By Magaly Muñoz
Post Staff

Oakland native Jorge Lerma was leading the vote with 62% of the ballots cast for the District 5 (D5) school board seat for Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as of Wednesday morning. Only about 9% of eligible voters participated in the election.

An update on the votes is expected from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters on Thursday, and they will continue counting mail-in ballots that are received up to one week after Election Day. Certification of election results takes up to 30 days.

For several months, Lerma and Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, had been in a fierce competition for the vacant seat after current school board president Mike Hutchinson stepped down earlier this year to represent District 4.

“I’m giddy and feeling very positive, but at the same time I’m very aware that this is an extremely serious moment in my life and in the life of this community,” Lerma said in a phone call to the Post the morning after the election.

Lerma described a full house at the Paulista Brazilian Kitchen and Taproom where he and community members gathered to celebrate the campaign effort before the results were officially announced. Priests, firefighters, and ice cream vendors were all in attendance that night, which Lerma says shows the diversity of people who believe in what he’s doing.

He said he knew he was going to have to fight hard because Ritzie-Hernandez had more access to money and interest groups. However, he believed that his extensive experience and deep-rooted connections in Oakland compensated for what he lacked in those areas.

Lerma has been involved in OUSD for 34 years as a teacher, principal, and administrator. He has long been an advocate for quality education and social justice, even fighting for these rights alongside the late civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.

Sam Davis, District 1 OUSD director, said Lerma’s extensive career in early childhood education and his fight to get more resources for students of color is what makes him the best representative of D5.

“He’s just been in the fight for students and supporting more services, especially for Latino students, for so long. And so, we’re just really grateful that he’s willing to step up and take on this role,” Davis said.

Davis mentioned the state takeover of OUSD in 2003, during which schools were closed in order to consolidate funds to pay off the district’s debt, and said Lerma was at the frontlines fighting for the schools to stay open. Davis stated that’s the kind of experience that the board needs.

“For me, his passion and commitment to this work and the fact you know, as most of us being Latinos and also immigrants, education is really the only pathway that we have to change our circumstances and he has been a consistent champion of that,” said Karely Ordaz, the chief of staff for The Unity Council.

Ordaz said Lerma unknowingly had an unintentional yet profound impact on her and her family’s lives with his creation of Centro Infantíl de la Raza, Fruitvale’s first bilingual, bicultural preschool.

While Ordaz was too old to attend the school, her sister and mom greatly benefited from it. The school offered her sister a cost-free environment for growth and it gave her mother an opportunity to participate in the education system.

She added that Lerma’s passion for encouraging students of color and their families to prioritize education from an early stage is why she’s happy to support him. Lerma understands that early intervention and support are crucial to producing the outcomes that people want to see.

“His win means Oakland wins,” Ordaz stated.

Lerma said the time to start working is now and that the first step is bringing healing to the community. It’s essential to set aside differences and drama because “we have children in Oakland that need to be educated.”

He stated that he’s going to set aside his personal opinions examine every issue with the aim of bettering the community collaboration with his fellow board members.

He explained that his first objective is to is to find out why there is such a large disparity in student learning based on where they go to school and identify what can be done to turn that around quickly.

“I don’t want words anymore; I want to practice. That’s always been the model for me. I don’t like to make promises, I like to deliver results.”

Magaly Muñoz

A graduate of Sacramento State University, Magaly Muñoz’s journalism experience includes working for the State Hornet, the university’s student-run newspaper and conducting research and producing projects for “All Things Considered” at National Public Radio. She also was a community reporter for El Timpano, serving Latino and Mayan communities, and contributed to the Sacramento Observer, the area’s African American newspaper.

Muñoz is one of 40 early career journalists who are part of the California Local News Fellowship program, a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities.

The fellowship program places journalism fellows throughout the state in two-year, full-time reporting positions.

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