2.15 22-0062 Subject: Calling On State To Prevent School Closures
From: Vice Mayor Kaplan, Council President Bas, Councilmember Fife, And Pro Tem Thao
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Calling On The California Governor And Legislature To Protect Our Schools And Our Public Health And Community By: (1) Amending The State Budget To Protect Our Hardest Hit Communities By Preventing School Closures And Eliminating Debt; (2) To Amend State Law, To Revise The "Average Daily Attendance" Formula, To Remove Penalizing Schools When Students Are Sick; And (3) To Direct The City Administrator To Share A Copy Of This Resolution With The Governor, Oakland's State Representatives And Oakland Lobbyist
Thank you for this resolution. The OUSD closure plan is ill-informed, inequitable, and reckless. This plan does NOT address the underlying issues that contribute to the enrollment loss and budget crises, and was not built in time to provide appropriate structure to mitigate against negative student impacts — including the trauma of closing schools during the pandemic. It's impossible to support a plan based in financial reasoning, but did not include two schools in the initial financial analysis, and had incorrect data for a third. Thank you for the work to pause these plans until better financial and equity analyses can be done, and communities engaged with.
I am a grandmother who has 2 grandchildren in the Oakland Public Schools. I STRONGLY urge you to SUPPORT this important resolution. Our children are the future and they have a right to equitable education, to be heard and to be supported.
I am an Oakland resident and mother of 2 OUSD students and strongly support this resolution. The total lack of transparency, disregard for community input, shaky at best rationale for school closures is unacceptable and further erodes any trust the community has with the school district and school board. We need to bring our communities together and show that Oakland puts their kids 1st.
I support keeping these schools open and keeping free public education accessible for the Black and Brown communities. Low attendance is caused by a myriad of systematic issues that trickle down to these kids that have no other choice (inability to access affordable and good healthcare ESPECIALLY in the middle of a global pandemic, working jobs to support their family, and more). Shutting down these schools would be a huge detriment to these communities.
As a North Oakland resident, I strongly support this resolution! California and The Bay Area, having one of the biggest economies and the high amount of wealth that it does should have no reason to close public schools, especially schools that serve primarily students of color. Children have already been through significant trauma in the past few years. Let's not add to their pain by taking their school community from them when they need it most. The closure of schools will further exacerbate inequities in our communities.
I am a homeowner and resident of district 1 and I strongly support this resolution. Our children have been through 2 very hard years, and closing their schools without any reasoning, benchmarks, community engagement, and clear financial benefits is cruel, heartless and unnecessary. Our kids deserve so, so much more! Community schools are the cornerstones of each neighborhood - please help save our schools.
The data is in. OUSD closes schools so that it can sell the buildings. It hasn't been an effective financial strategy for them. They consistently target schools in predominantly poor and Brown/Black neighborhoods, because that's where they can get away with it. It increases class size during a pandemic, which harms students and staff.
This is the same strategy we're currently seeing at Mills College. Administrators pleading poverty to justify selling out the educational future of majority-POC students, despite no data showing it will solve their problems. Please, if you support keeping Oakland schools open, take a good hard look at what is going on at Mills as well. It has been almost a year of public lies, in order to cash in on a campus that serves oppressed students who struggle to get a safe and stable education elsewhere. Same thing we see at OUSD. This is corruption all around.
As an Oakland resident for 40 years I've seen the continual lack of will to address the systemic problems that have gotten us to where we are. The Governor has spoken about the amount of money we have in CA. Let's put it to use addressing the inequities in Oakland public schools. Retaining neighborhood schools with small classroom sizes is important!
I’m a D1 resident and support this resolution. Please support our local kids who are coming off of years of stress, anxiety, and learning loss due to the pandemic, only to have the new stress of losing their schools with almost no warning. Oakland’s children deserve better and deserve our support.
The debt that OUSD incurred happened before the vast majority of current OUSD students were born. Yet they are the ones that have to suffer consequences. The State has a large budget surplus, and not having this debt hanging over our district would help us much more than the small amount of savings brought by closing these schools.
