![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC14332.webp\")
Vasudeo served on the Berkeley Unified school board for six years, winning elections in 2020 and 2024. She will now represent Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and parts of Oakland in her new role. Courtesy: Ana Vasudeo<\/p>\nVasudeo served on the Berkeley Unified school board for six years, winning elections in 2020 and 2024. She will now represent Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and parts of Oakland in her new role. Courtesy: Ana Vasudeo<\/p>\n
Ana Vasudeo is stepping down on July 1 to join the Alameda County Board of Education, and <\/a>the Berkeley school board voted unanimously earlier this month to start a process to appoint her successor rather than hold a special election.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just spent a long time being a board of four,\u201d director Jen Corn said at the June 3 school meeting, referring to Ka\u2019Dijah Brown\u2019s recent maternity leave, which ended in March. \u201cI would like to, as quickly as possible, become a board of five again.\u201d<\/p>\n Vasudeo has served on the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) board for six years, winning elections in 2020<\/a> and 2024<\/a> on platforms focused on supporting Black and brown students and those with disabilities, expanding street safety, and upholding progressive values during Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vasudeo ran unopposed for the Area 1 trustee seat \u2014 which represents Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and parts of Oakland \u2014 on the Alameda County Board of Ed during the June 2 primary election. (Her name did not appear on the ballot.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m switching over into the county office, but make no mistake, that I do intend to make us \u2018hashtag Berkeley proud,\u2019\u201d Vasudeo said Wednesday during the last board meeting of the 2025-26 school year. \u201cI\u2019m excited to fight for all our students in the county.\u201d<\/p>\n Her BUSD term would have run through November 2028, and her appointed successor will hold the office until the end of the term.<\/p>\n Under the California Education Code, a board seat must be filled within 60 days of the resignation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district plans to release application details for the at-large school board seat over the summer, with an application deadline possibly in early August. Board members will review applicants, the full list of which will be publicly posted online.<\/p>\n Applicants supported by two board members will advance to a public interview conducted during a regular meeting (special meetings will need to be held this summer).\u00a0<\/p>\n The board will vote to choose who will fill the vacant seat, with a majority needed. Berkeley voters will have 30 days after the appointment to petition for a special election if they disagree with the board\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n A school board member hasn\u2019t needed to be appointed since 2013, following President Leah Wilson\u2019s resignation<\/a>, Corn said, and directors sought advice during their June 3 meeting from the district\u2019s lawyers about the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n The board voted to appoint Corn and Brown to an ad hoc committee tasked with proposing a hiring timeline, drafting the board seat application, and creating a policy for this and future vacancies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vasudeo says she wanted to maintain Latino representation on Alameda County Board of Education <\/p>\n Vasudeo will succeed Joaqu\u00edn Rivera, first elected in 2010, for a four-year term on the Alameda County Board of Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Alameda County Office of Education board oversees the alternative schools that the county runs, which include an independent study school, schools for pregnant and parenting students, and schools for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The county has also authorized 13 charter schools<\/a> that enroll about 3,700 students. As the authorizer, the county school board makes decisions about charter renewals or big changes, like enrollment increases or relocations.<\/p>\n The board also weighs in when a student or family is appealing an expulsion decision from their home district, or appealing a decision about transferring to another district.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Vasudeo learned that Rivera, the only Latino on the county board of education, would not seek another term, she said she decided to run to maintain representation for Alameda County\u2019s large Latino student population. She also cited a desire to protect vulnerable students amid federal rollbacks<\/a> on equity programs and initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of attacks on our students with disabilities, on our LGBTQ+ students, on our immigrant students,\u201d Vadudeo said. \u201cI see this happening at the federal level, and I really want to contribute my skills, pushing equity programs at the local level to protect all the districts in Alameda County.\u201d<\/p>\n She acknowledges there will be learning curves in her new role.<\/p>\n Vasudeo will take on issues she didn\u2019t encounter in Berkeley. Because BUSD has no charter schools, she completed professional development to understand the educational system.<\/p>\n Based on her BUSD experience, she hopes to strengthen county-district relationships and collaborate on school safety, immigrant student protections and transportation.<\/p>\n Vasudeo says she\u2019s proud of Latinx Resolution and her work during the pandemic at BUSD <\/p>\n Of her personal highlights while on the BUSD board, Vasudeo fondly recalls her work with Latino students and her term during the pandemic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2021, she and board member Brown introduced and helped pass the Latinx Resolution<\/a>, aimed at closing achievement gaps, increasing family engagement and requiring regular progress updates. During her first term, she also led the update of BUSD\u2019s Multilingual Learner Master Plan, created in 2013 to improve English proficiency and college and career readiness for English learners<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with community groups and parents to draft the Latinx Resolution and make sure that we had funding set aside to implement it was really meaningful to me,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I first got elected, our [University of California] admissions rate<\/a> numbers weren\u2019t super high.\u201d<\/p>\n During the pandemic shutdown, Vasudeo was a managing director at Safely Opening Schools<\/a>, where she co-authored a policy brief<\/a> supporting Senate Bill 1479<\/a>, which required COVID-19 testing in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said one of the more difficult moments in her later tenure came in 2024, when city and district leaders debated whether it was necessary to build a $27 million Berkeley High parking garage so teachers wouldn\u2019t be ticketed or forced to frequently move their cars. She and other board members opposed using facilities funds for the project and pushed instead for the city to issue residential parking permits to district employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n As she leaves BUSD, Vasudeo said she will miss graduations \u2014 especially meeting multilingual learners and their families \u2014 and volunteering in STEM classrooms. She hopes English learners continue to receive strong support, with improved reclassification rates and continued accountability through the Latinx Resolution.<\/p>\n \u201cI would hope that whoever is appointed is someone who will carry the torch because Latinos are the largest minority group in BUSD, and that voice is incredibly important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n