Oakland Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

This is hard. There you go. This is the first So we The tree has been planted for years. This is the first year.

My husband was like Okay. I'd like to welcome everyone to the special meeting of the board of education. Okay. Um tonight's agenda, the special what? Oh, sorry. Roll call to establish more. All right. Right. On the roll call to establish the corp. Student director Simmons. Student director Smith. Director Lada.

Present. Director Williams. Present. Sir. Director Hutchinson. Okay. Director Barry. Director Thompson. Vice President Bachelor here. President Brohart here. Quum present. And Mr. Hollis, can we have an interpretation check, please?

Yes, Madam President. Uh, for tonight's meeting, we have three languages available for live interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. Um, I will start the announcements with Cantonese. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Cantonese. And I will ask Ms. Hope she could come off mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese. The Cantonese announcement is done, Mr. Hollis.

Thank you, Miss Ho. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not have Cantonese interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Arabic, I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hands and need the language being announced at this time which is Arabic and I will ask Miss Abdi if she can come off mute and get the interpretation announcement for Arabic. Arabic announcement is done.

Uh thank you, Miss Abdi. Uh checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Spanish, I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And I'll ask Mr. Copenhagen if you can come off of mute and get the interpretation announcement for Spanish. Sure. Spanish. The interpretation Thank you, Mr. Hollis.

Thank you, Mr. Copenhagen. Checking attendance to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Uh, seeing no hands, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes um announcements for interpretation, I pass it back to you, Madame President.

Thank you. Uh, tonight in close session, we will discuss the following items under labor matters. Item D125-1864, conference with labor negotiators. Under existing litigation, we will discuss item 25-0613, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. 25-2710, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. Under pupil matters, we will discuss items D2 260297 expulsion of student MM D3 26-0364 expulsion of student NN D4 26- 0397 expulsion of student zero uh O uh item D5 26-0398 expulsion of student PP P D626-0399 expulsion of student QQ. We will reconvene to for public session to report out on uh close session matters. And right now we have um public comment on close session items. Do we have any public speakers?

Yes, President Brewhard. We have Assalo Labala.

Uh two minutes. So on Tuesday at city council meeting, you have reached a settlement with the city of Oakland to pay $860,000 as part of your responsibility for payment of the election of 2022 and you agreed to pay all costs related to any elections that you will proceed to pursue in the future. Uh it's amazing how the difference between how the city of Oakland uh is transparent about their lawsuits and you offer no in writing or when you come from out of close session you don't give any information but the city does you have an arrangement that that looks like you came to an agreement with the union I am very disappointed what I'm reading 11 to 13% pay raise with agreement to give special raises or not raises but uh fees of increasing to uh early learning educators, special education educators, counselors and some other groups. You're also agreeing uh to reduce counseling uh case loads. You also agreeing to have a commitment to work with the uh legal organizations that work with our immigrants. Uh here we go again. You have proceeded to allow the union to put you in a bind. Where is the money coming from when you come back and make this agreement? Where is the money coming from? The money can only come from one source and that's to reduce and lay off people. You have no money. I don't know how you got to this place of agreeing to give payraises of this volume. How you agreeing to give special

uh incentive pay to certain groups? How you agreeing to reduce counsel? You don't have the money and you don't want to close schools. What are you going to do is the question. You have to financial literacy. Thank you. Are there any other public comments? No. President Kul public speakers. Okay. And with that, we will um go into close session.

Uh welcome back to open session for the Oakland School Board Friday, February 27th special meeting. Mr. Ra, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please? Yes, ma'am. On the roll call to establish quorum, uh, student directors are absent. Director Lada, present. Director Williams, present. Director Hutchinson, Director Barry, present. Okay. Director Thompson, Vice President Bachelor, not in the room. President Brohart present. Quorum present.

And Mr. Hollis, can we have an interpretation check, please?

Nope. Okay, just checking. Okay. Um, I'm going to be reverting back out what we items we discussed in closed session on um adoption of people discipline. Oh, we need to vote on that actually. Sorry. on existing litigation. We discussed these matters and gave direction on item 25-0613 uh CW versus Oakland Unified District. On item 25-27, the board discussed this matter before we do the pupil matters vote. Uh Dr. Sadler, did you want to

Okay. Do I have a motion to approve uh the pupil matters? Motion. Second. Mr. Raar, can we have a roll call vote, please? Oh, I'm sorry. Is there any public comment on that? For the record, we have a solo um the register for for um I mean register speak, but she is not present. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Rickstro, can we have a roll call vote, please? On the roll call to adopt the pupil discipline consent report. Student directors are absent. Director Lada present. Director. Uh, is this a is this a yes or no? I'm so sorry. Yes.

Uh, Director Williams. Yes, sir. All right. Director Hutchinson. Director Barry. Yes. Okay. Director Thompson's absent. Vice President Bachelor. Yes. President Brohart. Yes. People discipline consent report is adopted. I forgot there was one other item to report out and that is labor matters. Um item D125-1864 conference with labor negotiators. The board discussed this matter and uh Superintendent Sadler, I believe you wanted to.

Thank you, President Brohard. I just wanted to say first of all I am pleased that we averted a strike which was our primary objective in setting the negotiating terms and I want to thank um all of our staff the team that worked on this that we made this settlement at 3 this morning and I really wanted to just put on the record that I know that strikes are really costly not only in dollars but in loss of confidence and dis and there really are a disruption to student learning and have an impact on family trust. We step back from all of that. That matters and it's the first time in my experience that we have been able to avert a strike without I mean to to settle an I'm so tired to settle um without having a strike is what I want to say. That's a big deal. And I want board members, whether you agreed or supported or however you voted, it it really is significant that we've taken this step. I want you to know that I am excited about working through this, figuring out our next steps. I've been thinking a lot. I have a long list of things that I really want to implement on behalf of our students and families. And I want to thank all of you for being conscious um board members giving your opinion and your thoughts um being as dedicated as I am to the goal and that's to serve students and families. That's my major goal and we need to have different opinions. We need to do our best work and you do that by giving your thoughts. But one of the things I think is important as we leave this room, we do this together. We have we have done a great service to our community. I have received calls from our mayor. I have spoken to our county superintendent.

I've talked to a lot of people. But most of all, I have people, parents who've contacted me. That means a lot. And that's just inspired me to even work harder to do even a better job at making this district the best district it can be for all children. So, I just want to thank all of you and particularly I've I've spent a lot of time with President Brewhard and just having the courage to step out there and say what you think, ask for what you need. Um, and being thoughtful about it. Even this evening when we were discussing this, Director Barry, all of the questions, all of the comments are really critical to our work together. So, I want us to leave this meeting knowing that this is a special moment for all of us. the work is just beginning and I'm I'm ready to move forward with you and with the community and that's everything from lobbying the state, lobbying the federal government. Can't wait to do that. Um because I think that's really more where we need to we have our own work to do in our own backyard, but there's bigger work that I want to support that needs to be done nationally and statewide. So, I just wanted to as we walk out of here, we're all tired, but good work. We've done good work together. And even with the ups and downs, the questions, the disappointments. Um, again, I keep saying this. I see the students and families. And so, I just want to thank everybody. I thank you for your courage to speak out on what you think should happen. Let's continue to work together and get it done. So, thank you.

Thank you. And on those words, we will adjourn. Remember there was a time when we said things costing half a million. Oh.