Oakland Schools in Turmoil After 2 Key Officials Depart Over Budget Crisis
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"content": "\u003cp>Last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055977/ousd-just-got-control-of-its-finances-back-from-the-state-its-already-in-major-trouble\">tensions in Oakland’s school district\u003c/a> over how to stave off a massive budget shortfall came to a head when the district’s top financial officer abruptly resigned, and its chief of staff was terminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Grant-Dawson, who was brought into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> in 2020 to lead it out of two decades under state oversight, submitted her resignation on Friday, she told KQED. That same day, Chief of Staff Dan Bellino, who’s been with the district since July, was released by interim Superintendent Denise Saddler without warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Bellino confirmed he’d not been given cause for the termination, Grant-Dawson said her decision to leave came after she and Bellino, with other colleagues, led a weekslong budget planning effort to right a $102 million budget deficit projected next year, and planned to present last Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two days before the presentation, she said, Saddler revealed a different plan, crafted without the budget chief’s knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I learned on Monday morning that the superintendent sought to lead in a different direction with the budget scenarios that were ultimately presented to the board. And opted to not inform me and other colleagues in advance of her decision,” Grant-Dawson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I don’t participate in is side-swiping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029339 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One parent comforts another as she becomes emotional while making a public comment to the Oakland Unified School District Board about a proposed merger during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement shared with OUSD families, Saddler said she planned to bring on a team of external fiscal experts as the district prepares next year’s budget. Former Oakland City Councilmember Lynette McElhaney will take over as chief of staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As superintendent, it is my job to ensure the district has the right leadership structure, alignment and urgency to meet the work that lies ahead of us,” she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement on social media, Board Vice President Valarie Bachelor said she supported Saddler’s decision, and “her need to develop a Senior Leadership Team that can support our district through the next phase of the work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The major leadership shakeup comes after months of tension between Oakland’s school leaders.[aside postID=news_12064579 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241009-OAKLAND-YOUTH-VOTE-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Earlier this year, a teachers union-backed board majority overrode adopted budget cuts in favor of a proposal that was ultimately reversed after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\">threatened to cancel some after-school programs\u003c/a>. In April, the same cohort \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">ousted longtime Superintendent\u003c/a> Kyla Johnson-Trammel. And throughout the year, the board majority has sparred with district staff about how to address a structural funding shortfall and years of declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That conflict \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059238/alameda-county-to-oakland-schools-reduce-costs-or-lose-financial-independence-again\">escalated in October\u003c/a>, when the board requested staff bring forward two budget proposals to cut $100 million in ongoing expenditures without closing or merging schools, or directly affecting students at school sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An initial proposal presented by Grant-Dawson last month identified \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064579/oaklands-school-district-must-cut-100-million-its-proposed-plan-doesnt-get-close\">$21 million in cuts\u003c/a> within those bounds. To reach the $100 million figure, though, she said campuses would need to be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a school district. And a school district’s majority of its funds are in schools,” Grant-Dawson said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since that initial proposal, Grant-Dawson said the senior leadership team had spent many long days developing two plans to realize the other $80 million in cuts necessary to stay solvent next year. She and Bellino had been the main editors of those documents, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We submitted the version we were working on. The whole team saw it and knew it was being submitted,” she told KQED. “I was notified that there was a change made the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal that Saddler ultimately presented on Wednesday promises $102 million in cuts through major school site and administrative reductions. But Grant-Dawson said it lacks a roadmap that proves it can be implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no math or evidence behind it,” she said, adding that she believes ultimately, the superintendent presented a plan that “she felt the board wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It accounts for a $20 million boost in revenue from growing attendance in each of the next two years. While the district has seen a 1.8% growth this year so far, it can’t guarantee efforts to recruit students will yield those results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the $21 million in administrative cuts laid out last month, the proposal also recommends slashing another 15-20% of central office spending, and between 7.5-10% from each campus budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12056738 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified students and parents make signs to support teachers at a ‘solidarity school’ in Diamond Park, Oakland, on May 11, 2023, during an Oakland Unified School District teachers’ strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make such large reductions at school sites would likely require cutting programs or staff funded by restricted sources earmarked for specific purposes, which wouldn’t yield savings that can be reappropriated wherever the district sees fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another line item reduces special education funding by “restructuring and reducing outside contracts, management, and programmatic elements,” but there is no description of what services and contracts OUSD could reduce while meeting its legal mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality,” Grant-Dawson said, is “you don’t have a list of $100 million that’s legit[imate].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make such large cuts to school site budgets, both Saddler and Grant-Dawson have said the district will have to rethink how many schools it operates.[aside postID=news_12040189 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/Photo3_qed-1020x680.jpg']“From where I sit, there is no feasible or reasonable alternative,” Saddler wrote in her proposal. “The District must be restructured — schools and central offices. If the Board makes a commitment to truly restructure OUSD, it must see it through this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not clear that savings from that effort could be realized by next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just flip a switch, especially when you’re trying to drive that magnitude of the change, in one year,” Grant-Dawson said. “We’ve said that if we’re going to do any restructuring work, it takes at least a year to even plan, engage and all those things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal Grant-Dawson said her team had submitted, which was not presented on Wednesday, but was included in the documents given to the board ahead of the vote, suggested that the district might need to borrow money from an external source to bridge the gap as it does that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also remains to be seen whether the school board will follow through on a plan to close schools. In recent years, OUSD’s board has made \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">multiple commitments to do so\u003c/a> that haven’t come to fruition. In 2022, the board approved 11 campus consolidations, but reversed them before they took effect the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson said she doesn’t believe the board has the appetite to take up that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reading the tea leaves, what I said to the district was, ‘You asked me to help support leading you out of receivership, but I don’t lead people back in,’” Grant-Dawson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055977/ousd-just-got-control-of-its-finances-back-from-the-state-its-already-in-major-trouble\">tensions in Oakland’s school district\u003c/a> over how to stave off a massive budget shortfall came to a head when the district’s top financial officer abruptly resigned, and its chief of staff was terminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Grant-Dawson, who was brought into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> in 2020 to lead it out of two decades under state oversight, submitted her resignation on Friday, she told KQED. That same day, Chief of Staff Dan Bellino, who’s been with the district since July, was released by interim Superintendent Denise Saddler without warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Bellino confirmed he’d not been given cause for the termination, Grant-Dawson said her decision to leave came after she and Bellino, with other colleagues, led a weekslong budget planning effort to right a $102 million budget deficit projected next year, and planned to present last Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two days before the presentation, she said, Saddler revealed a different plan, crafted without the budget chief’s knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I learned on Monday morning that the superintendent sought to lead in a different direction with the budget scenarios that were ultimately presented to the board. And opted to not inform me and other colleagues in advance of her decision,” Grant-Dawson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I don’t participate in is side-swiping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12029339 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-013_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One parent comforts another as she becomes emotional while making a public comment to the Oakland Unified School District Board about a proposed merger during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement shared with OUSD families, Saddler said she planned to bring on a team of external fiscal experts as the district prepares next year’s budget. Former Oakland City Councilmember Lynette McElhaney will take over as chief of staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As superintendent, it is my job to ensure the district has the right leadership structure, alignment and urgency to meet the work that lies ahead of us,” she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement on social media, Board Vice President Valarie Bachelor said she supported Saddler’s decision, and “her need to develop a Senior Leadership Team that can support our district through the next phase of the work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The major leadership shakeup comes after months of tension between Oakland’s school leaders.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Earlier this year, a teachers union-backed board majority overrode adopted budget cuts in favor of a proposal that was ultimately reversed after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\">threatened to cancel some after-school programs\u003c/a>. In April, the same cohort \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">ousted longtime Superintendent\u003c/a> Kyla Johnson-Trammel. And throughout the year, the board majority has sparred with district staff about how to address a structural funding shortfall and years of declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That conflict \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059238/alameda-county-to-oakland-schools-reduce-costs-or-lose-financial-independence-again\">escalated in October\u003c/a>, when the board requested staff bring forward two budget proposals to cut $100 million in ongoing expenditures without closing or merging schools, or directly affecting students at school sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An initial proposal presented by Grant-Dawson last month identified \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064579/oaklands-school-district-must-cut-100-million-its-proposed-plan-doesnt-get-close\">$21 million in cuts\u003c/a> within those bounds. To reach the $100 million figure, though, she said campuses would need to be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a school district. And a school district’s majority of its funds are in schools,” Grant-Dawson said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since that initial proposal, Grant-Dawson said the senior leadership team had spent many long days developing two plans to realize the other $80 million in cuts necessary to stay solvent next year. She and Bellino had been the main editors of those documents, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We submitted the version we were working on. The whole team saw it and knew it was being submitted,” she told KQED. “I was notified that there was a change made the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal that Saddler ultimately presented on Wednesday promises $102 million in cuts through major school site and administrative reductions. But Grant-Dawson said it lacks a roadmap that proves it can be implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no math or evidence behind it,” she said, adding that she believes ultimately, the superintendent presented a plan that “she felt the board wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It accounts for a $20 million boost in revenue from growing attendance in each of the next two years. While the district has seen a 1.8% growth this year so far, it can’t guarantee efforts to recruit students will yield those results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the $21 million in administrative cuts laid out last month, the proposal also recommends slashing another 15-20% of central office spending, and between 7.5-10% from each campus budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056738\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12056738 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/007_KQED_OUSDSolidaritySchool_05112023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified students and parents make signs to support teachers at a ‘solidarity school’ in Diamond Park, Oakland, on May 11, 2023, during an Oakland Unified School District teachers’ strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make such large reductions at school sites would likely require cutting programs or staff funded by restricted sources earmarked for specific purposes, which wouldn’t yield savings that can be reappropriated wherever the district sees fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another line item reduces special education funding by “restructuring and reducing outside contracts, management, and programmatic elements,” but there is no description of what services and contracts OUSD could reduce while meeting its legal mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality,” Grant-Dawson said, is “you don’t have a list of $100 million that’s legit[imate].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make such large cuts to school site budgets, both Saddler and Grant-Dawson have said the district will have to rethink how many schools it operates.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“From where I sit, there is no feasible or reasonable alternative,” Saddler wrote in her proposal. “The District must be restructured — schools and central offices. If the Board makes a commitment to truly restructure OUSD, it must see it through this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not clear that savings from that effort could be realized by next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just flip a switch, especially when you’re trying to drive that magnitude of the change, in one year,” Grant-Dawson said. “We’ve said that if we’re going to do any restructuring work, it takes at least a year to even plan, engage and all those things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal Grant-Dawson said her team had submitted, which was not presented on Wednesday, but was included in the documents given to the board ahead of the vote, suggested that the district might need to borrow money from an external source to bridge the gap as it does that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also remains to be seen whether the school board will follow through on a plan to close schools. In recent years, OUSD’s board has made \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">multiple commitments to do so\u003c/a> that haven’t come to fruition. In 2022, the board approved 11 campus consolidations, but reversed them before they took effect the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson said she doesn’t believe the board has the appetite to take up that work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reading the tea leaves, what I said to the district was, ‘You asked me to help support leading you out of receivership, but I don’t lead people back in,’” Grant-Dawson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "alameda-county-to-oakland-schools-reduce-costs-or-lose-financial-independence-again",
