The Oakland School District is laying off hundreds of days after teachers voted to strike
Days after Oakland’s teachers union voted to authorize a strike, the Oakland Unified School District board decided to eliminate hundreds of positions to reduce a $102 million budget deficit and balance the books of the Bay Area’s largest school district.
More uncertainty now faces the future of the school district, as the board tries to secure long-term funding.
“We are very disappointed to see the OUSD board vote to approve over 400 layoffs which will do nothing but discredit our schools,” the union said in a statement. “Especially when there are 250 classes without full-time teachers and nearly 400 teachers who leave this district every year.”
The school board voted 5 to 2 on Wednesday to cut 421 positions, and another 144 were demoted. The district has until March 15 to notify all affected employees.
Many of the eliminated positions were funded with one-time federal funds following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Superintendent Denise Saddler. But the sunset of those funds forced the state’s hand, which it described as inevitable with rising health care and pension costs, combined with state and federal cutbacks.
“There is a cost,” said Saddler. “In the current situation, we wouldn’t have the money to pay our current staff next year if we were taking care of every single person. … We needed, first of all, to stop the bleeding, then find out where we are and work hard to make decisions about our priorities for next year.”
Schools with significant enrollment declines will be hit hardest by the cuts because funding is directly tied to student numbers. The biggest reduction in staff will affect Castlemont High School, which has eliminated seven positions, according to OUSD documents.
With nearly 700 students and a graduation rate of 61%, Castlemont High School in East Oakland is the poorest school of its size in the region, according to US News and World Report.
“It’s clear that a reduction of this scale and size will lead to significant and significant changes. There will be services that we will not be able to provide,” said District 5 Board Director Patrice Berry, one of the two “no” votes. “I want to understand how we can fill those gaps. Are we going to put some of those services into other jobs and roles? Are we going to stop those programs and services?”
The layoffs will help close the deficit needed for the district to maintain its financial independence. This is a real threat to OUSD, which went into bankruptcy in 2003 and needed a $100 million loan from the state. Between 2003 and 2009, the county’s finances were controlled by a federal trustee to act as the county manager.
OUSD finally abandoned state regulatory restrictions last year. However, a year later, the district finds itself in a frustrating but all too familiar place. OUSD Board Director Mike Hutchinson blamed his colleagues for not coming up with a plan sooner. Instead, the region has faced a greater rockfall than at any time in its history.
“This is the worst problem OUSD has ever faced,” Hutchinson said. “Time.”
