Oakland School Board Set to Extend Denise Saddler’s Superintendent Contract

Oakland’s school board plans to vote Wednesday to extend its interim chief’s term and make her the official superintendent, despite mounting calls from district administrators and county officials to hire a long-term leader.

Interim Superintendent Denise Saddler will have her contract with Oakland Unified School District extended through the 2026-27 academic year, with a salary of $367,765.45 per year, according to an employment agreement expected to be approved on Wednesday.

Oakland’s school board previously initiated plans to select a permanent superintendent by the fall, but quietly delayed the search earlier this year.

“The proposed agreement reflects the [board of education’s] determination that continuity in executive leadership is in the best interests of the district as Oakland Unified continues implementation of its fiscal stabilization strategies, academic priorities, labor relations initiatives, and operational improvements,” Saddler’s employment agreement reads.

Saddler took the helm of the district to serve as a transitional leader after longtime superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell departed unexpectedly amid disagreements with the school board last spring.

Saddler’s initial contract last June set out a yearlong term, which the district wrote would “allow for a robust search for a permanent superintendent,” expected to take over in July 2026.

In November, the board approved a $150,000 contract with a consulting firm to carry out that search, but Board President Jennifer Brouhard told KQED last month that the process never truly got off the ground.

In January, when the board began to discuss hiring, she said, most members felt that they needed to focus on stabilizing a major financial crisis first. OUSD must cut more than $100 million in ongoing expenses this year to balance its budget, and has received repeated warnings from Alameda County’s Office of Education that it could risk falling back into insolvency without significant spending adjustments.

“No work was done, no money has been paid for the work [to] the search firm for the superintendent search,” Brouhard said. “Hopefully, we’ll be resuming that in the early part of the fall.”

The board has gotten some pushback for delaying the search, including from principals, who said last month that they’re concerned about transparency in the process.

“When Dr. Johnson-Tramell was removed from her position as superintendent, the community was told that the Board would engage in an extensive, nationwide search for our next leader,” reads an April letter to Saddler and the school board signed by more than 60 of the roughly 80 OUSD principals. “We have not been updated as to the state of the permanent superintendent search.”

The administrators said they were told there would be an engagement process, and that the firm selected to lead the search would present candidates in January and February of this year, before a finalist was selected by April.

“Where were the opportunities for stakeholder input? In what ways were school leaders consulted … and, if the search has been suspended, where is the transparent communication regarding this?” the letter continued.

Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro also warned the district last month that without permanent employees in multiple key roles, it was “increasing risk given the urgency and complexity of current fiscal decisions.”

In the fall, OUSD’s top financial officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, abruptly resigned after Saddler apparently undermined her team’s budget planning. OUSD’s chief of staff was also terminated.

Saddler has since brought on consultants from the same firm hired to conduct the superintendent search to help develop the 2026-27 budget. Initially, the district hired Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates through May, for a price of $415,000, but last month extended their contract through the end of the year, adding another $450,000 to its total price tag.

Brouhard told KQED in April that the district never planned to hire a new chief business officer to replace Grant-Dawson, but will instead transition those responsibilities to a chief financial officer.

Saddler, a veteran Bay Area educator, has worn many hats during her decades at Oakland Unified School District — from teaching to leading as a principal to working as an area superintendent in the district’s central office. She also served as the president of the Oakland Education Association, the district’s teachers union, for six years.