Comments on: The Case of the Mysterious Bottom Line: Solved

By: The big hole in Oakland Unified’s budget - The Education Report - Reporter Katy Murphy’s blog on Oakland schools

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:26:22 +0000

[...] other sources that probably won’t be around next June. (No, that doesn’t include the problems uncovered by a private auditing firm this spring — or the $15 million from the state loan that will likely be used to pay for it. [...]

By: harlemmoon

harlemmoon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:38:21 +0000

HAHAHAHAH! The joke is on every idiot who has any faith in the school district, the board or the state.
This is a HIGHLY politicized situation where reason, clear thought and above-board actions are expressly rejected. If ANY of you actually believe this was ever simply about the money, you have been terribly misinformed.
One program note: many of the same board members today are the ones who were keeping watch when the state took over.

By: Chauncey

Chauncey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:45:02 +0000

Damn! Where do you start?!

So the only way the OUSD cronies can argue this terrible story is to say that the board has not controlled the finances- the state has? Damn! Thats so lame its pathetic!

Well what brought the state to Oakland in the first place? Oh I dont know, say the biggest public education bailout in the history of CA? 150 million in the hole, and they still will not learn!

As you all know but may too politicaly correct to say, or are just joined at the hip with the OEA, OUSD has no cure!

By: Jim Mordecai

Jim Mordecai — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:24:07 +0000

M.B:

Fact check: 1) The School Board has been replaced by a State administration for the last six years. 2) The School Board’s salary was zero under the State take-over until this year when it was given back most of its former responsibilities. In January the Board tried to increase their salary to the maximum allowed under State law but since the Board’s finance is still managed by the State they could not increase their salary and the State Administrator did not try to increase the Board’s salary. 3) Totally agree with your point that the children “have been left to pay…”

Here is an unfairness not the fault of the Board but of the legislature and their education code. Certain OUSD schools mismanaged their instructional minutes and an audit found that certain schools did not have their students attend the state’s minimum required instructional minutes. The Ed Code redresses the lack of instructional minutes by making future OUSD students’ that attend a school with shorted instructional minutes make up that shortage times two. The teachers, students, and even administrator may not have been at the school but they must make up for the administrative screw-up. Not a fair system when the adults screw-up and future enrolled students must pay.

Jim Mordecai

By: Nextset

Nextset — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Well, thay can’t manage education and they can’t manage money either. I’m not surprised. I hope the Charters manage their money better. I see the Charters are taking over “education” in OUSD territory.

By: Mahogany Blue

Mahogany Blue — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:24:37 +0000

In 2007, Maxwell Park International Academy was formed under the Small Schools umbrella. District officials promised to assist the Principal and her staff in preparing students to become global citizens. We tried to have the school exterior repainted , but couldn’t because district contractors wanted $50,000 to do it. For two years I’ve heard “we don’t know where the money went”, but the children are stiil suffer lacking equity in education. The entire board should be indited and replaced. There salaries only got bigger since the takeover. The children have been left to pay for moneys stolen by adults. The clicks and gangs of the OUSD office must be brought to justice or we will a very destructive future filled with youth not ready for the global workforce. You want to know where the money went check the pockets of union leaders, ethics of board members, and the greivences filed by teachers who have no business in the classroom. OUSD should not be trusted in what is turning out to be a RICO violation $115,000,000. Check OUSD contracts since 1999.

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:04:04 +0000

Wow! Just Wow!! Can you smell it? That stench! I can’t tell if it’s coming from Oakland or Sacramento, but it stinks REAL bad.

This has got to be the biggest outrage of them all. Five years into a financially-motivated takeover and they just reconcile cash and it’s the Board that hires the auditor. Wow!

Shameful!!

I know what my handle says – The Truth Hurts – but this is ridiculous. I don’t believe in witch hunts, which is what they’ll get at next Board meeting, but maybe I should make an exception.

Let’s just hope there was nothing criminal done with the money. The last thing Oakland needs is another scandal.

Why again should I send my kids to OUSD?

By: Judy

Judy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:05:17 +0000

Not only are they fiscally incompetent, how about asking the district what happened to the missing high school transcripts from 1989-1991. Students looking for these transcripts to further their education are out of luck!

By: FAYRAYE

FAYRAYE — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:34:19 +0000

i believe that they should cut all the top officials pay checks, all they do is walk around anyway. then tahey should give te teachers and instructional assistance raises that i know for a fact that they are making the same pay from the nineties, also give the kids some books.
we need to think about the kids not the 6 digit ballers that sit around and talk about golf, if the instructors are under paid, then thats all the energy they are going to put into the students.
also fire those incompetents in the payroll dept hire out to the people that actually go to school for the job (adp) for example.
thank you

By: Jack Gerson

Jack Gerson — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:29:44 +0000

So let’s get this straight. The state comes in and takes over the school district, supposedly to put the district’s finances in order. Then, under the state receivership, they use the pretext of “fiscal responsibility” to justify closing schools, closing libraries, eliminating electives, laying off school custodians, maintenance workers, food service workers, etc. And now it turns out that they — the state administration — close to doubled the original debt. Where did the money go? Perhaps the $77 million in this year’s budget for consulting and outsourcing contracts provides a clue. The state wants to pull out and leave the district in a hole twice as deep as when they came in six years ago. The least they could do is to cancel that part of the district’s debt run up under the state administration.