![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/JBrouhard.jpeg\")
Credit: Courtesy Jennifer Brouhard<\/p>\nIn one of the more closely watched races this election season, the president of the Oakland Unified school board faces a challenge from a new OUSD parent who decided to jump into the race while her child was in kindergarten last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jennifer Brouhard, a retired teacher and a four-year veteran of the board, argues that the district has turned a corner under her leadership: a more solid budget, more collaboration between the board and the district\u2019s senior leadership, and forward motion on academics. Arielle Fleisher, an OUSD parent and transportation policy manager, has a starkly different take. She believes the district is experiencing a crisis of leadership, academics and finances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OUSD\u2019s District 2 stretches from Chinatown to neighborhoods east of Lake Merritt and north to Lakeshore and Crocker Highlands.<\/p>\n
This year, the school board will be tasked with continuing to streamline its budget to avoid falling back into state receivership, hiring a permanent superintendent, and monitoring and improving outcomes for the district\u2019s 34,000 students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jennifer Brouhard: the incumbent<\/p>\n
Credit: Courtesy Jennifer Brouhard<\/p>\n
Brouhard was first elected to the school board in 2022 in an open race, after the District 2 incumbent, Aimee Eng, decided not to run for re-election. Brouhard came into office with a slate of anti-school closure candidates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier that year, the school board had released a plan to close or downsize up to 11 schools<\/a> \u2014 including La Escuelita, where Brouhard was a teacher \u2014 prompting a wave of protests<\/a> against school closures. Parker Elementary and Community Day School were ultimately closed and RISE Community School and New Highland Academy were merged into the Highland Community School. The following spring, after Brouhard and two other new members were elected, the board voted to reverse five additional closures<\/a> that were slated for 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we can talk about the [district\u2019s] footprint until we have resolved these budget problems and resolved our staffing problems, particularly at the central office and particularly with upper management,\u201d Brouhard told The Oaklandside recently. \u201cWhen we have resolved those problems, I think then we can look at our schools. But I think we have to be really clear that closing a school doesn\u2019t save money.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent Stanford University study<\/a> looking at California districts found that closing schools did not substantially improve the financial standing of school districts. The study, by assistant professor of education Francis Pearman<\/a>, found that closures led to enrollment losses, negating any savings the closures produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n One faultline in the school closure conversation is that OUSD has often targeted predominantly Black and Latino schools for closure \u2014 institutions that have been historically under-resourced and understaffed \u2014 which Brouhard said raised serious equity concerns. She noted that a decision to close a school has far-reaching consequences, including what happens with the vacant building.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we close a school, we do have to offer it to charters,\u201d Brouhard said, referring to Proposition 39, the 2000 state law that requires school districts to make empty facilities available to local charter schools. \u201cWe have 10 vacant sites where we\u2019re still trying to decide what to do, which is a huge amount of property for us. These are not quick fixes.\u201d<\/p>\n One alternative to closures, Brouhard said, would be for underenrolled sites to share their buildings with community organizations, health service, or adult education programs.<\/p>\n Disagreements over school closures became a significant point of tension between the school board majority ushered in after the last election and then superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. A few months after Brouhard became board president in January 2025, the board separated from the longtime superintendent<\/a> years before her contract expired. The board sought a bigger role in choosing an interim superintendent, Brouhard said, which would be facilitated by Johnson-Trammell\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n The board never offered a full public explanation for Johnson-Trammell\u2019s departure, but the decision to renegotiate her contract was mutual, Brouhard told The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we the board just saw things differently than the superintendent,\u201d Brouhard said. \u201cI have respect for the work that she did and I would have hoped that it wouldn\u2019t have been as messy as it was when she left. My intent as board president was to allow her to renegotiate the contract and allow her to move on and go out with the credit for what she\u2019d done.\u201d<\/p>\n Tensions between the board and district staff have marked Brouhard\u2019s tenure. Last spring, Brouhard and vice president of the board Valarie Bachelor introduced a resolution to cap spending in various areas, including contracts. When staff applied the cap, contracts with afterschool program providers were among the cuts, prompting outcry<\/a> from students, families and community organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can admit that mistake, but I think what we tried to do with that is really rein in our contract spending, and what we got met with was resistance,\u201d Brouhard said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t collaboration with the CBO [chief business officer] and then-superintendent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s been additional high-level turnover during Brouhard\u2019s tenure as board president. Last year, chief business officer Lisa Grant-Dawson resigned and chief of staff Dan Bellino was fired<\/a> after then interim superintendent Denise Saddler brought forward a budget proposal without their input.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brouhard said she believes that she\u2019s made progress with the current leadership of the district, including Saddler, whose title is now superintendent, and the senior leadership team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you can work together, you can begin to mold that vision together, which is what I think we\u2019re able to do right now with Dr. Saddler,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Brouhard rejects the notion that the board under her leadership hasn\u2019t grappled with difficult budget decisions, pointing to the hundreds of layoffs<\/a> the board approved last spring. Those layoffs cut critical school site roles such as attendance specialists, literacy tutors and case managers as well as managerial roles in the central office.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very hard to make those cuts and layoffs, but we stood by it,\u201d Brouhard said. \u201cWe knew we had to do it if we were going to keep our local control.\u201d<\/p>\n Brouhard said she\u2019s expecting a report on the impact of those cuts and a position control study, which would properly align school district roles with the budget.<\/p>\n Last year, the board needed to close a deficit of more than $100 million. Under Brouhard\u2019s and Saddler\u2019s leadership, the board hired consultants to help develop a fiscal sustainability plan and revamp how the district budgets. In June, the school board approved a budget for 2026-2027 that included tens of millions of dollars in cuts along with an intent to cut another $30 million this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Brouhard\u2019s view, at the root of the district\u2019s overspending is a habit of dedicating resources to a variety of different programs and initiatives without stopping to evaluate whether they\u2019re successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t remove things that aren\u2019t working,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just keep adding and adding and adding. I think it\u2019s time to do an evaluation of all the different things we offer and all of the programs we\u2019re paying for \u2026 I don\u2019t know how effective they are and we really need to have a way to assess them.