if you don t mind, one thing that is not in the, like as an example, that s not wasn t explicitly written in the resolution for scenario 3, but is something that I know that the fiscal team has been doing is around reviewing costs and expenses and how we can, instead of you know, and again, you could, you might want to fill in but, but instead of, for example, every department school has a has their budget. Instead of them being able to draw
045on that anytime. There s been work done to change that practice so that those expenses are being deployed strategically and at and ensuring that we can time large expenses in such a way that we are managing our cash flow that we re, you know, because you, you know, again, if we, because of the way the state releases money and of course if you have the, you know, if you see the sax form, you see that, you know, release of money. We every district has this ebb and flow because we re not getting cash on a consistent basis from the state or federal government. So I don t know if that s like that would be one example. I don t know if MISS Guard, you have other examples, but um, yeah, I know there s
046probably there are probably different examples that might better get at what I m talking about, because that doesn t necessarily change the bottom line, that just helps manage the cash flow. Which is slightly different than the bottom line. Are very different than the bottom line Thank you. So one of the an example along the lines of what um director Lotto was saying. We re looking how we become insolvent. It s really around our general fund. And some sometimes people feel a lot of distrust because we re saying we don t have enough money, but then you see other funds. With large balances and along the lines of what um. Mississauto was saying capacity wise. I m trying to think of how to, we have um we don t have a lot of accountants that are
047working through things, right? Or or budget analysts that are working through it. But right now we re going back through every expense that has hit the general fund to see, should it have? Or should it have gone to? Another fund that has 30 million sitting in it or 10 million sitting in it. Because then we should be booking it there. And we have a large district. And how things move so quickly. Um. We need to, one of the things we re talking about is getting better at in the beginning part, not hitting the general fund in every case. When we shouldn t be And we did talk about that in the beginning, but it was really around. Using. Using restricted dollars first, remember that and um we were talking about shifting and supplemental, and we
048weren t clear. I know you all were like, what are you talking about? And I think part of the not being clear is that we were also having to take the time to look to see what is happening. And then having conversations about where we can move it. And if we move something somewhere. That is an impact on that other fund and how is it going to impact it? Because if it impacts it in a way that they can t operate. Then we re not going to be able to move it. So we re doing those details in, in a way. We just need, in a way we need to. Figure out how to communicate it. I heard everybody talking about communication and really seeing this plan of what we re doing. Um, and, and
049we will, I will commit to that, get that out, and in some cases it s such in the. In the almost in the weeds of it, but we have to be because. it is, you know, our, our, it s close. Other people had stood up here and said, so. Yeah, and I think, thank you, that s actually very helpful. Uh I think things like accounting practices efficient, more effective budgeting practice that this will make a significant contribution. And we know that we re spending more. So the it is the cutting of expenses. It s the shifts in teaching and learning, and perhaps even also the shift in how we administer programming that I that I want to spend a lot more time talking about because those have significant implications on things like personnel and buildings.
050Absolutely and um that s going to come also with our llcap. And believe we re on our 3 year cycle for the lcat, and we need to look at what is and what are we investing in? Right? And a lot of a lot is in the lcap and I m not. Saying that it has to change. Maybe it s the right, all the right things, but this all needs to tie together. What we re doing with our budget and figuring out how to stay solvent. Is staying solvent but then how what is our um what s our, our goals and our and how we re measuring and what s our impact and how we re and what we re really investing in Much of that is also in our lcap and so I just I
051feel like. We ve got to come together together with that Two things. One, in response to what you just said. Am I to interpret what you re saying as being like right now, we re focusing on accounting, budgeting practice, we re trying to keep the lights on and we think we could do a lot. The majority of the work there, and then we re gonna get to the other things that we need to do to change the way the the district is spending. So we re not going to do that yet. Is that Um yes and no. Sorry, I hate to, we re stu. I never really say yes and no, but it is a yes and no. We are we re thinking about how we re going to get there with. The longer term
052vision. And it s like we were in a crisis. So yes, we re our main focus right now is solvency at the end of this year. And how we re looking in the next two. But we, so, but then where we put our investments. That is, that s our budget development process. We need to start that earlier. That s looking at what la, that s the board s goals, that s superintendent s goals. It s all trickles down. Together, you know And so all of that, I believe when we start this year, coming up, like let s get let s close our books and let s start the year with that in mind. Mhm. Cause that s really gonna matter cause. I mean, it is very true. And the outlook we re still, it s
053not, it s not good our outlook isn t good, even though we have the MAY revised and I m not ready to say how exactly it s going to impact us, because that was my question. Um everything he said I m not saying I disagree. It s just that I d like to wait because we re, we have a meeting on the 18th, the county CBOs to go through it, and I don t want to um, but generally what he said, I don t disagree with. Um but anyway we have or MAY revise but I don t want us to do as a district is feel like, oh, we have money. Cannot, because we cannot do everything that we we. We re going to be in the same place. That s really why I wanted
054to start us with where we ve been, because that s what happens to us we feel like we got money in your pocket and we don t do those other things, um, and we really have to this year, and it s an opportunity because I believe we can look at our la it s 3 year cycle. Keep saying that, and I think this would be their 3rd. So it s all coming together. You can do that. Um, our strategic plan ended. The years, um, so we need a new strategic plan, which falls from the board s plan. All of that can happen now. Um and we got to do that. But so we ve been sent on both, and that s why I said yes. Yeah and Yeah, but I m hearing, I mean, it
055s so important. I know we gotta move on. The other two items are cool, but that yeah We have, we have so much time. We have another hour. So I m coming, I m coming. Uh on it, so on the timing of the other work that needs to happen beyond accounting and budgeting practice that we yes, entering the lcap planning. Phase. But what will that work inherit from what we re doing now? Like what do you plan on it? Or what s the conversation happening between the team you work most closely with and the lcap folks. I know there s some overlap. so that the work MAY officially kick off at some point. In the next 90 days, but it s not, you re doing the work right now. Um I m sorry. Oh is
056this Did somebody say something Oh, ok. Um Can you, um, why am I lost in the question? Ask me the question again, please. I m basically asking, like one of my concerns is that the way that we re sequencing is, and I do get it because there s like only so much that a team can do. But it seems like we re, it s like we re gonna do this and we re gonna do that and then we re gonna do this. Oh, I see. And so yeah, no, it s, it s not, however, so business and operations team. It s not, we would not be the only team working on the strategic plan, the like the. Board goals, the lcat. That s, that s our district. I feel like there needs to be a
