29-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
The ugly battle between principals and teachers taking over Oakland schools
Students had settled into their first class of the day when the president of the Oakland teachers union walked up to the entry gate at Fremont High School on March 17.
What school staff say happened next has sparked an ugly public spat pitting the district principals and their union against the teachers' labor leaders, with administrators accusing the teachers union of harassment, physical threats and bullying.
Multiple staff members reported to district officials and told the Chronicle that the teachers union president, Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, threatened to beat up the principal, Nidya Baez.
Taiz-Rancifer denied the allegations, telling the Chronicle that 'as a mother and a teacher that's not how I approach the world.'
School leaders said Taiz-Rancifer and two other union officials came to the school to meet with a special education teacher, who was teaching on an interim credential, and who the principal had decided not to rehire for the upcoming school year.
Taiz-Rancifer said she was on campus that day to defend one of the union's members, who is Black. She called out what she said was 'the disproportionate way that Black people are treated' by the district.
'That we have had to do this kind of advocacy in this district around these real harmful things that happen but go unnoticed,' she said, without specifying what she meant. 'It is unfair. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.'
The Chronicle interviewed several witnesses to the interaction between Taiz-Rancifer and staff at Fremont High, viewed copies of four witness statements and obtained exclusive access to a school security video showing some of the incident.
The United Administrators of Oakland Schools, which represents 368 principals, supervisors, managers and others, has called on district officials and the school board to intervene. Spokesman John Sasaki said the district takes all reports of threats seriously, does not comment on personnel matters and would not say if the district was investigating the incident.
The labor clash adds significant tilt to an already unsteady ship. The district's leadership is in flux after the teachers union-backed school board majority forced an early exit of the homegrown superintendent, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, in a divisive process in April — just eight months after extending her contract through June 2027.
At public meetings, officials from the administrators union have referenced the Fremont incident as well as what they said was persistent intimidation of and retaliation against principals across the district by the teachers union leadership, often over the termination or release of a teacher.
The teachers union, the Oakland Education Association, represents the district's 3,000 teachers, counselors, aides and other educators.
'Our members have been targeted with such language such as, 'I'm going to kick her ass,' 'We will find you in the community,' 'We control the board, we got Kyla fired, we can get you fired,'' said the president of the administrators union, Cary Kaufman, at the April 23 school board meeting. 'Our members don't feel safe walking to their cars. It happens over and over and over again.'
According to a staff member who spoke with the Chronicle and two witness statements, Taiz-Rancifer identified herself as a parent at the Fremont High gate, saying she was heading to a classroom to see a teacher on that day in mid-March.
The staff member told the Chronicle they informed Taiz-Rancifer that she needed to get a visitor pass first. Taiz-Rancifer refused, said the staff member, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
The staff member, who said they didn't know who the visitor was at the time, said they couldn't remember the exact words used by Taiz-Rancifer, but that the union leader threatened to beat up the principal. 'She said, I'm going to hit her or I'm going to do something to her,' the person said.
One witness, in the signed statement, said Taiz-Rancifer said that if she went to the office, the principal 'was going to get it.' Another wrote that she said 'something along the lines of, 'If I see Ms. Baez, I'm going to go off.''
As Taiz-Rancifer proceeded to the classroom, the two staff members wrote in their statements, they notified other staff and administrators via walkie talkie that a person was on campus proceeding to a classroom without checking in at the office. Both said they didn't know who she was at the time.
A case manager at the school, Amado Rosas, told the Chronicle he heard the transmission in his office and headed to intercept the person. By then, Taiz-Rancifer had met up with another union official.
The video shows the other member of the union going into a classroom and Taiz-Rancifer remaining in the hallway with Rosas as the door shuts.
Rosas said he told Taiz-Rancifer that the procedure was to check in at the main office.
'She said, 'I understand your procedure, but if I go down there and I see your principal, I will mess her up,'' Rosas said. 'But it was more threatening. She said something more along the lines of, 'I will f— her up.''
Taiz-Rancifer denied using such language.
'I'll just say unequivocally, I have not ever, ever, ever said any of that,' she told the Chronicle. 'It's horrible and offensive.'
Rosas, who said he was among those who signed a witness statement, told the Chronicle that the situation felt 'very dangerous,' because the threat of physical violence appeared sincere.
'When you throw those words around it creates a hostile environment,' he said.
Taiz-Rancifer also said several times that Fremont High had an anti-Black atmosphere, Rosas said.
Assistant Principal Derek Boyd told the Chronicle he also heard the walkie talkie reports of a person making threats against Baez, who was teaching a leadership class at the time.
Boyd ensured staff members were following procedures for a threat on campus, and then stood outside Baez's classroom to guard the door, he said.
When Baez finished teaching, Boyd said, he escorted her to his office, where she remained until the union leaders left sometime around noon.
Boyd, who said he was one of six staff members to submit a witness statement as part of an incident report, said a few staff members reported that Taiz-Rancifer threatened to harm Baez, saying she was going to 'f—ing beat her ass.'
The Chronicle was able to view copies of four of the witness statements, with names redacted. The content reflected largely what staff said, although in one case, the time of Taiz-Rancifer's arrival was described as between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. rather than during the first hour of classes or closer to 8:45 a.m.
The district declined to immediately provide the statements or the report to the Chronicle and requested that the Chronicle file a public records act request, which it did.
'I've never had a union president act this way,' Boyd said.
Two of the union leaders at Fremont with Taiz-Rancifer, Vilma Serrano and Carrie Anderson, said the union president did not threaten anyone or make the profanity-laden statements.
'Those are inaccurate statements,' Serrano said. 'We were there too. That didn't happen.'
They said they were with Taiz-Rancifer the entire time at the school, though Fremont High staff members disputed that and a security video of Taiz-Rancifer's interaction with Rosas, which does not include audio, shows she was not with the two union officials when they spoke in the hallway.
Taiz-Rancifer denied issuing the specific threats described by staff or any other threats of physical harm.
'None of the phrases you included are things that sound like anything I would say,' she said.
She did not respond to requests to clarify whether she made any type of verbal threat.
Since the encounter, the teachers union has launched a campaign to get the special education teacher rehired, saying in a flyer that Baez has 'led a disturbing campaign of retaliation' against teacher Chris Jackson since his election to union leadership.
'Chris has also been a powerful voice in defense of Black educators and students, confronting racial epithets and longstanding anti-Blackness at Fremont High,' according to the flyer.
So far, 1,008 letters have been sent.
Baez said that making staffing decisions is part of a principal's job.
'We have to make these hard decisions,' she said, adding she expected to get a grievance or a phone call from the teachers union. 'What I did not expect was a threat.'
She said that her team filed an incident report after the March 17 encounter, and that the district's legal department issued a 'stay away letter.' But Taiz-Rancifer has returned since, citing union business, and the district did not remove her from campus, Baez said.
Baez and staff, including Boyd, the assistant principal, who is Black, said the accusations based on one staffing decision were unfair. Data shows the school has an 88% graduation rate for Black seniors, one of the highest in the district.
Other principals told the Chronicle they've also been harassed for personnel decisions in recent years, but with more frequency this year, allegations they also made at public meetings.
'I have been one of the principals targeted,' said Shalonda Gregory, principal at MetWest High School, adding the union painted a picture of her as an 'angry Black lady.' 'Their goal is to intimidate us to the point where we don't do our jobs.'
School board President Jennifer Brouhard did not respond to requests for comment about the issue.
At Fremont High, Baez readied for the end of her 18th year as an educator. The last few months have been 'unacceptable,' she said. 'I worry about how we're going to move forward after all of this is done.'
