Meeting Time: June 23, 2021 at 4:00pm PDT
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Agenda Item

M.-1 21-1686 Presentation to, and a discussion with, the Board of Education by the Superintendent of Schools, or designee, of a Report (Update) on Implementation of Resolution No 2021-0128 - Advancing District's Citywide [Redesign of Quality Schools] Plan Work.

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    Maria DeLaRosa over 3 years ago

    I feel closing schools disproportionately and negatively impacts our Black and Latino students. Please don't close or consolidate schools.

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    Emily BronstonJoseph over 3 years ago

    Please exempt majority Black schools from the BluePrint process. OUSD cannot purport to be anti-racist or pro-equity and then close these schools. Invest in Black students and communities!

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    Melissa Korber over 3 years ago

    I strongly oppose the district’s efforts to close additional schools. Closing schools does not save money, and it causes great trauma to students, families, teachers, and staff.

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    Jason Wins over 3 years ago

    No school closures, mergers and colocations!

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    Ruth Arestides over 3 years ago

    The School Board and Superintendent need to work with the Black Student and Families Thriving Task Force "to develop an equity impact analysis of any proposed closures, mergers or consolidations of OUSD schools, prior to any vote on school changes pursuant to the Blueprint for Quality Schools." This approach was agreed to when Reparations for Black Students Resolution was approved. How can the School Board and Superintendent expect families to work together with them on school district improvements when families can have no faith that the School Board is being honest about their agenda? We should all be on the same side in working to improve the experiences of students enrolled in OUSD schools, but the School Board makes it very difficult to be constructive when they so often disregard the concerns of families and students.

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    Elizabeth Calmeyer over 3 years ago

    I am an OUSD parent at Manzanita SEED and I am opposed to this resolution. Please listen to the voices of Black students, teachers, parents and community members and fully fund, rather than close, our community’s public schools.

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    Audrey Darnis over 3 years ago

    I am an OUSD teacher at Manzanita Community, and I oppose this motion. You agreed to support Reparations for Black Students. How can you all, in good faith, continue to close and consolidate schools, when this is extremely harmful to students? The resolution you adopted states that the "Board agrees to identify and invest in Historically Black Schools, defined as an OUSD school with 40% or more of African American students enrolled in 2020-21 and transform them into Black Thriving Community Schools, with available wrap-around services and supports needed to achieve the thriving indicators developed by the Task Force to ensure that Black Students thrive.” Stop closing schools! Keep our schools OPEN, and invest in them. Listen to the voices of Black students, parents, teachers, and organizers.

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    Gloria Tavera over 3 years ago

    Now is the time for the Board and Superintendent to interrupt the consistent targeting of majority Black schools and causing further harm to Black students.

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    Olivia Udovic over 3 years ago

    I am an OUSD parent (UFSA and Fremont HS) and teacher (Manzanita SEED) and I am opposed to this resolution. Please listen to the voices of Black students, teachers, parents and community members and fully fund, rather than close, our community’s public schools.

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    Kylise Hare over 3 years ago

    Please stop operating in bad faith. You agreed to work with the Reparations Task Force when you passed the Reparations for Black Students Resolution. Closing majority Black schools that you have long underfunded and backing out of any commitments to antiracism is the very definition of systemic racism. Please stay away from schools and students if you can only operate on the principle that you must shortchange Oaklands Black students and the schools they attend to remain financially solvent.

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    Divya Farias over 3 years ago

    The Blueprint has already wreaked deplorable damage on Oakland’s working class students of color. What happened to the Roots students displaced from the Havenscourt campus? How are Lockwood Newcomer students faring as their bilingual program has been further and further neglected? Elmhurst United teachers put in countless hours of their own time to organize the smoothest transition out of their school and make the best of an unfavorable situation...stretching teachers’ time and energy ultimately is an attack on student learning. Call it a merger, expansion, colocation... doesn’t matter, these are ALL SCHOOL CLOSURES. Stop encroaching on our already scarce public resources. Do right by our children and fully resource and fund thriving public not charter programs in every flatlands neighborhood. NO MORE BLUEPRINT!

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    Carrie Anderson over 3 years ago

    I OPPOSE this resolution! Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth, claiming an"equity lens" and promoting "anti-racism" while at the same time continuing to close majority Black schools. You cannot pick and choose the parts of the Reparations resolution you like and wish to implement and ignore those you don’t! This Cohort 3 discussion has come without any input from the Reparations Task Force which is required by the resolution. The Taskforce does not yet exist and this conversation is premature. Stop harming Black children and families! Instead, stand with them by OPPOSING this resolution and working WITH the Black Reparations Task Force.

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    Kim Davis over 3 years ago

    So many problematic aspects of this plan. April 28th you passed a Resolution supporting the social emotional well-being of students with "a relational culture of belonging, racial equity, and student and staff mental wellness starting with a “Restorative Return to School” in the 2021-2022 school year" - yet this report says that Schools targeted for closure or other disruption will begin engagement the second week of school - how is that Restorative? You also committed in the March 24th Reparations for Black Students Resolution to partner with the Task Force to “develop an equity impact analysis of any proposed closures, mergers or consolidations of OUSD schools”. In passing the Reparations Reso OUSD acknowledged that it has harmed Black students with its racist structures and practices, including school closures and consolidations which disproportionately impact Black students. Continuing with the same racist policies is not repairing the harm as promised. You need to stop now.

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    Carolyn Carpenter over 3 years ago

    It is past time for OUSD and every level above them (Dept of Ed, state, federal) to address the racial disparity in our education system. This is a positive start, and needed.

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    Chloe Erskine over 3 years ago

    As a teacher of Black youth, I urge the Superintendent Dr. Trammell Johnson to come back with a plan that does a better job than this one at 1) protecting and nurturing Black majority schools and 2) centering the healing of and investing in the futures of Black students in OUSD. This current plan harms Black majority schools and youth.

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    Alex Webster over 3 years ago

    In passing the Reparations Resolution OUSD has acknowledged that it has harmed Black students with its racist structures and practices, including school closures and consolidations which disproportionately impact Black students. Continuing with the same racist policies is not repairing the harm as promised. I urge the Superintendent to come back with plan that stops causing harm to Black students and majority Black schools.

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    Bethany Meyer over 3 years ago

    I was a member of the Blueprint Advisory Committee and I am opposed to this resolution. I am also a teacher at a Cohort III school. We received no material support to help us boost enrollment during our redesign. I urge you to engage with the community and with the Reparations Task Force before moving forward with a plan that would be harmful to Black students.

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    Sarah Goudy over 3 years ago

    You cannot pick and choose the parts of the Reparations resolution you like and wish to implement and ignore those you don’t! This Cohort 3 discussion has come without any input from the Reparations Task Force which is required by the resolution. The Taskforce does not yet exist and this conversation is premature.

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    Craig Gordon over 3 years ago

    This Citywide Plan continues to use the rhetoric of equity to undermine and close down schools in the most underserved communities. Hands off Prescott!

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    Michael Taylor over 3 years ago

    Please do not advance this resolution. The district has consistently failed to engage the communities potentially effected by these changes. All schools threatened with closure have been underresourced for years; please invest in our schools rather than closing them.