The Oakland Unified School District has a vision it’s been working to implement for years in which every school is a community campus where the social and emotional needs of students are as much a part of the education as academics. But the district can’t afford to do this and still operate nearly twice as many schools as similarly sized districts.
Even after the school board recently authorized $40 million in budget cuts, the district still faces budget deficits for the next two fiscal years. The district says it wants to give raises to its employees, but it cannot afford them. The district has also said it wants to improve the reading and math proficiency scores of the more than 70% of Black and Brown children that cannot read at grade level. But, again, it lacks the funds.
For decades, the district has spread its money across too many schools, leaving many unable to provide nurses, counselors, librarians, art or world language, not to mention clean, safe buildings that operate efficiently.
When we left the board at the end of 2020, we provided a roadmap to fiscal solvency. With Oakland communities hard hit by the pandemic, we understand the current board’s decision to delay closures and consolidations. But time is up! In the past year, enrollment has further declined and the financial situation has worsened.
It is time for this board to govern. Good governance means looking at the entire system and making the right choice for children even when the decision is unpopular with some. The board on which we served started making those hard decisions; it’s time to finish the work.
With the proposed mergers and closures, every student will have a seat in a classroom and teachers will still teach, albeit at a different school. The difference: The remaining schools will be better able to afford librarians, extra-curricular activities and additional academic and social support services. Are we so afraid of change that we are willing to hold on to a system that fails our children?
What we haven’t seen from those who oppose the proposed school mergers and closures is a plan that would provide consistent funding year over year for the current configuration of schools. Instead, they claim there is not a budget problem and engage in tactics like harassing school board members at their homes. They cling to a vision of what’s known and comfortable and what we’ve done for decades, even though we can see that it’s not working.
Some are looking to the state to save the district. That is unlikely to happen. The state has made clear that it is not going to bail out the district or forgive the loan from the state receivership of 2003-9.
It is time for Oaklanders to say, “That school and the land it’s on served our community extremely well over the years, but our needs have changed. How can we leverage that school building and the land it’s on to meet our current education crisis?” When we start thinking like that, together, we’ll start solving problems.
The school board has an opportunity at Tuesday’s meeting to try a different approach. The board must move forward with the mergers and closures — they must take advantage of economies of scale and reinvest those savings in communities of greatest need.
It’s hard to witness the pain and trauma that the question of school closures brings. But if we don’t confront our blind allegiance to the current infrastructure, then our public schools will continue languishing and failing the students who most need support.
Jody London and James Harris are former members and presidents of the Oakland School Board. London served from 2009-20, Harris from 2013-20.
