As part of a packed meeting agenda on Tuesday, March 24, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Education approved successor agreements with its labor partners for 2025-2028.
Labor agreements
Ahead of the approvals of the Collective Bargaining Unit Agreements AUSD signed in March with its labor partners, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Shariq Khan presented the budget implications as part of a state-mandated public hearing to disclose multi-year costs.
The overview was largely an abridged version of the Second Interim Report that Khan delivered two weeks earlier, during the March 10 Board meeting, focusing on the key tenets and the use of limited one-time funds for the agreements. Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi emphasized that the annual drawdown of available funds could result in a “structural deficit” by the 2029-2030 school year based on current projections, though the outlook will likely change depending on the ability to secure new funding sources.
Options to deal with that deficit could include waiting until the 2029-2030 school year before implementing a significant expenditure reduction, or acting early by using available one-time funds and making incremental reductions to spending. The issue with relying on one-time funds, however, is that there is no guarantee they will be replenished, so further staffing and programming decisions are needed to determine how to reduce dependence.
“The agreements are real, the costs are known, and the one-time funding strategy will require constant monitoring,” added Khan. “The choices ahead are not emergencies yet, but they will demand discipline, timing, and shared responsibility.”
As part of the following agenda item, the Board considered one such decision to divert the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials (AMIM) Discretionary Block Grant, a one-time fund provided by the state, to support salaries, benefits, and supplies within the special education (SPED) program. According to Khan, the proposed alternative use of the $5.3 million is allowable and offers the district greater fiscal capacity and flexibility, as its application for SPED—a restricted fund—frees up the same amount in the unrestricted general fund.
The Board unanimously approved the item, as well as the agreements with Alameda Education Association (AEA), California School Employees Association (CSEA) Chapter 27, and CSEA Chapter 860. (Vice President Heather Little was absent.) As part of the approval process, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Tim Erwin explained that negotiations stretched over a year, spanning 13 sessions, and highlighted the accomplishments within each agreement.
“Thank you for your guidance, your feedback, and your steadfast support,” said Erwin, as he addressed the Board. “We negotiate on your behalf. Your leadership is essential to reaching an agreement that reflects our shared values and our priorities.”
Other notable items
Earlier in the meeting, during public comment on consent calendar items, several members of the Alameda High School (AHS) community responded to AUSD’s decision to hire Timothy Harp—who currently serves as the principal of both the East Bay Arts High School and Royal Sunset High School in the San Lorenzo Unified School District—as the new principal at AHS to take the place of Angela Barrett, who will depart at the end of the school year. They wondered why Michael Lee, an AHS assistant principal who has served in multiple roles at the school in the last 15 years, was not chosen as principal despite apparent support from a wide sample of parents, students, and teachers, and asked for additional transparency from the hiring process.
“There is a significant disconnect between what our community looks like, and what AUSD teaching staff and leadership look like,” said Rebecca Baumgartner, who teaches Ethnic Studies at Alameda High School and Alameda Adult School.
“It’s shocking to me, in light of our efforts to combat systemic racism and ideological oppression, that recently the Superintendent and his cabinet selected a candidate other than Michael Lee for the position of Principal at AHS,” she continued.
In response, the Board members thanked the speakers for their advocacy, and admitted that hiring processes can sometimes be messy and more can always be done to improve transparency, but ultimately approved the entire consent calendar in a unanimous vote, with Little absent and the two student Board members in attendance abstaining.
The Board also heard from leadership at Ruby Bridges Elementary School and Encinal Jr. & Sr. High School about ongoing work to support student success.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