The OUSD district made a rash decision (just 10 days notice!) to close schools without fully investigating what the implications would be for the community, and with only a limited financial analysis (for 3 of the school closures/“truncations” they did not present any info about what the savings or cost of the closures would be). Not to mention there is no plan for how to support affected students and families. Please support your community and vote in support of this resolution
Thank you, City Council Members for bringing to the floor, a resolution that supports Black, Brown, and marginalized communities. I STRONGLY URGE you to support this resolution. Do not let the Board go through with their vote to close schools. I hope that you'll listen to and stand with the community against school closures. We need to protect, SUPPORT, and INVEST in schools, students, and families. Closing schools negatively impacts students and families who may not have the ability to get to school. It also deeply and negatively impacts students who need alternative forms of learning and education. I again, urge you to please support this resolution and help prevent the irreversible damage and trauma that students and families will feel for years to come.
As someone who has taught in the Oakland School District, I support amending the budget to keep the schools open, and seeking alternative strategies to address schools with low daily attendance.
I am a homeowner/resident in D4 and I strongly support this resolution to seek state funding to avoid any school closures. The availability and health of public schools in all Oakland neighborhoods impact the future of our whole city. I live in Oakland because I want to be in a place that stands up for what’s right and this is an important opportunity to show that Black, Brown, and Asian lives matter. Many who support the closures do not fully understand or empathize with the burden that families in the impacted neighborhoods will have carry and they turn a blind eye to the resegregation of schools. They believe the lie that the supposed $4-14 million dollars in savings gives the district no choice — all while folks are debating about building a baseball stadium in our city that will cost billions. Billions! Make it make sense. Education as a public good in our city is in jeopardy while district leadership allows it to be sold off, school by school to corporate charter school organizations. Please do the right thing.
I am District 1 resident in support of this resolution. Our community and family was deeply impacted by the closure of Kaiser elementary-- after the last 2 yrs of COVID, what our communities need now more than ever is stability. I have two kids enrolled in OUSD public schools, and am deeply opposed to the proposed school closures and hope every council member will vote in favor of this resolution and listen to the Oakland community and their desire to keep these schools open. We need to be investing more in schools, especially public schools serving black and brown children, not closing them.
I'm writing to strongly support this resolution and urge its passage. My name is Dr. Tara Lockhart and I am an educator at San Francisco State University, which serves many OUSD students as they continue on to higher education. The pandemic has already disproportionately impacted our Black and Brown students and closing these neighborhood schools that are Majority Black and that support much needed alternative education would increase this already huge disparity exponentially. As a professor specializing in literacy studies, I can attest that the proposed school closures not only jeopardize these students' chances of a positive K12 education, but also would curtail their opportunities to continue on to higher education to better their communities, families, job prospects, and most importantly, to reach their own goals. The community has spoken in stringent opposition to this proposal, and has made it clear that closing neighborhood schools is not an appropriate solution to the OUSD board’s funding deficits and mismanagement of funds. This resolution instead seeks to solve budgetary issues with a longer view in mind, one that is pedagogically sound and community-aware. Please support this resolution and prevent the irreversible damage and legacy that closing our schools will continue to have on our students, families, and communities for generations.
I am an Oakland community member and educator and will not stand by while these schools are closed, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown students! It has been said again and again there are no reason for these closures, the money is there. If we continue to fund police forces and slash resources, our communities will suffer. Students are the future, no school closures!
Please support this resolution. OUSD's process lacked transparency, logic, and meaningful engagement with stakeholders. The School Board is on the record acknowledging embarrassment that no equity analysis had been done. Another school board member has essentially admitted that the vote for closures had to be taken to secure $10 million grant money from the state of California. Thousands of Oakland families, in the midst of a pandemic, will be affected by these arbitrary closures (the last-minute amendments demonstrate how arbitrary they were).
I am District 1 resident and commenting in support of this resolution. I have two children enrolled in OUSD public schools, and am deeply opposed to the proposed school closures and hope every council member will vote in favor of this resolution and listen to the Oakland community and their desire to keep these schools open. We need to be investing more in schools, not closing them.
