Scores of Oakland educators will be let go after the Oakland Unified School District board approved layoffs on Wednesday night to plug a $95 million hole in the budget for the upcoming school year. Over the next month, the board will consider an alternative budget proposal that could reinstate some of the positions.

Teachers, staff, and parents appealed to the board to find other ways to address the deficit and said cutting staff risks destabilizing vulnerable student groups like newly arrived immigrant students or students with disabilities. Some feared that the upheavals could drive more families out of the district during a time when maintaining enrollment is crucial. 

“I’m looking at this cut list. Please don’t do that to us. We have the highest-risk students that we serve, and we do it with love. We need our teachers,” said Ginale Harris, a parent at McClymonds High School. “Please don’t do this. Cut from the top. I can gladly give you recommendations and documentation of the neglect and ridiculousness of the people way up here who aren’t doing their jobs.”

More than 500 teacher positions will be eliminated, as will 250 “classified” roles that don’t require a credential, like tutors, case managers, and attendance specialists. Three elementary teacher roles were preserved for Sojourner Truth Independent Study, a virtual school that expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“The district is constantly lamenting that we’re losing students and losing money. However, the district also seems to target attendance specialists who work full-time to make them half-time. Attendance specialists are instrumental in maintaining positive interactions with our families to ensure our children come to school,” said Leticia Araujo-Perez, the administrative assistant at Prescott Elementary. “It is critical to keep our attendance specialists full-time at all of our school sites because their jobs are vital.”

The layoffs were approved six votes to one, with District 3 Director VanCedric Williams the lone “no” vote. 

As part of the resolution, new roles were also added, making the net loss of positions 97 across teaching, administrative, and support staff jobs. The layoffs are a required next step in the budget process — the board approved a budget reduction plan in December that largely cut school site funding and staffing. State education code requires that districts give layoff notices by March 15 for roles that won’t be returning in the upcoming school year. 

School board directors acknowledged the painful decision but maintained that their options were limited. 

“We are so far into the budget process at this moment that we need to take this step in order to continue to meet our goals and the metrics that are set before us,” said Vice President Valarie Bachelor. “But I do hope and plan that as we achieve budget savings, we can bring positions back.”

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said there are three reasons why OUSD is facing a $95 million deficit: declining enrollment, higher salaries, and sunsetting COVID relief funds, which expired last fall. One area where the district increased spending was long-term substitutes, she said, because staff were out all the time during the pandemic. OUSD received nearly $300 million in one-time federal funds. 

“It didn’t feel like we had a deficit growing because we had all the one-time money,” Johnson-Trammell said Wednesday. “We have to continue to give raises. It’s not a crisis. We made investments, and we have to figure out a way to pay for it.”

Later in the meeting, two new resolutions were introduced that could take the budget process in a different direction. Bachelor and Board President Jennifer Brouhard are proposing alternative budget options that would limit spending on consultant contracts, administrator salaries, books and supplies, and travel.

“We do not feel the current budget proposal adjustments, including the layoffs that we just voted on, center the needs of our students,” Brouhard said in announcing the measure. “So we’re introducing additional adjustments to start the process of reprioritizing money towards our students.”

Brouhard and newly elected District 1 Director Rachel Latta also put forward a resolution that would establish a task force to examine the district’s outsourcing contracts with vendors, an expense that also increased during COVID.

“This is a purposeful move towards more transparency and accountability,” Latta said. “For years and years, we have overspent on consultants, and in recent years, it’s far outpaced other districts. To make the decisions about how we reduce spending in a responsible way, we need to have all of our Oakland school communities be part of this shared decision-making.”

At the board’s next budget and finance committee meeting, on March 6, the committee is expected to consider the two new resolutions before bringing them back to the full board. The next regular school board meeting is March 12.