GO Board Watch: September 12, 2017
Welcome to GO’s School Board Watch for the meeting taking place Wednesday, September 13, 2017.
This week will be the first for a reformatted Board Watch. In order to make the Board Watch more accessible, we’ll be offering more concise summaries of the legislative items we believe are most important for our community to know about. The legislative items will be categorized in alignment with the subjects filter in GO’s new Vote Tracker.
We will continue to provide the community with more detailed analysis of the big issues through blogs, community meetings, and network emails.
This week’s agenda includes:
- Education for Change petition for a new charter high school
- An update on WASC accreditation status
- Final Board of Education work plan
- Measure G1 spending plan for public charter middle schools
- Closing of the Books for 2016-17
- Due date extensions for the enrollment stabilization plan and budget postmortem report
Charter Petitions
Education for Change charter petition – Latitude 37.8 High School
The Board will hold a public hearing for a new charter petition from Education for Change for a proposed high school called Latitude 37.8. The proposed charter would extend from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023.
Board Governance
Final Board of Education work plan
As of <8:30 PM, 9/11/2017>, the final version of the Board of Education work plan has not been uploaded to ousd.legistar.com.
Budget and Finance
Closing of the Books for 2016-17
The closing of the books is the final reporting of the district’s final financial state for the 2016-17 school year, once all accounts are closed and payments have been made. The presentation has a lot of details, but here are a couple of highlights:
- The District ended the 2016-17 school year with a 0.5% financial reserve of $2.9 million. State law requires a reserve of at least 2%—in this case, $11 million.
- The District’s Self-Insurance Fund was depleted last year by approximately $8 million and will need to be rebuilt in the coming couple of years.
- The expenses increased by $9.1 million between the 3rd interim report and the closing of the books due to a number of issues, including a settlement with the OEA, and savings from the spending limitations protocol not materializing.
Tax Measures
Measure G1 for County Authorized Charter Schools.
The Board will consider a resolution about whether to permit charter schools located in Oakland, but authorized by Alameda County, to be eligible for funding under the G1 allocation formula (approved for district schools and district authorized charter schools). The resolution recommends that these charter schools are eligible if they in “good faith” pursue becoming a district-authorized charter school. The resolution provides further detail on the steps necessary to for a county authorized charter to be pursuing it in good faith.
G1 for district authorized charter schools
Under the consent agenda, a couple of items appear under which the board will consider the G1 commission’s recommendations about whether to approve the applications of a number of district authorized charter schools for G1 funds.
Schools
Update on WASC accreditation status
The Board will hear an update on the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation status of OUSD high schools.
Other
Due date extensions
Under the consent agenda, the Board will vote on the following due date extensions:
- Extend the due date for the Enrollment Stabilization Plan from October 12, 2017 to December 13, 2017.
- Extend the due date for the Post Mortem Report from August 2017 to October 15, 2017.
