The OCS Board of Directors is a self-perpetuating Board, comprised of seven to eleven members including parent members and members of the broader community. In addition, the Executive Director, the Principal, our back-office provider, up to four teachers, and the PTO President are advisors to the Board. The Board’s role is to provide academic and fiduciary oversight as it upholds the school’s mission and vision.
At this time there are two standing committees for the Board: Finance and Governance Committee. Notice of School Board and Committee meetings are posted on campus and on the school website. The meetings are open to the public. Each meeting provides an opportunity for public comment.
If you are interested in learning more about our Board Directors or one of its Committees, please e-mail board@ourcommunityschool.org.
Judy Kogan is a Parent Board Member with two children attending OCS. She is passionate about helping people and excited to join the OCS Board this year! After graduating from UC San Diego, Judy worked at a non-profit foundation in Santa Monica where she researched the impact of education technology, teacher quality, and charter schools. Her commitment to helping others continued after she graduated from Loyola Law School in 2005 and began her career working as a civil rights litigator. These days Judy advocates on behalf of developmentally disabled children through her company, California Advocacy Group. Judy was *almost* a 3rd generation Los Angelina, but she was born in Kalamazoo during her parents’ stint in graduate school. During her free time, you can usually find Judy spending time with her husband and three children. The Kogans love to take road trips, visit national parks, explore new beaches, and eat outdoors.
David Connelly, Board Vice-Chair, Finance Committee Chair
David is a Parent Board Member with a son in the second grade, and a daughter who graduated from OCS in 2021. He has served on the Board since 2020, the Finance Committee since 2018, and initially volunteered with the Spring Fair set up crew. David spent the first decade of his career as a Certified Public Accountant (performing financial audits of school districts, cities, and counties), then began practicing as an attorney/civil litigator in 1990, and has specialized in forensic accounting, damages analysis and providing expert testimony at trial since 1994. David’s wife is also an attorney who previously held a parent leadership role at a local private school, and shares his passion for education and serving our community. Things that you may not know about David are that he loves sports, walking, music and being a kid with his kids.
Yi Ding (Ding), Board Secretary, Governance Co-Chair
Yi Ding (Ding) is a Parent Board Member. She is a librarian at CSUN, where she discovered her passion for K12 when offering workshops and tours to local students. Heading the campus textbook affordability initiative further inspired her to support vulnerable students in the wider community. After chairing the Education Committee at the Northridge West Neighborhood Council and co-founding the family-driven nonprofit CHEER, she wants to give back to children and youth more directly and deeply by bringing years of education and nonprofit experience to the OCS board. Things you might not know about Ding is that she has a four-year-old boy, loves producing podcast episodes in Mandarin, is a lazy cook, but enjoys food of all kinds.
Kelly Simon is a community board member. Dr. Simon serves as the Director of Bridges Charter School, a K-8 public Charter School in Thousand Oaks. As an innovative, strategic, and data-driven leader, Dr. Simon leads the school resourcefully around the school’s guiding principles of Whole Child Education, Project Based Learning, and Family Partnerships. Before transitioning into K-12 leadership, Dr. Simon was a teacher and a teacher educator for over a decade at many colleges and universities across California. She earned her PhD in Education with an emphasis in Teaching and Learning and a specialization in Literacy, Language, and Composition Studies from UC Santa Barbara, and she earned her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from CSU Fresno. Dr. Simon aligns with the mission of OCS and is a strong supporter of charter schools. She is looking forward to partnering with the board and school leadership to ensure the continued longevity and success of OCS!
Greg Knotts is a Community Board Member. He is the Chair of the Elementary Education Department at CSUN. He taught elementary school for 10 years in Long Beach, Inglewood, and Lawndale prior to teaching at Loyola Marymount University which is where he earned his BS in Business Administration and an MA in Elementary Education. His Ph.D. is from the University of Southern California in International/Intercultural Education which is a pretty high-fallutin way of saying he is supposed to know things about differences in education across contexts. Most of his scholarly work and publications are in social studies education and around multicultural issues of gender and sexuality in elementary education. A thing you might not know about Greg is that he has a 12-pound Maltipoo, Stella, that is both the bane of his existence as well as a rare treasure (anyone want a dog?).
Tamara Schiff is a community board member. Dr. Schiff brings charter school board experience to the OCS Board having served on the HighTech LA Board for a decade. During that time, she also served on the Board of the Milken Community High School. Tamara was formerly the Senior VP for Research and Administration at the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, where she helped develop and implement a comprehensive school reform focusing on teacher effectiveness that is still used in schools across the country. For the past 12 years, she has consulted on educational issues, ranging from teacher and leadership effectiveness to executive leadership placement, and curriculum development. Dr. Schiff earned her Ph.D. and MA in Higher Education from UCLA, where she also earned her BA in Psychology. Tamara has long been a supporter of charter schools and looks forward to working with the OCS Community. If you would like to contact Tamara, her email tamara.s@ourcommunityschool.org
