Arts education is a powerful medium through which students develop social skills, engage with their community and enhance their creative capital and skills for expression often relied on for successful careers. Over the 2015-16 school year, Measure G funds for the arts were spent primarily on consultants. Community artists are sometimes hired as consultants to support arts education in the district.
Basic School Support funding is allocated directly to schools and almost exclusively spent on teacher salaries and benefits. It supports a few key Measure G ballot language initiatives. However, the Measure G Committee recommended in 2015-16 that OUSD reduce the amount of Measure G funds assigned to the Basic School Support category so that the designation of Measure G funds better aligned with the ballot language. The Committee and OUSD staff will be working to better designate these funds in the 2016-17 school year.
Measure G is used to fund additional teacher positions at the elementary level in order to reduce class sizes. With Measure G funds, average class size across all K-3 classrooms was 15.4 students in 2015-16. Without Measure G funds, the average class size would have risen just slightly, by only 0.63 students per class, to an average of 16.03 students. A nearly $5 million investment of Measure G funds reduced class sizes by less than one (1) student in 2015-16.
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The Covered Elementary Intervention funding is allocated directly to school sites in order to give classroom teachers time to plan, assess student work, and collaborate with peer teachers through the use of prep periods.
Measure G funds support approximately $1 million of the approximately $6 million Talent Division budget. $827,000 of Measure G revenue funded 8.2 FTE across 11 different positions in the Talent Division, which had a total of 49 FTE. Measure G funded Talent Division positions focus on recruitment and retention activities.
Measure G funds were spent on middle school electives in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years. Since then, no Measure G funds were spent on middle school electives.
Funding in music allows the District to provide access to quality music instruction, to build school cultures that support learning through music and to prepare teachers to teach in and through music. This funding supports teachers on special assignments or consultants to provide the District’s students with benefit of having a creative expert.
A description of this program is unavailable.
OFASS is a collaborative program funded and operated through OUSD and community partners. Through Measure G’s support, elementary school aged OUSD students can enroll in and attend this integrative arts summer program.The summer program runs for full days for 4 weeks during the summer. Students are grouped by grade level and/or experience and are assigned classes in several areas of the arts. For example, class offerings include art – set design, drama, music – voice, video production, and dance. The summer program culminates on a staged performance featuring all students’ participants. Measure G funding covers the cost of stipends and salaries and benefits for teachers and consultants.
Funding is provided to support numerous community events. Funding is allocated in part for staff salary and benefits to support after-hours work. The District also funded some consultants to provide expertise and support to staff surrounding the major events.
A large portion of this funding covers the costs of supplies required to plan and host large community events such as rentals, refreshments and other general supplies. Events include the Oratorical Fest and our annual spelling bee contest.
Measure G revenue has been the sole Oakland Unified School District source of funding for libraries at school sites. If Measure G funds are not provided to a school site for a library, the school must raise its own funds or seek volunteers to staff its library. Measure G funds the district librarian position at the central level.