057broader um plan together, and I ll talk to our superintendent more. I don t have the time lining on it. But psa should be involved. Our community should be involved. The way I see it with this new money that s coming. This is an I statement again. We sometimes new money would come and it goes to the program, and then they decide how it s going to go and then comes to the board. I think we need. More input, more discussion, more, you know, planning around those new funds that come, not just. The program that it goes to. So um but it all needs to happen sooner rather than I think just real quick on the lcap, I mean it is community based. I mean that s the it s yeah, so I, I think
058that and, and I know this year, next year is our new plan, right? It s not the remit, yeah, because I, I do think, um, the community that that s that is legally. A big chunk of the direction of of ecap. Um, I, I do like what you re saying too about not thinking that we have this money. And now we can do all this stuff and like I think some things are coming where people are gonna say, we can get this back and this back and this back and you can, but I do want to think about Elcap a little bit, and I, I don t know if you want to talk about that tonight, but I do feel that ok. That would be out of order. Sorry. Comes back, we can include our
059chief academic officer. I think the one thing I ll just um close with is that I think that the other thing that this plan references is, and I think the way that you re talking about how we need to move going forward is around making sure that we, at least as district leadership and the board, make sure that our duty is to the whole district. Um, and that the challenge in our district is that there is so much autonomy given to school sites and departments and there is not an ethic district-wide. And I will say like I think this is, people have had lots of people have had this experience where, um, decisions are made based on what s happened. I think, you know, Director Barry, you referenced this as well about principles making decisions
060for their own school site and kind of protecting things. Um, and I think that s where, and maybe this also links back to what you were saying, MISS Olabala, about everything being on the table. Because sometimes um uh we there is, there is an instinct to protect something, especially if it s something that you ve built over time. And so I do think thinking about how we surface that tension within the district, um, and grapple with what that means and what it would mean to lose that autonomy, um, not just as a principal, but as a school site council, but as a department, um, as a member of the senior leadership team, um, how do we move that culture to say that what we re, what s the most, the most important thing is is
061what s best for our district and the I think the theory is that what s best for our district is how our kids are and our students are learning and feeling the sense of belonging and safe in school. And I would just close on saying that that s, you know, I think for me, I think that s where we when we when we involve community, that s what we should be thinking about. And I would also say that solvency is only important in that it s the theory, and it s a theory I believe in, that we will do better by our students if we maintain local control. That just, you know, that there s um there are lots of reasons why, you know, taking a loan, um, I think it s a bad idea,
062but I also think that it s also true that it s. If. That the cur, you know, again, like I think the current operating theory within senior leadership and amongst the board is that maintaining local control, staying solvent, not taking a loan, is how we can best achieve those goals based on kind of leaning into like our expertise as a community and as Oakland. So I, I think that would be my, my one thing I would just say that I think we re in a, in a good place to make that happen. Ok. Um, ok, sure the, the reason why I cannot be uh the best that I can be is because I have some bad habits. That I haven t gotten rid of. And the district has some bad habits. That it s gonna
063be hard for you to get rid of them, and the only way, and you have to stop being no disrespect, delusional. That these habits don t exist. So we got to do a cleansing of admitting where some of these issues are as far as how we create them. I m talking about our board and our staff members, ok? So that s all I m saying. We, we and I, I, I haven t seen that capacity. And it might be within us, so we got to pull it out. Thank you for letting me say that And then I do notice that um jt Mas Mushin has his hand raised. I know he wasn t, um, uh, on the list, but, um, if you d like to come off mute, we can um, take your comment Your
064teammates, if you can unmute yourself to speak. Hi, thank you for taking my comment. I know you said Director Latta that uh, because it s a special meeting you would accept comments, um and I appreciate that Uh I tried to get in online, but I was not able, uh, early enough. Um, I just, um, I guess I m really frustrated cause I don t know what the plan is, and I, I kept on hearing about a plan in DECEMBER and now it feels like there s a new plan, and I might have not been there for, you know, following the board for a couple of weeks, but, you know, um, I m not seeing the, the documentation and I, I really love, um, some of the, uh, conversations that are being had but um I,
065I will say, um, to, you know, tear a guard that like, it s not, I don t think it s an excuse for ousd that the rest of um the, our state or our country are having issues. Um, it s really our problem that we re having issues, um, and we, we should, I feel like we should by this time in the year, have had a little more progress towards figuring out what the um what the budget is for next year and not having a plan that, that we don t know about, um, uh, right now. So I m sure I ve, you know, maybe more to say later at the, at the next um opportunity. Thanks. Thank you. And then we ll move on to the next item, which is item 26-1177. Understanding fiscal
066certifications. It s also a discussion only item, and we have MISS Guard once again with the presentation. Um ok i m, I m going to go through this. This is because it was coming up about what qualified. Meant, um, which is where we are right now in the different certifications for a budget, um so for a positive, which we saw the district has had a couple of times, just means that a district will meet their financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years. Um, one thing to note is that our um I think this might have been mentioned before, but our unions, um, some board members, superintendent, uh, went to Sacramento to. Uh, advocate for for reform around um. School finance and one of the things is about not having school to change
067having schools um do their myp for 3 years, because it s very difficult when you don t know at all. We already don t know what the cola is until MAY for the following year, and so to do it out for 3. Usually looking pretty difficult, um, so that that s just to note, and I think it was well received. Um, we are currently at Qualified, and that just means that we MAY not meet financial obligations for the current or to subsequent fiscal years. And that s where we are right now. Um and then a negative budget, which would mean we are unable to meet our obligations. So we certified qualified both first and 2nd. Um, and we are working on a 3rd interim. And um that will come to board in JUNE. I won
068t go through this because we did. Um, and yes, and, and when I talk about the um not being alone. It s not to say that we shouldn t be responsible for ourselves. It s just that it s important to understand. That there needs to be more investing in public education and a lot of districts are are faced with the same thing. So I will say that again, and we are not alone in our qualified status, as many are um right now, qualified. And that California ranked 16th in per pupil spending and 31st when you addressed for cost. So it s still um we need to look at and, and people have already talked about this, but how we re funding. Enrollment, ada, all of that needs to be hopefully addressed and we go forward
069in the years for our kids they re coming. What s driving this crisis across California. And that is again declining enrollment, chronic absenteeism. We re doing some really good work on that, and I know that we ve had presentations at the board are already on um absenteeism work, um, so that s been I just want to make a nod to that. Labor cost, um, is another and uh rising special ed cost. And the end of covid relief. I don t know how long we can say that, because it s been a while now, but um it did make uh it did drive and. Issue into school districts remaining um solvent And that s really because of how we decided to spend the money. Wasn t that we had it. It s how we spent it.