"title": "Alameda County to Oakland Schools: Reduce Costs, or Lose Financial Independence, Again",
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"headTitle": "Alameda County to Oakland Schools: Reduce Costs, or Lose Financial Independence, Again | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s school board passed a resolution on Tuesday asking district staff to propose major budget reductions over the next two years as it faces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055977/ousd-just-got-control-of-its-finances-back-from-the-state-its-already-in-major-trouble\">threats of new county oversight\u003c/a> just months after regaining local financial control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But whether the legislation can curb the district’s rapid overspending, or even lead to an implementation of funding changes, is another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is also lacking is what the Board is going to do to partner with us,” OUSD’s chief business officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, told the board on Tuesday. “I see nowhere that the board will not accept a staff recommendation on reduction of positions, where the board will not reverse [our cuts] — because that is our reality too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday night’s resolution, which passed with a slim four-to-three majority, comes after Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro warned in a letter to OUSD last month that she would not grant the district full budget approval if it did not comply with certain cost-reducing changes by its final November deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among her conditions for approval were identifying a total dollar amount that OUSD needs to cut to re-balance its 2025-26 budget based on updated financial information and approving a resolution by Oct. 8 that outlines a timeline and plan to address that projected shortfall in 2025-26, and a future one expected in 2026-27.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042892\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board listens to public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. Students, families, educators, and community members raised their concerns about a proposed merger of their schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The resolution, passed in the final hours before the deadline, directs staff to develop budgeting scenarios that would cut tens of millions of dollars from next year’s spending plan and propose potential mid-year program and service cuts that could reduce spending already allocated for this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Grant-Dawson cautioned that in order to make actual gains in getting OUSD back in the black, the board would now have to approve, and stick to, her team’s suggestions — a feat OUSD’s board hasn’t always been able to achieve in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to speak truth to power and come back here Nov. 8 with [suggestions], I really need the board to be able to consider those components,” she said. “None of this [budget cutting] we want to do, right? But truly, [my team is] wanting to do this work without it being upended when you’re asking for a recommendation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district’s long track record of overspending — and reneging on spending cuts — dates back years.[aside postID=news_12055977 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-11_qed-1020x656.jpg']In 2003, it declared bankruptcy and was bailed out by a loan from the state. Over the next two decades, it was under the state’s eye as it paid off that debt and finally regained local control this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when it was under oversight, the district’s school board has repeatedly floated, then backed off, plans to close schools and impose personnel and service cuts, as it weathers declining enrollment and increasing operational costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, it approved a plan to close five schools, but reversed the plan the following year, before it took effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the board attempted to make major progress on its long-term budget balancing process dubbed the “three Rs” — redesigning how it operates schools, restructuring its funding and staffing models and re-envisioning how many schools it supports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after months of back and forth, the board took no action in December on a school merger plan — proposed as part of the re-envisioning component. It did authorize staff to implement 30 other cost-cutting solutions into its 2025–26 budget proposal, including centralizing contracts, reducing schools’ discretionary funding, potentially eliminating some positions and reducing the majority of overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, new board leadership passed legislation adding caps to some spending categories that have historically been seen as not student-focused, like consultant fees and external contracts. The “alternative budget solutions” were designed to shift necessary spending reductions away from school sites and classroom positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These changes made the spending plan for 2025-2026 even tighter, though, after causing controversial after-school program cuts that\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\"> were ultimately reversed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the district adopted its 2025-26 budget, it’s also had to increase its special education budget and update salary and staffing costs based on bargaining agreements with its unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The series of moves means OUSD began the fiscal year spending about $4 million more than it makes each month, Grant-Dawson said. She said reasonably, OUSD needs to cut $20 million from this year’s spending plan, and $80 million from next year’s, to prevent draining its mandatory reserve fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution approved Wednesday, directing Grant-Dawson and her staff to identify cuts for this year and next, asks that their proposed budget scenarios focus on cuts to administrative and centralized services and positions that “have the least impact on students in schools.” It also prohibits proposing school closures and mergers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution doesn’t make any concrete spending changes, and any that Grant-Dawson’s staff does suggest at next month’s budget study session would have to be approved by the board before taking effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board takes public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson said she would also need major clarification, and likely rewriting, of parts of the legislation to avoid proposing unintended, and potentially catastrophic, changes — like the cuts to after-school programs this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county will decide by its final budget approval deadline on Nov. 8 if Tuesday’s resolution — and any concrete plan for cutting costs that comes from it — satisfies its standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it doesn’t, the county could be forced to retake control of OUSD’s finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district must take further actions, listed below, to formally obtain approval of the [Local Control and Accountability Plan] and budget,” Castro’s letter last month read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is imperative that the board fully exercise its fiduciary responsibility and governance authority,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The vote followed a warning from Alameda County to rein in overspending, just months after the district came out of state conservatorship. ",
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"title": "Alameda County to Oakland Schools: Reduce Costs, or Lose Financial Independence, Again | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s school board passed a resolution on Tuesday asking district staff to propose major budget reductions over the next two years as it faces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055977/ousd-just-got-control-of-its-finances-back-from-the-state-its-already-in-major-trouble\">threats of new county oversight\u003c/a> just months after regaining local financial control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But whether the legislation can curb the district’s rapid overspending, or even lead to an implementation of funding changes, is another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is also lacking is what the Board is going to do to partner with us,” OUSD’s chief business officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, told the board on Tuesday. “I see nowhere that the board will not accept a staff recommendation on reduction of positions, where the board will not reverse [our cuts] — because that is our reality too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday night’s resolution, which passed with a slim four-to-three majority, comes after Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro warned in a letter to OUSD last month that she would not grant the district full budget approval if it did not comply with certain cost-reducing changes by its final November deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among her conditions for approval were identifying a total dollar amount that OUSD needs to cut to re-balance its 2025-26 budget based on updated financial information and approving a resolution by Oct. 8 that outlines a timeline and plan to address that projected shortfall in 2025-26, and a future one expected in 2026-27.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042892\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-026_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board listens to public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. Students, families, educators, and community members raised their concerns about a proposed merger of their schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The resolution, passed in the final hours before the deadline, directs staff to develop budgeting scenarios that would cut tens of millions of dollars from next year’s spending plan and propose potential mid-year program and service cuts that could reduce spending already allocated for this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Grant-Dawson cautioned that in order to make actual gains in getting OUSD back in the black, the board would now have to approve, and stick to, her team’s suggestions — a feat OUSD’s board hasn’t always been able to achieve in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to speak truth to power and come back here Nov. 8 with [suggestions], I really need the board to be able to consider those components,” she said. “None of this [budget cutting] we want to do, right? But truly, [my team is] wanting to do this work without it being upended when you’re asking for a recommendation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district’s long track record of overspending — and reneging on spending cuts — dates back years.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In 2003, it declared bankruptcy and was bailed out by a loan from the state. Over the next two decades, it was under the state’s eye as it paid off that debt and finally regained local control this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when it was under oversight, the district’s school board has repeatedly floated, then backed off, plans to close schools and impose personnel and service cuts, as it weathers declining enrollment and increasing operational costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, it approved a plan to close five schools, but reversed the plan the following year, before it took effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the board attempted to make major progress on its long-term budget balancing process dubbed the “three Rs” — redesigning how it operates schools, restructuring its funding and staffing models and re-envisioning how many schools it supports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after months of back and forth, the board took no action in December on a school merger plan — proposed as part of the re-envisioning component. It did authorize staff to implement 30 other cost-cutting solutions into its 2025–26 budget proposal, including centralizing contracts, reducing schools’ discretionary funding, potentially eliminating some positions and reducing the majority of overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, new board leadership passed legislation adding caps to some spending categories that have historically been seen as not student-focused, like consultant fees and external contracts. The “alternative budget solutions” were designed to shift necessary spending reductions away from school sites and classroom positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037460\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These changes made the spending plan for 2025-2026 even tighter, though, after causing controversial after-school program cuts that\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\"> were ultimately reversed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the district adopted its 2025-26 budget, it’s also had to increase its special education budget and update salary and staffing costs based on bargaining agreements with its unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The series of moves means OUSD began the fiscal year spending about $4 million more than it makes each month, Grant-Dawson said. She said reasonably, OUSD needs to cut $20 million from this year’s spending plan, and $80 million from next year’s, to prevent draining its mandatory reserve fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution approved Wednesday, directing Grant-Dawson and her staff to identify cuts for this year and next, asks that their proposed budget scenarios focus on cuts to administrative and centralized services and positions that “have the least impact on students in schools.” It also prohibits proposing school closures and mergers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resolution doesn’t make any concrete spending changes, and any that Grant-Dawson’s staff does suggest at next month’s budget study session would have to be approved by the board before taking effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board takes public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson said she would also need major clarification, and likely rewriting, of parts of the legislation to avoid proposing unintended, and potentially catastrophic, changes — like the cuts to after-school programs this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county will decide by its final budget approval deadline on Nov. 8 if Tuesday’s resolution — and any concrete plan for cutting costs that comes from it — satisfies its standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it doesn’t, the county could be forced to retake control of OUSD’s finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district must take further actions, listed below, to formally obtain approval of the [Local Control and Accountability Plan] and budget,” Castro’s letter last month read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is imperative that the board fully exercise its fiduciary responsibility and governance authority,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "as-ousd-gets-closer-to-controlling-its-finances-new-budget-challenges-loom",
