Oakland’s cash-poor school district is about to cut a big check to City Hall. At last Tuesday's meeting, the Oakland City Council signed off on a settlement that requires the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to pay roughly $860,000 to cover the full cost of the 2022 school board election, even as the district stares down deep cuts and staff reductions.
Council approves $860,000 compromise
The council adopted a consent-calendar item instructing the city attorney to settle the case for an $860,000 payment, described as representing the full cost of the 2022 school board election, according to the Oakland City Council record. The resolution also urges OUSD to commit to paying its share of future election costs so the city is not left fronting the bill again.
City attorney says OUSD owes for multiple elections
The Office of the City Attorney sued OUSD in 2024, seeking roughly $1.5 million in unpaid election costs. The complaint argued that the district failed to pay what it owed for the 2020 and 2022 general elections, as well as an almost $600,000 special election in 2023, according to a city press release. City Attorney Barbara J. Parker’s office cast the lawsuit as an effort to enforce state law and the city charter rules that assign election expenses to the local governments that call those contests.
Why this matters for OUSD's budget
The $860,000 price tag is only a sliver of OUSD’s money problems, but it lands at a rough moment. The district is wrestling with roughly a $100 million deficit and has approved cuts that will eliminate more than 400 positions. At the same time, OUSD and its teachers recently reached a tentative agreement for raises of about 11 to 13 percent, a deal district officials say will add tens of millions of dollars to next year’s costs, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED.
Votes and next steps
The settlement sailed through on the consent calendar on a 5-0 vote, with Councilmembers Fife, Houston, Unger, Wang and Jenkins voting yes, and Councilmembers Brown, Gallo and Ramachandran listed as excused, according to the meeting record. The Oaklandside reports the council had already approved the settlement in a closed session last October, and that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters has been asked to bill OUSD separately for the 2023 special election the city says cost nearly $600,000.
Legal background
City attorneys point to the Oakland City Charter and the California Education Code, which assign responsibility for election costs to the jurisdictions that call those elections. The lawsuit and the resulting compromise were meant to lock that cost-sharing arrangement into place and head off future fights over who pays, according to the city attorney’s statement.