070Um, so this is to also in our general counsel is going to come up and, and help, um, explain this, but we were at qualified status, qualified certification and um our county office also. Sent in a notice to us that they give a going concern. And so we did um appeal, and I m going to ask for our general counsel to speak to this. Deputy Superintendent guard. Um, so I think that the slide does accurately reflect where we are procedurally except for one update as of this morning, we did receive the denial of the appeal from the state. The superintendent of public instruction uh, honestly, that is not very surprising, in fact, when we had a lack of going concern before, I think MISS Dalton, um, pointed this out. That was also denied and then
071also other school districts which have appealed. There s quite a bit of discretion for uh the superintendent of public instruction on appeals, and essentially leaving uh local control, starting with the county is is what it kind of reflects. So I ll be happy to answer any questions about that. Uh, specifically on that and then I ll go to the next slide. Um, one of the things, one of the things that we highlighted in our appeal. Is the going concern notice versus lack of going concern notice, we do. First of all, this language and the education code is quite antiquated. It has not been used very often. Um and it probably needs to be revisited by the legislature at some point, but the going concern is a step um, a step lower than lack of going
072concern and more kind of like progressive discipline when you re with students or employees, it s kind of that s the sort of ladder, um, in which the going concern to lack of going concern is. And uh we did receive uh reach out from Fick Matt, which um I wasn t sure we were, we were included here, but we did. And we really wanted to seek some clarification about that. We ve had history with fica, both Tara and I have had interaction with Vic Bat. We ve had to work with Fig Matt, um, we ve had the ceo of FICAt meet with us before in previous years. And but in the period during receivership, uh, the thick mat did not respond to qualified uh status, nor did the county with a lack of going concern
073during the period when we had a trustee, uh, and that was kind of reiterated from Fick Matt is that 3 qualified interims or a lack of going concern is essentially when Tick Mat MAY step in to conduct a physical health risk assessment and although, as you ve seen on that previous slide, um, from the other presentation that we ve had a long history of qualifying budgets. There was not um this specific interaction, um, because we were still in receivership and with the trustee. And now that we re not, um, I think that the interpretation is the qualified filing at 3rd interim. The qualified filing at 2nd interim or 1st interim, and then the qualified filing at 3rd interim is the 3rd qualified filing. So that is the interpretation. And so that is essentially um the
074statutory basis for moving to our fiscal health risk assessment. Um, the, the measures or the metrics that are used by FIMAt are um widely published, easily accessible, and, and we ve actually used those tools in previous years, so it serves to be an additional check. Um, and I did we, it does require an agreement, and so that ll be additional conversation before the board. It s a potential agreement with SIMAt to carry out the fiscal health risk assessment. Ok, so and I also want to mention that um we we look forward to the partnership with acoe. We re Big Mac coming is doing a a assessment. Um that happens in districts. It s really about also just stay, you know. We only have so many people doing the work. So bringing in somebody else, um.
075To looking at what we re doing when we re trying to get quite a bit done with not that many people. It s probably the primary and pushback. And I also think that just as a district, we should ask questions and if you don t think like we didn t believe that we should have a. Um that we didn t believe that it said lack of going concern. It said a going concern, which would be believed were two different things. Um. And it s stated differently in the acoe s letter. So I, I believe even though we um didn t win the appeal it s still important to bring it forward. Rather than just sitting and not asking or nothing. Trying. Um, and so I believe I am going to end with um uh I
076don t want to end with the slide. I want to end with what I ve heard tonight. Which is that um we the community wants to see how this plan is in writing. What it s looking like and where we are. And so I will be committing to bringing that forward. Um, I appreciate the time that you gave us here going through where we are and and I do believe it s important that we ve important that we ve been here important that we ve way too many times, and that we are working towards, um, not only solvency, but being more of a united unified school district. Working with the board and our labor partners and our community. And our staff Um. Because I feel like that is that is the thing that I haven
077t seen in my 20 years here. Of us all actually working together. To make the change that we have to make. So I hope to be a part of it. Ok, we ll go to board, um, comments or questions? First, thank you my first question and on this slide that I m looking at, uh, where we stand and where we are going, one of the things as terminology matters legally, because one of the questions, I mean, I ve always had this question as long as I ve had As long as I ve been on the board, because it seems we re so preoccupied. with the labels, qualified, positive, and I care about the work. Are we doing the work? Are we physically healthy? Are we not? People can call us whatever. I do understand that
078they, uh they have different statutory consequences and you all have made that clear. I do want to hear you respond to what is the, the big concern we re trying to grapple with. Um, it s just like when I was in the classroom. My students get grades they don t like, that doesn t define you. You don t need to internalize that. That s not who you are. It s information, it s data. This is an invitation to get better, to do something different, and that s what I want us to focus on and spend our time on. And if someone wants to spend resources doing a he a fiscal health analysis when we have it in our scope of work to do for next year anyway. Why not have them do it? So that
079s my first question is what are we what conflict, tension, challenge, threat, are we trying to manage? And around these like, is it when you, when I see statutory consequences on this slide is that it and yeah, help me understand that. That s my first. Question I m answering for myself because I m not answering for superintendent in that. Question. So I m going to tell you what I believe. Um we had you saw the qualifieds that we had, but we also at that time had trustees or people with oversight over what we re doing, right? And now that we ve paid our loan and we re standing on our own 2 ft. Concerned of continuing qualified qualified qualified hopefully not ever negative, but. Um. I, I wouldn t want to see. The county feel
080like they need to bring not a takeover. I m not saying that, but even. Um. Someone else to come. To work kind of like a trustee. Um, I want to say it s it s. City maybe right now, but we re want us to just be able to stand on our own. And show that we can continue improving our budget. And so if we don t believe that there s a going concern. That we should, there s a lack of going concern. For that second interim because it s. Date, you know, it s time bound then we should say that I just also feel like through all this time people have told us where we are and what, how, you know, what we re doing. And we haven t said, actually. No, we believe we
081re here. And but like it s important to do that It s not to get stuck on it, because at the same time we re working. You know, but it s I m also just not gonna sit and not say. We completed what we need to complete. We showed our cash flow. Done the things that we needed to do. And so for that second interim we did not feel that it was a lack of going concern. And and if you look at the letter, it says going concern, and then it goes on to say, if you don t improve, it ll be a lack of going concern. Then when we got something from Bic Matt, it was saying, you know, lack of going concern. And so that s why those words matter, and that s
