I am a teacher at Roosevelt Middle School and a former OUSD student. I love this district and plan to stay in it throughout my teaching career and that is why I ask you not to harm our district by closing more schools. Closing schools traumatizes the students, teachers, and families at the site but it also hurts the larger community as a whole. Please do not hurt us and our communities. 2% of the budget is not enough to balance the human cost of these closures.

Separate is not equal, we can not look at "low enrollment" amid rising income inequality, a pandemic that has hit black and brown families harder than white families and white flight emptying campuses and then make these already disproportionately impacted communities and make them suffer further. When the community is struggling are we really gunna just pull the plug? We dont want education to take the hit and students and families to feel the pain when its shady loans and policy and a pandemic to blame. Not just birthrates. What are the obstacles to getting youth to school? How does white flight and mobility exacerbate our school investment and enrollment concerns? How does consolidating a continuation high school and schools with newcomer students and unaccompanied minors magnify the suffering of Oaklands most vulnerable youth? WE WANT TO SPEND ON EDUCATION AND OUR YOUTH. Who will tomorrows leaders be if only the hills have quality access to education?

I am a teacher in training, interested in teaching in Oakland, where I live. In my experience in OUSD so far, I’ve seen the detrimental impacts of a recent school merger at my site. Students and school culture have suffered because of the destabilization it’s caused. I want to teach in a district that values education and that walks the walk of providing education and all the other important services a community school provides to all students - especially Black students. To pass this plan on such a short timeline with limited opportunity for community weigh in would make it hard for me to believe that the district is interested in living up to your stated values.

I am an Oakland resident and UC Berkeley graduate who opposes Oakland public school closures. Recent history has shown that school closures do not help students, and in fact hurt them. When similar school closures in Chicago happened in 2013, test scores did not improve. Students impacted by this closure will have to spend extra money to attend schools farther away, and be displaced from their communities as they will be spending most of their days outside of their own communities.

This board voted to extend the lease at 1000 Broadway for another year costing the district an additional 2.5 million dollars. There is no reason for OUSD to be renting property when there are literally several vacant properties that can be used as office space. 1000 broadway has been severely underutilized especially during the pandemic and has cost the district over 20 million dollars since negotiating the lease back in 2014. Utilize available space, and support Oakland students and families of color!

I am an OUSD parent. This decision will result in air quality and greenhouse gas impacts from increased vehicle miles traveled by parents driving further that haven't been analyzed as required by CEQA. The PRC Section PRC § 21080.18 CEQA exemption only applies to closure of a single school, and only if the physical changes are categorically exempt under Chapter 3 of the CEQA Guidelines. The claimed exemption on its face does not apply to a decision to close over a dozen public schools. OUSD’s proposal also is not categorically exempt under Chapter 3, as the number of schools and the substantial increase in vehicle miles traveled will result in significant cumulative impacts and present a reasonable possibility of a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances under CEQA Guidelines Section 15300.2(b) and (b). For this reason, the decision to close schools, which should not go forward anyway, is legally prohibited until CEQA analysis is done.

Please find a better way to educate our students and keep funding in our community. Do not take funds away from our students and make them travel away from their schools. Allow them to attend their schools and finish out their school year. Bring quality education back to their neighborhood schools and bring up the quality of their education. Please do more to keep the current schools running to avoid the closures. There are students to populate the schools. Please even use vacant space not currently used by OUSD to make up budget deficits. As a child of OUSD and a parent of a child who has benefited OUSD, I believe that we can do better than this and we can be better than this. OUSD hash had ups and downs a many school districts but it always manages to pull through because its goal is to uplift and educate the community. Thank you.

As an OUSD educator and Oakland community member, I oppose the cuts and closures to these historically Black schools. We cannot balance budgets on the backs of our children.

