Local News

Oakland Backing Off Plan To Close Up To 15 Schools

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / BCN) ― Members of the Oakland Board of Education received an earful Wednesday night from more than 30 speakers who told them that they don't think the school district should close schools as a way to save money in the wake of its precarious financial situation.

No final decisions were expected when the school board convened, but so many parents and students were expected that the meeting was moved to a high school auditorium.

The outrage by parents has also prompted district officials to back off of the closure plan, which they said was only discussed by the board as a last resort.

Board President David Kakishiba tried to mollify about 300 people who packed the auditorium at Oakland Technical High School by saying at the beginning of the meeting that, "The Board of Education is not going to close 15 schools. That hasn't been our plan and we're not going to close schools on a massive scale tonight or in the future."

Instead, Kakishiba said the board aims to "develop a sensible, well-researched financial plan for the next five years" to cope with the fact that the district's enrollment has shrunk by nearly 30 percent since 1999.
He asked community members to "help us figure out what to do" in response to the district's declining enrollment and its difficult fiscal issues.

Kakishiba's remarks drew applause from the large crowd that came to the meeting, but community members were critical of the board and the school district nonetheless.

Betty Olson-Jones, the president of the union that represents teachers and other district employees, said, "It's really a shame the way this process came out. It got turned into a battleground over small schools."

School district interim superintendent Roberta Mayor said the minimum enrollment target is 300 students for each school based on an analysis that shows that schools below that level have difficult operating solely with student-generated base revenues and consequently need subsidies.

Mayor said, "We have more schools serving fewer students than we did a decade ago."

But Olson-Jones said, "We cherish our small schools because they allow for individualized instruction."

Olson-Jones alleged that when the district created small schools several years ago it "didn't prepare for sustainability in the long run" and set them up to fail.

Andre Gadson, a senior at the Business Entrepreneurial High School, told the board that when it analyzes which schools to keep open it should look at each school's student achievement level, not its size.

Gadson said, "You are denying these kids their dream of being what they want to be. Small schools give us a better chance of succeeding."

Karen Pezzetti, a 12th-grade teacher at the Youth Empowerment School who was named Oakland's teacher of the year, agreed with Gadson, saying the district should "put students and academic achievement first."

Pezzetti told the board, "Be transparent, timely and authentic and engage in a true community partnership."

The board decided to continue monitoring what the district refers to as "under-enrolled schools."

Board of Education member Alice Spearman said Wednesday that the closure idea has been overblown, and that the district will pursue other measures, such as selling unused real estate, to close the budget gap.

The district still owes $80 million to the state for the bailout and because of declining enrollment and anticipating an $18 million shortfall next year.

The board said the district will use a variety of criteria to analyze schools, including academic achievement, enrollment, capacity and the quality of their facilities.

School board member Noel Gallo said the board would establish criteria for which schools to close if the plan moves forward.

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)