082why we re saying please clarify because these things stick. Bro, do you have any questions? No? Ok. Um, I think let s go to public comment. We can do another round of board. Um, how many people are signed up to speak? For ho? Yes, we have 4 registered speakers. We have Carol Delton, Diane l, Oliver Brennan, and Asado Labala. Good I that that is probably the most productive thing I ve heard in this room at a, at a budget finance committee in 6 months. The 3 year rule is there since the early 1990s. Richmond School District was the first district that went um into insolvency and the state decided to introduce legislator ab 1200, and part of that was 3-year budgeting to prevent public entities from falling off a cliff very suddenly. You have to
083budget for 3 years and when you have a problem like we have in ousc, a structural problem. It, you shouldn t be trying to get it back to one year. It shouldn t depend on what the cola will be next year. You have to make estimates on what it is, but we ve got a structural problem. We know what it is. And we have to make structural changes to fix it. Now, none of us want insolvency. Nobody in this district in Oakland of all the districts in California want to go back under state receivership and a state loan. We don t want that. But there are people who can help us in the county. And there are people who can help us in fica, and this is not takeover, this is getting in analyzing our,
084our, our, our, our finances, looking at our borrowing capacity, we can borrow from from the county, we can, you know, the property taxes come true in DECEMBER and APRIL, we can borrow against that and get the cash flow going because I did a plot day after last night s meeting. This was the cash flow, the black line here. From 269 million down to 16 million that you presented in 430 to Alameda County That is our cash flow and that is real. I believe that s where we re heading, and we are going to be insolvent in a year. With this cash flow, unless we get help, and if we get help sooner rather than later, we MAY not have to get a state loan. And if we don t get a state loan, then we
085retain local control, but I think the time is long gone by now in this school year, where we should be accepting. All the help we can get and Elise Castro has has offered us help at the response letter for second interim. We need everyone working together consultants school board, county, and fimat. Let him come in and analyze. How close we are to staying solvent. We do need to all work together. Thank you. Good evening, Carol Dalton. Um, I will start where Oliver left off. Uh, I think it s very dangerous to accept help from anyone in particular, anyone without knowing that they are committed to working with the district, with the district s values. I ve seen thick mat here. I worked with Fick Matt in San Leandro. Fick Matt did damage Um. I have
086not seen from the assigned, um, consultants, the kind of actual support and structural change that hya brought in. And as much as I hate consultants and the high priced ones and all of that. Um, I have to say that they really have helped. And the reason I am not worried about the cash flow for next year is because of all of the changes that have been made this year structurally wise, overall staffing wise, which will lead to uh. Uh less cash flow issues. Um, I d like to say that to the person who gave us a lesson on risk analysis, yes, there was not as much risk going with the old cbo. There was a 100% chance that we would take a loan and be under receivership. I much prefer the, uh, path that DR.
087Sadler led us on. Um, regarding the, the different types of interims and how the interims are, are calculated. It s extremely frustrating, I know that, um, the interim dates. Occur, the closing date occurs 2 months before the interim is presented, and then also that there s, there s change in the community. People know about, that s not accounted for in the interims. That is why I think it is essential that there be a variance report on both, uh, on the swings in the interim itself, 1st to 2nd, and so on, uh, and also the anticipated uh changes that are coming, say, because of unknown uh cola or because of a known cost of layoffs. I ll save everything else for later. Thank you. And I see 3 people with their hands raised online. So, um,
088oh, you want to go, MISS Olival? Yeah, then we ll, but then we ll take the 3 online. I think um if I would ask you does the district have control? Over its spending and its budget or or some things out of control. And the biggest thing that is a layperson and I come to every meeting out of control. Is the way we have that consent. Practice. 141 items last night. Some of them have already begun, some of them begun and ended. You re not controlling your money. There are contracts that you can be saying no. This contract could be implemented because whatever reason. I see the city do it all the time. We just had a contract with usc. They had to stop it because of the the way it was being done. Uh,
089it wasn t, it wasn t a clear process. I never see you stop a contract. You pull some items. I do not know how legally you can do this. But you re not controlling the money transparency last night. I took my notes on what y all share among yourselves. Somebody said the numbers are changing. Numbers don t add up a cash flow amount went up. By a certain amount of money in 2 weeks, uh, unexplained how that happened. Um we might have to make a loan in the fall. What happened to cause the cash flow change that, that was MISS Berry in the last two weeks, uh, teaching and learning should be driving the budget. We haven t had a discussion on how that stays the number one thing. I think you keep bringing it
090up. Uh, what are we going to do to stay solvent this year. Just this year So transparency as a person wanting to be a part of it, we had items on the agenda that that were pulled. That had never been. Uh in the agenda. You need to have some items, you have to discuss it before you take a vote on it. You have to hear from staff and uh these budgetary items that y all pulled last night? It s a good thing you pulled them You didn t have to, but thank GOD you did MISS Barry and MR. R. Mike Hutchinson. So I, I just can t see how the way we are doing things in terms of spending money. Can continue to be in place, and I know you gotta come up with a
091plan. But you gotta stop, you gotta make changes of things you re doing right now. Along with the plan Alright, let s call the um speakers online, please. Yes, um. Dianne Lee, if you can mute yourself. Hi. General counsel Janine Lindsay, pursuant to ec Section 421276b, you needed to submit that appeal within 5 days of the going concern notice, which was issued on APRIL 16th. So the appeal was due on APRIL 21st, so what you could have done was, you could have simply appealed to going concern notice within that five-day period, then waited a max of 10 days for Tony Thurmond to respond. You did it backwards. And yes, agree with Director Barry. I m a huge fan of you. Why doesn t the district want a fiscal health risk analysis. It s free, and
092if you really were in good shape financially, it would give you the necessary leverage and credibility to get a lease off your back. You don t want to say yes. Maybe because Mike Fly, you re not a fan of him, fine. But also, because you know what a precarious situation you re in, you re afraid of what happens when you fail that fiscal health risk analysis and Carol Delton, nobody wants a loan. You re allowed to have your opinion, but I am far more conservative than you in terms of risk, ok? I do not take chances. I don t. Ok So let s all work together and also, I was telling Oliver Brennan this week. That honestly, it s mostly hilarious but also kind of sad that we had to learn public education finance to
093this extreme degree. You know, neither of us have a finance or accounting background. Just why? Do you think we enjoy this? All I want is competency. I am extremely biased toward competency. I m not saying that. That s why it s so risky. It s so risky to have your kid enrolled in this school district in terms of safety, in terms of learning maybe this is an Oakland thing where fiscal mismanagement or negligence or incompetence, that s the norm. Where all the long suffering residents end up begging the civil employees to simply do anything. Something Come on, honestly, the bar s so low. The bar is in hell. Just please. Be better Do your job Well, for the kids of Oakland, and let s not run out of money. Thank you. Next speaker is jbl
