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Alameda school board still reeling from allegations of power play

by Rasheed Shabazz
The Alameda school board is still reeling from allegations of a racially motivated power play. Some believe the issue was racist, while others think the issue is about charter schools and the renewal of the Superintendent's contract. Others say so-called progressives just want power, regardless if their actions are or appear racially motivated.
sm_screen_shot_2019-01-02_at_5.42.45_pm.jpg
Last month controversy erupted at an Alameda school board meeting over a rule change that stopped the board’s first Black woman member from becoming school board president. The issue resurfaced again at the Jan. 22 meeting, with a half dozen speakers still upset about this issue.

The East Bay Express summed up the issue in a Jan. 9 story as follows:

"When the Alameda school board convenes for its first meeting of 2019 this week, it may still be healing over tensions from allegations of racism. At its last meeting on Dec. 13, the board changed its bylaws in order to elect new Alameda school member Mia Bonta as board president, bypassing African American board member Ardella Dailey for the position even though, as vice-president, Dailey was next in line for the position. The decision by the board’s new majority drew outrage and raised serious questions about whether the board will be able to work cooperatively this year."

The article, “Alameda Racism, Charter School Politics, or Something Else?” lays out the background of the rule change, the meeting in which a dozen supporters of then VP Dailey questioned the timing and intention of the rule change, and details some of the backstory with the new board majority.

It is still unclear what the move was really about. The unique headline accurately captures the mysteriousness of the move and the various motives of different players and actors in Alameda politics, and the intersection of race, union politics, and power.

Although Alameda certain has a long history of racism, some of those claiming the incident was racist may have ulterior motives. For instance, Bassey Obot was the first person to speak at the meeting. He stated that disenfranchising Dailey was racially motivated. (He added that member Gray Harris had posted about the rule change being related to the evaluation of Superintendent Sean McPhetridge.)

Yet while Obot claimed this rule change was racially motivated, when a young Black man was murdered by one of his colleagues with the San Francisco Police Department, he took a different position. Obot is a Sergeant with SFPD. When police officers shot and killed Mario Woods in 2015, Bassey later defended the officers before the SF Police Commission. According to the meeting’s minutes, “he personally takes offense to calls and remarks that racism is pervasive in the Department or that it played a part in this recent officer-involved shooting.”

Obot’s assessment of racism may be nuanced or may have evolved over the past two years. However, some has suggested that his concern was not really rooted in concern about racial justice but about the future ascendancy of his wife, Jennifer Williams, to school board presidency the year she is up for reelection. Whether or not this issue was racially motivated, many community members felt the impact of racism.

Another reason given for the rule change was Dailey’s support for charter schools. Yet as Dailey pointed out at the Jan. 22 meeting, on each decision related to charter school’s in which Dailey voted, the decisions were unanimous, meaning her colleagues voted the same way. Notably, as the Express article indicated, employees in two of Alameda’s charter schools are unionized. So while union’s usually are anti-charter, this issue is a bit more complicated.

Finally, as mentioned above, the third reason hinted at was a performance review of the Superintendent’s job contract. His three-year contract expired in June, but had an automatic renewal clause pending a positive evaluation. The performance review has been on all but one (Jan. 8, 2019) closed session agenda since last summer; however, no decisions have been publicly announced.

At the Jan. 22 meeting, over half a dozen speakers spoke out in favor of Dailey again. Two retired employees, Debbie Bradshaw and Margie Sherratt, said they represented 35 retired administrators and secretaries; Olivia Higgins called on President Mia Bonta to step down; Vickie Smith critiqued the charter school argument; and Pastor Mike Yoshii supported Dailey for all her work combatting anti-Asian sentiment in Alameda during the 1990s. Former Mayor Trish Spencer shared she felt passed over for board president during her time on the school board from 2010-2014.

Perhaps the most poignant critique that evening came from Cheryl Taylor, a Blackwoman and parent of two children in the schools. “Black people are not interchangeable,” she said. Passing over Dailey and selecting Bonta was “an act of erasure,” as she criticized the decision to replace one Black woman with another deemed more palatable.

Individual school board members appear to be working to resolve differences over the incident, yet community members still seem upset over how the issue transpired.
§Mia Bonta at Dec. 13 meeting
by Rasheed Shabazz
sm_screen_shot_2019-01-02_at_5.39.56_pm.jpg
Alameda school board member Mia Bonta explains why she wants to be able to vote for school board members and not use rotation policy.
§Gray Harris at Dec. 13 meeting
by Rasheed Shabazz
sm_screen_shot_2019-01-02_at_5.39.28_pm.jpg
School board member and then president Gray Harris explains why she wants to change a school board policy critics say she benefited from.
§correction: updating links in article
by Rasheed
These hyperlinks were not in article:

Sgt Obot at SFPD commission meeting (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkOcDXZiWL8

Meeting minutes
https://sanfranciscopolice.org/meeting/police-commission-january-20-2016-minutes
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