22-0243 Adoption by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 2122-0030 - School Consolidations for Fiscal Years 2022-23 and 2023-24.
· Presentation by the Superintendent of Schools of recommendations for School Consolidations for Fiscal Years 2022-23 and 2023-24
· Public Comments on proposed School Consolidations
· Discussion of the Board by and between Members and/or the Superintendent of Schools and/or designee(s)
· Action by Board on Resolution No. 2122-0030
Vote No- The board and district have not provided a burden of proof that there proposal will have any type of savings. a delta of $2M- $16M in savings is laughable- at the low end, affecting 12% of the district will still take 45 years to pay back our debt, and not accounting any REAL data for attrition, which I assure you will be much higher than 10%. This is a vicious cycle that continues to close more schools every 2 years. Additionally, this is NOT a trauma informed decision, Low-income students of color and low-income students are disproportionately impacted in this list and are the most impacted by the continued instability caused by the pandemic.
The Board adopted a policy that requires an Equity Impact Analysis to be completed prior to closing schools. This analysis has not been completed. This timeline is unrealistic for any kind of strategic or thoughtful planning and grossly lacks time for meaningful engagement with these communities.
Please do not close our schools, this is not right. These are our neighborhood school. Some of us parents can’t drive and closing our neighborhood school will affect that a lot. This is our home and community. It’s a place for our children to get their education and be successful in the future. Please don’t take their future away from them.
We really need manzanita Community School because it's a school with a good reputation and teachers are a working hard individuals with big heart and passion toward teaching their students to make them succeed in life
I implore the board to listen to your constituency. We elected you to realize our will and vision. And we are vehemently opposed to school closures particularly when those closures continually target Black and Brown populations. THIS IS MADNESS! And infuriating. Do not do it. You have 2 teachers who are willing to die for our students. That should tell you all you need to know. Do not risk the lives of our instructors over what amounts to an abysmal amount of savings. You must not do this terribly racist thing. And make no mistake, this is an act of institutionalized racism and if you vote in favor YOU ARE RACIST - period, full stop. No way around that. So... if you do not consider yourself racist, don't vote like one. As others have pointed out. You will find yourself on the wrong side of history. White supremacy as a governing mindset is ending. It is time for reparations for the Black and Brown folks of the world and here in America and here in Oakland. BE SURE YOU VOTE NO!
Please, vote no on school closures. You're not only hurting your black and brown residents/students/community, your hurting your staff members and teachers! Closures will not save you money and you know this! Don't displace students and "merge" them with other schools. This will be doing more harm than good.
I urge you to vote no on the proposal for school closures and consolidations because the proposed closures disproportionately impact Black and Brown students in poorer neighborhoods. The proposed closures would especially impact Black students, who comprise roughly 22% of OUSD students but 43% of the students at the 8 schools targeted for closure. Half of the schools at risk of closure have the highest percentage of Black student enrollment in the district, according to the Oaklandside (2/3/22).
I attended last Monday's meeting (1/31/22) and listened to the District's presentation. I was not convinced that these closures are necessary or good for OUSD students. The range of possible savings estimated by the consultants (~$4M - ~$14M) constitutes between about 0.5% and 2% of the district budget. The estimated range is staggeringly wide. And I don't believe these savings are worth the pain and hardship that will come to students and families. Please vote NO. Thank you.
I urge the Board to vote no on this proposal given the extremely fast timeline and disproportionate impact on Black students, low-income students, and students with special needs. The district must follow-through on its prior commitment to complete an Equity Impact Analysis before making a plan to close schools.
I urge the Board to pause in order to accurately complete an Equity Impact Analysis and make adjustments based on those findings. Also, take the proper time to engage the impacted students and communities in the planning process to ensure needs will be met. Finally, it is not clear that OUSD has adequately considered alternatives to closures. Nationwide studies have shown school closures do not save money nor do they improve outcomes for impacted students.
Please pause these inequitable and negligent closures that lack a proper timeline. Thank you.
School closures are a thinly veiled act of racist gentrification. The board should explore every other possible solution to remediate the criminal mismanagement of funds that has taken place at the district level for decades. Stop balancing the budget on the backs of our most vulnerable students! NO SCHOOL CLOSURES.
I'm an Oakland resident and I urge you to vote no on the school closures. I'm opposed to OUSD’s attempt to balance the budget on the backs of our Black students. This board has failed to engage the community on the decision to close school, nor have you conducted a necessary equity impact analysis. There are other ways to handle a budget crisis beyond harming students. OUSD’s own history of school closures is a clear indicator that closing schools will not produce the desired district savings. I grew up attending schools in my neighborhood, which allowed me to feel connected to my community and grow with mentorship from my neighbors. The pandemic has been traumatic for students and families, and forcing schools to close will add another unneeded stressor and disruption to students. I urge you to keep the schools open so that students and families can continue to receive support and our communities can thrive by having strong public schools!