094You can go ahead and unmute yourself jb, you there Move on to the next person, um, jt mates, if you can unmute yourself to speak. I just wanted to follow up on um what we re talking about. I appreciate the discussion and it is definitely a big learning curve for me Um, I I am thinking about the, the idea of our budget, you know, more broadly and, you know, this plan, and, you know, like talked to friends uh in the district and, you know, I think that what we are missing is that there, there is no unified school district, you know, like what you talked about in the last item, and I wanted to bring that back up. Uh, because I think there can be a lot of I mean, I don t know if
095they re gonna be more transparency. I mean, I think we have more dashboards than we know what to do with, um, but, you know, I don t, I don t think that schools should be competing against each other for, for students. And I think that we should have a system where all students are learning the same thing across the district, and I think that s um would potentially save money and save, save budget, and I think that it could be a good community um effort to um, it doesn t matter where you go to school in Oakland because you re gonna get the same quality education, um, wherever you go. Thanks. Comments? First is the point I was making about principles protecting their work was not competition. So I just wanted to clarify that. To
096the other, it just feels the thing that makes me most uncomfortable about this conversation is, and I MAY be misunderstanding it. So this is like an opportunity for me to to get clarification. It just feels like everything s not on the table right now and like that s the point I was making about us. It s the way you framed the lap. It was like we re waiting for this lcap process because it s going to trigger some of the decision making that we need to make some of the changes that will shape the budget. And even if that s true, then we should do that. We should just start the work now. We don t, like whatever we were doing whatever we typically do, it kind of just, I mean some of it is
097mandated by statute, but some of it s not. Is there like all the arbitrary things that we tend to do, like we should be interrogating all of it right now. So that we could do the work we need to do. To right ship this as quickly as possible. Yeah Yes, I didn t mean to imply that we should wait for certain timelines and things. I just was trying to say that um, the plan, the plan that we need. To show, um there s also other, there s the lcap, there s the board s work plan, there s the superintendent strategic plan, and it all needs in the budget development. Cycles It all needs to come together. So I think I m saying the same as you, that we shouldn t, we can t. Do these
098things like separate all the time because. We have one budget and one district, so it just it would behoove us to do it. We re in line. That s what I was trying to say. Um, the only other thing that I just wanted to highlight again is the and I think this is a little bit about what some of the speakers have said around that definitions matter and that we need to be very careful with our words and with how we talk about our finances. And I think, and I, you know, I think I have um said since I joined the board and, and even before that I thought it was unacceptable that we often settled for qualified. Um certifications of our interim reports and the reason is that when you look at districts across
099the state. Having a deficit in the out years is not a qualified certification, because you in your myp you make a commitment to what you are going to do going forward to address that deficit. So for example, if you look at other LEAs, you will see that they are deficit spending in the out years that they re projected to you know, you know, be 50, sometimes $100 million in the red and they bookmark in their, their plans that they will address that deficit going forward because, and here s why I think um, and they are still certifying positive with their counties and they re not getting overturned. I think it is true in Oakland that perhaps because we have the longest and kind of biggest loan and longest trusteeship that we have a we are
100under increased scrutiny and I would say unfair scrutiny because of that, that we are not allowed to do things that other LEAs do, and we have not in over 20 years, run out of money. So I, I think I would just, um, I just would be remiss when we re talking about certifications, not to come back to what my um what I think our approach should be as a district because I think, as we re seeing with thick mat, when we lose, and I shouldn t say loosely, but when we settle for qualified we invite scrutiny that we should not otherwise invite and that we don t deserve. And then the last comment I ll make, um, is around the nyp and how much reserves we should have, and I think I have also been
101a person and um who has felt like we needed to spend down our restricted reserves because those, and again, we could be efficient in many ways in this district, but when we have reserves that are too high in a billion dollar, like 3% in a billion dollar organization is a lot of money. If you start to tick that up, 1%, you know, to 5% or 6%, you might feel more secure, but you re also taking resources away from students, and those are resources that those students deserve to have in the current year. And so I do think that there is that having this cash flow conversation is very healthy, because what we re trying to do is we re trying to be responsible. We re trying to stay solvent, but we re also trying to
102do what we, what our, our duty is to our students who are here right now and that we re not, you know, we re not like a hedge fund We re not, you know, you re like, you know, personal finance where you want to have 6, you know, I don t know what it s like 6 months of your salary, that would be irresponsible as a school. I would say that s irresponsible as a school district. So I um appreciate the definitions being laid out and trying to be more careful, and I would just again push us to be to be positive, to strive for positive as we re moving forward. Um, ok, so, oh, no, yes, mhm. Yeah, I mean, I think on the pushing us if, if what we re talking about is
103students. Again, everything being on the table. If having a 5% reserve. Would undermine our ability to make sure students have what they need, then we should apply that frame to all the things. Um, and we re not, we don t talk about the footprint ever, and how that might undermine our ability to have highly paid teachers and fully resourced schools, and so we, it s interesting to me that we like pick and choose when to apply these things, and I again I just think that everything should be Can I just push on that though, because I feel a little bit like what you re saying is that when you say everything should be on the table, because I will say in scenario 3, the last item was whatever the superintendent wants to do, we did
104add that in. So I just want to be like, are you just saying that because the current resolution says no school closures. I m just, I just, I, it sort of sounds like that s a resolution does set a ton of restrictions or several restrictions, not even just that one, right? So like even, and I talked about this way back when we talked about restructuring the specific instruction around restructuring was a focus on networks. Nothing else in the system was being interrogated except for this one thing and in so doing, when you pick one particular part of the system to restructure without thinking about the broader system, that s not even, I would argue strategic. Yeah. I think that s very fair Um and with that, I m going to move us along to our
105last item, um, so that we have time for public comments so that the last item is item 26-0729, clarifying the financial implementation plan and the one pagers, as this is a possible voting item. Would someone like to make a motion to consider it. I would like to make a motion to is it adopt? Are we, it s not. To recommend this resolution to the full board. I ll second Do you have an, I don t, we can move straight to public comment. Ok, so who signed up to speak on this item? Or registered we have 4 registered speakers, Carol Dwton, Kim Davis. Oliver Brennan, and Assado Lubaba. Ok. Um, firstly, I just want to let you again go back to numbers. We have no reserve left Um. The MAY revis came out today at 10:30.
