According to a recent hand out on OUSD budget, from CFO Hal, $14,873,932 of Measure G monies is used for RBB monies allocated to the school sites.

I assume that this does not count the Measure G money spent on elementary prep period or teacher benefits payments. These cannot be RBB monies because the site has no control over the money.

Point here is that of course principals want control over their budgets, but all money is not equal and can come with restrictions.

Restrictions are placed on state and federal monies and restrictions are supposed to be placed on Measure G money and there is a board appointed Citizens’ Oversight Committee that must rule on how the money is spent.

Unfortunately, during the state take-over Measure E/G money was spent for purposes that the voters had not authorized. If the newly appointed Oversight Committee is not as lax there will be less money to support RBB coming from Measure G parcel tax.

If the current contract with the teachers is to be settled in the current environment of state imposed cuts, the amount of money allocated for RBB will have to be reduced.

The question for RBB is not just who gets to make decision on how money is spent, but how will RBB continue to be financed?

Ending RBB will not make principals happy but it will help to cut costs that almost all other school districts do not have.

In addition, it is hard to justify cutting teachers when RBB needs to fund coaches to make it work?

Gordon’s point about RSS is asking too much of principals is well made.

Jim Mordecai

For one, it would be important to know how many of these principals had ever worked with the previous style of budgeting. If they had never personally experienced both forms, a comparison would mean very little!

If vanilla ice cream is the only flavor you’ve ever tasted, you might say it’s your favorite one!

Could it be that there are pros and cons for both systems which few, if any, principals remaining in OUSD are capable of elaborating upon? When RBB was instituted, what specifically was gained; what specifically was lost?

As for the one-third of the principals who didn’t feel prepared or equipped to run their entire school budget, it reminds me of the time I attended the first School Site Council of the year, and the new principal came right out and confessed that she “didn’t know a thing about budgets,” but that she had been given three coaches to help her. I’m glad she was honest, but learning this wasn’t particularly confidence-boosting.