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Two Challengers to Face Off in OUSD Board Race

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday February 12, 2008

With at least two incumbent Oakland Unified School District board members choosing not to run for re-election this year, the OUSD board is guaranteed new faces just at the time it is regaining a measure of local control. 

District One board member Kerry Hamill (North Oakland) and District Three board member Greg Hodge (West Oakland/Downtown) have both indicated that they will not run for their district seats in the June 3 primary. Meanwhile, District Seven incumbent Alice Spearman (East Oakland) has said that she will be running. The fourth incumbent up for re-election this year, Noel Gallo (District Five, Fruitvale), could not be reached for comment for this story, and his plans are not known. 

The District One vacancy has already set up a race for Hamill's replacement, with two candidates, Chabot Elementary School parent Jody London and Brian Rogers, who describes himself as an "Oakland educational philanthropist," already announcing their intentions to run. 

London, the co-chair of the 2006 OUSD Measure B bond campaign and a member of the Measure B expenditure oversight advisory committee, has been endorsed by Hamill, and has set up a campaign web site at www.votejody.com. 

Rogers, the son of the founder of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, is the executive director of the multi-million dollar Rogers Family Foundation, which Rogers says is "dedicated to supporting education and youth development organizations in the city of Oakland." A portion of the family's money has also gone to support OUSD's Expect Success!, the operational reorganization that came in during the state takeover. 

In District Three, Hodge is giving up his school board seat to run for the Oakland City Council against incumbent Nancy Nadel. 

His wife, Jumoke Hinton Hodge, has announced plans to run for the school board in her husband's place. Hinton Hodge is a longtime educational activist, the founder of Stand Up West Oakland, an educational advocacy organization. 

OUSD Board members served without power or pay between 2003 and 2007 after the state seized control of the school district. The board won back control over community relations and governance last fall, and is currently negotiating memorandums of understanding with State Superintendent Jack O'Connell for return in several other areas as well.  

When it hires its first local superintendent since 2003 later this year, the district will operate under a bifurcated system in which the board will run the district in some areas through its superintendent, and the state superintendent’s office will run other areas--notably finance--through its appointed state administrator.