GO Board Watch: April 26, 2017
Welcome to GO’s School Board Watch for Wednesday, April 26, 2017.
This week’s agenda includes:
- Layoffs/Additions of Classified Staff for 2017-18
- Web content accessibility for people with disabilities
- Comprehensive School Safety Plans
- Civics Instruction – College, Career, and Community Readiness
- New web-based budget tool
- OUSD contract for Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) study
- Debt Issuance and Management Policy
- Issuance and Sale of 2016-17 Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes
- Issuance and Sale of 2017 General Obligation Refunding Bonds
Additionally, the Board will hear the following items that were scheduled for April 12, 2017, but postponed. Descriptions of these items can be found here:
- Creation of Pathways and feeder patterns
- OUSD’s 2017 State Legislative Platform and Position on Certain State Legislative Bills
- Professional Learning Communities and Continuous School Improvement
1). Professional Culture
Layoffs/Additions of Classified Staff
The Board will vote whether to approve the District’s recommendations on classified staff reductions and additions for 2017-18. Citing the need to reduce expenditures on staff salary to account for the District’s difficult budget situation, the District is recommending a net reduction of 140.96 classified positions. More details on which positions are being added or reduced can be found in the District’s recommendation.
Web Content Accessibility for People with Disabilities
On January 25, 2016, the Board approved a resolution that requires the District to submit a plan to make OUSD’s web content accessible to people with disabilities, including: an audit of all current web content for accessibility, a plan to ensure that new content is accessible, and a corrective plan to make old content more accessible to people with disabilities.
In compliance with that resolution, the Board will be voting to approve the District’s plan to generate new web content that is accessible to people with disabilities.
2). Quality Schools Development
The Board will be voting on a board policy that would make OUSD a “Civic Learning Partnership School District.” It would require the District to begin extensive data collection on the current state of civic learning, and then work with all stakeholders to develop a five-year plan for “increasing civic learning opportunities for students with special attention given to those demographic groups that are underserved and less resourced.”
The board policy reaffirms that civic education is crucial to a healthy democracy and that civic education has many additional benefits, such as strengthening critical thinking and collaboration skills.
Comprehensive School Safety Plans
The Board will be voting to approve comprehensive school safety plans for OUSD schools. These plans include practices and protocols for responding to emergencies like earthquakes and violence.
3). Budget and Fiscal Management
As of 4 PM, 4/25/17, the presentation for the Superintendent Report has not been posted.
Contract for FCMAT Study of OUSD
The Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) is an independent state agency that helps California’s local educational agencies fulfill their financial and management responsibilities by providing fiscal advice, management assistance, training and other related school business services.
If the contract is approved, OUSD will pay FCMAT $30,000 to conduct a Fiscal Health Risk Analysis to determine the district’s risk rating. The results of the analysis will be sent to the OUSD Superintendent, as well as the Alameda County Superintendent.
Debt Issuance and Management Policy
The Board will hear a second reading of a Debt Issuance and Management Policy that would reflect new state mandates on how districts may issue debt and for what purposes.
Issuance of 2016-17 Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes
“The Governor’s January Budget proposed to shift a portion of the Local Control
Funding Formula expenditures from June of 2017 to July of 2017 in order to maintain 2016-17 programmatic expenditure levels in light of the reduction to Proposition 98 funding for 2016-17 compared to the 2016 Budget Act. District staff anticipates that, if implemented, this will result in slightly less than $10 million of 2016-17 revenues being received in July of fiscal year 2017-18. The proposed resolution authorizes a not-to-exceed amount of $10,000,000 of Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes which the District will sell to the County if the Governor’s proposed deferral is enacted. Tax and revenue anticipation notes are short term debt instruments used to finance cash flow deficits in anticipation of receiving taxes and other revenues. This borrowing will help the district maintain its reserves until the state money is received.”
Issuance and Sale of 2017 General Obligation Refunding Bonds
“The Board is asked to approve the Resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of refunding bonds. The district currently has bonds outstanding from both Measure B and Measure J that were issued as unrated bonds. Now that the District’s rating have been reinstated by all three ratings agencies, the District can refund these bonds at more advantageous rates. The lower interest rates on the refunding bonds will translate directly to taxpayer savings. District staff estimate that the net present value of the savings generated by these refunding will be just over $40 million. The proposed resolution authorizes the issuance of the refunding bonds, approves forms of the major documents necessary to accomplish the transaction, and delegates to staff the responsibility for finalizing the refunding.”
4). Board Development and Strategy
- No informational or action items presented.
5). Other
- No informational or action items presented.