# Oakland Unified Board of Education, District 2 Compare records and positions simply between Jennifer Brouhard or Arielle Fleisher for Oakland Unified Board of Education, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your area's seat on the Oakland Unified school board. They vote on district policy, the budget, and hiring the superintendent. - Jurisdiction: School District - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/ousd-board-2 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 21, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 94 out of 100 (Very strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jennifer Brouhard** — Retired Educator · Incumbent - **Arielle Fleisher** — Parent/Policy Director A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Board President Jennifer Brouhard, the incumbent, faces Arielle Fleisher on the ranked-choice ballot for the District 2 seat on the Oakland Unified school board. The Oaklandside calls this year's OUSD board contests the most competitive local offices on Oakland's ballot. The winner holds one of seven seats governing Oakland Unified. They vote on district policy, the budget, and hiring and overseeing the superintendent. Trustee areas share the city council's district lines by charter. The term is four years. One issue dominates: OUSD is trying to close a roughly $100 million budget gap, and the board's choices about loans and state control follow from it. Brouhard has led that effort as president; Fleisher's platform opens by promising to fix the budget "for real this time" (per the Oaklandside) — a direct challenge to the incumbent's handling of it. Ranked-choice voting lets you rank the field in order of preference rather than picking one name. ## Jennifer Brouhard The incumbent District 2 director and the board's president, on the ballot as a Retired Educator. She taught history and special education for 27 years at Glenview Elementary and Melrose Leadership Academy. She has led OUSD through its roughly $100 million budget gap and has consistently said the district should not take another loan or return to state receivership (per the Oaklandside). **Strengths:** 27 years teaching in OUSD classrooms plus the board presidency, and a stated line against new loans or a return to state receivership. **Trade-offs:** She presides over a board that has not yet closed the roughly $100 million gap; the record she runs on is an unfinished repair. **Keep in mind:** Her no-loans, no-receivership position is a real constraint, not a slogan — it rules out the easier exits, which means the cuts or revenue have to come from somewhere she has to name. ## Arielle Fleisher On the ballot as a Parent/Policy Director. A parent of a Crocker Highlands student, she works on transportation policy for Waymo, is a PTA member, co-leads her neighborhood council, and has been involved with the advocacy organization Empower Oakland. The first item on her platform is fixing OUSD's budget "for real this time" (per the Oaklandside). **Strengths:** Policy-professional experience plus school- and neighborhood-level engagement as a PTA member and neighborhood council co-lead. **Trade-offs:** No governing experience in the district she would help run, and her budget promise is framed as a critique rather than a stated plan. **Keep in mind:** Her involvement with Empower Oakland places her in an organized advocacy current in city politics — worth knowing when weighing whose agenda a seat advances. ## Financial info - **Jennifer Brouhard** — $4,384 raised (Small donors: $334; Individuals: $4,050) - **Arielle Fleisher** — $32,297 raised (Small donors: $2,625; Individuals: $27,132; PACs & committees: $1,800; Self-funding: $600) Separately, independent committees — not the candidate's campaign — reported $1,810 in spending supporting Jennifer Brouhard: Oakland Education Association Political Action Committee (per Form 496 filings). Figures are CA Form 460 filings through 2026-06-30, per the Oakland Public Ethics Commission's e-filed transaction exports, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Sources 1. [Oakland City Clerk — Nov 2026 Election Qualified Candidate List (final, in ballot order, with ballot designations)](https://www.oaklandca.gov/files/assets/city/v/20/city-clerk/documents/elections/nov-2026-election-qualified-candidate-list.pdf) 2. [Oakland City Clerk qualified-candidate list for November 3, 2026, as published by The Oaklandside (2026-08-10)](https://oaklandside.org/2026/08/10/election-2026-oakland-candidate-list-mayor-council-school-board/) 3. [Ballotpedia — City elections in Oakland, California (2026)](https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Oakland,_California_(2026)) 4. [Oakland Public Ethics Commission — e-filed campaign-finance transactions (NetFile)](https://netfile.com/public/coak/campaign) ## The rest of the ballot Oakland Unified Board of Education, District 2 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Oakland Unified Board of Education, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/ousd-board-2 (sources last retrieved September 21, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.