Berkeley Unified appoints former board member Beatriz Leyva‑Cutler to fill vacant seat

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) board on Wednesday night appointed a former board member, Beatriz Leyva‑Cutler, to fill its vacant seat until November 2028.

Beatriz Leyva‑Cutler, who previously served three terms from 2008 to 2020, said she’d advocate for academic programs like Bridge, RISE, and Puente. Photo: Courtesy of Beatriz Leyva-Cutler

The board voted unanimously for Leyva‑Cutler, who served three terms on the BUSD board from 2008-2020 and was executive director of the bilingual early‑childhood nonprofit BAHIA Inc. She will serve out the remainder of the term that Ana Vasudeo left vacant when she resigned in July to join the Alameda County Board of Education. Leyva-Cutler said she would not run for reelection in 2028.

“As a former board director, I understand the district’s budget, policies, and community needs,” Leyva‑Cutler said Wednesday. “I will require little to no time to get up to speed on the current matters and issues affecting the district, our schools, administrators, teachers, and classified staff.”

Leyva‑Cutler was selected from 22 applicants, which were narrowed down to six finalists: children’s attorney Reichi Lee, career technical educator Kevin Gilmore, IT consultant and BUSD parent Scott Hofmeister, Oakland teacher Dyamen N. Williams, and higher education executive Mina Sun.

Community members filled the boardroom on Wednesday night ahead of the interviews, including advocates from Berkeley Unplugged, a group that advocates for healthy tech habits for youth. Parents wanting more technology protections in BUSD voiced their support for Lee and Hofmeister to fill the vacant seat.

Latinos Unidos de Berkeley and staff members of BUSD’s Office of Family Engagement and Equity spoke in support of Leyva‑Cutler.

Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE) Vice President Mildred Scherr and member Daniel Brownson, a clerical assistant at Berkeley High School, told board members they were supporting Leyva‑Cutler because she was the only candidate who reached out to the union.

“That may sound like a small thing to us. It is not,” Scherr said at the meeting. “Her reaching out told us that classified employees were part of her thought process. BCCE noticed who made the effort to listen.”

The finalists on Wednesday were each given two minutes for opening statements, followed by a five‑minute question‑and‑answer session with board members based on their pre-submitted responses to the application. One finalist, Gilmore, did not attend the interview.

Candidates touched on some common themes during their interviews, including the importance of listening to the community, strengthening academic outcomes, and navigating technology’s growing role in students’ lives.

The appointment of Leyva‑Cutler comes as BUSD confronts a multi‑year budget deficit, aging and seismically unsound facilities, and persistent racial gaps in academic achievement.

In her responses to a questionnaire that Berkeleyside sent to finalists last week, Leyva‑Cutler said she’d advocate for protecting academic and college-readiness programs like Bridge, RISE, and Puente, as well as staff and resources in the Office of Family Engagement and Equity.

She told Berkeleyside in an interview after her appointment that she is committed to maintaining Latino representation on the BUSD board and helping to find and prepare good candidates for the 2028 election to ensure “we have a coalition of people that really want to be on the school board who will be working collaboratively with many people inclusively, not just Latinos.”

In her previous tenure on the school board, Leyva‑Cutler supported the development of BUSD’s 2020 Vision, a roadmap for narrowing the achievement gaps in Berkeley schools. She said her track record includes improving third‑grade literacy and student attendance, and reducing disproportionate discipline among marginalized groups.

Now that she’s back on the board, Leyva‑Cutler said she will spend some time catching up on current issues impacting BUSD families and staff, including lack of transportation to aftercare and technology use in schools.

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