David Kakishiba took even his school board colleagues by surprise tonight with this news: He will step down at the end of the month because of a conflict-of-interest ruling by the district’s new general counsel, Jackie Minor.

Kakishiba is also executive director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center, a local youth development nonprofit that works in the school district. In the past, he abstained from votes involving EBAYC contracts, but apparently, that’s not enough.

“Yesterday I was informed by the general counsel that it was her opinion that my continuing to serve on this board and to work at my organization is a situation that is untenable,” Kakishiba said at tonight’s (well, last night’s) board meeting.

He added, “I believe the general counsel has done her due diligence. Read the rest of this entry »