A Strong Move Towards Unified Engagement

I've written elsewhere about what a truly unified, coherent school district might look like and how it could benefit public schools in Oakland over the long term. In that piece, I point at three different California districts (Long Beach, Sanger, and Garden Grove Unified) demonstrating that true unification is possible, that coherence can benefit all students, and that it takes a lot of effort and patience by everyone.

There is a single common thread within all three of those case studies, and that thread is sustained, impactful community engagement. I suspect there are many reasons these districts have seen such improvement over time, but what stands out to me is that the vision of unification emanated from school communities, and those communities were unrelenting in their adherence to that vision and accountability to it.

For this reason, as a current lead delegate to OUSD's Parent and Student Advisory Committee (PSAC), I am volunteering a great deal of time and effort towards the establishment of the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Group (MSEG). We have launched an online platform for community engagement aimed at offering transparency and reflection around our activities, and I'd like to encourage anyone in the OUSD community — families, students, teachers, staff — to sign up for an account as soon as possible to participate in our process.

In short, our core group is currently shaping a process for the community to directly inform what OUSD should look like as it rebuilds itself in the coming years. Once that process is in place, it will function as a strong voice speaking directly to our board and district senior leadership, championed by leaders of our advisory committees.

We've had two truly inspiring public engagements where we discussed the hopes and fears of the community around this process, and we have an additional event this Thursday, May 7th at 6pm via Zoom. The most common fear we've heard is that our efforts, like others before them, will simply fail to produce any real action or change. I share that fear, but I also truly believe we can only make a difference if we as a community actually show up.

I hope you will join me in shaping this process, and then engage in a robust set of discussions and feedback as we look towards providing a strong direction to our board and district in the fall of 2026.