106Ironically, we ve a windfall because of a quick question? Were you speaking on this resolution? Oh, ok. I m going to bridge it into it because no one s speaking about anything that s relevant tonight. Um, when the Mayor Revis came out today at 10:30, there was a windfall because of ai revenue in this state, and ironically, if you fed that document to an ai agent in 15 minutes it could tell you what s going on in in the state and what s going on in every district. Ousd will struggle to have a reserve in the end of JUNE, and next year it won t have one, and the year after it won t have one. So, you know, um, we are going to certify negative, Director Lada. So there s no point trying to
107be positive. The finances are just not there. Your senior staff said that to you earlier. I think that this resolution, I listened to the letter from the principals that was sent publicly two weeks ago, or 66% of the principals and encompassing 75% of the students of this district said they can t run their schools without these roles, and I agree, um, that I, I can see that in my school. And I think every school should actually have these. And we need to get back now that we re going to to to address our fiscal crisis. We do need to go back to restructuring this district. I would encourage you to come to take the 3 hours that this board passed 2 years off the shelf and get back into it. And in that process, we
108can get to a situation where every school in our district has um tsa s and CSMs and principals feel they have the resources to execute the educational program in their school. I believe this resolution should come back to the full board for full consideration. Thank you. Do you want to call the speakers online, MR. Osecho, or did? That s why I made the motion so that we could spend time understanding it. I, I actually don t, I want to hear more about the resolution. Um, but I was told that Director Hutchinson cannot speak directly to it, so. I don t know how we ll achieve any stronger there s a memo that s accompanying it, um, but, um, but yeah, we, we don t have time to, to read the whole resolution, um, but the
109yeah, I m, yeah, I m not gonna. So the resolution sets some parameters for staffing for csm and tsa based on student enrollment of said school. So it, um, and would instead of adding positions, it would move positions from schools that have lower enrollment, um, to schools that have higher enrollment. So for example, uh, like for an example would be um Sequoia Elementary did not did not get a csm. Fte in the coming year, 26, 27. So in order to have that csm return, you would take a csm fte from let s say, I ll just pick where my kids go, Prescott, you would take the cs. Um I no, we did not, but ok, um, I respectfully disagree, but so that so the resolution would then move. So for example, like we have a
1101.0 fte at Prescott or at at McClymon s where I know you re very familiar, and that would get moved to a school that has a higher enrollment even though they didn t qualify for the, that was not, so that d be, so it s um, yeah, it s based on student enrollment, but it, but it s attempted to not you know, add fte back. Um. Uh I was gonna say one other thing that that it has in here too. It also um brings back the middle school elective. So the middle school electives were cut to in half Um yeah, yeah, per. It s yeah it s not really You can take your, you can take your what s going on. There s, there s two people online as well. Uh, I don t know.
111Did you want to take your 2 minutes? No, I don t need it just real quick because I can t say anything because I really don t understand it, but is it possible that this is returning some practices in schools that MR. Hutchinson said we need to make these changes in order to better whatever we re doing, help, help teaching well we would, it would, it would come back to the board. So we wouldn t be adopting, yeah, I know, but I, I m just saying to make teaching and learning improve. Uh I I think one of the purposes, and I am probably going to misspeak. This is interpretation. No one told me this. This is my read is that it because changes that uh that happened as a result of the rif, the reduction
112in force. Significantly shifted the way we implement teaching and learning. In the absence of a board policy. Change to introduce such a shift or rationale for such a shift. This resolution is attempting to restore those positions to sites and provide some guidance regarding how to do that. No, no, that would be done before it goes back to board. Um, can we call, let s see, so jb Leibovich and then Kim Davis we can take. Yes, jb, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself. So my understanding is this is an opportunity to speak about non-gender items. If I m incorrect, then I ll stop right now. I want to make sure I m being respectful. Oh, we re going to get to non agenda items next. Ok, then I will uh I ll wait until
113then. Ok. Thank you. All right, so then Kim Davis, if you can go ahead and unmute yourselves to speak. MISS Davis, we re not able to hear you. Can you hear me now? Yes Sorry it s too late in the night. Um, the, uh, several years ago, uh, 3 or 4 years ago, I can t remember exactly how long ago. Uh, the superintendent, um, decided to um start providing community school managers to schools that did not earn community school grant funds because they didn t serve a high enough need population, and to use uh some of the funds that we got, some of the carryover, some of the other funds that we got to provide TSAs to those same schools, and let me make very clear, the only schools that are impacted by this, the
114only schools that that have lost those positions that would now they would now be restored and and director Lotta is exactly right, would be a transfer from schools that were under 360 students, uh, to schools that were over 3 60 students, it would be the following school, Chabo Elementary, Cleveland Elementary, Crocker Elementary, Glenview, Hillcrest walking Miller, Montclair, Sequoia, Thornhill, Claremont, and Edna Brewer. Those positions would be shifted from other schools like Prescott, like Brett Hart, like mlk, like, you know, I m not sure there s nothing in here that says how the decision would be made to shift students, so it s hard to know what that is, but the important thing to remember is that 3 or 4 years ago when this happened, it was in explicitly stated to be a one-time position uh,
115um, funded by one-time funds. It was never intended to be ongoing, and I argued and director Davis at that time argued that this was not the best way of moving forward with this because exactly what s happening right now. It creates an expectation that you will have any need. I mean, it creates within the community, it creates the, um, you know, you depend on these people, absolutely every single school depends on the the CSMs and the tsa s that they ve had for the last few years, and when you lose something that was funded with one-time dollars and always intended to be a one-time expense, then that feels like a loss, but taking it from schools that serve, uh, you know, 80, 90% unduplicated pupils and having it, you know, as compared to the schools
116that I named, which are less than 40%, is not the way to do it. And this is a something that that specifically benefits district 4, almost exclusively. There s another piece in here in this resolution that also, sorry, MISS Davis, if you could wrap it up, please. Yeah, that s fine. But this is, this is not equity, this is not how we as a district should be making decisions, setting up an artificial 360 student uh cutoff means you re starving some schools to support affluent white schools. Thank you. She s finhed this better You have a circumstance at McClymon s where their enrollment could be higher. But you have caused the school to be unable to increase its enrollment. People have been turned away because you ve moved the kids to half of the school
117and they can only use half of the school. So I don t know if this would possibly include McClymons, but it s your fault. That they don t have an enrollment higher than what they have. So, uh, first of all, I appreciate MS. Davis s research and analysis, and I support her point. Every time there are reductions. People who feel the pain come. And talk about why there particular school, their program, their need should be the one that is saved. So working as a full district. Hopefully, services. Can be restored to some level but it can t be done this way. Also, in my opinion, community school is about providing particular supports and services to students. It is not about particular positions. So there s a way of assuring that a student at a school
118that does not have, for example, a community services manager can access those services by working with a manager from an adjoining school. School closures I ve been following the budget for a decade in which time ousd has closed 11 schools. This year is the first year, yes, this year is the first year. That there s been substantial change at district office and substantial change in the spending of most restricted funding first. Those are also structural changes. I think I ll stop there for now and save my comments for uh. For the last period ok. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I think one thing that I want to affirm about the resolution, having heard this discussion, is I do think it s an invitation for us to do what it attempts to do. Which is provide
