{"id":314482,"date":"2026-05-13T23:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/314482\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:51:09","slug":"oakland-school-board-set-to-extend-denise-saddlers-superintendent-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/314482\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland School Board Set to Extend Denise Saddler\u2019s Superintendent Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The board has gotten some pushback for delaying the search including from principals, who said last month that they\u2019re concerned about transparency in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Dr. Johnson-Tramell was removed from her position as superintendent, the community was told that the Board would engage in an extensive, nationwide search for our next leader,\u201d reads an April letter to Saddler and the school board signed by more than 60 of the roughly 80 OUSD principals. \u201cWe have not been updated as to the state of the permanent superintendent search.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administrators said they were told there would be an engagement process, and that the firm selected to lead the search would present candidates in January and February of this year, before a finalist was selected by April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere were the opportunities for stakeholder input? In what ways were school leaders consulted \u2026 and, if the search has been suspended, where is the transparent communication regarding this?\u201d the letter continued.<\/p>\n

Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro also warned the district last month that without permanent employees in multiple key roles, it was \u201cincreasing risk given the urgency and complexity of current fiscal decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Oakland Unified School District Board listens to public comment during a meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, on Dec. 11, 2024. (Juliana Yamada\/KQED)<\/p>\n

In the fall, OUSD\u2019s top financial officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, abruptly resigned <\/a>after Saddler apparently undermined her team\u2019s budget planning. OUSD\u2019s chief of staff was also terminated.<\/p>\n

Saddler has since brought on consultants from the same firm hired to conduct the superintendent search to help develop the 2026-2027 budget. Initially, the district hired Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates through May, for a price of $415,000, but last month extended their contract through the end of the year, adding another $450,000 to its total price tag.<\/p>\n

Brouhard told KQED in April that the district never planned to hire a new chief business officer to replace Grant-Dawson, but will instead transition those responsibilities to a chief financial officer.<\/p>\n

Saddler, a veteran Bay Area educator, has worn many hats<\/a> during her decades at Oakland Unified School District \u2014 from teaching to leading as a principal to working as an area superintendent in the district\u2019s central office. She also served as the president of the Oakland Education Association, the district\u2019s teachers union, for six years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The board has gotten some pushback for delaying the search including from principals, who said last month that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-314482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}