I am the parent of two OUSD students and I am asking the board to take more time to consider this absolutely drastic action. A few weeks is not enough time to adequately consider a mass school closure plan. The school district did not conduct an equity analysis of its proposal as is required. Besides that the elephant in the room is this -- where is the evidence that closing these schools will help OUSD's budget problems? I have seen no evidence. Where is the evidence that past OUSD school closures have helped the budget? I have seen no evidence. What other budget cutting options are there? I have seen no information about this. There is a lack of transparency and trust in the district from parents because of how the board is handling this and has handled past school closures. My daughter had to live through her school Kaiser being closed and that was a 6-7 month process. Here we go again, but this time it's a two-week process involving many more schools.

Our community needs more investment in public schools, not gutting them to the benefit of private charters. Shame on the state crisis managers who orchestrated this.

We are 100% opposed to school closures at this time. This decision is rushed, it's inequitable, and other avenues to reducing expenses have not been adequately explored. The timing is terrible to be considering this. Students have suffered enough! There are other more effective ways to impact budget, and OUSD knows it. I hope Board members like Sam Davis will OPPOSE this poorly thought out plan.

It is not financially possible to keep 80 OUSD schools open to serve 34k kids when other similar size districts such as San Jose serves 30k with 41 schools, Stockton serves 35k with 48 schools, Fremont serves 34k with 42 schools. 6 of the OUSD schools listed for closure are ranked in the bottom 75 elem schools in CA! As an accountant and parent, I believe it would be financially irresponsible not to consolidate. Consolidating schools will improve outcome for all students.

I say no to school closures because OUSD claims to be losing money but for every child who goes to a charter school, OUSD will lose thousands of dollars. If the schools close down, perhaps the closest school that the family will find is a charter school, since charter schools are starting to appear all around OUSD schools. Another thing I notice is that in most of the schools that are up for closure, the majority of kids who go there are students of color. The schools are also located in the flat lands. According to data many kids in the flat lands come from a low-income family so perhaps instead of closing down their schools, OUSD should check where they are spending their money and re-think twice to see if it's actually necessary. Why close all these high schools, middle schools, and elementry schools? Clearly this is not because of money; I just see racism in all of this.

Kids are going to suffer if this happens. Improve education and our educational institutions for our kids instead of taking things away from them.

Hi. I'm an OUSD student and I say No to school closures because the majority of students that get displaced are considered Black and Latinx. Also, I say no because it is quite unfair that schools that are closing are from the flat lands and not from the Oakland hills. I say No because it's actually going to affect students in a traumatic way. For example, they are going through a rough time due to this pandemic and closing schools is going to cause more issues for them. Also the idea of closing schools is the most racist thing I have ever heard of. Why not close a school where a majority of people are WHITE and not from a Latinx and Black background?

I am a D4 resident, OUSD parent, and supporter of the Reparations for Black Students Resolution. I believe OUSD can explore other real estate strategies besides school closures. I worked for the City of Oakland for over 7 years helping non-profits to identify spaces to rent. Many of these organizations served Oakland youth and specifically requested to rent space from OUSD at a school building, but this was rarely an available option. Arts, culture, computer science and social support programs all pay rent on Oakland's office market because school space isn't an option. OUSD's real estate strategy should be to fill its buildings with community services, clinics, job training and housing support for parents. The OUSD administration, ED fund, Oakland Promise, and other organizations that serve students should pay their rent to our Oakland schools instead of private companies. Oakland youth should get to see all the people who are working for them, in their community, at their school.

I am an OUSD parent, community partner and volunteer and I oppose the proposed school closures and consolidations. This will not be good for our kids or for Oakland communities.

I am an OUSD parent, community partner and volunteer and I oppose the proposed school closures and consolidations. This will not be good for our kids or for Oakland communities.

I am vehemently opposed to the closure or consolidation of any school in Oakland. This plan was put in place with no consideration of our school communities. This affects everyone including families, students, teachers, and staff. Please listen to the communities you serve and vote NO on this resolution. This is the result of racist policies and will affect our black and brown students in Oakland. Know that Oakland is watching, surrounding communities are watching, the world is watching the decision you make here today. Vote NO to closures.

Please vote to oppose school closures that children will suffer the consequences of.

I am OPPOSED to the closure of the schools.