"title": "As OUSD Gets Closer to Controlling Its Finances, New Budget Challenges Loom",
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"headTitle": "As OUSD Gets Closer to Controlling Its Finances, New Budget Challenges Loom | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland School Unified District\u003c/a> celebrates its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037097/oakland-schools-poised-part-ways-with-superintendent-state-oversight-ends\">projected departure from state oversight\u003c/a> this summer, the district’s chief budget officer has warned that the district could be at risk of slipping back into receivership if it doesn’t make major spending changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Grant-Dawson told the school board on Wednesday that the district could dip below its state-mandated reserve funding by 2027 as it looks to spend more than it brings in this year, and over the next two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes after five years of OUSD building up that rainy day fund, and as the district prepares to make its final loan payment to the state, more than 20 years after declaring bankruptcy this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have taken a step backward in our efforts to secure the long-term future of the district,” Grant-Dawson wrote in a letter to the district on Thursday. “We will begin 2025–26 with $57 million in reserves while continuing to run a deficit that is unaddressed in a multi-year fashion … This continues the ill-advised practice of our district using the beginning fund balance to balance the budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, during the final financial report of the school year, Grant-Dawson told the board that the district’s projected budget deficit for the current school year had shrunk from $95 million to $60 million — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">“much better position” than six months ago\u003c/a>, but not good enough to avoid spending a significant portion of its $117 million reserve fund on the shortfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Offices in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next two years, OUSD could spend nearly $40 million more than it brings in, without factoring in cuts to federal funding, which Grant-Dawson said are coming. That would leave the district with less than $18 million in its reserve, well below the state-mandated 3% fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that level, “there’s no way we can pay one month’s payroll with the reserve,” Grant-Dawson told the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that the district needs to reconsider its approach to its adult education program, which is running a $300,000 deficit this year, and put school consolidations back on the table. After opening 40 campuses in the early 2000s during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11726682/why-does-oakland-have-so-many-small-schools.\">small school movement\u003c/a>, OUSD has nearly doubled the number of campuses in similarly sized districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, plans to merge or close schools have generally been unsuccessful and generated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11905982/how-dare-you-oakland-school-closure-decision-inspires-new-opposition-efforts\">significant pushback\u003c/a> from the community, leading to protests and even a hunger strike.[aside postID=news_12041941 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMG_4393-1020x765.jpg']Whether the board is willing to make big cost reductions that Grant-Dawson said are necessary to keep OUSD in the black will begin to come to light next week, when she presents a draft budget for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That spending plan will likely reflect a list of significant cuts, including reductions of school site substitute teaching positions and campus discretionary funding, and centralizing contracts, both with service manufacturers — like those that provide copiers — and community agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school board gave budget staff permission to make those changes in December, but they could still face challenges after multiple members — and the teachers’ union, which has the support of the board majority —have raised concerns about some of the potential cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this spring, a majority passed an additional budget bill proposed by Board President Jennifer Brouhard and Vice President Valarie Bachelor that put caps on outside contracts, travel costs and other spending with the intention to use any savings to restore some of the student services that could be axed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those budget \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\">amendments were rescinded\u003c/a> after a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040189/ousd-after-school-programs-could-be-cut-by-at-least-50\">ccidentally reducing grant-funded after-school programs\u003c/a>, which rely on outside contracts, but Brouhard has still vowed to pass a budget that keeps cuts away from kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I fully intend to keep developing a student-centered budget and will actively engage with staff, students, labor partners, families, and community members to accomplish this,” she said in a statement in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has to approve a spending plan for the 2025–26 school year by July 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland School Unified District\u003c/a> celebrates its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037097/oakland-schools-poised-part-ways-with-superintendent-state-oversight-ends\">projected departure from state oversight\u003c/a> this summer, the district’s chief budget officer has warned that the district could be at risk of slipping back into receivership if it doesn’t make major spending changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Grant-Dawson told the school board on Wednesday that the district could dip below its state-mandated reserve funding by 2027 as it looks to spend more than it brings in this year, and over the next two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes after five years of OUSD building up that rainy day fund, and as the district prepares to make its final loan payment to the state, more than 20 years after declaring bankruptcy this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have taken a step backward in our efforts to secure the long-term future of the district,” Grant-Dawson wrote in a letter to the district on Thursday. “We will begin 2025–26 with $57 million in reserves while continuing to run a deficit that is unaddressed in a multi-year fashion … This continues the ill-advised practice of our district using the beginning fund balance to balance the budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, during the final financial report of the school year, Grant-Dawson told the board that the district’s projected budget deficit for the current school year had shrunk from $95 million to $60 million — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">“much better position” than six months ago\u003c/a>, but not good enough to avoid spending a significant portion of its $117 million reserve fund on the shortfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250428-OUSD-OFFICE-FILE-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Offices in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next two years, OUSD could spend nearly $40 million more than it brings in, without factoring in cuts to federal funding, which Grant-Dawson said are coming. That would leave the district with less than $18 million in its reserve, well below the state-mandated 3% fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that level, “there’s no way we can pay one month’s payroll with the reserve,” Grant-Dawson told the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that the district needs to reconsider its approach to its adult education program, which is running a $300,000 deficit this year, and put school consolidations back on the table. After opening 40 campuses in the early 2000s during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11726682/why-does-oakland-have-so-many-small-schools.\">small school movement\u003c/a>, OUSD has nearly doubled the number of campuses in similarly sized districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, plans to merge or close schools have generally been unsuccessful and generated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11905982/how-dare-you-oakland-school-closure-decision-inspires-new-opposition-efforts\">significant pushback\u003c/a> from the community, leading to protests and even a hunger strike.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Whether the board is willing to make big cost reductions that Grant-Dawson said are necessary to keep OUSD in the black will begin to come to light next week, when she presents a draft budget for next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That spending plan will likely reflect a list of significant cuts, including reductions of school site substitute teaching positions and campus discretionary funding, and centralizing contracts, both with service manufacturers — like those that provide copiers — and community agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school board gave budget staff permission to make those changes in December, but they could still face challenges after multiple members — and the teachers’ union, which has the support of the board majority —have raised concerns about some of the potential cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this spring, a majority passed an additional budget bill proposed by Board President Jennifer Brouhard and Vice President Valarie Bachelor that put caps on outside contracts, travel costs and other spending with the intention to use any savings to restore some of the student services that could be axed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those budget \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12041279/ousd-cancels-controversial-after-school-cuts-but-deep-divisions-within-school-board-remain\">amendments were rescinded\u003c/a> after a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040189/ousd-after-school-programs-could-be-cut-by-at-least-50\">ccidentally reducing grant-funded after-school programs\u003c/a>, which rely on outside contracts, but Brouhard has still vowed to pass a budget that keeps cuts away from kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I fully intend to keep developing a student-centered budget and will actively engage with staff, students, labor partners, families, and community members to accomplish this,” she said in a statement in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has to approve a spending plan for the 2025–26 school year by July 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "OUSD Cancels Controversial After-School Cuts, but Deep Divisions Within School Board Remain",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-school-board\">Oakland’s school board\u003c/a> voted Wednesday to cancel spending caps that would have cut after-school care by at least 50% next year. However, that funding will likely remain in limbo until the new fiscal year begins in July, adding uncertainty for the services’ providers, already wary of infighting in district leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lukas Brekke-Miesner, the executive director of Oakland Kids First, which runs Castlemont High School’s after-school enrichment program, told KQED that his and other agencies were instructed Wednesday by the district’s head of expanded learning to plan for programs as usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he said, “If July becomes this really critical moment to figure everything out, I wouldn’t say that this board has demonstrated sufficient acumen to navigate what could be a very difficult process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m unclear within the central office who would be equipped to shepherd that through,” Brekke-Miesner continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year has been a rollercoaster for the Oakland Unified School District. Board members are deeply divided and a majority voted last month on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">separation agreement with longtime Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell\u003c/a>, terminating her contract early this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the controversy between board members began surrounding a set of budget proposals co-sponsored by Board President Jennifer Brouhard in March — one of which, referred to as alternative budget adjustments, put caps on contracts the district has with consultants and service providers, certain employee salaries and for books and supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12041367 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1316\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1020x671.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1536x1011.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1920x1263.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District board president Jennifer Brouhard speaks during a meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Members of the district’s budget staff and board member Mike Hutchinson, who chairs the budget and finance committee, adamantly opposed the resolution at the time, saying it was rushed and could have unintended consequences. But the budget measures passed with a slim majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the resolution aimed to restrict spending on services and salaries that don’t directly serve students, the language used caused it to backfire, leading district staff to place caps on contracts with local nonprofits who provide enrichment and after care services in OUSD schools next fall, requiring at least 50% reductions in their services. In total, the resolution would have resulted in $29 million in budget cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After community outrage, the board held a special meeting on Wednesday where it debated for nearly three hours whether to slash the alternative budget adjustments, or add last-minute changes to the legislation it was discussing that would keep but delay the cuts. Those changes earned frank criticism from district staff.