I am an Oakland Unified Teacher Substitute. I am opposed to closing Oakland community schools because closing schools places an enormous burden on the students and their families. Many families can walk to the neighborhood school and frequently other family members attend the same school or graduated from that school. The local school is a neighborhood institution that helps to bring the community together and provides a safe environment for the students. The students remain together from Transitional Kindergarten through high school and develop lasting and trusting relationships with peers. This environment fosters self confidence and community spirit which enables the student to thrive and the neighborhood to nurture other generations of children.
As an OUSD parent and teacher, I strongly oppose school closures. The ongoing pandemic has disrupted our children’s education, as well as their sense of safety and community. We cannot afford more disruptions as parents and teachers have worked SO hard this year to provide stability amidst the chaos. Schools closures harm OUSD’s most vulnerable students — their well-being should be our highest priority.
I have been teaching at Community Day High School for 6 years. It’s the only school in the district in which I have worked. I have seen this school change the trajectory of a person’s life. Small class sizes and trauma informed teaching practices have assisted me and my colleagues in pulling children from the prison pipeline—and we have developed pedagogical practices that have helped us fill in the multitudinous learning gaps students with trauma come to our school with. We offer a plethora of services that help us in healing the whole child.
Other alternative schools on the list to be closed also offer services and pathways that have saved lives and given children direction in being agents for their futures. You cannot close these sites. We are making strides in saving lives.
I strongly oppose school closures by OUSD (I say this as a parent of 3 children in elementary school in the District and as a pediatrician in the community).
We know that neighborhood schools and schools that are accessible for families are critical to ensure enrollment and equitable access to learning which our children deserve. Our Oakland families and children are recovering after a traumatic 2 years in the pandemic and in education and many have already left our school district.
Pressure needs to be put on the State to forgive the loan to OUSD rather than cutting valuable schools/resources. There is much debate about the cost-savings of cutting/consolidating schools and work needs to be done to FUND and support our schools rather than to close them.
I oppose school closures during this current pandemic. Our staff, teachers, and mostly our students love Horace Mann. This is our home. Our kids are moving up! Our 2nd graders made tremendous progress last year in i-Ready reading. We have an amazing leader who has only just begun to dig in despite every challenge imaginable. We never stop working for our kids. You won’t find another group of people who care more about these kids and one another.
Please do not close schools, especially Grass Valley, during this pandemic because it is really a thriving institution that supports children of all ethnicities, academic skill levels, has many K-5 special education classes, a great afterschool program, tremendous support staff, good COVID safety management, magnificent area in the Oakland hills with parents who actively support this school's success (academic, emotional, and social development) at a distance, and so much potential to enhance everyone's educational experience. Please consider promises made to support schools using reparations for Black students, George Floyd bill, and your previous committee NOT to close schools this year.
Brookfield Elementary is accessible to the youth in the community. It’s not only a public school as you may look at it. It is a community. A lot has been put into this school for years. With grants and funding from the NBA (which OUSD had no problem bragging about) Brookfield has always been the school of the community. Why are you choosing to make things difficult for families in the community who has access to a neighborhood school? The children has been through enough these past two years when will adults stop making decisions that does more harm than good? These children do not deserve anymore disruption in their education. Keep Brookfield Open !!
The staff at Fruitvale Elementary deserves answers regarding the plan for our school. Our involvement with the Blueprint process before the pandemic did not result in any support or improvement. Morale is low. The district will need to work to rebuild trust here.
Please DO NOT close Westlake School!! It would be a DISASTROUS MISTAKE.
Please find a way to keep Westlake open. Do whatever is necessary to make this happen.
My son is a 6th grader at Westlake. He just transferred from another school, and he loves it. His teachers are fantastic and he's already making a lot of friends.
Oakland's children are counting on you to save their schools! Please, please find a way to make it happen.
School closures are not the answer to mismanagement of District funds. You closed my school in 2012 along with 4 others, resulting in chaos. I’m adamantly opposed to closing more schools. It’s a pandemic, what kind of sense does that make?
