that partnerships are important, and I believe that trust, honesty,
accountability and transparency are as well. And I think that as we move
forward, I look forward to continuing to build relationships with the Board in
regards to extending ourselves to the community, community engagement
and really being present and listening, so thank you very much.
I just want to share a little bit of my ideas again, it’s very close to what I’m
speaking of right now. What we really have to do in our District is really raise
the educational and achievement opportunities for our students. I believe we
are on the right path. I really want to thank the Superintendent for her great
leadership as we’re moving forth. I look forward to working with the
Superintendent and all of the District Staff so we can come up with a plan
that would be very sustaining and that will be supporting our students and
really engaging our communities in the discussion. It is critical to establish
an effective and efficient governance structure and ensure transparency and
accountability. I believe that we all have a mission on closing opportunity
gaps across Oakland for all. As I said before, our students and families and
communities come from different backgrounds. We have unique
experiences that need to be heard and valued especially as we continue to
deal with the impacts of the pandemic. By working together, we will become
a stronger District and I promise to advocate for our students, our families
and as a collective voice on our school Board and our leadership team.
I aim to build bridges and continue to push us forward as OUSD to increase
the investments in our students, our certificated and our classified staff. It is
very important that we make sure everyone has a living wage and I definitely
want to make sure that we invest in the schools that need it the most. I
humbly ask the community for your support. I look forward to working with
the community, I look forward to working with the District and I definitely look
forward to working with our Board Members to make that dream come true. I
want to thank everybody for your support. Thank you Board Members who
supported me and I want to be really clear. This opportunity really was
resting on my mind this morning when I woke up and I had to do a self-
analysis, self assessment to see how we best can move this forward and I
really believe that I am the best person to do it and I look forward to working
with all of you to make sure that OUSD becomes one of the best Districts in
the Bay Area. Thank you very much."
President Williams invited Vice President Thompson to address the Board.
H1. Vice President’s Address – 5 Minutes
Vice President Clifford Thompson address:
"I am really excited that individuals really have trust in what I am going to do.
I feel really excited that I can actually work with the Board. As all of you have
seen, I am able to work with anyone because of my values and my ethics.
President Williams, I am sure you and I will work very well together. We will,
I am sure, move our District forward as has been the case in what I echoed
so many times while on the Board. I want to make sure that we get back to
what it use to be when I was in the District in Oakland and we had 54,000
kids. I remember that extremely well when I was a teacher at Franklin, Year
Round School, and when I was a Principal of Oakland Tech. I remember all
of these things. Of Course, the number of students attending our schools
were less when I was Principal of Oakland Tech, but we were near 40,000
students at that time, so I know we can get back to that I’m sure with your