[aside postID=news_12039737 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/OaklandSchoolChildren-1020x696.jpg']“If you don’t want this repeat cycle, we would have conferred and I would have been able to see this [amendment] prior to 30 minutes before the meeting,” budget chief Lisa Grant-Dawson said. “Please know that if you adopt this [amended] resolution, it still will have problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the board majority chose to repeal the resolution entirely, but the meeting further deepened the chasm between board members and with staff — and could threaten their collective goal to serve Oakland students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson told KQED after the meeting that even with the budget adjustments repealed, staff won’t have time to reinstate the funding to schools until after the budget process is completed at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re too far into budget development to take off the [caps] and then rebalance and still be ready for the [Local Control and Accountability Plan] and budget,” she said. “We’re literally weeks away from our public hearing as well as the adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has created a whole different degree of consternation of us having to adjust all these budgets. It took me almost a month to figure out what was the most equitable way to do it, because we’re not talking about five lines of data, we are talking about thousands of lines of data to change,” Grant-Dawson continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the plan is to lift the spending limits once the budget process wraps up at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041376\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12041376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, executive director of Oakland Kids First, which helped launch youth voting in Oakland in 2019, at Willard Park in Berkeley on Feb. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Brekke-Miesner, stalling that technical change won’t financially impact his program, but it does extend his and other aftercare program providers’ uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It creates a lot of confusion, and a delay like this basically means that agencies are going into summer not knowing if everything is going to be remediated and restored,” Brekke-Miesner said. “That means that they could then have to lay off staff in July or August, or tell families in July or August that, ‘Actually, your kid doesn’t have aftercare next year,’ when the ship has sailed on any other alternatives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is expected that when Johnson-Trammell departs the district at the end of June, other executive staff, including Grant-Dawson, could leave with her. Grant-Dawson was previously set to depart OUSD in alignment with Johnson-Trammell’s transition out in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An application was also opened for an interim superintendent earlier this month, but no one has been named to take over in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brekke-Miesner said that while questions of who will be district leadership are a concern, ultimately, his main worry is with the school board’s inability to get along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The level of discourse and derision and disrespect is just so constant and high level that I think it thwarts the ability to really effectively try to solve some really complicated problems,” he told KQED. “I think collectively, the board has to kind of have a ‘Come to Jesus moment’ because it’s going to require a lot more cooperation and respect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "OUSD Cancels Controversial After-School Cuts, but Deep Divisions Within School Board Remain",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-school-board\">Oakland’s school board\u003c/a> voted Wednesday to cancel spending caps that would have cut after-school care by at least 50% next year. However, that funding will likely remain in limbo until the new fiscal year begins in July, adding uncertainty for the services’ providers, already wary of infighting in district leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lukas Brekke-Miesner, the executive director of Oakland Kids First, which runs Castlemont High School’s after-school enrichment program, told KQED that his and other agencies were instructed Wednesday by the district’s head of expanded learning to plan for programs as usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he said, “If July becomes this really critical moment to figure everything out, I wouldn’t say that this board has demonstrated sufficient acumen to navigate what could be a very difficult process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And I’m unclear within the central office who would be equipped to shepherd that through,” Brekke-Miesner continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year has been a rollercoaster for the Oakland Unified School District. Board members are deeply divided and a majority voted last month on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">separation agreement with longtime Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell\u003c/a>, terminating her contract early this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the controversy between board members began surrounding a set of budget proposals co-sponsored by Board President Jennifer Brouhard in March — one of which, referred to as alternative budget adjustments, put caps on contracts the district has with consultants and service providers, certain employee salaries and for books and supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12041367 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1316\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1020x671.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1536x1011.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-18_qed-1920x1263.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District board president Jennifer Brouhard speaks during a meeting at Metwest High School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Members of the district’s budget staff and board member Mike Hutchinson, who chairs the budget and finance committee, adamantly opposed the resolution at the time, saying it was rushed and could have unintended consequences. But the budget measures passed with a slim majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the resolution aimed to restrict spending on services and salaries that don’t directly serve students, the language used caused it to backfire, leading district staff to place caps on contracts with local nonprofits who provide enrichment and after care services in OUSD schools next fall, requiring at least 50% reductions in their services. In total, the resolution would have resulted in $29 million in budget cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After community outrage, the board held a special meeting on Wednesday where it debated for nearly three hours whether to slash the alternative budget adjustments, or add last-minute changes to the legislation it was discussing that would keep but delay the cuts. Those changes earned frank criticism from district staff.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If you don’t want this repeat cycle, we would have conferred and I would have been able to see this [amendment] prior to 30 minutes before the meeting,” budget chief Lisa Grant-Dawson said. “Please know that if you adopt this [amended] resolution, it still will have problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the board majority chose to repeal the resolution entirely, but the meeting further deepened the chasm between board members and with staff — and could threaten their collective goal to serve Oakland students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grant-Dawson told KQED after the meeting that even with the budget adjustments repealed, staff won’t have time to reinstate the funding to schools until after the budget process is completed at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re too far into budget development to take off the [caps] and then rebalance and still be ready for the [Local Control and Accountability Plan] and budget,” she said. “We’re literally weeks away from our public hearing as well as the adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has created a whole different degree of consternation of us having to adjust all these budgets. It took me almost a month to figure out what was the most equitable way to do it, because we’re not talking about five lines of data, we are talking about thousands of lines of data to change,” Grant-Dawson continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the plan is to lift the spending limits once the budget process wraps up at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041376\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12041376\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250226_Youth-Vote_DMB_00088_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lukas Brekke-Miesner, executive director of Oakland Kids First, which helped launch youth voting in Oakland in 2019, at Willard Park in Berkeley on Feb. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Brekke-Miesner, stalling that technical change won’t financially impact his program, but it does extend his and other aftercare program providers’ uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It creates a lot of confusion, and a delay like this basically means that agencies are going into summer not knowing if everything is going to be remediated and restored,” Brekke-Miesner said. “That means that they could then have to lay off staff in July or August, or tell families in July or August that, ‘Actually, your kid doesn’t have aftercare next year,’ when the ship has sailed on any other alternatives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is expected that when Johnson-Trammell departs the district at the end of June, other executive staff, including Grant-Dawson, could leave with her. Grant-Dawson was previously set to depart OUSD in alignment with Johnson-Trammell’s transition out in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An application was also opened for an interim superintendent earlier this month, but no one has been named to take over in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brekke-Miesner said that while questions of who will be district leadership are a concern, ultimately, his main worry is with the school board’s inability to get along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The level of discourse and derision and disrespect is just so constant and high level that I think it thwarts the ability to really effectively try to solve some really complicated problems,” he told KQED. “I think collectively, the board has to kind of have a ‘Come to Jesus moment’ because it’s going to require a lot more cooperation and respect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In Oakland Schools, Hostility Spirals Between Teachers Union and Principals",
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"headTitle": "In Oakland Schools, Hostility Spirals Between Teachers Union and Principals | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland’s school district\u003c/a>, it’s not only the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029333/oaklands-school-board-long-been-disarray-is-it-turning-corner\">school board\u003c/a> that can’t get along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring, a fight has been escalating between the unions that represent the district’s principals and its teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders of the administrators’ union have accused the teachers’ union of hostility, retaliation and threatening behavior. On Wednesday night, they plan to tell the school board — the majority of which is backed by the teachers’ union — that principals have been made to feel unsafe and prevented from doing their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Oakland Education Association] leadership has consistently targeted site administrators,” Cary Kaufman, the administrators’ union’s president, said during public comment at an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">April school board meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told KQED that threats to principals have been an ongoing issue but escalated in March, after more than 100 preliminary layoff notices were issued to staff members, according to OEA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Oakland Unified School District superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell (left) speaks with staff at Rudsdale Newcomer High School in Oakland on Aug. 7, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Kaufman, one principal was told that the union “got [Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell] fired. We can get you fired.” Last month, the board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">passed a voluntary separation agreement\u003c/a> to have Johnson-Trammell abruptly leave the district at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Monday after pink slips went out, OEA representatives, including President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, visited Fremont High School, where special education teacher and union Vice President Chris Jackson had been issued one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont High Principal Nydia Baez told KQED that Taiz-Rancifer identified herself as a parent coming to speak with a teacher when she arrived on campus and refused to follow the school’s visitor sign-in policy. Baez did not speak with Taiz-Rancifer, but was told that she made threatening comments and was upset about Jackson’s termination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer denied making threats.[aside postID=news_12039737 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/OaklandSchoolChildren-1020x696.jpg']District and school leaders “de-escalated” the situation, according to Baez, and the next day, Taiz-Rancifer was ordered not to come to the campus for a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expected a grievance. I expected strongly worded emails, like a protocol, a process disagreeing with my decision, and unfortunately, it turned out that way,” Baez said about Taiz-Rancifer’s visit to campus. “It’s just been incredibly hard to be at work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teachers’ union has a different perspective on the altercation. Taiz-Rancifer said she believes it is indicative of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942006/reversal-of-oakland-school-closures-renews-hope-of-reparations-for-black-students\">disproportionate scrutiny Black educators and students face\u003c/a> within the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, who is Black, had been placed on administrative leave the week before the incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black educators make up 21% of the population of educators [in Oakland], but 50% of the folks that get put on leave,” said Taiz-Rancifer, who told KQED she was at the school that day to speak with a teacher about a “personnel matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the teachers’ union launched a campaign calling for Jackson to be reinstated, saying he had been retaliated against after becoming OEA’s vice president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11808562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11808562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fremont High School in Oakland on March 24, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Now, because he chose to lead and speak out, OUSD is trying to silence him,” the union said in a \u003ca href=\"https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-retaliation-against-union-vice-president-chris-jackson\">public letter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s some difficult issues going on on the Fremont High School campus. Those things are anti-Blackness,” Taiz-Rancifer told KQED. “They’re around members being able to act on behalf of the union to represent our members. What I’ll say is that as the advocacy begins, retaliatory behavior from the administrators starts occurring to our members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, according to the union’s message, “has … been a powerful voice in defense of Black educators and students, confronting racial epithets and longstanding anti-Blackness at Fremont High.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that Black students in OUSD disproportionately faced disciplinary actions, according to an investigation launched in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the district passed a resolution seeking reparations for Black students, who it said represented 22% of all OUSD students but 57% of those suspended, and had been disproportionately affected by school closures over the previous 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11992395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11992395\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk down a hallway at Fremont High School in Oakland on Oct. 