Oakland Unified board member raises concerns of possible ouster of superintendent at meeting
The closed-door meeting is expected to happen Wednesday
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- At the risk of violating the Brown Act, for the past few weeks, Oakland Unified School Board Member and former President, Mike Hutchinson, has been raising concerns of the ouster of Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, based on discussions in closed-door sessions.
"My big concern for (Wednesday) night's meeting is the school board majority is going to finish the work that they have started, out of the blue, over the last month, and force our Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, out of office at the end of June," says Hutchinson.
He is also concerned that the board is doing this without a plan in place for a new superintendent.
"And this is really going to leave the district is a difficult situation of trying to replace our long-tenured superintendent in two months," says Hutchison.
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Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, whose current contract goes through 2027, was not available for an interview. The district says it has no comment at this time.
As for the School Board President, Jennifer Brouhard, she disagrees with Hutchinson's speculation.
In a statement to ABC7 News, Brouhard writes: "This wrong information creates chaos and uncertainty for our staff, students, and families. We, both the board and the media, should not be a part of promoting this chaos."
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But others, like former School Board Member Jorge Lerma, sides with Hutchison. He believes the district doesn't like the changes the superintendent was planning.
"She was prepared to do a very necessary and long overdue deconstruction and renovation of the Oakland Unified School District. And I think that's really what's behind it," says Lerma, who served on the board until January.
On Tuesday, OUSD announced that after 23 years, it's coming out of state receivership. Hutchison says that wouldn't be possible if Johnson-Trammel was doing a bad job.
"Now we have finally regained, on our own, full local control of our district. And we couldn't have done it of course, without our current superintendent," explains Hutchison.
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Some suggest that closed door session may just be to fine-tune the superintendent's current contract. But Hutchison isn't as optimistic.
"When we come out of close session tomorrow, and this vote has occurred, and the vote is reported out, everyone is going to know. The we will see who was telling the truth and who wasn't," says Hutchinson.