119guidance on what how we make changes in the district. And, and that like and that s why I m I keep pushing on the vision part because at this point it seems like this is a good moment to be like, ok we laid off 400 people this year. Let s try not to do that next year in order to do that, knowing we still have to make cuts. Let s define what we want our schools to have. And work backwards from that. And the point that you made about everyone, when cuts happen and everyone feels the pain and so the inclination is to want to save and protect the thing. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the way that we re implementing these changes is in the absence of a
120vision for what people are, are, are going to be able to walk into. After this, these changes have happened. So this is like an opportunity an eagerness to move into the opportunity, which will is going to be uncomfortable and known for people, but it it s just like we have to try on the vision part. I also just because I m super protective of the csm work because it s work that I used to do. And I don t, I disagree with the notion that it, it when we, when we talk about the positions that we want. Uh, there is the one time resources created an opportunity for us to test ideas. And I do pilots in my day job. The beautiful thing about that is you can build evidenceor the work. It allows you
121to iterate and figure out how this could work in the district. And that was our responsibility. Our responsibility was to learn from that. And if it s working, then our responsibility is to figure out how we pay for that long term, and that is the work that we did not do. But establishing the csm position didn t create a need. It alleviated it. And people want to hold on to things that heal. It addressed the real need and so the responsibility, again on the visioning part is for us to figure out how do we satisfy the needs of the district. And I want us to allow that to drive all the future decision making that we need around the budget development It just makes so much sense to me. On the resolution just the clo
122finer point. Since we have this board retreat coming up. Nobody likes to hear me talk. It s fine. I don t care. I got elected so I could just talk I think that that board retreat is an opportunity. For us to have some of this conversation so that there s a lot of work that we have to do, um, in the fall. That we can kickstart given the urgency I heard you. Implied to us around budget development doesn t have to wait until when we typically do budget development. We don t have to do that in NOVEMBER and DECEMBER. We can do that in AUGUST. So a couple of things. One, uh, trying to find the date for the retreat is difficult. We have people that don t respond to it. You re not one
123of them. I thought we had a date. We have a date, but not everybody can come, um, we put out spoiler alert 5 different dates. Um, people show up or they don t show up. So this makes it difficult. Um, I, I do want to talk a little bit about the community schools manager position. And I think it s something that hasn t been really clarified in our district, and I know in the schools in my district, I can see it done. Almost 7 different ways. And all of them support students. I m not saying they don t, but I think one of the things with our community schools grant is, and, you know, and I, I visited some other districts that actually had community schools grants. The work that was done with the community,
124which is a key part of that grant. Was deep. I mean, we saw some schools in Chicago that, I mean, really, when you see them and see what a community school could be. At parent resource centers, parent classes, uh. Health services, all kinds of things, but they were, they came from the community and I think part of our problem with our community schools grant is it didn t come from everybody in the community. So I think that to me is a big lesson in, in how we allocated our money because I have a lot of questions about how we spent that money. I think the other piece about community schools, the community schools manager, um. And I have really good friends who are community schools managers, so we talk about this a lot is there
125are some, there are, there are schools with greater need. And when we look at what every school should have. We also need to look at schools that have a greater need, and I think this gets to the question of me, the footprint. And I think that um it s not a given that we would close schools. And be able to offer these resources to every school. I think again, even as we talk about schools that that remain open or not, that there will still be schools with a greater need. And, you know, I ve, I ve taught most of my time in schools that didn t need that didn t have a greater need. The children didn t have that, that the um and it was hard. I mean, I was out of school when
126we lost our Title One money. And we lost a lot of things that were important to the school. But we didn t have the students who needed that er who who qualified for that service. We did have students in the. So I think all of this is like looking at finance and I think it s, I think it s when we say who doesn t do the work and who doesn t have the vision, I think we have multiple vision. I agree with you on that. There s multiple visions in the district, and I think we need to be more unified on that. But I, I am very, I guess what I m really concerned about in this resolution. Is. Setting this enrollment number. Because to me in looking at the unintended consequence of this.
127Is that what happens to the schools that are under 360. So that s the piece that s missing for me. Where there s a qualifying need And again, of the schools that are over 360. Do all of them have right, exactly. So that, that to me is, and I could see again, because I think I ve seen there was a particular community schools grant. Even though we say we are community schools district. That grant was for particular. Um for particular students who were concentrated at that particular schools. I don t have anything to add. We could call the question. On the roll to adopt 26-0729 as stated, Director Berry. MAY I ask a clarifying question? Referring this to the board gives the rest of the board an opportunity to discuss it. Is that correct? Yes,
128it s my vote. Bro No. Chaperson Lauder No Emotion is not agreed to ok, and then we ll move to finally to public comment on non agenda items if, because, like I said at the beginning, this was a special meeting. It was not agenda, but if you would like to speak, you can raise your hand if you are on Zoom and you can come to line up at the podium. And we ll do 2 minutes each and, but we are, we are, um, we are in overtime for our board staff. So if we can try to keep to the 2 minutes, that would be great. So I constantly observe you spending money that you don t have to spend. The feasibility study The feasibility study could have been done to wait the 7-Eleven Committee. You
129didn t have to spend $700,000. McClymons, you spent $72,000 to move furniture and equipment out of the school and you did nothing. $72,000. You have supplemental buses. You are not mandated to have those buses. I don t know, I can t get a figure of how much, how many, many millions of dollars you re spending. You have had 60 principals that have written a letter to you telling you you need to close schools. I ve been saying it We got too many schools, 81 schools, and you re gonna have to start, everybody s doing it, except you. And you ve been doing it. You just can t close predominantly black schools. That s why you don t want to touch those other folks. Lastly, McClymon s High School. Somebody said we have multiple visions. You
130don t have no vision for McClymons. How could you sit the whole school year with nothing happening with that modernization project absolutely nothing and people coming to you like myself. Saying say something, do something for those children. And I have many issues that don t want to take up their time. Many issues that have happened with McClymons. And you have ignored So I m saying all that to say you are not fair. To black children in this district. Carol Dalton, this is to follow up on several things that I heard and also something that I wanted to bring forward, so concerning the principal letter concerning the proposal to close schools. It MAY be necessary. It MAY be the best thing in the future on a very careful basis. But what are you going to do
131with the properties? The principles county superintendent. Empower Oakland. Nobody has said what they are going to do to relieve ousd of the burden of maintaining properties, 3 of which surplused by the last 7-Eleven committee have now come back to the district. A vision, a vision to walk into. I hope that everybody joins on JUNE 1st, the multi-stakeholder group. It ll be their 4th meeting, and they re all about the vision, and they are based in Pisak with a members from many of the bargaining units, um, and they are working on that vision I want to suggest, um, on the budget and finance agendas that you add a short item to every agenda. Of an update on, uh, developments, whether that be the state, the state superintendent s decision so that you have an opportunity that