I am an OUSD educator, Dewey Academy to be specific and I strongly OPPOSE the closing of our schools. History of school closure provide evidence that it is not saving money like OUSD says, but is causing more expanses and harm to many many communities. Closing Alt Ed schools like Dewey and Bunche is also causing harm, because students who come to our schools NEED the extra support and small classroom sizes. They thrive here. Isn't that what OUSD is marketing with? EVERY STUDENT THRIVES?! Then you have to take those into consideration that do not thrive in large classroom environments and those communities that can't THRIVE when the schools in their neighborhood is closed.
I am a retired teacher/administrator, community activist, and would like to talk to you about joining the hunger strike, putting my body on that line. Bob
I oppose the hasty, short-sided, and inequitable proposal to close and/or merge so many schools so quickly. The list disproportionately impacts low-income students of color and students with differing needs, includes an unrealistic timeline for community engagement and proper planning, and negligently lacks an Equity Impact Analysis. And all of this during a pandemic when families have already been under a tremendous amount of stress.
I urge the Board to pause in order to accurately complete an Equity Impact Analysis and make adjustments based on those findings. Also, take the proper time to engage the impacted students and communities in the planning process to ensure needs will be met. Finally, it is not clear that OUSD has adequately considered alternatives to closures. Nationwide studies have shown school closures do not save money nor do they improve outcomes for impacted students.
Please pause these inequitable and negligent closures that lack a proper timeline.
It is unfathomable to close schools that serve primarily black and brown students, exacerbating the existing inequities in the district. Do you want to be known as the school board that made it much more difficult for students below 580 to get to school?
I am an Oakland resident. I oppose closing schools. The proposed school closures disproportionately affect the kids most in need, students of color and those living in poverty. These students should be able to attend schools in their neighborhoods and communities.
I am an OUSD parent and I am writing to urge you to vote no on Tuesday's proposal to close and merge schools. I know that it feels like voting for the closures is the hard decision, but from my perspective it feels like the easy option to look at a list of schools with low enrollment and low test scores and close them. Doing the hard thing would be to dig in and figure out what we, as a district, can do to best serve the students at these schools.
Closing these schools is an abdication of our moral and social duty to provide all students of Oakland with a public education. With these school sites closed students will be forced to leave their communities, possibly commuting significant distances to attend school. Looking at the demographics of these schools along with the map of Oakland is an echo of redlining. OUSD cannot allow students of color at schools that serve a disproportionate number of children living in poverty to shoulder the burden of the district's financial woes.
Vote No- The board and district have not provided a burden of proof that there proposal will have any type of savings. a delta of $2M- $16M in savings is laughable- at the low end, affecting 12% of the district will still take 45 years to pay back our debt, and not accounting any REAL data for attrition, which I assure you will be much higher than 10%. This is a vicious cycle that continues to close more schools every 2 years. Additionally, this is NOT a trauma informed decision, Low-income students of color and low-income students are disproportionately impacted in this list and are the most impacted by the continued instability caused by the pandemic.
The Board adopted a policy that requires an Equity Impact Analysis to be completed prior to closing schools. This analysis has not been completed. This timeline is unrealistic for any kind of strategic or thoughtful planning and grossly lacks time for meaningful engagement with these communities.
Please do not close our schools, this is not right. These are our neighborhood school. Some of us parents can’t drive and closing our neighborhood school will affect that a lot. This is our home and community. It’s a place for our children to get their education and be successful in the future. Please don’t take their future away from them.
We really need manzanita Community School because it's a school with a good reputation and teachers are a working hard individuals with big heart and passion toward teaching their students to make them succeed in life
I implore the board to listen to your constituency. We elected you to realize our will and vision. And we are vehemently opposed to school closures particularly when those closures continually target Black and Brown populations. THIS IS MADNESS! And infuriating. Do not do it. You have 2 teachers who are willing to die for our students. That should tell you all you need to know. Do not risk the lives of our instructors over what amounts to an abysmal amount of savings. You must not do this terribly racist thing. And make no mistake, this is an act of institutionalized racism and if you vote in favor YOU ARE RACIST - period, full stop. No way around that. So... if you do not consider yourself racist, don't vote like one. As others have pointed out. You will find yourself on the wrong side of history. White supremacy as a governing mindset is ending. It is time for reparations for the Black and Brown folks of the world and here in America and here in Oakland. BE SURE YOU VOTE NO!
Please, vote no on school closures. You're not only hurting your black and brown residents/students/community, your hurting your staff members and teachers! Closures will not save you money and you know this! Don't displace students and "merge" them with other schools. This will be doing more harm than good.
I urge you to vote no on the proposal for school closures and consolidations because the proposed closures disproportionately impact Black and Brown students in poorer neighborhoods. The proposed closures would especially impact Black students, who comprise roughly 22% of OUSD students but 43% of the students at the 8 schools targeted for closure. Half of the schools at risk of closure have the highest percentage of Black student enrollment in the district, according to the Oaklandside (2/3/22).
