You make a good point that a public school budget is dynamic with estimates of income and expenses changing constantly as operating costs change and income changes.

To follow reports on the OUSD budget, it is also helpful to remember the THETRUTHHURTS explanation of “found money” means that when you, the District, close its books and “reconcile your budgeted expenses against your ACTUAL expenses” if income exceeds expenses it becomes “found money”.

Susan also makes an important point that all money is not the same and some of the “found money” may be restricted to certain purposes or flexible and can be spent on a range of purposes.

The ECE “found money” was considered money that could be expended on financing ECE until December.

What adds to complexity of budgeting is that what at what first appeared a legitimate expenditure may be ruled–even years later– not legitimate expenditure and the money will have to be repaid out of a future budget.

In the above comments I mentioned “books” as being a record of revenue and expenses but these records are UNEDITED ACTUALS. That means in the future there could be an audit that turns up inaccurate records and “found” money or more likely: “found” debt.

One more element is borrowing. Revenue is on the books but it comes in overtime and the District one month to the next will not have revenue to cover operational expenses (paid employees and bills). In the past before state take-over the District could borrow against future revenue to maintain cash flow. Now I believe the District is borrowing bond revenue to maintain cash flow. Borrowing is yet another complexity in a very complex web called budgeting.

Jim Mordecai

I remember when OUSD has over $10 million in unspent categorical money. That is shameful because it means kids missed out on the services provided by that money. My understanding is they’ve improved somewhat from those days.

Categorical and federal dollars are specific in their intent. Money given to turn around a school, is meant for that.

Its too bad the state will not enforce, but that is part of the public education problem.

Its not Tony Smith, Oakland, its the board who has the say.

Public agencies have to build budgets based on estimated revenue (income) and estimated costs (expenses). When either of those variables change, the other is impacted. And in education, those variables change a lot.

The governor can choose to not pass a budget, so the income variable shifts. Vendors can change the price of pencils or milk or health insurance for dependents, so the expenses variable shifts. EVERYONE has to come along for the ride.

“Found” money isn’t really found, it’s just the result of a shift in income or expenses.

Just like we all have a mental list of what we’d do if we got a raise or spent less on groceries a few weeks in a row, it’s the job of the fiscal team to match those priorities with whatever comes up.

I, for one, trust that Tony Smith will make the right choices as limbo and reality move around each other.

This is why they will eventually be bankrupt and forced to close,. Gutless spending and decisions.

Inner city schools- who cares?

Years ago, I made the mistake of believing Hayward Unified when they said they didn’t have enough money. I went searching through the budget myself to see what could be cut. It was a big learning curve for me and still I missed the millions they “found” later when they needed it for one of their own projects.

I just can’t believe they are so incompetent, they must be stashing it away out of sight. Let’s demand transparency along with accountability.