T.-6 22-1630 Adoption by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 2122-0092 - Updating the List of Welcoming Schools, Presenting the Proposed Budget for Welcoming Schools, California Environmental Quality Act Exemption, and Other Matters Related to School Consolidations.
My husband and I oppose this resolution for the reasons given in a letter we emailed to the board members. Our letter should be part of the public record.
Vote NO on this resolution. Closing schools will most certainly have an environmental impact in which displaced students will need to travel away from their neighborhoods to attend school. Additionally, the superintendent should not have sole discretion to determine how $10M in AB 1840 funds is dispersed. Community involvement and oversight is a must.
Please vote no on this resolution. School closures and consolidations are required by California to complete CEQA. I'm appalled that OUSD is attempting to illegally skip this important part of the process while trying to make significant changes to our public schools, city and the communities within it. The purpose of CEQA is to give the organization an opportunity to look at long-term consequences of it's action which is exactly what OUSD needs to do. Please respect the legal process of our state and examine impacts instead of trying to complete a "quick" fix of our budget which will not improve anything with our schools. Mom of two current OUSD students.
This is a bogus resolution that looks to give the Superintendent yet more unchecked power to redraw enrollment boundaries and unilaterally close or consolidate schools. The superintendent should absolutely not have sole discretion over how to spend the $10m in AB 1840 funds - funds that the *departing* LK Monroe made dependent on the Board identifying the closures and consolidations in 2122-0030, which this resolution cynically seeks to re-approve. It is ludicrous to claim that school closures have no environmental impact and thus are exempt from CEQA requirements. School closures serve to compound decades of divestment from Black and Brown neighborhoods, including the cumulative effects of environmental racism, and to speed up gentrification of those same communities. Fully funding welcoming schools is the least you can do to mitigate the harm of closures - that funding should not be tied to a power grab or a weak, cynical post-hoc rationalization of CEQA exemption.
Please vote against this measure. It’s a poorly framed catchall measure merging finance, a poorly attempted environmental impact statement, neighborhood enrollment boundaries and other items. A lame duck board, with one member resigned and three new members to be elected this fall to a new board, is not a board who should vote away its power to any single individual. The entire OUSD community is being disenfranchised by this measure. Please please nurture democracy in OUSD and maintain the power of the elected Board of Education on these matters.
Please vote no on this resolution. School closures most definitely have environmental impact and displace students from neighborhood schools which will certainly impact the environment. A full analysis needs to be done.
The superintendent should not have sole discretion to determine how $10m is dispersed. There should be community involvement and oversight especially given the concerns about fiscal irresponsibility in the district.
A fell equity analysis has not been done and this funding should be used responsibly and equitably.
Please postpone school closures for this coming year so things can be appropriately analyzed.
Analysis is required!
This post-hoc rationalization violates CEQA. CEQA review is supposed to come BEFORE the Board acts. The Board cannot now rely on PRC § 21080.18 because it does not apply to projects that cause physical impacts that are not categorically exempt under CEQA. No CE is allowed when an action may have a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances or cumulative impacts. Both are present due to the timing, number and type of schools affected. Closing neighborhood schools results in additional and longer vehicle trips. The VMT study, prepared AFTER the Board voted to close schools, fails to assess these impacts, as it admits that “it impossible to calculate in advance the exact VMT change brought about by” the closures, but yet adopts a “best case” assumption that all students would try to go to the nearest schools and there would no significant impacts. This slapdash report lacks substantial evidence and does not support the CEQA exemption.
I strongly oppose this resolution. Given the questionable decision making around fiscal matters within the district, it seems careless and ill-advised to give a single individual unchecked decision making power around distribution of funds. Additionally, the unilateral ability to redraw enrollment boundaries also seems problematic and likely to lead to bias and inequities when left to a single person along. But, most importantly the assertion that there are no environmental impacts from closures is unfounded, unproven and likely untrue. There is no data in the public domain to support this assertion that I have seen, and I recall meetings where it was admitted that it had not been done. It also seems like a backhanded way to sneak in approval of the school closures again, which is disingenuous at best and is already listed as a separate agenda item. I am deeply disappointed by what feels and seems to be a lack of transparency and honesty in the board's actions.
I opposed this resolution, as no person in the OUSD organization should decide how to spend $10m from AB 1840, unchecked, especially with the history of fiscal decision making in this district. This resolution also authorizes the superintendent to redraw enrollment boundaries, and states that there is no environmental impact from closures and thus it’s exempt from CEQA, and says “the Board hereby reconfirms its approval of the school consolidations pursuant to Resolution No. 2122-0030, as stated and modified herein;”- just because you write this in a resolution and vote on it, does not mean that you did ANY of the required studies on the environmental impact from the school closures. You did not, and it is not legal, regardless of what you vote on today. the fact that this is even buried in this resolution is shameful.
