Borenstein: This Bay Area school board was taken over by the teacher’s union

With the Oakland school board vote last November the teachers union effectively took control of the district The chaos that has ensued threatens the district s fiscal stability just as it s about to emerge this summer from years of receivership after paying off a record million state bailout loan What should be a moment of celebration for the Oakland Unified School District has morphed in the past two months into one of the worst periods of uncertainty in years for the already dysfunctional organization leaving troubling questions about its future This is what can happen when unions take over society agency boards The district s well-regarded superintendent was forced out early A plan to close a million budget gap for next school year was upended Essential planning for school consolidations has stalled And costly promises were made to teachers to head off a one-day strike The district s problems are not due to lack of money Oakland s per-pupil spending of in was tops among California s largest school districts But the district has failed to adjust to a loss of almost of its candidate enrollment since the late s Consequently it has the the majority schools relative to its learner population of any district in the state Keeping small schools creates wasteful administrative and maintenance costs siphoning money that could be better used in classrooms As the Oakland district prepares to pay off what was and is the largest such state bailout loan in state history it s at liability of going right back into receivership Alysse Castro Alameda County s superintendent of schools warned district trustees last month that bankruptcy remains a possibility While the internal fiscal system and controls are much stronger in current times than they were years ago a large number of of OUSD s long standing structural issues that led to financial instability remain wrote Castro who is legally responsible for reviewing district finances Grown people Her warning came after the union-led board majority in March pushed through an alternative to the previously agreed budget cuts The changes were so haphazard that the state-mandated trustee overseeing the receivership in an April confidential memo scolded the board s behavior Governance is serious work for serious people wrote Trustee Luz T C zares who holds veto authority over board actions until the state intervention officially ends Exiting receivership requires grown people to be grown But as C zares memo was landing the school board majority was launching plans to push out district Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel who had navigated the district through the COVID pandemic and implemented the fiscal controls that were key to ending state oversight Her eight-year tenure makes her Oakland s longest-serving superintendent since Under a contract approved by the board last year Johnson-Trammel was to stay until June But starting Sept she was to work on special projects assigned by the board and prepare for a transition to her successor The new board majority craved her out sooner Under a new separation agreement Johnson-Trammel will step down as superintendent July to work on special projects until Jan After that she will receive the equivalent of an additional nine months salary and benefits On April the same day Johnson-Trammel s separation agreement was finalized the school board despite warnings that Oakland still faces very formidable financial choices agreed to million of educator union demands to stave off a threatened one-day strike Unlikely to meet obligations The chaos comes from the votes of four union-backed trustees on Oakland s seven-member board Valerie Bachelor who worked as lead organizer of the California Federation of Teachers VanCedric Williams a member of the California Teachers Association Board of Directors Jennifer Brouhard who retired after teaching in Oakland schools for years and Rachel Latta a nurse midwife with three children Latta is the newcomer having just won poll in November and providing the swing vote for labor s lock on the board The other three have been union-loyal board members who during the Oakland teachers walkout called a press conference to publicly side with the strikers All four in endorsement interviews with the teachers Oakland Guidance Association pledged unequivocally or conditionally to oppose school closures Opposition to school closures has become a political litmus test for candidates seeking the union s endorsement even though savings from closures could be redirected to keeping educator jobs and bolstering salaries Closing and consolidating small schools are an essential part of a broader cost-cutting plan If the board does not act the district will face a million deficit three years from now according to a new fiscal systems audit of the district conducted by EideBailly a certified citizens accounting and business advisory firm Failure to act would lead to state financial intervention throwing the district right back into state oversight It is unclear whether the district can or will take sufficient action to avert additional outside intervention according to the EideBailly audit For that reason our firm foresees that the district is unlikely to meet its obligations within the next to months To be sure this is not the first time that union-backed board members have held a majority of board seats Nor are the dire fiscal warnings or the need for school closures new But in the past there was a willingness to listen to the advice of professional staff This year seems different There s a new militancy and willingness to run roughshod over that advice In the past couple of months with the early dismissal of the superintendent the fiscally irresponsible strike-avoidance payoff to teachers and haphazard financial planning the new majority has signaled it plans to do things its way For the Oakland school district a new era of uncertainty has begun Reach Editorial Page Editor Daniel Borenstein at dborenstein bayareanewsgroup com