Oakland Unified School District OUSD

OUSD Asks Everyone To Be Respectful Of Each Other On Social Media And Elsewhere

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Oakland Unified School District Communications Director John Sasaki sent this to Zennie62Media.

OUSD Asks Everyone in the District Community to be Respectful of Each Other on Social Media and Elsewhere

Dear Oakland Unified Community,

Recently, we have seen some social media posts from staff and families that have raised the temperature on the discussion surrounding the opening of schools. In particular, we saw one Tweet from a staff member that left many families feeling disrespected and insulted. It has been shared numerous times by upset families. The staff member has since apologized for the Tweet, but we felt it necessary to make a few things clear.

We are the Oakland UNIFIED School District. We are unified around many things, particularly by our desire to provide the best possible education for all of our students. As part of this Unified District, we want everyone in our community – students, staff, family members, community members – to conduct themselves appropriately, as we are all part of the OUSD family.

To that end, we ask everyone to refrain from personal insults or attacks, as they do not help in this situation or any other, and only serve to inflame tensions. If we learn of incidents in which our staff is insulting or disrespecting our families – or vice versa – we will respond appropriately.

Whether we are families or staff, we all want the best for Oakland’s students. We hope everyone assumes the best of intentions in each other, and that we will find ways to work together to provide the best for our young people, rather than doing anything counterproductive to that mission.

Respectfully,
OUSD News

Author note:

This is as much of the Twitter exchange referred to as I could find:

And then, there’s this February 21st, 2021 message from the OUSD Superintendent:

Dear Oakland Community,

I am writing to share a brief update about our ongoing labor negotiations. As we have since last March, we are exploring every way to meet the needs of District students, families, and staff in alignment with public health guidance.

We have been negotiating in good faith with the Oakland Education Association (OEA) for months in the hopes of reaching a new MOU about the impacts and effects of returning to in-person learning. From the beginning of these negotiations, the District’s negotiating team has had full authority to reach an agreement.

For those interested in more detail, the District’s last proposal can be found here (dated: February 8, 2021) and OEA’s last proposal can be found here (dated: January 28, 2021). You can review all of the District’s proposals and OEA’s proposals here.

We stand ready to work with all of our labor partners. We appreciate the time and effort that all of our labor partners have taken to establish agreements that allow us to serve our students and community while protecting staff members.

As I mentioned early this week, it is during trying times like this that it is easy to become frustrated and divided. I implore all members of our community to stay united around our common values and goals. Based on those common values and goals, I sincerely believe that we can reach an agreement that is good for students, families, and staff.

In Community,
Kyla Signature
Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell
Superintendent

Stay tuned for updates to this post.