I attended last Monday's meeting (1/31/22) and listened to the District's presentation. I was not convinced that these closures are necessary or good for OUSD students. The range of possible savings estimated by the consultants (~$4M - ~$14M) constitutes between about 0.5% and 2% of the district budget. The estimated range is staggeringly wide. And I don't believe these savings are worth the pain and hardship that will come to students and families. Please vote NO. Thank you.
I urge the Board to vote no on this proposal given the extremely fast timeline and disproportionate impact on Black students, low-income students, and students with special needs. The district must follow-through on its prior commitment to complete an Equity Impact Analysis before making a plan to close schools.
I urge the Board to pause in order to accurately complete an Equity Impact Analysis and make adjustments based on those findings. Also, take the proper time to engage the impacted students and communities in the planning process to ensure needs will be met. Finally, it is not clear that OUSD has adequately considered alternatives to closures. Nationwide studies have shown school closures do not save money nor do they improve outcomes for impacted students.
Please pause these inequitable and negligent closures that lack a proper timeline. Thank you.
Strongly oppose closing 1/4 of Oakland public schools! 100+ million spent on outside consultants, start cutting from there!
School closures are a thinly veiled act of racist gentrification. The board should explore every other possible solution to remediate the criminal mismanagement of funds that has taken place at the district level for decades. Stop balancing the budget on the backs of our most vulnerable students! NO SCHOOL CLOSURES.
I'm an Oakland resident and I urge you to vote no on the school closures. I'm opposed to OUSD’s attempt to balance the budget on the backs of our Black students. This board has failed to engage the community on the decision to close school, nor have you conducted a necessary equity impact analysis. There are other ways to handle a budget crisis beyond harming students. OUSD’s own history of school closures is a clear indicator that closing schools will not produce the desired district savings. I grew up attending schools in my neighborhood, which allowed me to feel connected to my community and grow with mentorship from my neighbors. The pandemic has been traumatic for students and families, and forcing schools to close will add another unneeded stressor and disruption to students. I urge you to keep the schools open so that students and families can continue to receive support and our communities can thrive by having strong public schools!
I am against school closure
I am an OUSD educator, Dewey Academy to be specific and I strongly OPPOSE the closing of our schools. History of school closure provide evidence that it is not saving money like OUSD says, but is causing more expanses and harm to many many communities. Closing Alt Ed schools like Dewey and Bunche is also causing harm, because students who come to our schools NEED the extra support and small classroom sizes. They thrive here. Isn't that what OUSD is marketing with? EVERY STUDENT THRIVES?! Then you have to take those into consideration that do not thrive in large classroom environments and those communities that can't THRIVE when the schools in their neighborhood is closed.
Don’t close schools!
I am a retired teacher/administrator, community activist, and would like to talk to you about joining the hunger strike, putting my body on that line. Bob
No school closures!
Do not close the schools.
I oppose the hasty, short-sided, and inequitable proposal to close and/or merge so many schools so quickly. The list disproportionately impacts low-income students of color and students with differing needs, includes an unrealistic timeline for community engagement and proper planning, and negligently lacks an Equity Impact Analysis. And all of this during a pandemic when families have already been under a tremendous amount of stress.
I urge the Board to pause in order to accurately complete an Equity Impact Analysis and make adjustments based on those findings. Also, take the proper time to engage the impacted students and communities in the planning process to ensure needs will be met. Finally, it is not clear that OUSD has adequately considered alternatives to closures. Nationwide studies have shown school closures do not save money nor do they improve outcomes for impacted students.
Please pause these inequitable and negligent closures that lack a proper timeline.
It is unfathomable to close schools that serve primarily black and brown students, exacerbating the existing inequities in the district. Do you want to be known as the school board that made it much more difficult for students below 580 to get to school?
I am an Oakland resident. I oppose closing schools. The proposed school closures disproportionately affect the kids most in need, students of color and those living in poverty. These students should be able to attend schools in their neighborhoods and communities.
I am an OUSD parent and I am writing to urge you to vote no on Tuesday's proposal to close and merge schools. I know that it feels like voting for the closures is the hard decision, but from my perspective it feels like the easy option to look at a list of schools with low enrollment and low test scores and close them. Doing the hard thing would be to dig in and figure out what we, as a district, can do to best serve the students at these schools.
Closing these schools is an abdication of our moral and social duty to provide all students of Oakland with a public education. With these school sites closed students will be forced to leave their communities, possibly commuting significant distances to attend school. Looking at the demographics of these schools along with the map of Oakland is an echo of redlining. OUSD cannot allow students of color at schools that serve a disproportionate number of children living in poverty to shoulder the burden of the district's financial woes.