As Oakland Unified rides the roller coaster from one controversy to another, it’s a valid question to ask, does the Oakland school board ever do anything useful?



The answer is a resounding YES: among all the slings and arrows of outrageous incidents and proposals, over the past 3 years I have not just survived, but also accomplished real positive social and educational change for Oakland Unified’s students, families and staff.



I am proud of those achievements, as well as the amazing work on the ground by teachers, staff and families at schools across Oakland that is made possible by the work we do as Board members. 



It is because of that great progress and pride that I have decided, after much reflection, to run for re-election in 2024.





What have we on the Board achieved since I was elected in 2020? Here are some examples:

• Last year, I led the campaign to renew Oakland’s College and Career for All initiative for another generation of Oakland students, via the passage of Measure H by an over 80% yes vote.
  
  This program, started in 2014 under Measure N, has radically increased graduation and college eligibility rates across the town, as well as closing the equity gap for African-American students.
  
  Oakland's high school students will now get the benefits of the initiative's internships, dual enrollment classes, and comprehensive student supports for at least another 14 years.
  

Celebrating the renewal of College and Career for All at Fremont High School last February with Californians for Justice and Principals Moy and Baez.

• The Board ended the lease at 1000 Broadway for OUSD office space, which had been costing the district over $3 million per year.
  
  

• Oakland Unified was recognized for providing more COVID testing, N95 masks, and vaccine clinics for students, families and staff during the pandemic than most other districts. While all districts struggled with the decision to reopen after distance learning, I authored the Board’s statement on Feb. 24, 2021 (less than 2 months after I was sworn in), committing to returning to in-person instruction in the following month.
  

The first day of in-person schooling at Sankofa United on March 30, 2021. It took hard work to convince people that it was safe to go back into classrooms in March of 2021.

• This year, our board approved a historic raise for the majority of our employees, after we made a series of difficult budget adjustments to free up resources to make that possible, including the painful closure of two school sites in May of 2022.
  
  

• While I've been in office, no vacant school sites were sold or turned into luxury condos. Instead, Kaiser became an early childhood education hub, Parker became a mix of adult education and community services, two other sites have been leased for the development of workforce housing, and the former Piedmont Ave preschool site is leased to the City of Oakland to build a public library. 

Kaiser School, closed in 2020 before I was elected, has reopened as an Early Childhood Center for preschool students.

• Amidst severe post-pandemic school safety issues that are related to the epidemic of violence across our town, Oakland Unified has maintained its commitment to abolishing its police force, relying instead on violence prevention strategies like:

  • training staff on Restorative Justice,

  • partnering with the City of Oakland on Violence Interruption and Prevention (VIP) teams,

  • increasing pay and training for Culture Keepers and Culture and Climate Ambassadors (the evolution of those formerly known as security officers),

  • and contracting with non-profits for ‘credible messengers’ who work with teens to help them choose non-violent solutions to conflict.
    
    

• As chair of the Facilities Committee this year, I insisted on equity metrics for deciding on how to rework the $735 million Measure Y spending plan in response to rising construction costs, so that more resources would go to schools in neighborhoods of greatest need. In June, a Board that often struggled to find consensus voted unanimously to approve the revised plan.
  
  

• The Board has not approved any new charter schools or expansions. Instead, for the first time charter enrollment has sharply declined across Oakland, since charters collectively did not have the central structures needed to respond well to all the crises of the pandemic years.
  

• I helped to recruit and elect Director Jorge Lerma, who was sworn in last Monday to represent District 5, after winning the special election last month despite being outspent 3:1. Jorge has been fighting to bring the issues of Latino/a students to the forefront for many years, and is a great addition to our Board. 
  
  We Boardmembers could just have voted amongst ourselves to appoint somebody to fill out the term, but I convinced some of my colleagues that instead, the voters of District 5 should have the opportunity to democratically choose their representative.

With Director Jorge Lerma after he was sworn in last Monday to represent District 5 on our School Board.

• Along with some others on the Board, I stood firm in my view that while public employees have the right to strike, that is something that should happen only in severe situations. The impact of a strike on families of greatest need is too serious for it to be the first course of action.
  
  Because we on the Board held the line, the district pursued a complaint with the state of California after the teachers went out on strike this spring over unfounded allegations of Unfair Labor Practices.
  
