The Oakland Unified School District is set to sever ties with its longstanding superintendent, thrusting a district beset by deep financial challenges into deeper into turmoil.
In a closed session that was not open to the public, the board voted 4-1 Wednesday evening to begin payout negotiations for superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell and begin a search for a new district leader to start July 1, board member Mike Hutchinson said in an interview with this news organization.
The move to oust Johnson-Trammell, who has held the post for nearly 10 years and whose contract was recently renewed for a final three-year term, shocked community members amid the looming prospect of school closures. The district faces a $95 million budget shortfall.
“This is the most disruptive thing the school board could do,” Hutchinson said. “This is yanking our leadership out without even a discussion.”
It is not clear why the board sought to remove Johnson-Trammell, who has an annual base salary of more than $375,000. Board members did respond to questions about the reasons for her ouster.
Johnson-Trammell, the district’s longest-serving superintendent in more than 50 years, did not respond to a request for comment.
Hutchinson said his was the only dissenting vote, with board president Jennifer Brouhard, vice president Valarie Bachelor and board members VanCedric Williams and Rachel Latta voting in favor of searching for a new district leader.
He criticized the board for not publicly reporting the action taken in closed session, which had simply referred to a public employee “discipline/dismissal/release” matter without specifics. But Brouhard defended the move, saying in a statement Thursday that “no final action” was taken at Wednesday night’s board meeting.
“If there’s a vote in closed session to end the contract of the superintendent, it must be reported in open session immediately after,” Brouhard said. “As reported out in open session, the board took no final action on the public employment item in closed session.”
Hutchinson called Brouhard’s comments “semantics.” He said while the board did not technically give Johnson-Trammell the legally required 90-day notice of a termination, directing staff to begin negotiations for a payout was a clear message that her time in the district was at an end.
“Everyone was clear what the vote meant last night,” he said.
Born and raised in Oakland, Johnson-Trammell worked as a teacher and administrator in the district for 19 years before she became superintendent in 2017. She worked to strengthen the district’s finances, cutting the district budget by $9 million in December 2017 — including through layoffs — and by an additional $5.5 million before the start of the 2018-19 school year.
The move to push out Johnson-Trammell comes less than a year after the board approved a final three-year contract extension for her through 2027. That contract was meant to include a final year leading the district’s day-to-day operations and two years to transfer her responsibilities and prepare the district for her successor to ensure a smooth transition as the district battles financial challenges.
“There is no reason. There is no explanation,” Hutchinson said of the board’s decision on Wednesday. “They can’t justify this. This is pure chaos.”
Hutchinson and others opposed the move to oust Johnson-Trammell and said it would push the district further into financial disarray and cause a flurry of senior staff departures. Superintendent searches conducted by executive search firms can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take months.
“In a moment of time when both the city of Oakland and the school district continue to face a historical budget deficit, it is not only fiscally irresponsible but morally unjust to consider terminating the contract of a leader who has served this district with dedication, vision and deep roots in this community,” said Dela Morris, education committee chair for the Oakland branch of the NAACP.
“The cost of buying out a superintendent’s contract, launching a national search, onboarding new leadership and stalling momentum comes at a tangible and measurable cost, one that the district’s students cannot afford,” Morris said.
Oakland Unified is projected to run out of cash as early as next school year, which could lead to another years-long state takeover like the one the district went under in 2003 when it received a $100 million state bailout loan due to insolvency.
Kimi Kean, a former teacher, principal and administrator in Oakland Unified and co-founder and CEO of Families in Action for Quality Education, said she served nine superintendents in the 14 years she worked in the district and experienced firsthand the struggles of constant leadership turnover.
“Our schools, our hardworking educators, our staff and our leadership and most of all our students and families – they need stability,” Kean said at Wednesday’s meeting during the public comment period. “The eight-year tenure of superintendent Johnson-Trammell has been a gift to Oakland Unified. She has retained so many leaders…she’s earned the respect and more importantly the trust of those in OUSD. Let us honor her legacy by moving deliberately through the transition over the next two years. The board has the opportunity to break trust or build trust through this process… We have so much to lose by moving too fast.”
Hutchinson encouraged community members to continue advocating for the superintendent to finish out her contract. He said the fight “is not over yet” but expressed concern over the damage already inflicted on the community.
“They’ve crossed a line that there’s no coming back from,” he said. “I don’t know that we will be able to function at the district if they’re allowed to continue and this decision is allowed to stand.”
