OAKLAND — As the date approaches for the Oakland Unified school board to decide where to cut $15.1 million from the budget, parents, teachers, students and school staffers continue to urge board members to keep the bleeding as far away from children as possible.

“We students don’t get all of the basic needs and resources at school as it is, and cutting the ones that we do have would make it an even bigger struggle for us to perform well academically,” said Oakland High senior Kaylyn Saechao, a student organizer with Oakland Kids First.

Though school board members expressed their empathy, they said it’s likely impossible to reach fiscal solvency without dipping into school sites’ budgets. The district’s mid-year budget adjustment proposal includes about $5.6 million in cuts to school sites, according to Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammel’s presentation at Monday’s board meeting.

Proposed cuts are to be discussed at the school board’s budget and finance committee meeting Dec. 6 as well as a special board meeting Dec. 7.The board is scheduled to make its final decision on where to cut at its Dec. 13 meeting.

The proposed adjustments to the school sites budget include buying fewer supplies, copiers and books; hiring fewer substitutes to relieve teachers while they undergo evaluations and professional development training; reducing or eliminating contract services such as mental health support and facilitated yard play; revising budgets based on actual enrollment numbers; and cutting services and stipends.

The rest of the cuts under the current plan would come from the district’s central — or administrative — office budget. They include laying off as many as 300 full-time employees in management, clerical and classified support positions. The district would only fill vacancies in “critical positions necessary for the effective operations of the organization,” according to Johnson-Trammell’s presentation. From $500,000 to $1 million in cuts also would be made to contractors and contracted services, books and supplies. And some senior administrators may be forced to donate five to 10 unpaid work days.

Johnson-Trammell said she accepts the responsibility to “right the ship” during her first school year as superintendent. She, along with several board members, apologized to the audience Monday for the district’s budget woes.

“For the sake of our children, we must do better as a district, and stay committed to fiscal vitality in the long run,” Johnson-Trammell said. “I say that as a teacher who was laid off when we first went into state receivership, and as a principal during state receivership.”

The district has found itself in a budget crisis after five years of increased spending and budget fluctuations under the leadership of former superintendent Antwan Wilson despite flat attendance and declining enrollment. Since 2013, the district has spent millions of dollars more than budgeted on professional and consulting services, supervisors and administrators, all while spending millions less than budgeted on books and supplies.

From the $15.1 million the district proposes to remove from budget operations, it would allocate $1.2 million to restore its reserve account to the minimum required to avoid state receivership, $7.2 million to boost that reserve account, $4.7 million to bolster specific required programs and $2 million to rebuild the district’s self-insurance fund.

The board also is being asked to take $11.2 million from the 2018-19 budget and tuck $5.2 million of it into reserves and $6 million into a self-insurance fund.

Parents, students, teachers and residents packed Monday’s meeting to express their concerns about the cuts to school sites. Students from elementary, middle and high schools said many of their classes are already operating on shoestring budgets and further cuts to services and programs — especially janitorial services and special education programs — would be devastating.

“These programs are essential to the development of Oakland youth that will be the future of our city,” said Oakland Tech student Asmani Mason, who also is a student organizer with Oakland Kids First. “By cutting (services at) OUSD schools, you are penalizing our students, your students, for the fault that they did not commit.”

Retired teacher Mary Hill said that over the years, the school district has not invested necessary resources into students, leaving them with “deficits and issues that need to be addressed before they can be successful in reaching the goals that we set for them.” For the school district to consider making even more cuts to school sites is “frightening,” she said.

“It would exacerbate an already desperate situation in many of our schools,” Hill added.

After hearing the many speakers, most board members expressed remorse for allowing overspending over the past five years. Board member Roseann Torres even began to cry as she explained feeling pressured into voting on things and at times not fully understanding the implications.

“My daughter just graduated last year in June from Oakland public schools, and I’m very sorry for what we’re sitting here dealing with, because in many ways, I failed even my own child,” Torres said.