My husband and I oppose this resolution for the reasons given in a letter we emailed to the board members. Our letter should be part of the public record.
Vote NO on this resolution. Closing schools will most certainly have an environmental impact in which displaced students will need to travel away from their neighborhoods to attend school. Additionally, the superintendent should not have sole discretion to determine how $10M in AB 1840 funds is dispersed. Community involvement and oversight is a must.
Please vote no on this resolution. School closures and consolidations are required by California to complete CEQA. I'm appalled that OUSD is attempting to illegally skip this important part of the process while trying to make significant changes to our public schools, city and the communities within it. The purpose of CEQA is to give the organization an opportunity to look at long-term consequences of it's action which is exactly what OUSD needs to do. Please respect the legal process of our state and examine impacts instead of trying to complete a "quick" fix of our budget which will not improve anything with our schools. Mom of two current OUSD students.
This is a bogus resolution that looks to give the Superintendent yet more unchecked power to redraw enrollment boundaries and unilaterally close or consolidate schools. The superintendent should absolutely not have sole discretion over how to spend the $10m in AB 1840 funds - funds that the *departing* LK Monroe made dependent on the Board identifying the closures and consolidations in 2122-0030, which this resolution cynically seeks to re-approve. It is ludicrous to claim that school closures have no environmental impact and thus are exempt from CEQA requirements. School closures serve to compound decades of divestment from Black and Brown neighborhoods, including the cumulative effects of environmental racism, and to speed up gentrification of those same communities. Fully funding welcoming schools is the least you can do to mitigate the harm of closures - that funding should not be tied to a power grab or a weak, cynical post-hoc rationalization of CEQA exemption.
Please vote against this measure. It’s a poorly framed catchall measure merging finance, a poorly attempted environmental impact statement, neighborhood enrollment boundaries and other items. A lame duck board, with one member resigned and three new members to be elected this fall to a new board, is not a board who should vote away its power to any single individual. The entire OUSD community is being disenfranchised by this measure. Please please nurture democracy in OUSD and maintain the power of the elected Board of Education on these matters.
Please vote no on this resolution. School closures most definitely have environmental impact and displace students from neighborhood schools which will certainly impact the environment. A full analysis needs to be done.
The superintendent should not have sole discretion to determine how $10m is dispersed. There should be community involvement and oversight especially given the concerns about fiscal irresponsibility in the district.
A fell equity analysis has not been done and this funding should be used responsibly and equitably.
Please postpone school closures for this coming year so things can be appropriately analyzed.
Analysis is required!
This post-hoc rationalization violates CEQA. CEQA review is supposed to come BEFORE the Board acts. The Board cannot now rely on PRC § 21080.18 because it does not apply to projects that cause physical impacts that are not categorically exempt under CEQA. No CE is allowed when an action may have a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances or cumulative impacts. Both are present due to the timing, number and type of schools affected. Closing neighborhood schools results in additional and longer vehicle trips. The VMT study, prepared AFTER the Board voted to close schools, fails to assess these impacts, as it admits that “it impossible to calculate in advance the exact VMT change brought about by” the closures, but yet adopts a “best case” assumption that all students would try to go to the nearest schools and there would no significant impacts. This slapdash report lacks substantial evidence and does not support the CEQA exemption.
I strongly oppose this resolution. Given the questionable decision making around fiscal matters within the district, it seems careless and ill-advised to give a single individual unchecked decision making power around distribution of funds. Additionally, the unilateral ability to redraw enrollment boundaries also seems problematic and likely to lead to bias and inequities when left to a single person along. But, most importantly the assertion that there are no environmental impacts from closures is unfounded, unproven and likely untrue. There is no data in the public domain to support this assertion that I have seen, and I recall meetings where it was admitted that it had not been done. It also seems like a backhanded way to sneak in approval of the school closures again, which is disingenuous at best and is already listed as a separate agenda item. I am deeply disappointed by what feels and seems to be a lack of transparency and honesty in the board's actions.
I opposed this resolution, as no person in the OUSD organization should decide how to spend $10m from AB 1840, unchecked, especially with the history of fiscal decision making in this district. This resolution also authorizes the superintendent to redraw enrollment boundaries, and states that there is no environmental impact from closures and thus it’s exempt from CEQA, and says “the Board hereby reconfirms its approval of the school consolidations pursuant to Resolution No. 2122-0030, as stated and modified herein;”- just because you write this in a resolution and vote on it, does not mean that you did ANY of the required studies on the environmental impact from the school closures. You did not, and it is not legal, regardless of what you vote on today. the fact that this is even buried in this resolution is shameful.