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer said Black students, who are a small percentage of Fremont High’s student body, still face higher rates of discipline than their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to OEA, Black teachers throughout the school district have lower tenure rates than the average and make up 42% of probationary teachers who are not retained year to year. About 22% of OUSD’s teachers are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baez acknowledged that “we have a lot of work to do as [a] community to combat anti-Blackness, especially in the context of this current president and changes in policy.”[aside postID=news_12039904 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250418-SFUSD-06-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']But after Jackson’s termination, she said that part of her job as an administrator is to make hard employment decisions based on budget constraints and student needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As OUSD faces a deep budget shortfall, the school board voted to eliminate more than 800 positions and reallocate spending across new roles — netting a loss of about 100 full-time roles, including educators, social workers and substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our principals are required and entrusted to make decisions that are best for students,” said Kaufman, the administrators’ union president. “Sometimes a decision needs to be made that this person is not helping students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Kaufman and principals plan to speak out against the teachers’ union at Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Taiz-Rancifer said that administrators have the power in the district’s hierarchy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have the power to terminate any of these folks,” Taiz-Rancifer said. “We don’t have the power to put them on administrative leave. We don’t have the power to impact somebody’s ability to pay their rent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Leaders of the Oakland school district’s administrators' union, who have accused the teachers' union of hostility, retaliation and threats, plan to speak out in front of the school board.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland’s school district\u003c/a>, it’s not only the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029333/oaklands-school-board-long-been-disarray-is-it-turning-corner\">school board\u003c/a> that can’t get along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring, a fight has been escalating between the unions that represent the district’s principals and its teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders of the administrators’ union have accused the teachers’ union of hostility, retaliation and threatening behavior. On Wednesday night, they plan to tell the school board — the majority of which is backed by the teachers’ union — that principals have been made to feel unsafe and prevented from doing their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Oakland Education Association] leadership has consistently targeted site administrators,” Cary Kaufman, the administrators’ union’s president, said during public comment at an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">April school board meeting\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told KQED that threats to principals have been an ongoing issue but escalated in March, after more than 100 preliminary layoff notices were issued to staff members, according to OEA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230807-OUSDRudsdaleHS-18-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Oakland Unified School District superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell (left) speaks with staff at Rudsdale Newcomer High School in Oakland on Aug. 7, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Kaufman, one principal was told that the union “got [Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell] fired. We can get you fired.” Last month, the board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">passed a voluntary separation agreement\u003c/a> to have Johnson-Trammell abruptly leave the district at the end of June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Monday after pink slips went out, OEA representatives, including President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, visited Fremont High School, where special education teacher and union Vice President Chris Jackson had been issued one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont High Principal Nydia Baez told KQED that Taiz-Rancifer identified herself as a parent coming to speak with a teacher when she arrived on campus and refused to follow the school’s visitor sign-in policy. Baez did not speak with Taiz-Rancifer, but was told that she made threatening comments and was upset about Jackson’s termination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer denied making threats.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>District and school leaders “de-escalated” the situation, according to Baez, and the next day, Taiz-Rancifer was ordered not to come to the campus for a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expected a grievance. I expected strongly worded emails, like a protocol, a process disagreeing with my decision, and unfortunately, it turned out that way,” Baez said about Taiz-Rancifer’s visit to campus. “It’s just been incredibly hard to be at work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teachers’ union has a different perspective on the altercation. Taiz-Rancifer said she believes it is indicative of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942006/reversal-of-oakland-school-closures-renews-hope-of-reparations-for-black-students\">disproportionate scrutiny Black educators and students face\u003c/a> within the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, who is Black, had been placed on administrative leave the week before the incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black educators make up 21% of the population of educators [in Oakland], but 50% of the folks that get put on leave,” said Taiz-Rancifer, who told KQED she was at the school that day to speak with a teacher about a “personnel matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the teachers’ union launched a campaign calling for Jackson to be reinstated, saying he had been retaliated against after becoming OEA’s vice president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11808562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11808562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/RS42262_004_KQED_Pittsburg_MaliaJohnson_03242020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fremont High School in Oakland on March 24, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Now, because he chose to lead and speak out, OUSD is trying to silence him,” the union said in a \u003ca href=\"https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-retaliation-against-union-vice-president-chris-jackson\">public letter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s some difficult issues going on on the Fremont High School campus. Those things are anti-Blackness,” Taiz-Rancifer told KQED. “They’re around members being able to act on behalf of the union to represent our members. What I’ll say is that as the advocacy begins, retaliatory behavior from the administrators starts occurring to our members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson, according to the union’s message, “has … been a powerful voice in defense of Black educators and students, confronting racial epithets and longstanding anti-Blackness at Fremont High.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that Black students in OUSD disproportionately faced disciplinary actions, according to an investigation launched in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the district passed a resolution seeking reparations for Black students, who it said represented 22% of all OUSD students but 57% of those suspended, and had been disproportionately affected by school closures over the previous 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11992395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11992395\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/101023-AI-College-Toby-Reed-LA-CM-21-copy-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk down a hallway at Fremont High School in Oakland on Oct. 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer said Black students, who are a small percentage of Fremont High’s student body, still face higher rates of discipline than their peers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to OEA, Black teachers throughout the school district have lower tenure rates than the average and make up 42% of probationary teachers who are not retained year to year. About 22% of OUSD’s teachers are Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baez acknowledged that “we have a lot of work to do as [a] community to combat anti-Blackness, especially in the context of this current president and changes in policy.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But after Jackson’s termination, she said that part of her job as an administrator is to make hard employment decisions based on budget constraints and student needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As OUSD faces a deep budget shortfall, the school board voted to eliminate more than 800 positions and reallocate spending across new roles — netting a loss of about 100 full-time roles, including educators, social workers and substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our principals are required and entrusted to make decisions that are best for students,” said Kaufman, the administrators’ union president. “Sometimes a decision needs to be made that this person is not helping students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Kaufman and principals plan to speak out against the teachers’ union at Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Taiz-Rancifer said that administrators have the power in the district’s hierarchy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have the power to terminate any of these folks,” Taiz-Rancifer said. “We don’t have the power to put them on administrative leave. We don’t have the power to impact somebody’s ability to pay their rent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "oaklands-free-summer-meals-kids-will-resume-full-force-when-school-lets-out",
"title": "Oakland’s Free Summer Meals for Kids Will Resume at Full Force When School Lets Out",
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"headTitle": "Oakland’s Free Summer Meals for Kids Will Resume at Full Force When School Lets Out | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland city leaders on Monday detailed the return of a civic program that has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038587/oakland-to-resume-free-summer-food-program-weeks-after-announcing-cancellation\">served free meals\u003c/a> to thousands of kids over the summer for the past four decades and is again set to operate at full capacity this year after private funders stepped in to save it from the city’s budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034895/oakland-halts-free-summer-meals-amid-budget-shortfall\">had been canceled\u003c/a> just two months before school let out, after officials cited “severe city budget constraints.” Days later, the city said it had found a way to continue offering meals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035615/oakland-reverses-decision-to-end-summer-food-program-will-offer-meals-at-fewer-sites\">only at libraries and city-run sites\u003c/a>, but not the 20-plus nonprofits that previously took part. Now, it is expected to once again deliver as many as 2,100 daily lunches and snacks to at least \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/2025-SFSP-List-of-Sites.pdf\">47 sites\u003c/a> throughout the city, including many libraries, recreation centers, nonprofits and churches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food service is set to begin May 27, immediately after the end of Oakland’s school year, and continue into the second week of August. Meals are available to all children 18 and under, as well as some adults with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A full list of sites offering lunches this summer can be found on \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/2025-SFSP-List-of-Sites.pdf\">the city’s website\u003c/a>, as well as through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/mo/cameals.asp\">CA Meals for Kids\u003c/a> app.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program’s revival comes after the East Bay Community Foundation and Eat. Learn. Play., a nonprofit founded by Steph and Ayesha Curry, recently agreed to contribute up to $375,000 to continue food service at the roughly 21 community sites that the city had informed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034895/oakland-halts-free-summer-meals-amid-budget-shortfall\">in late March\u003c/a> that the meals they were expecting to soon start serving would not be available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was quite demoralizing having to be the bearer of bad news, especially having been this close to the program over the past few years and having experienced firsthand the amount of need,” said Michael Akanji, an analyst in the Oakland City Administrator’s Office who oversees the summer program and sent out the email to partner sites. “I was sad at the prospect of kids showing up this year … to be turned away because there was no food. Relief is my primary emotion at this point, just knowing that that does not have to be the case. It’s an extremely important program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960197\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11960197 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-scaled.jpg\" alt='A man and a woman stand on a stage speaking with a huge banner behind the that says, \"Eat. Learn. Play.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Golden State Warriors’ star Stephen Curry (right) speaks next to his wife and renowned chef, Ayesha Curry, during a charity event at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Aug. 28, 2023. The Currys and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, established in 2019, to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve the lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that has partially funded the program, the city will also continue to provide approximately 950 meals per day to 26 city-run sites, including libraries and recreation centers, at a cost of about $427,000 for the summer, the city said. Despite previous messaging, it said those meals — to city-run sites — had always been guaranteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is contracting with School Foodies in Hayward and Flo’s Friendly Food in Emeryville to prepare and deliver meals to all 47 sites, Akanji said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a lot of meals. But I’m confident in their ability to meet that demand,” he said, noting that the two organizations were selected from a number of providers that submitted proposals at the beginning of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the help of outside funders, Akanji said, the city can now provide nearly 350 more meals per day this summer than it did last year.