Oakland School Board Votes to Remove Superintendent, Sparking Worries of Instability

Oakland’s school board voted Wednesday night to remove its superintendent, capping weeks of swirling rumors about her employment.

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell will leave her post on June 30 after agreeing to a “voluntary separation agreement,” passed by a 4-3 board vote. Previously, she was expected to remain at the helm through 2027 to ease the transition to her successor but step back from leading day-to-day operations at the end of this school year.

Board member Mike Hutchinson voted against the deal, saying that Johnson-Trammell, who was not present at the meeting, was pushed out after the board majority abruptly moved to change the terms of her contract earlier this month.

“We have four [board] directors who are risking all of the gains that we made, forcing out the superintendent,” he said. “Don’t be confused. The reason she’s getting a payout is because she didn’t resign. This wasn’t her plan.”

Board members who supported the superintendent’s renegotiation have not yet said why her contract was changed.

Under the separation deal, Johnson-Trammell will be named “superintendent emeritus” of the district through mid-January. A new interim superintendent will be appointed July 1, according to board members.

Before her contract was changed, Johnson-Trammell was expected to present an interim leadership plan divvying up responsibilities to members of her senior leadership team this spring.

Until June 2027, she would have continued to serve as the superintendent in name but focused on special projects, including networking with local and state partners and helping select her successor.

“As I prepare to turn the page, I do so knowing that Oakland Unified is positioned to keep moving forward — with clarity, compassion, and courage,” she said in a statement on Wednesday night. “I will always champion the district and our students, with love and confidence that our shared commitment to joyful, thriving schools will continue to lead the way.”

Johnson-Trammell has led the Oakland Unified School District since 2017, walking it back from the brink of financial insolvency and bringing stability to the embattled district for the first time since it declared bankruptcy and was bailed out by the state in 2003. She previously attended OUSD schools and spent 18 years as a teacher and administrator in the district.

The announcement of her departure was met with boos from the crowd gathered for the meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School on Wednesday night, many of whom credited her for getting the district back on track after years of volatility.

“The superintendent’s stability has really led to the growth of really strong programs and beginning of results happening for students inside the district,” said Kimi Kean, who heads the advocacy group Families In Action. “Just the stability alone means there’s not that churn constantly. During those eight years, she’s really grown and retained a really strong senior team.”

Before Johnson-Trammell’s appointment, OUSD had had nine superintendents and state administrators since declaring bankruptcy.

A recent financial audit conducted as part of the district’s exit from state receivership credited Johnson-Trammell with the financial progress made.

“She understood from personal experience in Oakland how financial instability undermines our efforts toward student success,” it reads.

During her tenure, Johnson-Trammell oversaw near-constant money problems, as well as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several teacher strikes, and several stalled — and reversed — attempts to close schools in line with enrollment decline.

Kean said she also began meaningful community engagement efforts to improve student learning outcomes, especially around early literacy, calling the superintendent’s approach “a real transparent and collaborative process.”

Jumoke Hinton, a former school board member who voted to name Johnson-Trammell superintendent, said that she was responsible for improving high school graduation rates and completion of the coursework required for admission to the University of California system.

“She was responsible for significant focus on student achievement during the pandemic, [and] thoughtful leadership around students having what they needed,” Hinton said in an email. “Kyla was pragmatic. She withstood teacher strikes and truly gave a lot to teachers.

“She brought resources, she built a trust with partners across Oakland.”

While the district is set to exit state receivership after completing its final loan payments to the state this summer, it is not out of the woods financially and still faces significant challenges with enrollment, low test scores and teacher retention.

The audit report commending OUSD’s progress also noted that the district has administrative inefficiencies and is operating 30 more schools than is fiscally responsible, which Johnson-Trammell and her senior leadership team had tried repeatedly to address.

“We’re finally free of the oversight of the colonial model that we’ve had to operate under for almost a quarter of a century, and we did it with our homegrown Black and brown leadership here in OUSD,” Hutchinson said at the meeting.

He worries that the district could have to return to state oversight without steady leadership in place.

“I assume many of our senior staff … will follow our superintendent out the door,” he said.

Hutchinson accused the board members who voted in favor of the deal of colluding with the teachers’ union, which is preparing to strike for the fourth time in recent years on May 1 over fiscal transparency concerns.

“They’re openly colluding with [union] leadership. Today, they also refused to vote to protect the district against a strike,” he said.

Cary Kaufman, the president of the administrators’ union, said during the meeting that leaders of the teachers’ union had threatened members in recent weeks.

He said one principal was told: “We control the board. We got Kyla fired, we can get you fired.”

Oakland Education Association President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer said Johnson-Trammell had made positive strides for the district, but noted that throughout her tenure, there have been three labor strikes, including one in 2023 that led to a weeklong instruction stoppage.

Before the vote on Wednesday, she said, that no matter who was superintendent after the meeting, it was important to the union to improve labor relations.

“We have had significant labor challenges in this district, and who takes [her] place is of interest for us,” she told KQED.

Most people in the community who spoke with KQED said their top priority was a transparent, community-driven process to select a new leader — something they aren’t sure the current school board is committed to delivering.

“It seems like when it comes to the board, there’s a lack of transparency for the majority,” parent Alisha Powell said Wednesday.