Oakland Report examines the data behind the headlines. In this installment, we examine the paper trail behind Oakland school board member VanCedric Williams’ claim that the state teachers union does not pay him.
“I do not take a paycheck from CTA”
On June 24, 2026, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) board approved a new contract with teachers union Oakland Education Association (OEA). The new contract will cost OUSD an estimated additional $104.8 million over three years.1
Before the vote, OUSD board member Mike Hutchinson asked whether his colleague, board member VanCedric Williams had a conflict of interest.
Williams sits on the board of directors of the California Teachers Association (CTA), OEA’s statewide parent union. Hutchinson asked whether CTA paid him.23
“I do not take a paycheck from CTA. They do not pay me a salary at all. Let’s just be clear, that’s misinformation, that’s distortion, that’s misleading folks and I’m appalled by this false information.”
— OUSD director VanCedric Williams, June 24, 2026
Then the district’s legal advisor stated that because Williams was not paid for his CTA role, there was no conflict.4
Williams voted yes to approve the teachers union contract. It passed 5–0, with Hutchinson abstaining.5
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on September 4 that San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which employs Williams as a teacher, confirmed he is on paid leave to work full time for CTA. It also reported that CTA reimburses SFUSD for his salary and benefits.
Oakland Report examined CTA’s filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They show CTA also pays Williams directly, starting in 2022.
Key findings
CTA has reported paying Williams in each of its last three IRS filings. CTA reports paying Williams $4,877 for the ten weeks of 2022 after he joined its board; $48,695 in 2023; and $52,731 in 2024.
Williams disclosed no income from CTA on any of his four annual Form 700 disclosure statements. His 2023 statement has no income schedule attached. His 2025 statement was filed the morning of the June 24 vote.
State law names the union (CTA) as the payer. Education Code section 44987 requires the union to repay the district for all compensation paid during a leave from union office.
The union that pays Williams also helped fund his re-election. CTA gave $97,000 to OEA’s political action committee (PAC) in 2024; the PAC spent $63,076 supporting Williams, more than on any other candidate. Notably, Williams sits on CTA’s “Budget and Political Involvement” committees.
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What CTA’s tax returns say
Nonprofits, including unions, annually file a Form 990 with the IRS. Part VII of the form lists each director’s hours and pay. The form’s Column D reports compensation on a W-2 or 1099 issued by the organization itself.
CTA’s Form 990 for the year ending Aug. 31, 2024 lists Williams as a director working 40 hours per week, with $42,186 in Column D and $6,509 in other compensation.6
The prior year’s return lists him “from 10/23/22,” also at 40 hours, with $3,754 and $1,123. A third return, for the year ending Aug. 31, 2025, reports $46,530 in Column D and $6,201 in other compensation for calendar 2024.
CTA filed it on June 30, 2026 — six days after the June 24 vote.7
All three filings describe CTA’s officers and directors as “released educators” whose districts pay their salaries. CTA reimburses districts in amounts “ranging from basic substitute cost to fully loaded regular salary including benefits.”
Williams’ pay is typical of CTA’s directors. What is unusual is a director who also sits on a school board that bargains with a CTA local.
Was Williams telling the truth?
Williams’ statement was accurate in one narrow sense: his paycheck is issued by SFUSD. But the law that puts him on leave says who really pays.
Education Code section 44987 requires a district to grant leave “without loss of compensation” so an employee can serve as an elected officer of a statewide union. It further requires the union to repay the district for that compensation within 10 days of being billed.8
SFUSD’s paychecks to Williams are legally required pass-through compensation — and in addition to that reimbursement, CTA reports paying Williams directly.
Follow the money
Full-time CTA dues are $858 for 2025–26; with about 2,600 OEA members, Oakland teachers send CTA roughly $2.2 million a year.910
The dues formula rises with statewide average teacher pay, so raises won in Oakland and the 31 other districts in CTA’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign feed the union’s future revenue.
CTA’s board — Williams among them — oversees that budget.
In 2024, CTA supplied $97,000 of the OEA PAC’s roughly $179,000 (Figure 4).1112
It is reasonable to consider the possibility that a board member paid by a union — whose re-election that union largely funded — would find it hard to weigh a contract with that union’s local impartially.
What does conflict of interest law say?
The Political Reform Act says officials should act “free from bias caused by their own financial interests or the financial interests of persons who have supported them.” It also states that an official may not take part in a decision that could materially affect a “source of income” of $500 or more in the prior 12 months.13
The OUSD attorney’s legal advice may have rested on the exception that salary paid by a government agency does not technically count as “income” under the Act.14
However, CTA’s direct payments to Williams are different. They come directly from a union, not as a pass-through by a government agency.
