Superintendent’s mysterious firing mars Oakland schools’ exit from outside control

OAKLAND – The Oakland Unified School District elected-board officially fired the superintendent on Wednesday at a contentious meeting where they gave no reasoning for the dismissal.

The board reached a voluntary separation agreement with Kyla Johnson-Trammell, who had led the district since 2017, shepherding the school system through its struggles to get out from under control by state and Alameda County education officials.

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Oakland Unified is now on the way out of receivership, with the school board planning to pay off what’s left of a $100 million loan that the district took from the state after declaring bankruptcy in 2003.

When the decades-long receivership lifts, control of the district’s finances will be returned to the OUSD board, which in February approved 100 layoffs of district employees to save money but has resisted merging or closing school sites.

Still, Johnson-Trammell’s apparent firing — publicized by board Director Mike Hutchinson, who, in doing so, broke privacy rules around disclosing details of personnel changes — revealed the continued divides on the board.

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell and others listen during the Oakland Unified School District board meeting at the La Escuelita Education Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Board President Jennifer Brouhard did not announce specifics of the 4-3 vote, though a vote earlier this month that first moved the district toward removing the superintendent saw Hutchinson joined by directors Patrice Berry and Clifford Thompson in dissenting from Johnson-Trammell’s dismissal.

Brouhard and fellow directors Valarie Bachelor, Rachel Latta and VanCedric Williams first pushed for Johnson-Trammell’s firing, a pattern that very likely held in Wednesday’s decision. The four directors who have sought to remove the superintendent are supported by the political arm of Oakland Education Association, the local teachers union.

Hutchinson, a foe of the union, accused his opponents on the board Wednesday of “openly colluding” with labor leaders.

“We should be popping champagne — that’s how historic this achievement is,” Hutchinson said, referring to the upcoming end to receivership. But, given Johnson-Trammell’s firing, Hutchinson added, “I can’t even smile today.”

The end to receivership is a rare sign of positivity around the district’s finances, which otherwise have been in tumultuous shape for years.

Parent Tunisia Harris takes part in a Families in Action rally at Lake Merritt before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

The Alameda County Office of Education, which through an appointed trustee took over duties from the state monitoring the Oakland schools’ monetary decisions, warned in December that the district would soon run out of money after the school board had approved a negative budget.

In a February letter, county Superintendent of Education Alysse Castro said OUSD still needed to develop a responsible spending plan but acknowledged that the district could leave receivership by June 30.

It has been a long journey for the district, which moved to close several schools in early 2022, sparking widespread protests and even hunger strikes. The board, reshaped in that year’s election, later overturned some of the closures and did not put a more recent proposal to merge campuses to a vote.

Lisa Grant-Dawson, the district’s chief business officer, noted that many adults who attended and graduated from the Oakland schools “don’t remember a time when (receivership) wasn’t there.”

The labor-backed directors who appear to have led Wednesday’s vote to fire Johnson-Trammell did not clarify their motives, which are allowed to be kept behind closed doors under a set of state open-meeting laws ratified by the Brown Act.

The school board’s two student directors appeared to have been left in the dark.

“I know y’all not getting no information,” said Maximus Simmons, a junior at Oakland High, “because I know I don’t have any information.”

Members of Families in Action take part in a rally at Lake Merritt before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Oakland Technical High School senior Sarai Raines, 17, and parent Cecilia Perez-Cervantes, from right, take part in a Families in Action rally at Lake Merritt before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Members of Families in Action take part in a march from Lake Merritt to the Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Oakland Technical High School senior Sarai Raines, 17, center, and others take part in a Families in Action rally at Lake Merritt before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Raines also spoke at the rally. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Parent Gregory Nash takes part in a Families in Action rally at Lake Merritt before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Families in Action member Viveca Ycoy-Walton takes part in a rally before an Oakland Unified School District board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)