After chaotic fight to save Oakland schools, closures again considered

OAKLAND — Just months after a drawn-out battle over efforts to close several Oakland Unified School District campuses — an issue that last year led to sit-ins and even a hunger strike — the board that voted to reject those closures in January may be reversing itself.

It now appears that the possibility of shuttering schools, or at least merging the smallest ones with better-resourced campuses, can’t be dismissed so easily in an embattled district that continues to struggle financially.

According to recently approved budget adjustments, about one-fifth of the $10 million freed up by the school board’s latest plan would come from potentially merging some of the district’s campuses ahead of the 2024-25 school year.

The March 9 decision signaled a dramatic and sudden change of course by the Oakland school board, which in January had rescinded the planned closures of five schools — the ones remaining on the schedule after Parker and La Escuelita elementary schools closed their doors last year.

“We just went through this drama,” said Sam Davis, a school board director who voted for last year’s closures and last week’s budget changes that put mergers back on the table. “It’s a little frustrating to me that the board rescinded the closures without necessarily caring about the impact.”

These new budget tweaks did not go over well with the two recent additions to the school board, retired educator Jennifer Brouhard and union rep Valarie Bachelor, as well as the board’s director VanCedric Williams, who initially voted against including school mergers last week but ultimately compromised.

The mergers, which would be formally planned over the course of the next school year, could involve up to 10 schools, though Brouhard and Bachelor insisted the approved language not include any specific numbers.

They also pushed to couch the resolution with language from AB 1912, a state law authored by Assembly Member Mia Bonta that prevents any cash-strapped district from closing schools before it measures whether doing so would create inequities between students.

The legislation may ultimately serve as more than just a set of prerequisites for the district’s school closures — it could be a means of blocking them, with Brouhard promising the language will help keep mergers off the table entirely.

Critics say last year’s approved school closures disproportionately affected communities in Oakland with Black and other residents of color, threatening to raise education gaps in parts of the city where the emergence of charter schools already has harmed district enrollment.

“It gives a really wrong psychological message to the importance of education in every child’s life,” Brouhard said in an interview. “We have to weigh the human aspect of this as much as the cost effectiveness.”

But financial realities have loomed large over Oakland Unified, even as current board President Mike Hutchinson dismissed calls for closures as fearmongering during his most recent election campaign.

Separate from the budget tweaks that include school mergers, the board also voted to cut vacant clerical and administrative jobs — including district-wide positions such as the chief business officer — to free up another large chunk of the $10 million.

And in addition to a hiring freeze at its central office, the district will plan for layoffs — but continue to fund affected positions with one-time funds for now.

External grants, rescue funding and short-term money such as COVID relief have kept the district afloat since it came out from under control by the state in 2009.

The troubled finances have divided the district between those who warn of an impending fiscal cliff and others who believe conservative spending would shortchange the roughly 35,000 students enrolled at Oakland Unified.

Hutchinson, who pushed hard to rescind school closures in January, led the vote for last week’s course reversal, characterizing it as the reality of planning a budget.

In halting the elementary school closures, the board put the district at risk of losing yearly bailouts of $10 million promised by the state after Oakland Unified in 2017 nearly went bankrupt.

The Alameda County Board of Education expressed concern in the wake of the board’s January vote that the district was moving precipitously, without regard for what impact stopping the closures would have on its finances.

“This kind of behavior — deciding to do things and then not doing them — is going to raise alarm bells for the state, where we look like we can’t make a solid decision,” said Davis, who noted that his vote last year to close schools led to protests in front of his home.

Others argue that the costs saved by closing schools don’t compare to the harm done to students. The Oakland Education Association, the district’s faculty union, argues for axing middle-management in the central office instead of cuts to teacher, principal and other staff positions posed by school mergers.

Ismael Armendariz, the union’s interim president, said the revival of merger talks are to be expected in a district at perpetual odds over its future finances. But he said he’s confident that a closer look at the equity impacts will lead any such decision to ultimately be rejected.

“Ultimately, if there’s any vote that comes to the board for actually merging or closing schools, I am optimistic that (the board) will fall on the right side,” he said.