State Superintendent Thurmond Offers to Formally Mediate Oakland Unified School District Strike—Invites Both Sides to the Table Effective Immediately

OAKLAND—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has invited both sides in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) strike—the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and the OUSD Administration—to come to the table where Thurmond and his team will formally mediate negotiations to end the strike called by OEA that began this morning, May 4, 2023. Thurmond and his team will arrange for meeting space and logistics and will provide a framework for discussion and staff to lead, facilitate, and mediate discussions between the parties.

“We are disappointed that the parties could not find an agreement in time to avert a strike. We observed how hard both sides worked and will start immediately working with the parties in a formal mediation capacity. Our goal is to help the parties reach an agreement and to end the strike so that students can return to class as quickly as possible,” Thurmond said.

Thurmond and his team joined negotiations in the days leading up to the strike. They have served as observers and regularly met with both sides individually and in groups to assist in keeping talks going as the parties worked to find agreement. Thurmond and his team have extended the invitation to begin mediation immediately—May 4, 2023.

In the strike called in 2019, Thurmond was asked by both sides in the matter to mediate the strike after the sides reached an impasse. In 2019 Thurmond and his team mediated a process for more than 30 hours that led to the parties reaching a successful agreement and ending the strike.

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Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100