[aside postID=news_12038587 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/GettyImages-1321784489-1020x671.jpg']That number “was based on individually canvassing the community-based sites and asking them what they anticipated their demand would be this year,” he said. “And that is just based on the economic trends over the past few years. When food is getting [more] expensive, these programs are more and more vital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s cancellation announcement in March followed a City Council vote in December to reallocate funds from its sugar-sweetened beverage tax, part of a frantic effort to close what was then a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">nearly $130 million budget shortfall\u003c/a>. The tax, \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Oakland,_California,_Sugar-Sweetened_Beverages_Tax,_Measure_HH_(November_2016)\">which voters approved in 2016\u003c/a>, generates \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2023-08-16/revenue-allocations-soda-taxes-oakland-and-san-francisco-continue-diverge-advisory\">more than $7 million a year\u003c/a>, a portion of which is intended to support youth health-related programs, including the summer food service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland previously used about $200,000 of that revenue each year to supplement funding for the food program and cover administrative costs, but officials said the money was no longer available this year as a result of the reallocation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Akanji said he didn’t send the note to partner sites until late March because he had been waiting for funding information from the city, which never came.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had not received any indication that anything was going to be available,” he said. “And at that point it was important to let the sites know, in order [for them] to make other arrangements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035840\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035840\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06.jpg\" alt=\"The bottom half of several children on a concrete playground with yellow chalk outlining numbers and letters is shown.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rising first graders walk to their classroom at the start of the day during summer session at Laurel Elementary in Oakland on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The responses he got were ones of “just almost desperation, like, ‘We don’t have any other options,’” Akanji said, adding that he also had the far more rewarding task of calling all 21 sites a few weeks ago to tell them that the funding had been restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brandi Howard, the president of the East Bay Community Foundation, is a third-generation Oakland resident who participated in the summer food program when she was a kid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was deeply personal for me,” said Howard, who received free summer lunches at Manzanita Recreation Center in the 1980s. “So, when I learned about the funding gap of the program, I knew it was just the moment for EBCF to get involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard said that at this point, her foundation is only committing to supporting the program for this summer, but she hinted at the possibility of ongoing support amid ongoing threats to the public safety net.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I’m clear about is there was a moment where children may not get fed, and now we’re at a place where children will get fed,” she said. “That was the outcome, and that I’m really proud of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "City leaders detailed the program’s return after the East Bay Community Foundation and a nonprofit founded by Steph and Ayesha Curry stepped in to save it from Oakland’s budget crisis.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland city leaders on Monday detailed the return of a civic program that has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038587/oakland-to-resume-free-summer-food-program-weeks-after-announcing-cancellation\">served free meals\u003c/a> to thousands of kids over the summer for the past four decades and is again set to operate at full capacity this year after private funders stepped in to save it from the city’s budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034895/oakland-halts-free-summer-meals-amid-budget-shortfall\">had been canceled\u003c/a> just two months before school let out, after officials cited “severe city budget constraints.” Days later, the city said it had found a way to continue offering meals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035615/oakland-reverses-decision-to-end-summer-food-program-will-offer-meals-at-fewer-sites\">only at libraries and city-run sites\u003c/a>, but not the 20-plus nonprofits that previously took part. Now, it is expected to once again deliver as many as 2,100 daily lunches and snacks to at least \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/2025-SFSP-List-of-Sites.pdf\">47 sites\u003c/a> throughout the city, including many libraries, recreation centers, nonprofits and churches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food service is set to begin May 27, immediately after the end of Oakland’s school year, and continue into the second week of August. Meals are available to all children 18 and under, as well as some adults with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A full list of sites offering lunches this summer can be found on \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/2025-SFSP-List-of-Sites.pdf\">the city’s website\u003c/a>, as well as through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/mo/cameals.asp\">CA Meals for Kids\u003c/a> app.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program’s revival comes after the East Bay Community Foundation and Eat. Learn. Play., a nonprofit founded by Steph and Ayesha Curry, recently agreed to contribute up to $375,000 to continue food service at the roughly 21 community sites that the city had informed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034895/oakland-halts-free-summer-meals-amid-budget-shortfall\">in late March\u003c/a> that the meals they were expecting to soon start serving would not be available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was quite demoralizing having to be the bearer of bad news, especially having been this close to the program over the past few years and having experienced firsthand the amount of need,” said Michael Akanji, an analyst in the Oakland City Administrator’s Office who oversees the summer program and sent out the email to partner sites. “I was sad at the prospect of kids showing up this year … to be turned away because there was no food. Relief is my primary emotion at this point, just knowing that that does not have to be the case. It’s an extremely important program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960197\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11960197 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-scaled.jpg\" alt='A man and a woman stand on a stage speaking with a huge banner behind the that says, \"Eat. Learn. Play.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/AP23247692842290-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Golden State Warriors’ star Stephen Curry (right) speaks next to his wife and renowned chef, Ayesha Curry, during a charity event at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Aug. 28, 2023. The Currys and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, established in 2019, to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve the lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that has partially funded the program, the city will also continue to provide approximately 950 meals per day to 26 city-run sites, including libraries and recreation centers, at a cost of about $427,000 for the summer, the city said. Despite previous messaging, it said those meals — to city-run sites — had always been guaranteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is contracting with School Foodies in Hayward and Flo’s Friendly Food in Emeryville to prepare and deliver meals to all 47 sites, Akanji said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a lot of meals. But I’m confident in their ability to meet that demand,” he said, noting that the two organizations were selected from a number of providers that submitted proposals at the beginning of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the help of outside funders, Akanji said, the city can now provide nearly 350 more meals per day this summer than it did last year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That number “was based on individually canvassing the community-based sites and asking them what they anticipated their demand would be this year,” he said. “And that is just based on the economic trends over the past few years. When food is getting [more] expensive, these programs are more and more vital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s cancellation announcement in March followed a City Council vote in December to reallocate funds from its sugar-sweetened beverage tax, part of a frantic effort to close what was then a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027749/oakland-reverses-several-layoffs-amid-scramble-close-massive-budget-deficit\">nearly $130 million budget shortfall\u003c/a>. The tax, \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Oakland,_California,_Sugar-Sweetened_Beverages_Tax,_Measure_HH_(November_2016)\">which voters approved in 2016\u003c/a>, generates \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2023-08-16/revenue-allocations-soda-taxes-oakland-and-san-francisco-continue-diverge-advisory\">more than $7 million a year\u003c/a>, a portion of which is intended to support youth health-related programs, including the summer food service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland previously used about $200,000 of that revenue each year to supplement funding for the food program and cover administrative costs, but officials said the money was no longer available this year as a result of the reallocation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Akanji said he didn’t send the note to partner sites until late March because he had been waiting for funding information from the city, which never came.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had not received any indication that anything was going to be available,” he said. “And at that point it was important to let the sites know, in order [for them] to make other arrangements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035840\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035840\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06.jpg\" alt=\"The bottom half of several children on a concrete playground with yellow chalk outlining numbers and letters is shown.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/061121_SummerSchool_AW_CM_06-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rising first graders walk to their classroom at the start of the day during summer session at Laurel Elementary in Oakland on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The responses he got were ones of “just almost desperation, like, ‘We don’t have any other options,’” Akanji said, adding that he also had the far more rewarding task of calling all 21 sites a few weeks ago to tell them that the funding had been restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brandi Howard, the president of the East Bay Community Foundation, is a third-generation Oakland resident who participated in the summer food program when she was a kid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was deeply personal for me,” said Howard, who received free summer lunches at Manzanita Recreation Center in the 1980s. “So, when I learned about the funding gap of the program, I knew it was just the moment for EBCF to get involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard said that at this point, her foundation is only committing to supporting the program for this summer, but she hinted at the possibility of ongoing support amid ongoing threats to the public safety net.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I’m clear about is there was a moment where children may not get fed, and now we’re at a place where children will get fed,” she said. “That was the outcome, and that I’m really proud of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland public school teachers voted to authorize an unfair labor practices strike, according to an email sent to union members and viewed by KQED, meaning thousands of educators could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036400/oakland-teachers-union-moves-one-step-closer-possible-strike\">walk off the job\u003c/a> next week on May Day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has accused Oakland Unified School District leadership of withholding requested financial information and manufacturing a budget crisis to justify \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029001/oakland-school-board-approves-over-100-layoffs-a-day-after-similar-vote-in-sf\">teacher layoffs\u003c/a> and significant budget cuts. If the parties don’t come to an agreement by Wednesday, nearly 3,000 members of the Oakland Educators Association could take part in a one-day work stoppage on May 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projections of the district’s shortfall for the 2025–2026 academic year have swung wildly in recent months, ballooning to $95 million in December and recently shrinking to $12 million after factoring in some cuts. This year, the district is operating at a deficit of $70 million, it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve attempted to gather information all year. OUSD’s response to those requests has been delayed,” OEA President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer told KQED last week. “They have cut members’ jobs, and we have to … understand what are the resources in the school district, along with whether or not the job losses are actually necessary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the email sent to members, Taiz-Rancifer said the union’s bargaining team was focused on finding a resolution with the district through negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have asked the district to meet with us on Monday and Tuesday to reach an agreement that gives our impacted members and community peace of mind heading into the final weeks of school,” the letter reads. “The door remains open to OUSD to meet before April 30th.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12036400 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-21-at-9.20.34-AM-1020x550.png']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential strike would be the fourth by OUSD teachers since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tensions have mounted between top district officials and the teachers union since a union-backed school board majority voted on Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">remove Oakland’s longtime superintendent\u003c/a>, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, two years before the end of her contract. At the same meeting, the union representing Oakland school administrators alleged that its members had been threatened by teachers union leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cary Kaufman, president of the United Administrators of Oakland Schools, said a teachers union leader told a district principal: “We control the board. We got [Johnson-Trammell] fired, we can get you fired.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teachers union responded Thursday, alleging that one of its organizers, who works at Fremont High School, had been retaliated against by the campus’ principal for his union involvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer said her union has had significant labor challenges with the district, pointing to the three strikes that have taken place during Johnson-Trammell’s eight-year tenure. A strike in 2022 closed schools for more than a week and ended after educators were promised a retroactive 10% raise and continuing wage increases, which the district has blamed in part for its budget shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the teachers union accused OUSD of manufacturing its budget crisis to justify layoffs of about 100 teachers and hundreds of contract changes that will result in lower salaries for its members. The district also gave administrators the option to make more than 30 spending reductions in its upcoming budget proposal, including centralizing services and eliminating some contracts.[aside postID=news_12035569 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/IMG_2891_qed-1020x680.jpg']In February, school board President Jennifer Brouhard and Vice President Valarie Bachelor proposed an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029333/oaklands-school-board-long-been-disarray-is-it-turning-corner\">alternative budget solution plan\u003c/a> that puts caps on some central office spending. Although the union supported that proposal, it said it still wants access to financial documentation that it hasn’t received.