The most recently published remunerations to Willams were in calendar year 2024 — outside the 12 months before the June 24 vote. But if the payments continued into that window, CTA appears to be a direct source of income to Williams under the Act.
A related rule, the “nexus” test, treats a financial effect on a source of income as material when the official is paid to advance that source’s goals.15
Board members must also list every non-government source of $500 or more in income on an annual Form 700, due April 1.16
None of Williams’ four statements lists CTA as a source of income. The 2023 statement attaches only Schedule B, for one piece of Oakland real property. Schedule C, for income, is not attached. The 2022, 2024 and 2025 statements each check “None — no reportable interests on any schedule.”
All Williams’ Forms 700 were filed after April 1. His 2025 statement was signed at 11:41 a.m. on June 24, 2026 — hours before the board met and voted on the OEA contract that afternoon.17
Whether CTA’s payments fit one of the Act’s exclusions from “income” is a question for the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). If they do not, the filings appear to omit a reportable source of income in three consecutive years.
Why ‘legal and common’ is not the end of the question
The release arrangement is “legal and common” in public education, as the Chronicle noted. But the Legislature already treats some common arrangements as conflicts too serious to allow. For example, a district’s own employee cannot sit on its board.18
The state also requires disclosing the true source of money routed through a middleman.1920
Research finds that self-interest shapes judgment without the person noticing — even at seemingly minor sums — and disclosure alone can make bias worse. This is why the law typically calls for recusal, not self-discipline.2122
Read this related article:
Other considerations and counterpoints
We offer these countering facts for readers to consider:
Within CTA, Williams’ pay is typical. The release arrangement is required by state law and it applies to all CTA directors.
Calendar year 2025 financials are not public yet, and the return covering 2024 was filed six days after the vote.
When voters elected Williams in 2020 and 2024, they ostensibly knew that he was a union teacher.
OEA also spent about $20,000 supporting Hutchinson in 2020. OEA appears not to have financially supported Hutchinson since.
Williams’ vote on the OEA union contract was not decisive. The contract passed 5–0.
Form 700 omissions are often resolved by amendment and a modest fine. The FPPC decides whether a payment falls within an exclusion.
Board president Jennifer Brouhard has publicly stated that there is no conflict between the board and the union.23
Supporters say competitive teacher pay helps a district that struggles to keep teachers. The county office of education has said that OUSD has the resources to pay for the OEA contract this year.
Williams did not respond to the San Francisco Chronicle’s inquiries about his compensation. Oakland Report invites Williams, CTA, and/or OUSD to respond — we will publish their response, if offered.
What the record shows
Three facts are on the record:
CTA’s own tax filings report paying Williams in each of the three years since he joined its board.
The law that put Williams on leave from SFUSD names the CTA union as the payer of his SFUSD salary.
Williams’ own disclosure statements, including one signed the morning of the vote, report no income from CTA.
Williams’ June 24 statement that the union does not pay him appears to be in conflict with those facts — and the board’s legal advisor appeared to affirm Williams’ description of his compensation before the OUSD board voted.
Whether this violates the Political Reform Act is for the FPPC or a court to decide. Whether it should have led to recusal is a question for Oaklanders to decide for themselves.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Charlene Price” is an Oakland resident who has extensive interactions with OUSD. The author’s name has been changed to protect their privacy and prevent personal and professional retaliation. Oakland Report has verified the identity of the writer and the accuracy of the facts in this report.