I am in full support of this resolution! I have friends who teach in Oakland public schools and have seen them work so hard to support and educate their students - often buying masks and supplies out of their own pockets. What Oakland Public Schools really needs is more funding - NOT school closures. Children are our future - low attendance during a global pandemic should not be grounds to remove opportunities from these students. Stop the closures and restore these schools. Closing, merging, and reducing 11 schools is completely unacceptable and will take a huge toll on our community.
Thank you for this resolution. The OUSD closure plan is ill-informed, inequitable, and reckless. This plan does NOT address the underlying issues that contribute to the enrollment loss and budget crises, and was not built in time to provide appropriate structure to mitigate against negative student impacts — including the trauma of closing schools during the pandemic. It's impossible to support a plan based in financial reasoning, but did not include two schools in the initial financial analysis, and had incorrect data for a third. Thank you for the work to pause these plans until better financial and equity analyses can be done, and communities engaged with.
I am a grandmother who has 2 grandchildren in the Oakland Public Schools. I STRONGLY urge you to SUPPORT this important resolution. Our children are the future and they have a right to equitable education, to be heard and to be supported.
I am an Oakland resident and mother of 2 OUSD students and strongly support this resolution. The total lack of transparency, disregard for community input, shaky at best rationale for school closures is unacceptable and further erodes any trust the community has with the school district and school board. We need to bring our communities together and show that Oakland puts their kids 1st.
I support keeping these schools open and keeping free public education accessible for the Black and Brown communities. Low attendance is caused by a myriad of systematic issues that trickle down to these kids that have no other choice (inability to access affordable and good healthcare ESPECIALLY in the middle of a global pandemic, working jobs to support their family, and more). Shutting down these schools would be a huge detriment to these communities.
As a North Oakland resident, I strongly support this resolution! California and The Bay Area, having one of the biggest economies and the high amount of wealth that it does should have no reason to close public schools, especially schools that serve primarily students of color. Children have already been through significant trauma in the past few years. Let's not add to their pain by taking their school community from them when they need it most. The closure of schools will further exacerbate inequities in our communities.
I am a homeowner and resident of district 1 and I strongly support this resolution. Our children have been through 2 very hard years, and closing their schools without any reasoning, benchmarks, community engagement, and clear financial benefits is cruel, heartless and unnecessary. Our kids deserve so, so much more! Community schools are the cornerstones of each neighborhood - please help save our schools.
The data is in. OUSD closes schools so that it can sell the buildings. It hasn't been an effective financial strategy for them. They consistently target schools in predominantly poor and Brown/Black neighborhoods, because that's where they can get away with it. It increases class size during a pandemic, which harms students and staff.
This is the same strategy we're currently seeing at Mills College. Administrators pleading poverty to justify selling out the educational future of majority-POC students, despite no data showing it will solve their problems. Please, if you support keeping Oakland schools open, take a good hard look at what is going on at Mills as well. It has been almost a year of public lies, in order to cash in on a campus that serves oppressed students who struggle to get a safe and stable education elsewhere. Same thing we see at OUSD. This is corruption all around.
As an Oakland resident for 40 years I've seen the continual lack of will to address the systemic problems that have gotten us to where we are. The Governor has spoken about the amount of money we have in CA. Let's put it to use addressing the inequities in Oakland public schools. Retaining neighborhood schools with small classroom sizes is important!
I’m a D1 resident and support this resolution. Please support our local kids who are coming off of years of stress, anxiety, and learning loss due to the pandemic, only to have the new stress of losing their schools with almost no warning. Oakland’s children deserve better and deserve our support.
The debt that OUSD incurred happened before the vast majority of current OUSD students were born. Yet they are the ones that have to suffer consequences. The State has a large budget surplus, and not having this debt hanging over our district would help us much more than the small amount of savings brought by closing these schools.
The OUSD district made a rash decision (just 10 days notice!) to close schools without fully investigating what the implications would be for the community, and with only a limited financial analysis (for 3 of the school closures/“truncations” they did not present any info about what the savings or cost of the closures would be). Not to mention there is no plan for how to support affected students and families. Please support your community and vote in support of this resolution
Thank you, City Council Members for bringing to the floor, a resolution that supports Black, Brown, and marginalized communities. I STRONGLY URGE you to support this resolution. Do not let the Board go through with their vote to close schools. I hope that you'll listen to and stand with the community against school closures. We need to protect, SUPPORT, and INVEST in schools, students, and families. Closing schools negatively impacts students and families who may not have the ability to get to school. It also deeply and negatively impacts students who need alternative forms of learning and education. I again, urge you to please support this resolution and help prevent the irreversible damage and trauma that students and families will feel for years to come.