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the fall, it also vehemently fought against an attempt by district leadership to merge five pairs of co-located schools. Independent financial audit results released this month found that Oakland is operating 30 more public schools than is fiscally responsible in the face of enrollment declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s merger proposal was ultimately dropped after the board refused to take a vote at its final meeting in December. That came after the board approved some school closures in 2022 but reversed the decision before it took effect the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson, a close ally of Johnson-Trammell, warned the board in December that refusing to make the cuts would lead to an irreversible deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a billion-dollar organization, which is why you have got to make billion-dollar organization decisions,” she said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland public school teachers voted to authorize an unfair labor practices strike, according to an email sent to union members and viewed by KQED, meaning thousands of educators could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036400/oakland-teachers-union-moves-one-step-closer-possible-strike\">walk off the job\u003c/a> next week on May Day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has accused Oakland Unified School District leadership of withholding requested financial information and manufacturing a budget crisis to justify \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029001/oakland-school-board-approves-over-100-layoffs-a-day-after-similar-vote-in-sf\">teacher layoffs\u003c/a> and significant budget cuts. If the parties don’t come to an agreement by Wednesday, nearly 3,000 members of the Oakland Educators Association could take part in a one-day work stoppage on May 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projections of the district’s shortfall for the 2025–2026 academic year have swung wildly in recent months, ballooning to $95 million in December and recently shrinking to $12 million after factoring in some cuts. This year, the district is operating at a deficit of $70 million, it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve attempted to gather information all year. OUSD’s response to those requests has been delayed,” OEA President Kampala Taiz-Rancifer told KQED last week. “They have cut members’ jobs, and we have to … understand what are the resources in the school district, along with whether or not the job losses are actually necessary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the email sent to members, Taiz-Rancifer said the union’s bargaining team was focused on finding a resolution with the district through negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have asked the district to meet with us on Monday and Tuesday to reach an agreement that gives our impacted members and community peace of mind heading into the final weeks of school,” the letter reads. “The door remains open to OUSD to meet before April 30th.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential strike would be the fourth by OUSD teachers since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tensions have mounted between top district officials and the teachers union since a union-backed school board majority voted on Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037315/oakland-school-board-votes-remove-superintendent-sparking-worries-instability\">remove Oakland’s longtime superintendent\u003c/a>, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, two years before the end of her contract. At the same meeting, the union representing Oakland school administrators alleged that its members had been threatened by teachers union leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cary Kaufman, president of the United Administrators of Oakland Schools, said a teachers union leader told a district principal: “We control the board. We got [Johnson-Trammell] fired, we can get you fired.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teachers union responded Thursday, alleging that one of its organizers, who works at Fremont High School, had been retaliated against by the campus’ principal for his union involvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiz-Rancifer said her union has had significant labor challenges with the district, pointing to the three strikes that have taken place during Johnson-Trammell’s eight-year tenure. A strike in 2022 closed schools for more than a week and ended after educators were promised a retroactive 10% raise and continuing wage increases, which the district has blamed in part for its budget shortage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the teachers union accused OUSD of manufacturing its budget crisis to justify layoffs of about 100 teachers and hundreds of contract changes that will result in lower salaries for its members. The district also gave administrators the option to make more than 30 spending reductions in its upcoming budget proposal, including centralizing services and eliminating some contracts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In February, school board President Jennifer Brouhard and Vice President Valarie Bachelor proposed an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029333/oaklands-school-board-long-been-disarray-is-it-turning-corner\">alternative budget solution plan\u003c/a> that puts caps on some central office spending. Although the union supported that proposal, it said it still wants access to financial documentation that it hasn’t received.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the fall, it also vehemently fought against an attempt by district leadership to merge five pairs of co-located schools. Independent financial audit results released this month found that Oakland is operating 30 more public schools than is fiscally responsible in the face of enrollment declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s merger proposal was ultimately dropped after the board refused to take a vote at its final meeting in December. That came after the board approved some school closures in 2022 but reversed the decision before it took effect the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson, a close ally of Johnson-Trammell, warned the board in December that refusing to make the cuts would lead to an irreversible deficit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a billion-dollar organization, which is why you have got to make billion-dollar organization decisions,” she said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Oakland School Board Votes to Remove Superintendent, Sparking Worries of Instability",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland’s school board voted Wednesday night to remove its superintendent, capping weeks of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035569/is-the-oakland-school-board-ousting-the-superintendent-depends-on-which-board-member-you-ask\">swirling rumors\u003c/a> about her employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members who supported the superintendent’s renegotiation have not yet said why her contract was changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037458\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037458 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District board member, Mike Hutchinson, speaks during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037460 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell has led the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> since 2017, walking it back from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037097/oakland-schools-poised-part-ways-with-superintendent-state-oversight-ends\">brink of financial insolvency\u003c/a> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.[aside postID=news_12037103 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/230816-Dublin-Womens-Prison-Suit-MD-01_qed-1020x680.jpg']“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Johnson-Trammell’s appointment, OUSD had had nine superintendents and state administrators since declaring bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent financial audit conducted as part of the district’s exit from state receivership credited Johnson-Trammell with the financial progress made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She understood from personal experience in Oakland how financial instability undermines our efforts toward student success,” it reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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 — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">attempts to close schools\u003c/a> in line with enrollment decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037467 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign reading “we won’t wait for reading at grade level” is held by an individual during a rally calling for improved schools ahead of an Oakland Unified School District board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She brought resources, she built a trust with partners across Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037466\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037466 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and community leaders rally in support of improved schools, ahead of an OUSD board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worries that the district could have to return to state oversight without steady leadership in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I assume many of our senior staff … will follow our superintendent out the door,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037465 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viveca Ycoi-Walton, an Oakland Unified School District parent, cheers during a rally calling for improved schools, ahead of an OUSD board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson accused the board members who voted in favor of the deal of colluding with the teachers’ union, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036400/oakland-teachers-union-moves-one-step-closer-possible-strike\">preparing to strike\u003c/a> for the fourth time in recent years on May 1 over fiscal transparency concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re openly colluding with [union] leadership. Today, they also refused to vote to protect the district against a strike,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cary Kaufman, the president of the administrators’ union, said during the meeting that leaders of the teachers’ union had threatened members in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said one principal was told: “We control the board. We got Kyla fired, we can get you fired.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronald Muhammad, an Oakland Unified School District parent, addresses the board during public comment at a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had significant labor challenges in this district, and who takes [her] place is of interest for us,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like when it comes to the board, there’s a lack of transparency for the majority,” parent Alisha Powell said Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "After weeks of uncertainty about Oakland Unified School District leadership, the board voted 4-3 for a “voluntary separation agreement” with Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland’s school board voted Wednesday night to remove its superintendent, capping weeks of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035569/is-the-oakland-school-board-ousting-the-superintendent-depends-on-which-board-member-you-ask\">swirling rumors\u003c/a> about her employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board members who supported the superintendent’s renegotiation have not yet said why her contract was changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037458\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037458 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District board member, Mike Hutchinson, speaks during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037460 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and supporters attend a board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell has led the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a> since 2017, walking it back from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037097/oakland-schools-poised-part-ways-with-superintendent-state-oversight-ends\">brink of financial insolvency\u003c/a> 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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Johnson-Trammell’s appointment, OUSD had had nine superintendents and state administrators since declaring bankruptcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent financial audit conducted as part of the district’s exit from state receivership credited Johnson-Trammell with the financial progress made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She understood from personal experience in Oakland how financial instability undermines our efforts toward student success,” it reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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 — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">attempts to close schools\u003c/a> in line with enrollment decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037467 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-5_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign reading “we won’t wait for reading at grade level” is held by an individual during a rally calling for improved schools ahead of an Oakland Unified School District board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She brought resources, she built a trust with partners across Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037466\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037466 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-1_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Unified School District parents, students and community leaders rally in support of improved schools, ahead of an OUSD board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worries that the district could have to return to state oversight without steady leadership in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I assume many of our senior staff … will follow our superintendent out the door,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037465 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-4_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viveca Ycoi-Walton, an Oakland Unified School District parent, cheers during a rally calling for improved schools, ahead of an OUSD board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson accused the board members who voted in favor of the deal of colluding with the teachers’ union, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036400/oakland-teachers-union-moves-one-step-closer-possible-strike\">preparing to strike\u003c/a> for the fourth time in recent years on May 1 over fiscal transparency concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re openly colluding with [union] leadership. Today, they also refused to vote to protect the district against a strike,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cary Kaufman, the president of the administrators’ union, said during the meeting that leaders of the teachers’ union had threatened members in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said one principal was told: “We control the board. We got Kyla fired, we can get you fired.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12037462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250423_OUSDSupe_GC-25_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronald Muhammad, an Oakland Unified School District parent, addresses the board during public comment at a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland on April 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had significant labor challenges in this district, and who takes [her] place is of interest for us,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>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.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like when it comes to the board, there’s a lack of transparency for the majority,” parent Alisha Powell said Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "oakland-schools-poised-part-ways-with-superintendent-state-oversight-ends",
