Oakland Military Institute, College Preparatory Academy
Minutes
Regular Board Meeting
Date and Time
Thursday November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Location
Address: 3877 Lusk St. Oakland, CA 94608
Room: B104, B Side Building
In response to the expiration of Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-29-20, which temporarily suspended provisions of the Brown Act relating to public meetings, the Board will resume in-person board meetings.
In Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, those requiring special assistance to access the board meeting should contact Carlos Rodriguez at crodriguez@omiacademy.org. Notifications of at least 24 hours prior to the meeting will enable Oakland Military Institute to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the board meeting.
Directors Present
A. Campbell Washington, B. Cross, D. Clisham, J. Brown, J. Wire, M. Mares, S. Bryce
Directors Absent
None
Guests Present
17 more participants, C. James, C. Rodriguez, J. Pike, J. Welcome (remote), K. Wong, M. Streshly, S. Lipsey, Z. Texeira
I. Opening Items
A.
Roll Call
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Public Comment
D.
Ordering of the Agenda
II. Approval of Consent Items
A.
Minutes of August 28, 2025 Board Meeting
B.
Personnel Report
C.
New Contracts
III. Cadet Commander Report
A.
Cadet Commander's Report
Thalia Lopez gave her presentation to the board of directors. Bill Tran also had the chance to help Thalia with her presentation. Governor Brown mentioned that he had an interview with Bill and wrote him a recommendation letter.
Thalia began her presentation by stating that OMI had 504 cadets enrolled at the time of this board meeting. She also mentioned that there have been plenty of events so far at the beginning of the year for cadets to participate in like ANCOC/BNCOC, Black Cowboy Parade, UN Flag Ceremony and more. The Xtreme Team Challenge (XTC) event was cancelled for OMI only because the bus company that was contracted to take the cadets cancelled their service twice. OMI will hold its own XTC for the cadets that signed up and were excited to attend the event.
There was more interaction with this year's spirit week activities and the cadets are excited for the next time that spirit week comes around, which will likely be in the spring semester.
BG (CA) Cross asked the OMI staff to have Cadet Commander Thalia explain the cadet role in the Cadet Honor Boards that occur BG Cross explained that he wanted to hear from her about the cadet honor boards at the December 11, 2025 board meeting.
IV. Superintendent's Update
A.
Superintendent's Update
Dr. Streshly started by letting the board of directors know that Larry Tramutola would have a couple of minutes to address them.
Larry Tramutola was introduced and he introduced the new community liaison (Xitlali Rodriguez). He mentioned that he is involved in leading campaigns and worked with Cesar Chavez so he knows the how to engage with targeted communities. He praised Xitlali for being goal oriented and persistent to create relationships with the prospective families. Personal human contact is the highest and most important priorities. Larry spoke to some families and he concluded that they did not want to get emailed by OMI because they did not check their email so they would like to get contacted via text message.
Marc Mares mentioned he picks up baked goods for the track team every Friday and some of the employees there have had children attend OMI. He explained that they tell him that they did not have a great experience with the school and the power of the word of mouth medium is very strong. Word of mouth is one of if not the most important way to recruit prospective families.
Dr. Streshly mentioned that the ethics training needs to be done by January 1, 2025 so the board can stay in compliance with the Brown Act.
Dr. Streshly explained Immigration enforcement: there was a law past that restrict ICE agents to only be allowed in public spaces like everyone else that comes to campus. They must have a warrant and the Superintendent has to contact legal and the Chairman of the Board.
All of the grants that OMI has applied for are applied for in an effort to complement the Golden State Pathways grant that was previously obtained.
B.
WASC Report
Dr. Streshly explained that the WASC committee will be having a virtual meeting with OMI on December 10.
Dr. Streshly thanked Jonathan Pike, Cynthia Murphy and the rest of the department chairs for their hard work on the mid cycle WASC report.
V. Information/Discussion Items
A.
Math Committee Report
Jonathan Pike gave a presentation on the Math Committee Report. He explained that the math program has three lines of effort: improving instruction, expanding high impact tutoring, and targeted support strategies. He showed the stages that the math tutoring program has gone through and what needs to be focused on. He said that he will be changing the way that the cadets take the diagnostic tests. Instead of a whole class taking the test at the same time and potentially causing distractions, they will be taking the test five cadets at a time.
The CAASPP results came back and OMI went from the red tier to the orange tier, signaling an increase in the right direction by 16.5 points.
Marc Mares mentioned to the OMI staff that he wanted them to make sure to let the parents and the cadets know about this data during the Grizzly Family Nights so that they know how important improving is to the charter renewal results.
The tutors are building relationships with the kids and we are leveraging that so the cadets can do better on tests and in their classes. OMI has made a tutoring program that allows for the cadets to get the necessary extra help and remove the stigma of being in tutoring. Some of the cadets gave feedback that they really appreciate the tutoring.
The data from the finals with CAASPP like questions will be analyzed at the January 5, 2026 professional development for math and will be given to the Board at the January board meeting.
Dr. Streshly explained that OMI had more movement in the 1 and 2 bands than the 3 and 4 bands but that is improvement since it brings OMI closer to standard.
B.
2025-2026 Williams Monitoring Facilities Report
CMSgt James explained that the Williams Monitoring Facilities inspectors came out to OMI on July 29, 2025, and evaluated the facilities. OMI is in good shape and good standing. CMSgt James gave a thank you shout out to Ismael Robles because he takes his time to get the OMI campus running smoothly.
C.
Financial Update
Jessika Welcome explained the financial update to the board of directors. She mentioned that te crux of the financial update was the math program. She kept the revenue for the program equal to the expenses and has calculated that the total additional investment in the math program was $871,038.
The donation from Governor Brown for the math program has helped increase the number of tutors and one on one interactions with the cadets.
The current (to the board meeting) attendance was higher than what Jessika expected and that was a good sign enough to potentially warrant raising the ADA targets in the coming future.
The balance of the CD (certificate of deposit) was increased because Jessika, CMSgt James, and Dr. Streshly saw that there was enough money in the regular account to warrant moving some money over. Now, the money in the CD is over a million dollars. OMI is well above the average one month payroll.
VI. Action Items
A.
Approve First Interim Budget Report
B.
Consideration of Employee Cost of Living Allowance for 2025-2026 (COLA)
Jessika recommended that the COLA be increased by 2.5%, which is just slightly above the COLA of the state at 2.3%.
C.
Approve Measure G1 Audit Report
The audit was clean and had no findings.
D.
Update to OMI Bridge Bank Authorized Signers
Jessika will be removed, just have view access to the accounts.
Dr. Streshly will bring this back in December and it will be an administrative regulation or board policy.
E.
BP 5145.9 - Observations by Family Members and/or Private Providers
F.
BP 6164.41 - Requests for Independent Educational Evaluations
G.
BP 5141.25 - Private Providers Delivering Services During School Hours
H.
Approve BP 5125.7 – Letter of Recommendation Request Procedures
This motion is to not approve and discard this policy.
I.
Approve BP 4119.12 Title IX Sex Discrimination and Sex-Based Harassment Complaint Procedure (Revision)
J.
Approve BP 6158 Independent Study Policy Revision
VII. Board Member Comments
A.
VIII. Board Member Comments
There were no board member comments at this board meeting.
VIII. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn to Closed Session
The board of directors decided to adjourn to closed session at 6:23pm
B.
Reconvene to Open Session
The board meeting reconvened to open session at 6:33 pm
Announcement of actions taken in closed session: no actions were taken
There were no public comments at this board meeting.