Oakland schools superintendent talks campus closures, AI on the way out

OAKLAND Through up-to-date leadership turmoil at the Oakland Unified School District a lone constant was Kyla Johnson-Trammell who shepherded the embattled schools on a long journey out of the state s financial oversight On Thursday the final day of the - school year Johnson-Trammell addressed the constituents in rare fashion She was preparing for her exit as the district s superintendent a title she had held since But rather than set the record straight about her mysterious firing by the school board months earlier than her planned departure Johnson-Trammell ran through her accomplishments and gave a kind of treatise on the district s immediate future We need to prepare our students for the future she reported Our kids will change industries and jobs more than I ever did and I consider myself young In a controversial move the school board voted - last month to sever ties with Johnson-Trammell who otherwise would have served in her role through She offered no explanation for her departure citing the confidentiality of the board s decision and further declined to weigh in on the split politics of the elected body in which four labor-backed directors have overruled the other three members on key decisions Still the superintendent pointedly urged school leaders to acknowledge what she described as an uncomfortable reality for the oft-cash-strapped district that a number of Oakland campuses will need to merge or close in the near future The district had launched an effort in the s to prioritize small schools but the financial challenges of paying for so much administrative staff has dovetailed in latest years with declining enrollment at campuses in certain of the city s lower-income neighborhoods The last attempt by school leaders to close campuses led to protests hunger strikes and board resignations Johnson-Trammell reported that kind of chaos can be avoided next time if the district s leaders sit and listen to why the region is so angry Saying Oh we don t want to deal with that anger so we re going to do nothing that s weak Johnson-Trammell declared at the news conference This is not a seat for the weak Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell takes part in a press conference on Monday May at McClymonds High School in Oakland Calif Johnson-Trammell discussed the end of a strike by teachers in the district Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group The outgoing superintendent was flanked by her largest part vocal supporter on the school board Director Mike Hutchinson who last month publicly criticized his fellow directors for firing Johnson-Trammell and accused them of colluding with the city s teachers union Johnson-Trammell s firing shocked even the district s two ceremonial scholar directors who noted at the meeting they had been given no information for why the popular superintendent was shown the door In addition to school closures Johnson-Trammell made it a point on Thursday to call for the Oakland schools to embrace artificial intelligence not as a replacement but as a powerful tool she declared AI has the anticipated to help personalize learning to free up valuable time for educators to focus on what matters majority building deeper connections with students Johnson-Trammell reported The comments about AI may have suggested what the departing superintendent had planned to implement at the Oakland schools before her firing Hutchinson however later declared in an interview he did not suspect that the system widely considered both remarkable and threatening to jobs had anything to do with last month s closed-door vote The news conference Thursday also counted as attendees Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo NAACP Oakland chapter president Cynthia Adams and former school board Director Sam Davis Three members of the Oakland Unified School District board VanCedric Williams left Jennifer Brouhard center and Valarie Bachelor hold a press conference where they urged other board members to authorize negotiations for common good proposals demanded by the teachers union outside a district office in Oakland Calif on May Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group Johnson-Trammell who rarely addressed the media directly during her time as superintendent gave her remarks at the district s new headquarters on Union Street in West Oakland A day earlier the building had been named after Marcus Foster the late superintendent of the Oakland schools and the first Black person to hold that title in a large city school district who was assassinated in by the far-left Symbionese Liberation Army The city schools are imbued with Oakland s rich progressive history a cause championed by the teachers union which went on an extended strike in to embed social-justice policies into the new labor contract More in the last few days though the union has become the subject of scrutiny across much of the district The decision by board President Jennifer Brouhard along with directors Valarie Bachelor Rachel Latta and VanCedric Williams led the NAACP chapter to distribute an open letter on Wednesday defending Johnson-Trammell Superintendent Johnson-Trammell s contributions were not only historic but stabilizing the chapter declared in the announcement Indeed Johnson-Trammell helped lead Oakland Unified out from more than two decades of state receivership a setup in which California bureaucrats and later the Alameda County s superintendent had final say over the district s finances There were minimal answers Thursday for why the superintendent is leaving But she had specific ideas for what should come next Rapid leadership turnover erodes trust Period Johnson-Trammell commented Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland Call or text him at - - or email him at shomik bayareanewsgroup com