"title": "Oakland Schools Poised to Part Ways With Superintendent Just as State Oversight Ends",
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"headTitle": "Oakland Schools Poised to Part Ways With Superintendent Just as State Oversight Ends | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Oakland’s school board is prepared to part ways with its superintendent of schools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035005/oakland-school-board-may-replace-superintendent-despite-contract-extension\">before the end of her term\u003c/a> during a vote Wednesday night, according to a board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news comes as the embattled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a>, which Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell took over on the brink of financial insolvency in 2017, is set to take final steps to exit state receivership this summer following 22 years of state debt and oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This should be a celebration, but at the same meeting now the school board is trying to force out the leader who got us to this point,” board member Mike Hutchinson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An item on the board’s closed-session agenda Wednesday night involves the final steps necessary to separate from Johnson-Trammell, according to Hutchinson. The move would follow discussions about Johnson-Trammell’s employment at board meetings over the last month, which had raised conflicting reports about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035569/is-the-oakland-school-board-ousting-the-superintendent-depends-on-which-board-member-you-ask\">whether she was being pushed out early\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell signed a three-year contract extension in August that would have had her oversee the district until the end of the 2026–2027 school year, though she had always planned to step back from heading its day-to-day operations this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement sent by the district after news of the superintendent’s potential departure initially broke earlier this month, Board President Jennifer Brouhard said that discussion of ousting Johnson-Trammell was “premature.” She did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017852\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board listens to public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Students, families, educators, and community members raised their concerns about a proposed merger of their schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell, an Oakland native and a former student and teacher in Oakland Unified classrooms, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11611940/meet-the-homegrown-superintendents-from-san-francisco-and-oakland\">took the helm of the district\u003c/a> amid a financial crisis — a position she has come to know well during her eight-year tenure. All of it has been under the watchful eye of the state since the district was bailed out of bankruptcy by California in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between declaring bankruptcy and the start of Johnson-Trammell’s term, the district had nine different superintendents or state administrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the eight years since, [Johnson-Trammell] has led the district, and installed the systems that are digging us out of those financial challenges,” OUSD said in a statement Tuesday announcing its exit from receivership.[aside postID=news_12036400 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-21-at-9.20.34-AM-1020x550.png']“Since she became superintendent … Johnson-Trammell has had fiscal vitality and organizational resilience as two of her top priorities for the district, and that has led us to where we are today,” the district’s statement continued. “She understood from personal experience in Oakland how financial instability undermines our efforts toward student success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell’s first budget as superintendent required $9 million in cuts. Since then, the district’s budget has been squeezed by continued enrollment declines, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12013739/oakland-school-board-spurns-campus-closures-plans-merge-some-schools-instead\">higher-than-advisable number of small schools\u003c/a> and significantly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949458/oakland-teachers-strike-ends-as-union-reaches-agreement-with-school-district\">increasing teacher wages.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the district said Tuesday that it has made considerable progress toward fiscal stability, recent budget planning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">hasn’t been smooth sailing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the district certified its first negative budget in more than 20 years, indicating it could run out of cash to pay its bills in the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson said the district would be in a bad spot if it loses Johnson-Trammell, whose top budget staff could leave with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know other senior staff will follow her out the door without a plan in place or replacement in place,” Hutchinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11904318 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/IMG_7844-2-scaled-e1745361588134.jpeg\" alt=\"A bald man in a light blue hoodie stands for a portrait. Behind him a scattered crowd stands on blacktop at Prescott School.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1473\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hutchinson, former Oakland school board director, stands on the blacktop of Prescott School in West Oakland during a rally on Feb. 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An independent audit of the district’s finances, another step toward exiting receivership, found that the district is operating about 30 more school sites than is fiscally responsible and needs to increase its administrative efficiency. Still, it credited Johnson-Trammell and her budget team’s sustained leadership as the primary reason for the district’s progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson worries that losing this stable team, without qualified candidates ready to take over, could make the district’s independence short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could potentially leave receivership on June 30th and get put right back in on July 1st if we don’t have a superintendent and leadership in place that [can] manage our decisions going forward,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD still has a deficit of $70 million for the current academic year. It’s whittled down next year’s deficit, which was projected in December at $95 million, to $12 million after factoring in a laundry list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">service cuts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029001/oakland-school-board-approves-over-100-layoffs-a-day-after-similar-vote-in-sf\">layoffs\u003c/a>. Those will be reflected in the budget presented later this spring, by whoever steps in as interim superintendent should Johnson-Trammell leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School sites’ discretionary funds, individual supplies and community agency contracts, and capacity for overtime pay are all on the chopping block after the board approved a significant menu of cuts presented by Chief Budget Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these cuts reduced next year’s expected shortfall, the district is still planning to spend more than it brings in each month. Nearly half of the projected savings from the budget-balancing solutions will be one-time savings, so further cuts will likely be necessary in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Oakland school board is prepared to vote on the final steps to separate from Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell, according to a board member.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland’s school board is prepared to part ways with its superintendent of schools \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035005/oakland-school-board-may-replace-superintendent-despite-contract-extension\">before the end of her term\u003c/a> during a vote Wednesday night, according to a board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news comes as the embattled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland Unified School District\u003c/a>, which Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell took over on the brink of financial insolvency in 2017, is set to take final steps to exit state receivership this summer following 22 years of state debt and oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This should be a celebration, but at the same meeting now the school board is trying to force out the leader who got us to this point,” board member Mike Hutchinson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An item on the board’s closed-session agenda Wednesday night involves the final steps necessary to separate from Johnson-Trammell, according to Hutchinson. The move would follow discussions about Johnson-Trammell’s employment at board meetings over the last month, which had raised conflicting reports about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035569/is-the-oakland-school-board-ousting-the-superintendent-depends-on-which-board-member-you-ask\">whether she was being pushed out early\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell signed a three-year contract extension in August that would have had her oversee the district until the end of the 2026–2027 school year, though she had always planned to step back from heading its day-to-day operations this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement sent by the district after news of the superintendent’s potential departure initially broke earlier this month, Board President Jennifer Brouhard said that discussion of ousting Johnson-Trammell was “premature.” She did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12017852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12017852\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/20241211-OUSDMergerVote-JY-033-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oakland Unified School District Board listens to public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Students, families, educators, and community members raised their concerns about a proposed merger of their schools. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell, an Oakland native and a former student and teacher in Oakland Unified classrooms, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11611940/meet-the-homegrown-superintendents-from-san-francisco-and-oakland\">took the helm of the district\u003c/a> amid a financial crisis — a position she has come to know well during her eight-year tenure. All of it has been under the watchful eye of the state since the district was bailed out of bankruptcy by California in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between declaring bankruptcy and the start of Johnson-Trammell’s term, the district had nine different superintendents or state administrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the eight years since, [Johnson-Trammell] has led the district, and installed the systems that are digging us out of those financial challenges,” OUSD said in a statement Tuesday announcing its exit from receivership.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Since she became superintendent … Johnson-Trammell has had fiscal vitality and organizational resilience as two of her top priorities for the district, and that has led us to where we are today,” the district’s statement continued. “She understood from personal experience in Oakland how financial instability undermines our efforts toward student success.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson-Trammell’s first budget as superintendent required $9 million in cuts. Since then, the district’s budget has been squeezed by continued enrollment declines, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12013739/oakland-school-board-spurns-campus-closures-plans-merge-some-schools-instead\">higher-than-advisable number of small schools\u003c/a> and significantly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949458/oakland-teachers-strike-ends-as-union-reaches-agreement-with-school-district\">increasing teacher wages.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the district said Tuesday that it has made considerable progress toward fiscal stability, recent budget planning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">hasn’t been smooth sailing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the district certified its first negative budget in more than 20 years, indicating it could run out of cash to pay its bills in the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson said the district would be in a bad spot if it loses Johnson-Trammell, whose top budget staff could leave with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know other senior staff will follow her out the door without a plan in place or replacement in place,” Hutchinson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11904318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11904318 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/IMG_7844-2-scaled-e1745361588134.jpeg\" alt=\"A bald man in a light blue hoodie stands for a portrait. Behind him a scattered crowd stands on blacktop at Prescott School.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1473\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hutchinson, former Oakland school board director, stands on the blacktop of Prescott School in West Oakland during a rally on Feb. 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Annelise Finney/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An independent audit of the district’s finances, another step toward exiting receivership, found that the district is operating about 30 more school sites than is fiscally responsible and needs to increase its administrative efficiency. Still, it credited Johnson-Trammell and her budget team’s sustained leadership as the primary reason for the district’s progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hutchinson worries that losing this stable team, without qualified candidates ready to take over, could make the district’s independence short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could potentially leave receivership on June 30th and get put right back in on July 1st if we don’t have a superintendent and leadership in place that [can] manage our decisions going forward,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OUSD still has a deficit of $70 million for the current academic year. It’s whittled down next year’s deficit, which was projected in December at $95 million, to $12 million after factoring in a laundry list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">service cuts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029001/oakland-school-board-approves-over-100-layoffs-a-day-after-similar-vote-in-sf\">layoffs\u003c/a>. Those will be reflected in the budget presented later this spring, by whoever steps in as interim superintendent should Johnson-Trammell leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School sites’ discretionary funds, individual supplies and community agency contracts, and capacity for overtime pay are all on the chopping block after the board approved a significant menu of cuts presented by Chief Budget Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these cuts reduced next year’s expected shortfall, the district is still planning to spend more than it brings in each month. Nearly half of the projected savings from the budget-balancing solutions will be one-time savings, so further cuts will likely be necessary in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
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