I am a D1 teacher and a D2 voter who is adamantly opposed to any school closures, especially closures that target Black and brown students.
We have had enough of this district treating students, families and educators like we are all dispensable, like our schools are just walls and desks— not thriving communities that are the heart of our neighborhoods.
We know closing schools doesn’t save the district money, we know these school closures disproportionately affect students of color and we know these closures continue to erode and trust in OUSD as an institution. Stop closing our schools and start investing in our students.
I am one of many supporters of the Reparations for Black Students Campaign. OUSD has a history of targeting majority Black schools for closure. Over the last two decades OUSD has closed 16 schools, yet these closures did little to improve the achievement gap of marginalized students. OUSD has seen a massive enrollment decline in Black Students and has done nothing to rectify anti-Black racist policies and structures. This district's failure to adequately resource schools will not be resolved by school closures. Protect majority black schools , conduct the racial equity impact analysis this district conveniently exempted itself from. Stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of Black students!
I wanted to write to express my gratitude to all teachers, school staff, school board members and district staff. Last night I had a chance to listen to Montera Teachers and it's clear that many are tired and stretched and that lack of resources are wearing on them. This is a hard time to be a teacher across the country, no matter how much safety measures are put in place, it's a hard time to be a school board member who has to make hard decisions. It's hard all around. Thank you to everyone who is trying so hard to do the right thing for the kids, whether I agree with you or not. I hope everyone can think about whether what they are fighting for and the way they are fighting for it is truly serving the community.
I am saddened to see so many school facilities on the list to close, especially Brookfield Elementary. Brookfield is located in a perfect central location to serve the needs of students on both sides of the ramp. Closing Brookfield will put a burden on parents in the area. As a former student I have seen firsthand the dedication and pride the community has in the area. We have to think of what's best for the students and the faculty at Brookfield has proven that they are all in on the children there. Please save Brookfield!!!!
My name is Annie Strugatsky and I am a teacher at New Highland and a resident of District 1. I strongly oppose school closures. When we close neighborhood schools, we send a message to families and students that we are not willing to invest in the public education of our students, specifically students of color, as most of the schools on the potential list serve majority Black and Brown students. Neighborhood schools are important to community and to encourage the continued growth and achievement of students in OUSD. We should keep education accessible and safe and keep students at the forefront of our decisions. When we close schools, we do the opposite of "students first."
Hello! My name is Whitney Blackmon. It hurts tremendously to know Brookfield elementary is on the list to close. My entire family has been through Brookfield elementary including my Grandfather Overseer of Northern California Clarence Blackmon. Brookfield is a staple, a foundation of many lives in the community. Taking this school away means taking the foundation from the next generation. It truly hurts. Please save Brookfield elementary!!
As an Oakland teacher at an East Oakland middle school, I am outraged that OUSD is contemplating closing public schools. Yes, we are in a health crisis and we are fighting for safe schools. We will not accept any school closures or co-locations. This is the time to ensure the community that public education is safe and secure. Any support for school closures will seriously jeopardize the safety of our students.
As a teacher at Brookfield for 25 years, I was disappointed to see our school on "the list" again. It is very disheartening to see the board supporting a massive amount of closures for THIS YEAR! In the middle of a pandemic. Where are all these kids supposed to go?? Just this past spring, Brookfield Elementary secured its own funding from the NBA ($100K) to build our very own STEAM Lab for our community. Now, OUSD wants to shut that down, and possibly keep all the TECH, supplies, furniture, etc that we secured for the Brookfield community! It is hard to believe we are going to shut that down after one year?!?! What kind of message does that send to the NBA for future partnerships?!?!
That is why it was so deflating to see Brookfield come up on the list for immediate closures. I was extremely disappointed and shocked. Therefore, I am reaching out to please ask you to reconsider this decision for Brookfield School, which will have adverse effects on the entire Brookfield community.
