School Districts in California are required to adopt a balanced budget by June 30th each year, and the Oakland Unified School District (“OUSD”) did so on June 25, 2025. Yet the District 4 School Board Director Mike Hutchinson is insisting on social media and in public remarks that “OUSD is “bankrupt” and is using that narrative in an attempt to turn the public against the school board President and Vice-President in order to force them to resign. Director Hutchinson has claimed (without proof) multiple times that he “forced” former District 6 Director to resign, and he can do it again to these women.

While there are definitely concerns about where the budget stands, OUSD is not bankrupt, as stated by Chief Business Officer (“CBO”) Lisa Grant-Dawson in her presentation and memo, we are “solvent” and have enough cash to pay our bills. Importantly, OUSD improved its position by $44 million overall from what was projected last year, including $82 million in our unrestricted general fund.

Last year, OUSD was projected to have an ending fund balance (combined) of $52 million; the actual adopted budget shows that our ending fund balance will be $44 million HIGHER than projected ($96 million). Our unrestricted ending fund balance for 2025-26 was projected a year ago to be NEGATIVE $55 million, but according to the adopted budget, that ending fund balance will be +$27 million, which is a positive swing of $82 million.

According to Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson in the Memorandum and Resolution Approving District’s Approved Budget which was approved June 25, 2025, “the district is solvent for the fiscal year 2025-26” and OUSD’s “Cash Flow continues to remain strong, though declining from levels in prior
years due to one time funds, with a projected $265M ending cash balance.” The Memo also states that OUSD will be preparing a 45 day revised budget and that we “anticipate some additional upside to the beginning balance for 2025-26.”

That is not to say that there is not serious work ahead to eliminate overspending and balance future budgets so that we can invest more in our students, schools and staff. The adopted budget (which we know will get better but not improve enough to obviate that need) shows a significant deficit in year 2 and year 3 which must be addressed.

There are many ways to balance the budget, and it comes down to what you value. We have for too many years put too many dollars into senior leadership and central office, contracting out jobs, consultants who tells us how to do whatever it is that they are “experts” at, and every shiny new educational theory that our board or staff learns at the last ed reform conference paid for by one of the billionaire funded “non-profits” that are so prolific in Oakland. When Superintendent Dr. Johnson-Trammell came in as superintendent in 2017 she promised to reorganize our central office and move to zero-based budgeting for central office and school sites. That was one of the reasons that the Superintendent’s selection received broad community support. Eight years later, we don’t have zero based budgeting, and we are still talking about but not actually doing that central office redesign.

According to state data, OUSD spends almost 6 times as much per student on classified supervisors and administrators (not including principals) as the state average.

OUSD currently spends more than any other district in California except LA (in gross dollars, not per pupil) on Professional/Consulting Services and Operating Expenditures. In fact 22% of our total spending goes to those Object Code 5800 expenditures, as compared to 8% in San Diego or 18% in Berkeley. That is 300% higher per student than the statewide average.

While our teachers and site staff salaries have risen at about the rate of inflation, the highest paid “confidential” employee salaries have risen 87% over time.

Since January, the board majority has been pushing for “alternative budget cuts” to address some of this overspending, which has been resisted by staff and attacked by Director Hutchinson. In pursuing a cap on outside contracts, unrestricted books and supplies, travel, conferences and confidential senior employee spending, the board majority led by the President and Vice President were beginning to take the steps necessary to redirect spending to ensure we are fully funding our school sites. Although those alternative cuts have been delayed to next year, they are important first steps in addressing necessary changes to our district to ensure that we have a balanced budget that supports students.

The business model of public education that is favored by billionaire funded groups like Chiefs for Change, which our Superintendent joined in about 2020, sets up the top heavy too many administrator model, and pays those administrators like corporate executives while we have full time employees who are unhoused in Oakland.

Chiefs for Change was started by Jeb Bush and Betsy DeVos, as Director Hutchinson pointed out in this post from his advocacy group “Oakland Public Education Network” from 2020 and is anti-union and anti-public school.

There is not a single board member who wants to have an unbalanced budget. The question is: how can we restructure all of our spending to maximize dollars to schools and to students. The Board must work together to find student-centered and fiscally responsible changes to the way OUSD spends its way too little revenue. Irresponsibly throwing around terms like “bankrupt” and “fiscal crisis” do nothing to solve OUSD’s challenges and in fact are likely to create more challenges as prospective families read this “doom loop” narrative about Oakland Unified School District. We urge Director Hutchinson to join other board members in working with new Interim Superintendent Dr. Denise Saddler and CBO Grant-Dawson in a responsible and positive budget development process instead of making inflammatory, self-aggrandizing and false statements intended to gain personal notoriety.