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Board hears budget figures and pushes for an itemized, transparent budget
Summary
Board members reviewed line items including teacher salaries (~$81.4M of ~$123M total salaries) and asked the administration and CFO for phased public briefings and a fully itemized budget narrative; finance committee reported upcoming forums and preliminary bus-electrification discussions.
At the Nov. 24 meeting the board discussed detailed budget figures and next steps for public transparency as the district prepares fiscal-year materials.
Board member Doctor Benitez read salary figures from the general-fund report and asked for clearer public briefings. A board member summarized totals: "I read here that...we spent about 123,000,000 in total salaries. Out of that, 81,000,000 are for teachers, 18,000,000 are for administration and management...paraprofessionals are only 3,000,000," the board member said, asking for a phased approach to make those sections familiar to the public ahead of full presentations.
Finance and operations chair reported that the CFO had presented budget-mitigation options, and previewed five planned public forums across the city to increase engagement. The chair also moved and the board approved a consent package that included four abstracts, an agreement, two amendments, three purchase orders and one change order from the agenda.
Board members urged producing a fully itemized budget with a narrative explanation for each line item and a "what-if" staffing model showing what the district could provide under equitable funding. "If it's Tic Tacs, I want to know how much money we spend on Tic Tacs," one board member said, calling for transparency down to small expenditures.
The finance committee also noted a presentation from a green-transportation group about school-bus electrification and said the district may pursue funding pathways for electric buses after the new year.
The board asked the administration and CFO to develop a schedule and format to present budget sections at future F&O meetings and to incorporate grant and major funding streams into public-facing materials.
