Oakland School Board Endorsement Information for Wellstone Democratic Club
Four of the seven Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board seats are up for election in Nov, making 2020 critical. The fact that no incumbents are running presents even more opportunity to reshape the school board. The board currently has a majority of pro-privatizers and directors who are unable/unwilling to exert the political will to move the district to financial and acade-mic stability as well as away from a very inequitable distribution of its limited resources.
Privatizing organizations like GO Public Schools and CCSA (California Charter School Association) are certain to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into these cam-paigns and must be strenuously opposed.
The Education Committee is evaluating the many candidates and will follow with en-dorsement recommendations. Following are links to interviews, written questionnaire responses and forums conducted by the teachers’ union and other community groups:
1) The OEA has interviewed most of the candidates and has posted the interviews and responses to written questions online:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-kCn0vky4aOl2T4KTJO3L_ KUOueMyKZjg-Bii1wz51HgE/edit
And for those of you who may also be puzzled by how to get to the candidates answers to questions in both interviews and questionnaires you will not see the usual arrow to click on when you roll your cursor over the name or question. Instead you have to roll your cursor over the candi-date’s name, click on it despite lack of an arrow and then click on what pops up. Same for the interviews except the clicking will occur on the questions not the candidate’s names.
2) Josh Krafchin, a local education activist, sponsored an online forum in May and plans to hold more forums: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/? v=275459250255152
3) Action 2020, a local education activist organization, is holding a series of forums on the school board race:
District 5: https:/Awww.action20200akland.org/ousd district 5 school board candidate forum
District 3: https:/Awww.action20200akland.org/ousd_ district 3 school board candidate forum
Action 2020 will be doing District 1 and District 7 on July 18% and 25″ respectively. Links to follow.
4) GO Public Schools, a local pro-privatization organization, held an endorsement fo-rum: https://goadvocatesoakland.org/2020/07/2020-school-board-candidate-endorse-ment-process/
Below is the list of candidates running for school board. This may change as the filing is open until August 7; we have seen recent entries, as well as candidates dropping out.
District 1
Includes Chabot, Claremont, Emerson, Hillcrest, Kaiser, Peralta, Piedmont Ave, Sankofa, Oakland International and Oakland Tech.
Currently represented by Jody London.
* Austin Dannhaus
* Sam Davis
* Reginald Mosely — Interviewed, but has not filed
° Alicia-dehasen — Filed, but withdrew
DiaPenning — Filed, but withdrew
District 3
Includes Hoover, Lafayette, M.L. King, Westlake, Place/Prescott, West Oakland Middle, McClymonds, Bunche and Street Academy.
Currently represented by Jumoke Hinton Hodge.
Maiya Edgerly
Mark Hurty
Cherisse Gash
Tyron Jordan
Maximo Santana—Recently filed, no info yet
Van Cedric Williams
Deirdre -Snayder— Filed, but withdrew
Saran-Russel— Filed, but withdrew
District 5
Includes Bridges, Brewer, Fruitvale, Glenview, Global Family, International Community, Manzanita Community and Seed, Think College Now, United For Success, Urban Prom-ise, Fremont and Life Academy.
Currently represented by Rosie Torres.
* Leroy Gaines
* Mike Hutchinson
* Shelia Pope Lawrence
* Jorge Lerma
District 7
Includes Acorn, Brookfield, Elmhurst, Encompass, Esperanza, Korematsu Academy, Grass Valley, Howard, Madison (upper and lower) New Highland, Reach, Rise, Castle-mont, Rudsdale and Sojourner Truth Independent Study.
Currently represented by James Harris.
* Kristina Molina
Ben Tapscott
Bronche Jerard Taylor, recently filed, no info yet
Clifford Thompson
Victor Valerio
AyAnnaMYeedy— Filed, but withdrew
Post based on email sent to Zennie62Media from the Wellstone Democratic Club, of which Zennie Abraham is a member.