The Oakland Education Association is attempting to function without professional staff in the office.  This summer, OEA’s office manager with 33 years on the job decided to retire at the end of August.  Shortly after that, the half-time clerical assistant also left.  Leadership has not made a move to hire a replacement for either position.  Since four officers are on release from the classroom teaching, the president has asked the treasurer to cover the  manager’s position and other officers and E Board members to help pick up the slack. 

Since the UTLA strike of 2018, OEA has been following their playbook. The whole leadup to the 2019 strike was based on what UTLA had done. Since UTLA has 10 officers on release, the previous president, (Keith Brown) expanded the release time to the vice president in  2018-19.  In the next year, members were asked to raise dues in order to have four officers on release.  After two votes failed to raise the dues in order to accomplish this, a third vote in May 2021 passed the dues increase and all four executive officers were released.  (UTLA has ten times as many teachers as Oakland and their officers each represent as many teachers as Oakland has.) 

Our office manager dealt with a job that included not just running the office and dealing with daily breakdowns, but also tracking membership, paying taxes, figuring out which CTA grant could reimburse which expense.  This was an incredible juggling act, not a job that an elected officer can just pick up and do for two years.  Professionals are needed to manage the OEA office and it is of great concern that this is not happening.  Members volunteering to take shifts manning the office is not sufficient.  It is dangerous to let go of these positions.

Deirdre Snyder, OEA retired