  Shortly after the November election results, OEA leadership agreed to a settlement of that complaint which will be coming to the Board for our approval shortly. This new agreement will provide a process for the union to get public information from the district, a labor/management committee to address communication problems, and a strict timeline that must be observed to try to resolve serious disputes before a strike can be contemplated.

These are big accomplishments, and I am proud to have played a part in each one, despite the controversies and alternative narratives that may also swirl around them.



But I’m not resting on my laurels. In the coming years, I would like to see more big changes in Oakland Unified:



• I’m collaborating with Assemblymember Mia Bonta, city officials and non-profit organizations to bring more affordable and workforce housing to some of the district-owned buildings that currently sit vacant, contributing to blight in our city.
  
  These are the kinds of projects that we need to move forward to combat the wave of gentrification which is making Oakland lose some of its cherished diversity.
  
  A resolution co-authored by Director Brouhard and me to prioritize unused district properties for affordable and workforce housing has been approved by the Facilities Committee and will be coming to the full Board in January.
  
  

On Oct. 30, I co-hosted a panel discussion with Dir. Brouhard, including Councilmember Fife, Brooklyn Williams from Mayor Thao's office (pictured), as well as Rowena Brown from Asm. Bonta's office, Kyra Mungia from TRiO+, and Andreas Cluver from the Building Trades, on the topic of building affordable & workforce housing on unused OUSD property.

• I am working with the superintendent on my recommendation to add a performing arts stage to the Oakland Unified visual arts festival that is held in Old Oakland every spring. Many of our high schools have amazing performing arts pathways supported by the College and Career for All fund.
  
  Giving our students a moment to shine in front of a broader audience will not only help them grow as performers, but also bring positive attention to our high schools.
  
  

• To continue to retain and recruit great people that represent the diversity of Oakland to work at all of our school sites, we need to offer significantly more compensation to the hundreds of school employees who have not yet gotten a raise this year.
  
  That will mean some very difficult Board votes to balance our budget, including restarting the fraught conversation about closing or consolidating some of our smallest schools.
  
  

• The Governor’s office used the pandemic as a pretext to delay all charter renewals by three years. So there have been no charter renewal votes during my three years in office.
  
  Over the next 5 years, all 28 schools authorized by OUSD will come to the Board for renewal, and we will have the opportunity to apply the high standards that were created by AB 1505 in 2019 to decide which should continue and which should not.

In April, Supt. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, President Hutchinson and I went to Sacramento to lobby lawmakers on various topics, including opposing the automatic one-year extension for all charters. Unfortunately, we were not successful on that point and Gov. Newsom approved the extension.

• Finally, none of the achievements mentioned above would have been possible without the hard work of our excellent and deeply committed and skillful superintendent, Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell. She is in her seventh year of service in the job, which is amazing in a district that has not seen that kind of longevity in that role any time in recent memory.
  
  Yet we know she will not stay in this role forever. The Board’s biggest decision in the coming years will be to navigate the transition (though we will also put it off as long as she is willing to stay!), and to keep Oakland’s students and families first in our hearts when we make the difficult choice for who will take on the mantle once Kyla decides to move on.



It’s this kind of exciting work that makes up for the fractious meetings and hostile comments that I occasionally experience. But when I visit school sites, I hear mostly gratitude to those of us on the Board for everything we are doing. So it’s actually not as hard a decision as you might think to throw my hat in the ring for four more years.



However, I can’t run an election campaign on my own—I’m going to need help from everyone who cares about Oakland and who values our schools and students as highly as I do. 



Please help me by donating what you can on my ActBlue page, or come to my campaign kickoff on Thursday, Dec. 14 from 5:30-6:30 pm at Mother Tongue Coffee (RSVP here).



I’m grateful to Mother Tongue for hosting the event—the café/wine bar is owned by a mom of two OUSD students, and as one of the managers told me, “The three of us running Mother Tongue are all mothers, so our schools are important to us.” 



As the only current Oakland Unified parent on the school board—I have a graduating senior at Oakland Tech—I bring a different perspective than those who think of our schools primarily as a workplace. 



It’s an honor to represent the voice of Oakland's families on the Board, and I hope you will support me to do so for another four years in the November 2024 election.



Sincerely,



Sam Davis

Oakland Board of Education

District 1 Representative 

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