Oakland is standing firmly behind our teachers, with 95% of teachers on strike, and only an estimated 3% of Oakland families sending their kids to school.

However, while all of Oakland is in the streets, District 4 Board member Gary Yee is sitting on the sidelines.

Maybe this isn’t surprising, because he was elected with nearly $150,000 from GO Public Schools’ Super PAC, with backing from billionaire (and privatization supporter) Michael Bloomberg.

As our school board member, we need to know which side Gary Yee is on: the side of parents, students and teachers, or the side of the billionaires? It is time that Oakland teachers and students come back to their classrooms, and the sooner that Gary Yee takes a firm position in support of our teachers, the sooner this strike will end.

Call (510) 290-2801, email (gary.yee@ousd.org), and post on the Facebook page of Director Yee, and tell him that he must IMMEDIATELY take a firm public position in support of OEA’s demands for a living wage, smaller class sizes, more supports for students and an end to their plan to close up to 24 schools in Black and Latinx communities.

Enough is enough. It is time for OUSD to settle this contract now and stop starving our public schools.