By james art Nearly 1,000 Oakland teenagers have registered to vote this year, the first time 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to actually vote in the city’s school board elections.
On Tuesday, seven of the eight candidates made their case directly to the young people who will have a hand in their choice. Two weeks before Election Day, the candidates appeared before dozens of students in the Fremont High School auditorium and answered questions about school funding, mental health, safety and prioritizing the student vote.
The moderators and presenters, all Oakland High School students, emphasized the importance of getting the vote out five years after the initiative was launched.
“So what is your vision for OUSD schools and students? What do you want to see from school board members?” said Diego Garcia, a student at Skyline High School. “Your voice has the power to bring us closer to your vision. Your ability to get others to vote will make your vision a reality.”
Over the past four years, the OUSD school board has undergone complete turnover. In 2020, all four incumbents opted out, paving the way for the elections of Sam Davis in District 1, Van Cedric Williams in District 3, Mike Hutchinson in District 5, and Clifford Thompson in District 7. In 2022, incumbents in Districts 2 and 4 chose not to run again, and the former director of District 6 resigned before her term expired.
This year, Davis is choosing to withdraw as he is now the parent of an OUSD graduate, not an enrolled student. Rachel Latta, a mother of three young children, and Benjamin Salop, a UC Berkeley student who graduated from Oakland Tech in 2022, are running to replace him.
When asked about equity spending, Latta, a nurse-midwife, pointed to her time as a parent volunteer with Equity Allies, a group that takes donations from parent-teacher associations in Oakland schools and redistributes them to schools without PTAs.
“One of the things that got me involved was seeing the disproportionate impact of disinvestment in our schools,” she said. “There are a lot of non-Title I schools that get most of their resources from parents. That’s why I got involved with Equity Allies to try to change that and address that inequity, to make sure that every student in Oakland has adequate staff and has schools that serve their needs and are accountable for their academic needs.”
Latta proposed cutting consultant contracts and reducing the number of administrators in the district. She pointed to early childhood education and transitional kindergarten as opportunities to increase revenue.
Salop mentioned her experience as a student representative on OUSD’s Budget Accountability Committee and offered to advocate at the state level for increased funding.
“What we need to do now is admit that we need more money. That means going to the state and addressing the local control funding formula just to get a higher base grant amount for every school in California,” he said. “Our students are the ones we need to listen to to make sure equity, inclusion and student voice are at the center.”
Salop added that students should have a direct say in the district’s budget and suggested that students create their own student budget each year and hold district leaders accountable for implementing it. He also believes the district needs to monitor facility projects more closely to ensure they don’t go over budget.
In District 3, Williams is running for re-election against Duane Aikens, a nonprofit leader. Williams, a teacher in San Francisco, said he is running again to break down systems of oppression, such as the school-to-prison pipeline, so more students can succeed.
Williams has supported removing the police from Oakland schools and wants to see more investment in restorative justice programs, a philosophy that focuses on community responsibility rather than punitive measures. He encouraged young people to continue attending and speaking out at school board meetings, especially as the board begins talks about redistricting and closing schools in the next few months.
“We have a history in this district of making decisions without talking to the community,” Williams said. “Oakland has a long history of protesting against racial, social and economic injustice, and we need to continue that.” We have to make a process that is engaged with the community, informed about it, and every director has to report to you what’s going on.”
Aikens indicated he wants to raise the bar academically and thinks the board rushed the decision to disband the police department. He emphasized that trust is needed to address student behavior and safety issues.
“I’m running because I remember as a young person growing up and dreaming and looking out the window saying I’m going to come back and do something great for the city of Oakland,” said Aikens, executive director of We Lead Ours, an organization that provides programs to enrich schools. “I know what it’s like to have nothing. I know what it’s like to go to a classmate’s funeral. It is time to bring hope and prosperity into our schools and into our classrooms.”
Patrice Berry and Sasha Rizzi-Hernandez are running to represent Fruitvale and District 5. Both are considered advocates for students and families — Berry serves as chief impact officer for End Poverty California and was previously an adviser to Mayor Libby Schaaf ; Rizzi-Hernandez is the executive director of Somos Familia and has also worked as a translator and organizer.
Rizzi-Hernandez, who also ran for the District 5 seat in last year’s special election, focused on greater engagement with students, securing culturally competent teachers and counselors and fully investing in OUSD’s community schools. She does not support closing schools because of their varying historical impact.
“When we think about budget cuts, it’s always capital management, it’s always black and brown schools, it’s always the usual suspects, and I’m tired of going to school board meetings to beg them to keep our schools open,” she said .
Some of the board’s spending decisions worry her because of what they reveal about the district’s priorities, pointing to the superintendent’s recent contract, which pays her more than $378,000 a year, and the cost of last year’s special election.
Berry suggested the district be creative with funding for mental health programs and suggested arts programming could also help students’ mental well-being. Her budget priorities are funding literacy, math, special education and postsecondary readiness. Berry added that she has plans to form a local advisory board and recruit students if elected.
“We need to envision together — students, families, faculty in the building — what we want and start going after it,” Berry said. “It’s a whole community effort, which is why community schools are so effective in this space. We can work with the members of the City Council and hold Alameda County accountable to help us address the issues and problems that flow into the schools, but don’t start there.”
In District 7, Clifford Thompson is running for re-election. He has been a teacher, principal and administrator, and is now a classroom teacher in Richmond. Thompson reiterated his support for high academic standards, citing a resolution he co-sponsored earlier this year to ensure black and brown students’ math and reading skills and that students have the right to attend college after they graduate.
“The money to prioritize classrooms is really, really important. The further away from the classroom we go, that’s probably where we first have to think about reducing some of the money that goes to that position or those positions,” he said. “We have to keep in mind that if we want our kids to be successful in the future, we have to create that foundation so they can thrive.”
Domonique Ware, Thompson’s opponent, was not present. Ware’s campaign manager spoke on his behalf and said Ware was at a conference in Ghana. Ware’s platform includes increasing per-pupil spending and creating green community schools with an emphasis on climate change.
Postal ballots have already been distributed and polling centers open on Saturday. Sixteen and 17-year-olds can only vote by mail or in person at the Oakland Registrar’s Office.