Oakland School Board Could Be Set to Push Longtime Superintendent Out Early

Oakland’s school board could be considering a plan to hire a new interim superintendent at the end of the current school year, despite extending current Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell’s contract through 2027 last August.

The move could push out Johnson-Trammell, according to board member Mike Hutchinson, who told KQED that during the board’s meeting Wednesday night, members plan to discuss changing the multi-year transition plan to make way for Johnson-Trammell’s successor.

“What the board now is trying to do is say, ‘Forget that plan, we want to try to bring in an outside interim superintendent starting on July 1,’” Hutchinson said.

Last August, OUSD gave Johnson-Trammell, whose tenure at the district is the longest in more than 50 years, a final three-year contract extension. It included one more year leading the district’s day-to-day operations, followed by two years during which she would begin transferring those duties to OUSD’s senior staff “to prepare for a transition to her successor.”

“The members of the district’s senior leadership team — a stable, strong group of leaders who know Oakland well — are expected to each take on additional responsibilities,” the contract reads.

Johnson-Trammell is expected to provide the board with an interim operations plan by August, outlining which members of her senior leadership team will take on specific tasks.

Hutchinson believes that hiring an interim superintendent would violate Johnson-Trammell’s contract and therefore allow her to leave the district while still being paid out. He called the move “disrespectful” and said it could have big financial and personnel costs.

“If our superintendent leaves, then also our chief business officer will leave and probably other senior staff,” he told KQED. “It would leave us in a situation with no leadership in place and probably no ability to bring in new leadership any time soon.”

The board’s closed session agenda for Wednesday’s meeting said it will be discussing a “public employment discipline/dismissal/release.”

Board President Jennifer Brouhard said she could not comment on what discussions were slated for closed session. Board member Rachel Latta declined to comment on specifics but said that the board would be “discussing the superintendent transition plan.” Other board members did not respond to requests for comment.

Johnson-Trammell could not be reached.

The Oakland NAACP released a statement Tuesday in advance of the meeting, saying it was “profoundly concerned and compelled to speak out” about the “potential premature removal of the current superintendent.”

The organization urged residents to contact Brouhard to voice support for Johnson-Trammell, saying any attempt to remove her would be “disruptive, unjust, and potentially politically motivated.”

The board and district leadership have been at odds over OUSD’s tenuous budget situation for much of the academic year. In December, Johnson-Trammell and Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant-Dawson warned that the board’s hesitance to make big cuts could be devastating financially.

“We are a billion-dollar organization, which is why you have got to make billion-dollar organization decisions,” Grant-Dawson said at the board’s Dec. 11 meeting.

Still, the move to oust Johnson-Trammell appears to have come out of the blue. If the board does decide to take any action regarding her employment status at Wednesday’s meeting, it will be reported following a closed-door discussion.