There was a time earlier in my life where I often found myself in the role of mindless antagonist against the powers that be, as I believed there was no reason to deal reasonably with an unreasonable system. When institutions put into place to protect the interests of our people are used to legitimize behavior that only benefits a few people, how can anything actually be changed by working within those institutions? I feel very strongly that this is the case right now across a large swath of the American government, and you probably do too.

But can we say the same about Oakland's institutions, and specifically Oakland Unified School District?

It certainly felt that way to me not too long ago, as I listened to strong, loud, intelligent antagonists call for sweeping changes to the board and district leadership. There were very few, if any, folks actually countering that narrative publicly. And, most importantly, I had no idea how things are actually supposed to work at a large public school district. It was easy to jump in and pile on: "How could we trust any group of people if they let it get this bad?"

Since then, I somehow ended up actually trying to work within the institution instead of against it. It's something lots of other OUSD volunteers and I spend many hours a week doing. The longer we do it, the more we learn about how truly complex OUSD's challenges are, no matter who is working on them. We understand that we are in a perennial crisis, not because of a year or two of mismanagement and bad decisions, but because for decades our best and most powerful people have fought over meager resources instead of collectively figuring out how best to use them.

I've heard from a number of people that this makes me sound like an apologist, as if I am standing naively before some shadowy group of bureaucratic monsters or with an agenda of some sort. Well, I'd like to respectfully ask anyone reading this to consider a possible alternative:

We can fix this thing as partners, from the inside. The only way to make it happen is by availing ourselves of the tools and systems that are already in place.

2026-27 Is a Most Important Year

If you don't know anything about budget cycles, funding formulas, and stuff like that, you're in a pretty crowded club. It's possible I've never encountered a system more arcane than the one used for California's public education funding. And OUSD's funding system has some of that special Oakland sauce that makes it even more, uh, "challenging" to understand.

Without going into the mind-numbing details, I want to point out a few things at a high level that I believe sum up our biggest issues:

1. Because of many, many factors, OUSD has not had a sound structure to plan for financial sustainability for decades. This is not a recent occurrence.¹
2. The district was able to mask its underlying issues during recent years because of a massive influx of new revenue from temporary pandemic funding.
3. The pandemic money is now basically gone, and many of the structural issues in the district remain.²
4. OUSD must rewrite its Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) this year. That plan is supposed to tie vital, measurable goals for students to funding. This only happens every three years.³
5. For the first time that anyone can remember, we have a board that has complete authority to make difficult decisions for itself, and that has already shown itself capable of working with district leadership to do so.⁴

In short, the gears are meshing in a very specific way this year. This makes it incredibly important for all our different groups to get on board with solutions… Right at this very moment.

My whole thing (and I've written about it quite a bit) is that we need to carry our solutions as a community beyond politics and the battles between private and public interest. That starts (and ends) with the idea of self-governance. This simply means that beyond just trusting the folks we voted for (or against) to do what is needed to solve our problems, we work with them. We hold them accountable and provide them with our collaborative insight so that they can do their job more effectively.

Want to Help? Start by Joining Your School Site Council This Month

School Site Councils (SSCs) are quite simply the most accessible and impactful entry points into our district's systems of self-governance. I can almost guarantee that your school needs volunteers to serve as voting members. I can also guarantee that engaging will give you new insights about how your school actually funds priorities for students. Read my primer on my school's Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) for an example, and please attend your school's elections (a.k.a. establishment) meeting. They are supposed to happen in September, so ask your principal or staff for the date and time!

An SSC exists at every single OUSD school and its members work directly with the principal, offering oversight on the school's SPSA and spending related to it.⁵ Joining your SSC gives you an open line to both your school's staff and your community. It also opens a path for you to get involved in self-governance at the district level, something about which I have plenty to say in the next section.

At a recent community meeting I helped to facilitate, an OUSD speech therapist went even further on this. She told us to remind everyone that monthly SSC meetings are not just for voting members, they are open to the public.⁶ Parents should attend, ask questions, and offer feedback even if they aren't voting. She passionately believes that it is an effective way to get your concerns and opinions in front of those at your school that can most do something about them.

The OUSD Parent and Student Community Needs You

Contrary to the narrative that there are few opportunities to engage directly with our district and board, I am living proof that it's actually pretty easy to get in touch with any of them. When you simply use certain channels that are open to any of us, they usually do a good job of listening.

If you are not only concerned with what's going on at your school, but also about the present and future of the district at large, I would like to invite you to join the OUSD Parent and Student Advisory Committee, or PSAC. I am a lead delegate of this body, and I don't think there is currently a better way for our community to effect actual, positive change in our district than by joining as a delegate or by simply attending our public meetings.

I will be the first to admit that PSAC has a lot on our plate this year. If you join, it will not be immediately easy to process the information that we're getting from district staff and leaders. That said, the greater the number of engaged folks that join, the easier it will be, no matter your particular background or knowledge level. I am absolutely certain that if you are interested in engaging cooperatively with our community and presenting your thoughts respectfully, you will increase our collective impact. We need your voice now more than ever.

PSAC currently has at least two vacancies in every single one of its seven districts except for District 4 (you got it nice, D4!). Because the two current members of District 6 are at the end of their terms, District 6 will have four vacancies. That would mean no representation on PSAC, so let's go D6!

That adds up to 14 vacancies district-wide on PSAC.⁷ That's 14 delegates to a body that reports directly to the school board and that works closely with district staff and leadership multiple times a month.⁸ You can honestly make a difference by doing this, and I hope you'll consider it. Reach out to me personally if you have any questions!

Consider it, OUSD families: We have to oversee something like $30 million in reductions this year alone.⁹ To continue our progress toward sustainability, we will need to both rewrite our LCAP with great care and figure out how to reshape our district over the next couple of years. This must all happen while keeping the best interests of students and families at the center of our efforts. Will we trust those with political interests or administrators from outside Oakland to do that, or will we show up in force as a community?

Start with your School Site Council and follow by attending the meetings of PSAC. I truly hope to see you soon!