Education

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / BCN) ― State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and Oakland Board of Education President Noel Gallo signed an agreement Monday afternoon that restores full control over Oakland's schools to its elected school board for the first time in six years.

"This is not only a memorable event, it's an historic event," O'Connell said, speaking at a signing ceremony at Calvin Simmons Middle School in Oakland's Fruitvale District.

"It's been a long journey to this point," but O'Connell said the Oakland Unified School District "is in better shape" now than it was in 2003, when it was placed under state receivership because it faced a huge budget deficit and needed to get a $100 million emergency loan.

"It really is a real testament to the hard work of the teachers, the administrators, the classified personnel and the school board and the City of Oakland," he said.

O'Connell returned community relations and governance to Oakland's school board in 2007 and he returned facilities and personnel management to local control on April 8, 2008.

But the areas of student achievement and financial management remained under state control until Monday.

O'Connell said Oakland's school district now has "a new culture of progress and collaboration" and "has high standards and high expectation."

"The fact that we have a balanced budget, student achievements continuing to improve in Oakland, the state is able to get out of running the district on a day to day basis," he added. 

"We're not going to be taken over anymore," vowed Gallo, who advised other school districts that have problems to do what they can locally and take any other necessary steps to avoid state control.

Oakland's schools still owe $80 million to the state, but the district plans to pay back $6 million a year over the next 18 years until the loan is paid off.

Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Alameda, introduced legislation calling for the state to forgive at least part of the amount due but it was unlikely that the state would forgive any of the money anytime soon because of its' own financial problems.

O'Connell said the reason it took so long for the state to restore full local control to Oakland's school board is that "we needed to make sure that there were significant reforms" in the district.

A new Oakland superintendent, Tony Smith, will begin his job on Wednesday.

"It will be incredible to start my job with local control," Smith said. 

However, State Administrator Vincent Matthews, who has run the district in recent years, will remain as a trustee for at least a short while.

Asked if there's really full local control if Matthews is still in Oakland, Gallo said, Matthews "will be a trustee for the next several months but then there will be a gradual phase-out" to only being a part-time trustee.

Even though the district has officially regained control of its schools, that has done little to help a protracted labor dispute with its' teachers.

Betty Olson-Jones, head of the Oakland Education Association which represents Oakland teachers and other school employees, said she has "major mixed feelings" about local control being restored.

While she is glad the school board has full control now, she thinks the state didn't do nearly enough to fix the district's financial problems.

"The state should have done a better job," she said.

Union members booed O'Connell when he was introduced at Monday's
ceremony.

Olson-Jones said teachers are upset at O'Connell because his office sent an e-mail to the teachers union late Friday abruptly declaring that contract talks with the union were at an impasse.

She said the e-mail was sent shortly before it was announced that local control would be restored Monday.

"It was a final act of Jack O'Connell," Olson-Jones said. "On Friday night, the district unilaterally declared impasse and we had been urging them not to."

She said the union had been negotiating with the district for 14 months but "there are many issues that still need to be resolved."

Smith, the new superintendent, said there was no turning back. "The impasse has been declared," he said.

A state mediator will soon enter contract talks. The teachers' contract expired last year.

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