I am an Oakland Unified Teacher Substitute. I am opposed to closing Oakland community schools because closing schools places an enormous burden on the students and their families. Many families can walk to the neighborhood school and frequently other family members attend the same school or graduated from that school. The local school is a neighborhood institution that helps to bring the community together and provides a safe environment for the students. The students remain together from Transitional Kindergarten through high school and develop lasting and trusting relationships with peers. This environment fosters self confidence and community spirit which enables the student to thrive and the neighborhood to nurture other generations of children.
As an OUSD parent and teacher, I strongly oppose school closures. The ongoing pandemic has disrupted our children’s education, as well as their sense of safety and community. We cannot afford more disruptions as parents and teachers have worked SO hard this year to provide stability amidst the chaos. Schools closures harm OUSD’s most vulnerable students — their well-being should be our highest priority.
I have been teaching at Community Day High School for 6 years. It’s the only school in the district in which I have worked. I have seen this school change the trajectory of a person’s life. Small class sizes and trauma informed teaching practices have assisted me and my colleagues in pulling children from the prison pipeline—and we have developed pedagogical practices that have helped us fill in the multitudinous learning gaps students with trauma come to our school with. We offer a plethora of services that help us in healing the whole child.
Other alternative schools on the list to be closed also offer services and pathways that have saved lives and given children direction in being agents for their futures. You cannot close these sites. We are making strides in saving lives.
I strongly oppose school closures by OUSD (I say this as a parent of 3 children in elementary school in the District and as a pediatrician in the community).
We know that neighborhood schools and schools that are accessible for families are critical to ensure enrollment and equitable access to learning which our children deserve. Our Oakland families and children are recovering after a traumatic 2 years in the pandemic and in education and many have already left our school district.
Pressure needs to be put on the State to forgive the loan to OUSD rather than cutting valuable schools/resources. There is much debate about the cost-savings of cutting/consolidating schools and work needs to be done to FUND and support our schools rather than to close them.
I oppose school closures during this current pandemic. Our staff, teachers, and mostly our students love Horace Mann. This is our home. Our kids are moving up! Our 2nd graders made tremendous progress last year in i-Ready reading. We have an amazing leader who has only just begun to dig in despite every challenge imaginable. We never stop working for our kids. You won’t find another group of people who care more about these kids and one another.
Please do not close schools, especially Grass Valley, during this pandemic because it is really a thriving institution that supports children of all ethnicities, academic skill levels, has many K-5 special education classes, a great afterschool program, tremendous support staff, good COVID safety management, magnificent area in the Oakland hills with parents who actively support this school's success (academic, emotional, and social development) at a distance, and so much potential to enhance everyone's educational experience. Please consider promises made to support schools using reparations for Black students, George Floyd bill, and your previous committee NOT to close schools this year.
Brookfield Elementary is accessible to the youth in the community. It’s not only a public school as you may look at it. It is a community. A lot has been put into this school for years. With grants and funding from the NBA (which OUSD had no problem bragging about) Brookfield has always been the school of the community. Why are you choosing to make things difficult for families in the community who has access to a neighborhood school? The children has been through enough these past two years when will adults stop making decisions that does more harm than good? These children do not deserve anymore disruption in their education. Keep Brookfield Open !!
The staff at Fruitvale Elementary deserves answers regarding the plan for our school. Our involvement with the Blueprint process before the pandemic did not result in any support or improvement. Morale is low. The district will need to work to rebuild trust here.
If we would ever try investing in our Black and brown schools instead of setting them up to fail, maybe their enrollment wouldn’t keep shrinking.
How about you invest in majority black schools instead of shutting them down?
Please DO NOT close Westlake School!! It would be a DISASTROUS MISTAKE.
Please find a way to keep Westlake open. Do whatever is necessary to make this happen.
My son is a 6th grader at Westlake. He just transferred from another school, and he loves it. His teachers are fantastic and he's already making a lot of friends.
Oakland's children are counting on you to save their schools! Please, please find a way to make it happen.
Thank you!