As someone who has taught in the Oakland School District, I support amending the budget to keep the schools open, and seeking alternative strategies to address schools with low daily attendance.
This seems like a pivotal moment to do the right thing and support an equitable solution that serves the public good.
I support keeping these schools open, as I think it's important for the community.
I am a homeowner/resident in D4 and I strongly support this resolution to seek state funding to avoid any school closures. The availability and health of public schools in all Oakland neighborhoods impact the future of our whole city. I live in Oakland because I want to be in a place that stands up for what’s right and this is an important opportunity to show that Black, Brown, and Asian lives matter. Many who support the closures do not fully understand or empathize with the burden that families in the impacted neighborhoods will have carry and they turn a blind eye to the resegregation of schools. They believe the lie that the supposed $4-14 million dollars in savings gives the district no choice — all while folks are debating about building a baseball stadium in our city that will cost billions. Billions! Make it make sense. Education as a public good in our city is in jeopardy while district leadership allows it to be sold off, school by school to corporate charter school organizations. Please do the right thing.
I am District 1 resident in support of this resolution. Our community and family was deeply impacted by the closure of Kaiser elementary-- after the last 2 yrs of COVID, what our communities need now more than ever is stability. I have two kids enrolled in OUSD public schools, and am deeply opposed to the proposed school closures and hope every council member will vote in favor of this resolution and listen to the Oakland community and their desire to keep these schools open. We need to be investing more in schools, especially public schools serving black and brown children, not closing them.
I'm writing to strongly support this resolution and urge its passage. My name is Dr. Tara Lockhart and I am an educator at San Francisco State University, which serves many OUSD students as they continue on to higher education. The pandemic has already disproportionately impacted our Black and Brown students and closing these neighborhood schools that are Majority Black and that support much needed alternative education would increase this already huge disparity exponentially. As a professor specializing in literacy studies, I can attest that the proposed school closures not only jeopardize these students' chances of a positive K12 education, but also would curtail their opportunities to continue on to higher education to better their communities, families, job prospects, and most importantly, to reach their own goals. The community has spoken in stringent opposition to this proposal, and has made it clear that closing neighborhood schools is not an appropriate solution to the OUSD board’s funding deficits and mismanagement of funds. This resolution instead seeks to solve budgetary issues with a longer view in mind, one that is pedagogically sound and community-aware. Please support this resolution and prevent the irreversible damage and legacy that closing our schools will continue to have on our students, families, and communities for generations.
I am an Oakland community member and educator and will not stand by while these schools are closed, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown students! It has been said again and again there are no reason for these closures, the money is there. If we continue to fund police forces and slash resources, our communities will suffer. Students are the future, no school closures!
Please support this resolution. OUSD's process lacked transparency, logic, and meaningful engagement with stakeholders. The School Board is on the record acknowledging embarrassment that no equity analysis had been done. Another school board member has essentially admitted that the vote for closures had to be taken to secure $10 million grant money from the state of California. Thousands of Oakland families, in the midst of a pandemic, will be affected by these arbitrary closures (the last-minute amendments demonstrate how arbitrary they were).
I am District 1 resident and commenting in support of this resolution. I have two children enrolled in OUSD public schools, and am deeply opposed to the proposed school closures and hope every council member will vote in favor of this resolution and listen to the Oakland community and their desire to keep these schools open. We need to be investing more in schools, not closing them.
I am in full support of this resolution! I have friends who teach in Oakland public schools and have seen them work so hard to support and educate their students - often buying masks and supplies out of their own pockets. What Oakland Public Schools really needs is more funding - NOT school closures. Children are our future - low attendance during a global pandemic should not be grounds to remove opportunities from these students. Stop the closures and restore these schools. Closing, merging, and reducing 11 schools is completely unacceptable and will take a huge toll on our community.