OUSD Board of Education Held First Regular Meeting of 2021 with Four New Directors, and a New President and Vice President
Oakland – The OUSD Board of Education held its first regular meeting of the year on Wednesday evening, January 13 2021. More than that, it’s the first meeting for a newly-seated Board, with four out of seven Directors having just been sworn in last week. Monday, January 4, 2021 was a historic day, as the outgoing majority of the Board was replaced by the four new Directors.
The new Directors are Sam Davis who replaced Jody London in District 1, VanCedric Williams who took over for Jumoke Hinton in District 3, Mike Hutchinson who succeeded Roseann Torres in District 5 and Clifford Thompson who replaced James Harris in District 7.
In the Board’s organizational meeting on January 4, the OUSD Board of Education Directors elected a new leadership team. District 6 Director, Shanthi Gonzales won the seat as Board President and new Director Sam Davis was elected Vice President. This week, Davis said, “I have been learning as fast as I can. There are a lot of topics to dig into and understanding my role as vice president is just one of them. I’m excited to work with the community, our labor unions, and central staff to make good decisions in this very challenging time.”
President Gonzales is eager to get to work with her new colleagues and says, “We have a comprehensive orientation program for our new Directors and are spending a lot of time building their knowledge and relationships so we can move quickly on the issues before the Board, including most urgently, the return to in-person instruction on our school campuses.”
You can read more about the four new OUSD Board of Education Directors and the three returning OUSD Directors, Shanthi Gonzales, Aimee Eng and Gary Yee on the Board of Education page at the website, www.ousd.org/boe.