Oakland School Board Calls for Local Control

School Board Calls for Local Control

By Ken Epstein
May 17, 2005

The Oakland Board of Education held its own independent board meeting last week for the first time since state takeover two years ago, unanimously passing a resolution calling for return of local governance to the Oakland Unified School  District.


The resolution calls upon the state schools’ superintendent to direct the state administrator to “immediately work with the governing board of the…school district to develop and implement an orderly governance transition process, ” including a timeline with “specific deadlines”  and  “a community-driven superintendent search and selection process.”

The state has been directly running the school district since June 2003, when in the midst of a major financial crisis in the district, the state stepped in with a bailout loan, fired Oakland Supt. Dennis Chaconas and stripped the elected governing board of its policymaking authority.

State Administrator Randolph Ward refused to allow the board to put their resolution on the agenda of his meeting, according to board members. Board President Gary Gee said he spoke with State Supt. of Instruction Jack O’Connell’s office, which also opposed putting the resolution on the agenda.

But the resolution did come to a vote Wednesday night, May 11,  after Ward’s board meeting, at which board members attended only as advisers.

Ward’s official board meeting adjourned at about 11 p.m. The recording devices were turned off – Ward and his staff stood up and left the room.  At that point, with only a few people left in the audience, the board called its own special meeting to order and quickly passed the only item on its agenda -  the resolution on local governance.

The board vote was 6-0 in favor of the resolution. The seventh board member, Kerry Hamill, was absent from both meetings held that night.

Board members posted an agenda for their meeting in the glass case in front of the district headquarters to comply with state open meeting laws. But the district posted neither the resolution nor the announcement of the meeting on the board’s official website.

Discussing the significance of the resolution, Board members said they feel it is realistic to expect the return of local governance by June 2006.

“The resolution is meant to remind us and the community to consider a return to normalcy and to start a plan that prepares the community for this,” Board President Gary Yee said.

While the vote was symbolic, said Boardmember David Kakishiba, “We’re taking the first, intentional steps toward a return to normalcy.

“The resolution is not saying that there have not been gains; it’s not saying that Ward has failed. The idea is to hold the state accountable, to set some kind of reasonable timeline for transition (to local control) on the part of O’Connell. We’re proposing a 12-month transition process.”

Boardmember Greg Hodge, who along with Boardmember Dan Siegel, has long opposed state control, said that the resolution clearly says that it is time to return the schools to the people of Oakland.

“We have not seen any district in the state that has been significantly improved by the direct intervention of the State of California,” Hodge said. “It’s time for this community to have a direct say and a direct impact on the a system that, under state control, seems to be falling apart.

“They have placed inexperienced people in key positions. It’s amazing that (they) think that people outside of education know more about education than educators.”

According to Siegel, the unanimous board vote reflects growing citywide opposition to state control. “Things are moving in the direction of opposition,” Siegel said. “The (district’s) unions have rethought their former support for the state takeover. “

Noting a recent City Council resolution to support a day of protests, Take Back Our Schools Day, on May 17, Siegel said “The more support we have for the position of ending the takeover, the more it puts pressure on the Legislature to actually do something about it.”