The Oakland Unified School District has released its unaudited actuals for the 2024-25 budget, revealing a significant decline in financial reserves. The district’s Unrestricted General Fund Balance dropped from $58.4 million to $55.8 million, a figure that marks a continued downward trend from the previous year’s balance of $118 million—a 53% decrease.
Within this total, the Base General Fund Balance, which supports core operations, fell sharply from $21.8 million at June budget adoption to $3.4 million after year-end reconciliation. These numbers set the starting point for the current 2025-26 school year and have raised concerns about meeting state-mandated reserve requirements.
“Back at budget adoption in June, we projected that our current spending patterns would further decrease the Unrestricted General Fund Balance this year by $30 million and that we might barely maintain our 3% reserve at the end of the year as required by Board policy. Now, with the Unaudited Actuals showing an even lower Beginning Balance of $55.8 million for 2025-26, we are projected to fail to meet the State-required 2% reserve in June 2026,” according to Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson.
District officials have stated they must develop a plan to restore reserves as they prepare for both this year’s budget and next year’s development process. The First Interim Report will be presented in December and reviewed by Alameda County.
“As we have been saying since early in the 2024-25 school year, the District is currently deficit spending about $4 million per month, that is, spending $4 million more every month than it’s receiving in revenues. The more we do that moving forward, the more we diminish our reserves, until eventually, we run out of money,” said Grant-Dawson.
She emphasized that running out of funds is not an option: “As a school district where the mission is educating children, we cannot run out of money, and the State and County won’t let that happen. But we need to prevent it from getting to that point in the first place. The District will need to make some very difficult choices in the near future to remain financially solvent, and the closing of the books is just the latest evidence of the urgency of our situation.”
The district has started a Community Learning Series on its budgeting process to engage families and community members. The first session on how district budgeting works has already taken place online; another session focusing on centralized budgeting is scheduled for September 29 via Zoom.
Budget strategies will be discussed at upcoming Board meetings on September 24 and October 8. Additionally, initial strategies will be considered during a Budget and Finance Committee meeting on October 2.
Oakland Unified expects a review letter from Alameda County Superintendent of Schools by September 15 regarding approval of its adopted budget—a standard requirement despite OUSD’s exit from state receivership.
Lisa Grant-Dawson concluded her message by inviting continued community involvement: “Over the next few months, there will be many opportunities for you to share your ideas and make clear to staff and the Board what you feel is most important as we formulate plans moving forward. We will update and invite you when all of these engagements are scheduled.”
