OAKLAND — After weeks of intense pressure from students, their families, community members and politicians, the Oakland Unified School District Board is slated to consider postponing parts of its plan to close seven schools, merge two others and remove middle-grade levels from another two.
The school board is hosting an emergency meeting Friday evening to consider a resolution that would delay the closure of Parker K-8 and Community Day School and the truncation of La Escuelita from a K-8 school to a K-5 school until next year.
Under the current plan approved by the district earlier this month, those changes were slated to happen this school year, while next year, Brookfield Elementary, Carl B. Munck Elementary, Grass Valley Elementary, Horace Mann Elementary, and Korematsu Discovery Academy will close, and Hillcrest K-8 would close its middle school grades.
Rise Community Elementary and New Highland Academy are slated to merge this year into one school, although they already share a campus.
The 4-2-1 vote earlier this month to approve the closures angered many parents and teachers who blasted the district for disrupting the education of mostly Black and Brown students in the affected schools to save what they described as just a fraction of the district’s budget. School families and opponents of the closures have rallied, marched or walked out of classes in protest since learning of the district’s plan in January.
The Oakland Education Association, which represents teachers and other district staff, announced it would file a legal complaint with the Public Employment Relations Board to challenge the school board’s action, and Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown said he was prepared to ask educators to go on strike if necessary in a bid to keep schools from closing.
Meanwhile, Assembly members Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland authored Assembly Bill 1912, which if passed could give the school district another year to decide whether to consolidate schools.
The state has made about $10 million available to Oakland Unified on the condition it closes schools and submits an audit and financial plan. But AB 1912 would remove the requirement that the district must immediately shutter schools and give it another year to come up with a sound financial plan.
According to a district memo posted with the agenda for Friday’s meeting, district staff are not sure whether the school district would still be eligible for that $10 million from the state if the amendment to postpone the closures until next year is adopted.
The meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. online.