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Reinhart, Sean S. "Union raises 'endanger' Oakland school finances as board set to approve $1.2 billion budget." Oakland Report, Jun. 23, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/union-raises-endanger-oakland-schools
Tucker, Jill. "Oakland school board member denied that the teachers union paid him. It did." San Francisco Chronicle via The Sacramento Bee, Sept. 4, 2026. https://www.sacbee.com/news/article317137326.html
California Teachers Association. "VanCedric Williams, District A." CTA board of directors profile, accessed Sept. 5, 2026. https://cta.org/about-us/leadership/board-of-directors/vancedric-williams; and https://www.cta.org/about-us/leadership/board-of-directors/vancedric-williams-2
Tucker, Jill. "Oakland approved a $105 million teachers deal. One board member's dual role could threaten it." San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 5, 2026. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/oakland-teachers-contract-ethics-22371973.php
McBride, Ashley. "OUSD's budget has a projected surplus — if it can cut $30M." The Oaklandside, Jun. 25, 2026. https://oaklandside.org/2026/06/25/deficit-surplus-ousd-passed-a-very-confusing-budget/
California Teachers Association. "Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, tax year Sept. 1, 2023–Aug. 31, 2024." Part VII, Section A, line 19 (Vancedric Williams); Schedule J, Part I line 1a and Part III. Signed Jul. 10, 2025. https://docs.candid.org/990/940/940362310/940362310_2024_202541929349300104_990.pdf
California Teachers Association. "Form 990, tax year Sept. 1, 2024–Aug. 31, 2025." Part VII, Section A, line 20 (Vancedric Williams, director, 40 hrs/week, $46,530 reportable compensation); Schedule J, Part III. Submitted to the IRS Jun. 30, 2026; DLN 93493181001146. https://philanthropy.org/990/report/770002410/california-teachers-association
California Education Code §44987. https://california.public.law/codes/ca_educ_code_section_44987
California Teachers Association. "2025–2026 CTA Annual Dues Calculation" and "CTA/CCA Membership Dues 2025–26." Accessed Sept. 5, 2026. https://www.cta.org/document/cta-dues-calculation; https://www.cta.org/document/cca-dues-structure
McBride, Ashley. "Oakland teachers avert strike, reach tentative deal with OUSD." The Oaklandside, Feb. 27, 2026. https://oaklandside.org/2026/02/27/oakland-teachers-avert-strike-reach-tentative-deal-with-ousd/
McBride, Ashley. "Oakland school board races draw less spending by political groups this year." The Oaklandside, Oct. 29, 2024. https://oaklandside.org/2024/10/29/oakland-school-board-races-draw-less-spending-by-political-groups-this-year/
Reinhart, Sean S. "The elephant in the classroom." Oakland Report, Apr. 30, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/the-elephant-in-the-classroom
California Government Code §87103(c). https://california.public.law/codes/ca_gov't_code_section_87103
Fair Political Practices Commission. "Holding Two Positions." FPPC website, accessed Sept. 5, 2026 (citing Gov. Code §82030(b)(2)). https://www.fppc.ca.gov/learn/public-officials-and-employees-rules-/conflict-of-interest/holding-two-positions.html
Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, §18702.3(b). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/2-CCR-18702.3
California School Boards Association. "Guide to Reporting Gifts, Honoraria and Travel Payments." CSBA, Nov. 2019, p. 1. https://www.csba.org/-/media/CSBA/Files/Advocacy/ELA/2019-11_GuideToReportingGifts.ashx
Williams, VanCedric. "Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700)." Filed with Oakland Unified School District, filer SAN 012300461-STH-0461: 2022 annual, filed Apr. 4, 2023 ("None"); 2023 annual, filed Apr. 3, 2024 (Schedule B only); 2024 annual, filed Apr. 22, 2025 ("None"); 2025 annual, filed Jun. 24, 2026, 11:41 a.m. ("None"). https://ousd.southtechhosting.com/DDocsWebRetrieval/Search/FilerForms.aspx
California Education Code §35107(b). https://california.public.law/codes/education_code_section_35107
California Government Code §87210. https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-gov/title-9/chapter-7/article-2/section-87210/
California Government Code §§84301–84302. https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-gov/title-9/chapter-4/article-3/section-84
Moore, Don A. and George Loewenstein. "Self-interest, automaticity, and the psychology of conflict of interest." Social Justice Research 17, no. 2 (2004): 189–202. https://www.ovid.com/journals/sojr/abstract/00021746-200417020-00006~self-interest-automaticity-and-the-psychology-of-conflict-of?redirectionsource=fulltextview
Cain, Daylian M., George Loewenstein, and Don A. Moore. "The Dirt on Coming Clean: Perverse Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest." Journal of Legal Studies 34, no. 1 (2005): 1–25. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/jls/vol34/iss1/1
Jones, Velena. "Concerns mount over Oakland Unified School District's Board of Education." NBC Bay Area, Jun. 24, 2025. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/oakland-unified-school-board-concerns/3900319/
As long as the money behind corporate and labor-nonprofit corruption keeps misleading voters that ‘the other guy does it so it’s ok,’ we will continue to see our public services deteriorate and our elections dominated by demands for more tax money. It shouldn’t matter where the stolen tax money is being diverted. It’s up to us voters to defend our tax dollars by electing responsible adults and holding them accountable. The left-right blame game is just Kabuki theater to distract us. Look behind the curtain.
Thank you Charlene and Oakland Report. This corruption has to stop. Oakland needs new and better leaders. Our children deserve a real education and a future. They are our future. Mindy Pechenuk, for Oakland Mayor 2026