132s on the agenda to discuss current fiscal uh impacts. Finally, this is very nitty gritty, but our contracts often come written not to exceed. I would like assurance, and I m sure the rest of the community would as well. That when we see the JUNE budget. That all of the different budget categories that are proposed. Actually cover the not to exceed amount in the contracts. And also, and this was in the proposal in DECEMBER that there s a mechanism to assure if that is getting run over or department budgets are, are close that, that the board, um the deputy superintendent, the chief financial officer, whoever is, is the appropriate person is notified so that in fact we don t have to lay off more people next year. Thank you. Um, I think we need to
133move away from new, new legislation being introduced to a committee where the board member is not on it because that that wasn t even read tonight. I m not saying I agree or disagree with it. I think it should be sent back to the main board where it could have been read. Director Hutchinson could have presented details. Lots of good stuff there on middle school electives, and now it s being killed. And this could apply to any of you, one of your new legislation items could go to a committee you re not on and it doesn t get read. Just back to the budget, this is the Budget and Finance Committee, you know, it s very clear the classifications of positive qualified and, and negative. And there really are not districts throughout the state and
134county who project to years out deficits. They have reserves to cover that. We were doing it here in ousd with under Lisa Grant Dawson for years, and she always said, you re running down. You re uh reserve. It doesn t matter, the numbers don t lie, it s all going to come to pass by JUNE. So whether you agree, disagree, it should be one way or the other. It s just going to come to pass. But what I will say to you is this Nobody wants state takeover. Nobody wants receivership, but we will have to work with experts in the county who are willing to help us to avoid that, because the cash flow analysis that the district sent on 4:30 by MISS Guard here to to the county. If you look at that, that
135is a jagged line going from really high in uh JULY 20 25 to really low in JUNE 2027. And that is a district that is going to go insolvent unless we take corrective action. It s still not too late to accept help. Please, for the sake of all the children all over this, uh, district. Take all the help you can get. It s not take over taking help. It s just taking help. Thank you. Jbl, if you go ahead and um mute yourself to speak. Alright, thank you for the time. Um, yesterday at the meeting that that got cut off. A friend of mine, David Bloom, was waiting, waiting to read his letter and did not have time. He s not available today. People that did not wait and follow the rules, talked about things
136like kept bringing up Brandeis. And censorship as opposed to talking about the, the real issues. Nobody s being censored The uh issues that have been raised have been raised by members of the Oakland Jewish community. There is a lawsuit from the Oakland Jewish Alliance. This is not like there s some outside new coming in trying to dictate. Um, I m now going to read David s letter that he would have read yesterday if he had time. I am the parent of a Jewish 3rd grader in ousd. I want to draw your attention to the 35e comments opposing the demands that were made tonight by anti-Zionists. Those making the demands would have would have you ignore the cde s findings of discrimination against our community. And turn our classrooms into spaces of political indoctrination. Teaching is
137a noble profession. And teachers serve in positions of public trust. We trust them to teach our kids the skills they need to survive in the world. Skills which include critical thinking. We trust the district and board to set the curriculum and ensure teachers follow it. This is what it means to center students. Teachers have their political opinions that outside the classrooms, they are free to express them within the limits of the law. In the classroom, we expect them to follow the curriculum. Teaching personal politics is a breach of public trust, and it harms students by undermining the very critical training skills we are trying. Very critical thinking skills we are trying to instill. Do not forget that you are here to serve Oakland s kids first and foremost. Keep our classrooms, places of learning. Mutual
138respect and inclusion, safe spaces for all, allowing teacher politics in the classroom undermines every one of these things, very respectfully, David Blem. I am. Uh, I just wanted to reiterate what has already been said is that this is always a struggle because the communication it when do we talk about it? When do we understand it? When do we get that thorough analysis, no one asks for impact at the sites when we struggle with these one pagers, but we, we re doing employee level work operations level work. We re doing sacks and csa level work in our SSCs we re trying to rely on other funding sources. I mean this is such a scramble to just keep our head above water and part of the, the repair is the communication, the conversation relying on a table
139or a, a newly developed table with uh new people joining that s, that s an option, but everyone else who has been here the whole time, boots on the ground, should be the first set of folks that that are engaging in these conversations, whether they be small scale work sessions, town hall-esque opportunities, but when it doesn t go to board now our question is, ok, so if it stops here and it stalls here, what does that mean? If there is an opportunity to execute because we have historically not been able to actually execute the plan. We, we got a plan or we have a great idea. Ok we took multiple elements. This will work. This will work for you and then we, we fall short for whatever reason, but I think that if the impact
140is directly on us, we absolutely should be engaging in that conversation. Someone should have been asking us, how are we managing with the one pagers right now? How are we managing with hoping ptsa or other funding sources are going to be able to carry us until we figure out what s happening in our middles, what s happening with our CSMs. What you, you know, what are we relying on in terms of revenue because things keep changing. Our lcff, all of the things that we re kind of had to have a crash course lesson in in terms of fiscal responsibility and allocation and all of the things that that the layperson has had to quickly learn. I think this is a lot of pressure. It s a lot of pressure to, to be reasonable in asking,
141hey, can we have these conversations because things are happening to us boots on the ground and and nobody s engaged with us and we re not on those tables, these developing tables, these district led tables with parent voice that s not properly representative of our school district, so I, I d like for us to be very realistic about how we play double Dutch with these plans because you d be jumping gonna do it. No, no, jumping out. I, and I m kind of nice with the, with the two ropes. However, I, I don t feel like y all are asking us, we can literally tell you impact analysis. We can literally tell you in real time, so I don t know what your, your time is up, you don t mind wrapping up, please wrap
142it up please wrap. I, I, I m gonna leave us with this if, if we keep at this rate, we won t be able to choose what s gonna happen. We already have to just endure whatever decisions are made. If you guys are talking to each other or whomever s making decisions and we don t know, we, we are forced to just prepare for whatever it your decision making ended up being so I I don t. Little more conversation, a lot more engagement and and no limitations on who you re choosing to represent families voices, yes. And then I see jt Mas Mushin still has his hand raised. Yes, teammates, you just have to speak. And this will be our last public speaker Thank you, Director Alata. I appreciate that you um prioritized, um, letting
143the community speak tonight. Um, it was, I went home, uh, last night from being at the board meeting for 5.5 hours and could not go to sleep and I woke up livid this morning um, because of the unfair practices that the board uh director, um expressed uh by changing the agenda and not letting um open public comment happen. And um not protecting me when I stood up there as a individual wanting to give a comment about a board item the superintendent s report specifically about the budget last night um, when it, it was that um item was hijacked by non-critical thinkers and um teachers that I cannot believe our um still in our district when they re teaching um you know, our kids indoctrinating our kids and um you know, doing the things that you
144know, truthfully, I don t think teachers are supposed to do. Um, so I appreciate that you re letting me speak tonight, and I hope that the board um can prioritize uh positive public meetings that uh people are will come and participate in because as of right now, I don t want to come back to another board meeting if I m going to be treated like that. Thank you.