School District · Statewide General Election
Oakland Unified Board of Education, District 4
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.
On the ballot
- Mike Hutchinson — Incumbent
- Sylvia Pfeiffer Williams — Adult Educator
- Kathryn Camp — Public Policy Professional
This person holds your area's seat on the Oakland Unified school board: district policy, the budget, and hiring the superintendent.
Three candidates are on the ranked-choice ballot for the District 4 seat on the Oakland Unified school board: incumbent Mike Hutchinson, elected in 2020 and a former board president, against Kathryn Camp and Sylvia Pfeiffer Williams.
The winner holds one of seven seats governing Oakland Unified: district policy, the budget, and hiring and overseeing the superintendent. Trustee areas share the city council's district lines by charter. A four-year term.
The district's roughly $100 million budget gap frames this race too, and the incumbent has positioned himself against his own board's budget. The choice is between a dissenting veteran, a researcher-and-policy candidate running on transparency, and a career OUSD classroom aide running on where the money lands. Ranked-choice voting lets you rank the field in order of preference rather than picking one name.
Mike Hutchinson
The incumbent — his ballot designation is simply "Incumbent" — a former afterschool teacher elected to the board in 2020 who previously served as its president. He voted against OUSD's proposed budget this year, questioning whether it would truly produce a surplus, and abstained on a new teacher contract (per the Oaklandside).
Strengths
Six years on the board including a term as president, and a documented willingness to vote against his colleagues' budget when he doubts its math.
Trade-offs
The Oakland Public Ethics Commission is still weighing whether to fine him nearly $100,000 for repeatedly failing to file campaign-finance disclosures (per the Oaklandside).
Keep in mind
That proceeding is pending, not decided — no finding has been made. But it concerns disclosure compliance in a race about financial stewardship, so its resolution is worth following past Election Day.
Kathryn Camp
On the ballot as a Public Policy Professional. A parent of a Glenview Elementary student, she recently worked as a graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley and before that as a government-affairs staffer for the technology company Block. Her campaign site names transparency in OUSD governance, community partnerships and student outcomes (per the Oaklandside).
Strengths
Research training plus government-affairs experience, and an agenda built on governance transparency rather than a single issue.
Trade-offs
No service on a school board or in the district; her closest institutional experience is corporate government affairs.
Keep in mind
Transparency platforms are easy to state and hard to measure. Ask what specifically she would publish that OUSD does not publish now.
Sylvia Pfeiffer Williams
On the ballot as an Adult Educator. A bilingual adult-education teacher and special-education aide who has worked in OUSD for two decades, she says she is running to keep the budget focused on the classroom from preschool through adult education, to bring stability to Oakland schools, and to improve outcomes for all students (per the Oaklandside).
Strengths
Two decades inside OUSD classrooms, including special education and adult education — the parts of the budget most often cut first.
Trade-offs
No governance record; her experience is delivering the district's services rather than setting its policy or budget.
Keep in mind
She is the only candidate here whose daily work is in the classrooms the budget decides about — a different kind of expertise than governance, and worth weighing as such.
Financial info
- Small donors
- Individuals
- PACs & committees
- Businesses & other orgs
Kathryn Camp
$14,290 raised
- Small donors$3653%
- Individuals$6,32544%
- PACs & committees$6,60046%
- Businesses & other orgs$1,0007%
1Mike Hutchinson has no campaign committee with filings on record with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission for this race.
2Sylvia Pfeiffer Williams has no campaign committee with filings on record with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission for this race.
3Figures are CA Form 460 filings through 2026-06-30, per the Oakland Public Ethics Commission's e-filed transaction exports, retrieved 2026-08-22.
Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 4 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.
- oaklandca.gov (opens in a new tab)Oakland City Clerk — Nov 2026 Election Qualified Candidate List (final, in ballot order, with ballot designations)
- oaklandside.org (opens in a new tab)Oakland City Clerk qualified-candidate list for November 3, 2026, as published by The Oaklandside (2026-08-10)
- ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia — City elections in Oakland, California (2026)
- netfile.com (opens in a new tab)Oakland Public Ethics Commission — e-filed campaign-finance transactions (NetFile)
Last updated August 22, 2026.