Oakland Unified school board votes to close, merge or shrink 11 schools in the next two years

OAKLAND — The Oakland Unified School District will close seven schools, merge two others and cut grades from two more over the next two years, the district board of directors decided in a meeting that stretched for nearly nine hours Tuesday into early Monday morning.

The vote came after district officials, under pressure from the state and county to create a long-term plan for financial success, presented to the board last week a plan to close, merge or reduce 16 schools, starting at the end of this school year.

The district administration had suggested closing Prescott Elementary, Carl B. Munck Elementary, Parker K-8 School, Brookfield Elementary, Grass Valley Elementary and Community Day School at the end of the school year and merging RISE Elementary with New Highland Elementary, Westlake Middle School with West Oakland Middle School, and Ralph J. Bunche High School with Dewey High School. Meanwhile, La Escuelita would be turned into an elementary school only and lose its 6-8 grade levels.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the district proposed closing Horace Mann Elementary and Korematsu Discovery Academy, merging Manzanita Community School and Fruitvale Elementary, and closing grades 6 through 8 at Hillcrest School.

Instead, after a week of intense community protests that have included walkouts, rallies and hunger strikes by two middle school staffers, the board voted Tuesday to take Prescott off the closure list entirely,  put off the closures of Brookfield, Carl B. Munck and Grass Valley elementary schools until next school year, and reduce the mergers to just that between RISE and New Highland.

Board directors Sam Davis, Aimee Eng, Gary Yee and Shanthi Gonzales voted in favor of the plan, while Clifford Thompson abstained and Mike Hutchinson and VanCedric Williams remained adamantly opposed, with Hutchinson continuing to critique the board for “declaring war on the community” until the virtual meeting abruptly closed near 1 a.m.

The board already voted in January to cut $40 million from the district’s budget through layoffs, elimination of vacant positions and other measures. And last week after the school closure hearing, it cut the equivalent of almost 200 full-time positions, which will result in some layoffs involving various support staff from library technicians to classroom aides.

The district is facing intense pressure to make substantial cuts after the state ruled in December that the Alameda County Office of Education could intervene in the budgeting process because it had rejected an option of closing schools last fall.

The district didn’t officially notify families whose schools could be closed or merged until late January, which has drawn ire from school families caught off guard by the announcement.

Check back for updates on this developing story.