\u201d<\/p>\n A letter from Alameda County Superintendent Alysse Castro last week noted that the district has made progress in stabilizing its finances, calling the latest budget and fiscal plan a \u201cmaterially stronger submission than the district has filed in recent years.\u201d But she said there\u2019s still work to do.<\/p>\n In the last year the board settled contracts with the Oakland Education Association<\/a> (the teachers union) and Service Employees International Union<\/a> (which represents school support staff), each with substantial pay increases. Brouhard noted that the district began the school year with 99% of teaching roles filled, saying this was a testament to the solid teachers\u2019 contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think standing with union workers is often misconstrued as \u2018in the pockets\u2019 of the union,\u201d she said. \u201cIn my actions, I\u2019m supporting the people who support our students. I want them well paid, I want them to have good health benefits, I want them to have good working conditions. We know that stability in our whole workforce matters to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n Arielle Fleisher: the challenger<\/p>\n Arielle Fleisher hadn\u2019t always paid close attention to the Oakland school board. But when her daughter started kindergarten last year, she began watching school board meetings on Zoom and paying increasingly close attention to discussions around the budget and the superintendent. When the board was navigating a substantial budget gap and developing a plan to close it earlier this year, she wrote an explainer for parents<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The more she watched, the more she sensed that the board lacked the kind of policy expertise that she could bring. Eventually, Fleisher decided to run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI mean the capacity to do analysis, to build coalitions, to understand trade-offs, to work towards goals, data-driven decision-making, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve spent my entire career doing,\u201d Fleisher told The Oaklandside. Fleisher works as a policy manager for Waymo and has held positions at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, a policy think tank; the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. She\u2019s also served on the leadership team of the advocacy group Empower Oakland. \u201cAt the end of the day, looking at the situation that\u2019s in front of us and feeling like I have the skillset to make a difference, I went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleisher said the school board lacks a vision that she thinks should be centered on students\u2019 academic outcomes. She pointed out that the district\u2019s last strategic plan<\/a> ended in 2024 and the board and superintendent lacked work plans. Without a plan, the board has made decisions that appear haphazard, Fleisher said, such as cutting literacy specialists during a reading crisis and laying off attendance specialists and slashing the enrollment department while setting a goal to boost attendance and enrollment<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the priorities are for our school district right now, and they should be getting our kids to read and write on grade level and graduating college and career ready,\u201d Fleisher said. \u201cObviously there is a financial crisis, but everything to me is derivative of our student outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about what she thinks underlies the district\u2019s structural deficit, Fleisher pointed to a few causes: enrollment being down over time, in part due to lower birth rates and families leaving Oakland, but also because of families not choosing OUSD and one-time COVID funding being spent down. She would like to see the board admit the gravity of the situation, and then lay out a vision to guide all of its budgetary decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to look at this with fresh eyes,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat are the biggest drivers of our costs? Where can we try to increase revenues? How do we do the base staffing models and what can we centralize? What are the different programs that we run? Are those programs accessible? If we\u2019ve evaluated them, what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not working? Why?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In developing that vision and budget, she said, everything should be on the table, including closing schools. She acknowledged that OUSD school closures have been traumatic in the past, and said district leaders need to hold onto those experiences and learn from them. Being a good leader means wrestling with uncomfortable topics, Fleisher said, rather than taking them off the table, as the current board has done with school closures.\u00a0<\/p>\n She cited a letter signed by a majority of OUSD\u2019s school principals and sent to the school board in April, which stated candidly that the district operates too many schools for the number of students it enrolls. Fleisher also said in considering any closures, the board needs to reflect the community\u2019s values and incorporate community input.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Fleisher said, the question of whether OUSD runs too many schools is the wrong one.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe [right] question is, \u2018How do we organize our schools around the guarantees we want to make to every kid?\u2019 \u2014 reading on grade level, doing math on grade level, graduating college and career ready,\u201d she said. \u201cI really want to refocus the conversation around our students, around their needs, and working backwards from that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleisher criticized the board for what she sees as a lack of transparency, noting the opaque way Superintendent Johnson-Trammell was let go, the $30 million in additional budget cuts for this year the school board committed to with few details, and Superintendent Saddler\u2019s interim contract being extended for a second year with few updates on the stalled search for a permanent hire.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would love Denise [Saddler] to interview for the job, but I think what we really need at this moment in OUSD is a visionary,\u201d Fleisher said. \u201cThat to me is really what this moment calls for: someone who can step up to the plate and is really able to understand school districts through and through and how to accomplish student outcomes. We\u2019re at a tumultuous time and we need someone who\u2019s going to lead us into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Stay tuned for The Oaklandside\u2019s continued election coverage, which will include profiles of the races in districts 4 and 6 as well as a look at who\u2019s funding the school board campaigns \u2014 and who\u2019s endorsing who. And join The Oaklandside at a candidates\u2019 forum on Sept. 29<\/a> at Oakland High School.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of the more closely watched races this election season, the president of the Oakland Unified school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[170304,148581,143,145,144,3040],"class_list":["post-472567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2026-election-ousd","tag-november-2026-election","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-ousd-school-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472567","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=472567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Fleisher-2025-Headshot.jpeg\")
Credit: Courtesy Arielle Fleisher<\/p>\n