No School Closures: Oakland Students and Staff Fight Back

"Historically, majority Black schools have been targeted by OUSD’s rounds of school closures. Today is no different, Black students disproportionately represent schools targeted for closure. We have a collective duty to end harm to Black students and their families, Black staff and Black communities."
- Reparations for Black Students Campaign

As I sit down to write this, I glance out my window at the sunlight as it trickles through the neighboring trees of Community Day School, one of the schools set to be closed in Oakland by the end of this school year. Surrounded by trees in the Oakland hills, CDS is a small alternative education campus for students that have been expelled from their general education campuses. CDS provides space for restoration, repair, and deep relationships for students that have recently been rejected from their home schools. Because of the small class sizes and intensive therapeutic and behavioral support here, CDS creates an environment where students often feel free to be seen, heard, and vulnerable in a way that isn't always possible in a larger school context.

Over the past few weeks, the Oakland community has been catalyzed into action, as students and families caught news that the Oakland school board would vote to close a handful of majority Black and brown schools, including Community Day, at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. This news came after OUSD passed the Reparations for Black Students Resolution last year. Part of this resolution included protecting and investing in historically Black schools and involving an equity impact analysis of any proposed school closures. The board continued to go ahead with this vote to close schools despite not completing an equity impact analysis, and despite thousands of students and parents opposing these closures. Many of these students delivered powerful testimonies against these closures at the school board meetings, including a 13-year-old from Bret Harte Middle School:

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“I am a 13-year-old at Bret Harte Middle School. My parents and mentors and teachers and tutors have always told me that we do the best work when we slow down and listen to one another especially marginalized peoples, especially Black and brown and people with special needs. And that’s what I’m calling on you to do. We all make mistakes, and you probably didn’t even know we would all get this furious. But now you see our responses, and we can change and slow down. Vote NO tonight and work with us for strong solutions. Us on the call are just a fraction of the people who are very against this idea. Tonight you can be a powerful example of learning and showing us you care about students and slowing down.”

This was just one of hundreds of testimonies, pleading with the school board to change their votes and instead discuss community-based solutions to their budget deficit. While the school board went ahead with their vote to close two schools at the end of this year, and five schools at the end of next year, the community has not let up in fighting back. 

Four members of Oakland City Council have introduced a resolution that recently passed through city council and would eliminate OUSD’s remaining debt. Students and teachers have planned walk outs, marches, and recall campaigns of the school board members who have voted for these closures. The fight to keep schools like CDS open is far from over, and the community is calling on folks to get involved in the campaign for the long haul.
 
For up-to-date information on how to take action and get involved in this fight, follow @rep4blackstudents on Instagram!

Blog Post Written By: Mackenzie Boyle, Program Manager