--Tom Wright
School closures are not the answer to mismanagement of District funds. You closed my school in 2012 along with 4 others, resulting in chaos. I’m adamantly opposed to closing more schools. It’s a pandemic, what kind of sense does that make?
I am a D1 teacher and a D2 voter who is adamantly opposed to any school closures, especially closures that target Black and brown students.
We have had enough of this district treating students, families and educators like we are all dispensable, like our schools are just walls and desks— not thriving communities that are the heart of our neighborhoods.
We know closing schools doesn’t save the district money, we know these school closures disproportionately affect students of color and we know these closures continue to erode and trust in OUSD as an institution. Stop closing our schools and start investing in our students.
I am one of many supporters of the Reparations for Black Students Campaign. OUSD has a history of targeting majority Black schools for closure. Over the last two decades OUSD has closed 16 schools, yet these closures did little to improve the achievement gap of marginalized students. OUSD has seen a massive enrollment decline in Black Students and has done nothing to rectify anti-Black racist policies and structures. This district's failure to adequately resource schools will not be resolved by school closures. Protect majority black schools , conduct the racial equity impact analysis this district conveniently exempted itself from. Stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of Black students!
I wanted to write to express my gratitude to all teachers, school staff, school board members and district staff. Last night I had a chance to listen to Montera Teachers and it's clear that many are tired and stretched and that lack of resources are wearing on them. This is a hard time to be a teacher across the country, no matter how much safety measures are put in place, it's a hard time to be a school board member who has to make hard decisions. It's hard all around. Thank you to everyone who is trying so hard to do the right thing for the kids, whether I agree with you or not. I hope everyone can think about whether what they are fighting for and the way they are fighting for it is truly serving the community.
I am saddened to see so many school facilities on the list to close, especially Brookfield Elementary. Brookfield is located in a perfect central location to serve the needs of students on both sides of the ramp. Closing Brookfield will put a burden on parents in the area. As a former student I have seen firsthand the dedication and pride the community has in the area. We have to think of what's best for the students and the faculty at Brookfield has proven that they are all in on the children there. Please save Brookfield!!!!
My name is Annie Strugatsky and I am a teacher at New Highland and a resident of District 1. I strongly oppose school closures. When we close neighborhood schools, we send a message to families and students that we are not willing to invest in the public education of our students, specifically students of color, as most of the schools on the potential list serve majority Black and Brown students. Neighborhood schools are important to community and to encourage the continued growth and achievement of students in OUSD. We should keep education accessible and safe and keep students at the forefront of our decisions. When we close schools, we do the opposite of "students first."
Hello! My name is Whitney Blackmon. It hurts tremendously to know Brookfield elementary is on the list to close. My entire family has been through Brookfield elementary including my Grandfather Overseer of Northern California Clarence Blackmon. Brookfield is a staple, a foundation of many lives in the community. Taking this school away means taking the foundation from the next generation. It truly hurts. Please save Brookfield elementary!!
As an Oakland teacher at an East Oakland middle school, I am outraged that OUSD is contemplating closing public schools. Yes, we are in a health crisis and we are fighting for safe schools. We will not accept any school closures or co-locations. This is the time to ensure the community that public education is safe and secure. Any support for school closures will seriously jeopardize the safety of our students.
As a teacher at Brookfield for 25 years, I was disappointed to see our school on "the list" again. It is very disheartening to see the board supporting a massive amount of closures for THIS YEAR! In the middle of a pandemic. Where are all these kids supposed to go?? Just this past spring, Brookfield Elementary secured its own funding from the NBA ($100K) to build our very own STEAM Lab for our community. Now, OUSD wants to shut that down, and possibly keep all the TECH, supplies, furniture, etc that we secured for the Brookfield community! It is hard to believe we are going to shut that down after one year?!?! What kind of message does that send to the NBA for future partnerships?!?!
That is why it was so deflating to see Brookfield come up on the list for immediate closures. I was extremely disappointed and shocked. Therefore, I am reaching out to please ask you to reconsider this decision for Brookfield School, which will have adverse effects on the entire Brookfield community.