The Oakland City Council Special Education Partnership Committee convened at 3:36 PM on Monday, April 13, 2026, in the City Council Chamber, Oakland City Hall, and adjourned at 6:09 PM. Chairperson Councilmember Rowena Brown presided. Councilmembers Noel Gallo, Ken Houston (participating remotely), and Zac Unger were present. OUSD Board Members Rachel Latta, Jennifer Brouhard, Patrice Berry, and Valarie Bachelor were present. OUSD Youth School Board Members Marianna Smith (arrived at 3:47 PM) and Maximus Simmons were present. The committee received informational reports, heard public testimony, and voted unanimously (with one absence on Item 6) to receive and file all items.
Note: The agenda stated the meeting was noticed as a Special Meeting of the City Council due to quorum, but no final City Council action was taken.
Good afternoon, and welcome to the special education partnership committee meeting for today, April thirteenth. The time is now three thirty-six PM, and this meeting has come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda. If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn into a clerk representative my left, your right. Before the item is read into record, online speaker requests were due twenty-four hours prior to this meeting. Starting with our council members. And started with our youth board members, Member Smith. Absent. And Member Simmons. Present. Thank you. We do have all members present and one absent Smith. And moving to our council member announcement. Councilmember Brown, do you have any announcements for today? Yep, absolutely. Thank you so much, Madam Clerk. Um, it's my absolute pleasure to welcome everyone to the joint convening of the education partnerships committee uh with our school board members. Um, first I wanted to welcome uh school school board member um of district one, Rachel Lada to the education partnerships committee. It's a pleasure to have you join us. Um I also will just um I know I made this announcement in September. Um we have a new mic system, which um we hope that you love. Um, and it does require just press the middle button and then you become in the queue, and then we will unmute you. Um, and then because if you keep pressing, it'll it won't unmute you. Um so just wanted to make that announcement. In addition, uh I also wanted to thank uh Vice President Bachelor uh for linking my myself and the team uh with the uh Oakland Roots facilitating the wearable tech student projects, um, which are you can which we can find it right out in the hallway. And so special uh thanks to um John Sasaki, Brenda uh from the career technical education um with OUSD, as well as Nelda Kerr, director of community engagement at the Oakland Roots. Um and so basically with this project, students from across the district were able to submit their designs and select and a select few were giving materials to create a prototype of jerty jerseys embedded with wearable technology. Um and so I just want to shout out a few of the finalists, uh a finalist from Roosevelt Middle School, uh Sayed and Cong D, as well as a finalist from Fremont High School finalist from Freemont High School, Maria, Alison, Teresa, Hector, and Fernando. Um, and then some middle school uh uh winners from Monterra, Kyler, Melissa, and Lucia, and then lastly, uh some winners from Fremont High School, uh Cecilia, um, who also transferred to Oakland Tech. So uh this uh student showcase will be in the uh council chambers um until Friday at noon. So please uh we invite you to check that out. Um and then lastly, you'll also know that the OUSD STEM fair is Wednesday, May the 6th. Um and then I guess a few housekeeping things uh for members of the public. Um you can sign up for a specific item uh to which you would need to speak on that, and then if you have a general item uh not necessarily on the agenda, then you would sign up for open forum. Uh and then I guess lastly, to my board members, uh you will find to fellow board members, you will find uh located um in front of you to print outs. Um and so we wanted to encourage you to invite students um in your districts to uh apply for an amazing opportunity. It's called African American Leaders of Tomorrow. It does state that the deadline is today. Uh but if there's some young people in uh that you know that are interested, please reach out to either my office or the office of assembly member Mia Bonta, and we will ensure that that student is considered. And then lastly, before uh we start our uh our official agenda, um, I'm gonna take chair's privilege to invite up uh our 20 to 26 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist, uh Isabel Sheehan. Is she here? This way. And so um, fellow board members, Isabel Shin is a storyteller who inspires uh who is inspired by language, um, mythology and community. Uh her her poetry is about self-expression, helping to make meaning and draw connections into the confusion of this world and capturing moments of feelings and and beauty. Um of note is that the uh she is the f one of uh the finalists for the 2026 Oakland Poet Youth Poet Laureate, and so uh I believe on Friday, June the 5th, uh that's when we will find out who is the next poet laureate. But I wanted to ensure that we make space uh for a quick poem from Isabel. Thank you. God willing, the five-year-old would unlock eyes with the polymer snarls of rifles, his living room rendered a mini diorama of war. Don't let him see his grandpa paraded out wincing naked except for his boxes and flip flops, snow brambled on his head. That is to say, God willing, there will be no kings.