February 2022

Dear friends, family and constituents,

In response to the threat of Oakland school closures, I, along with Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, Council President Nikki Bas, and President Pro Tempore Sheng Thao, have scheduled a resolution to be voted on at the February 15th council meeting calling upon Governor Gavin Newsom and the State Legislature to eliminate OUSD’s outstanding state debt to prevent closures, and to amend state law to revise the Average Daily Attendance formula to remove penalizing schools when children are sick.

From our collective announcement:

“On January 31st, 2022, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) revealed its plan to either close or merge 16 of the district’s 80 schools. The proposed closures have sent shockwaves throughout the community, galvanizing students, teachers, and families to oppose the proposed closures. School closures can have and have had a detrimental effect on communities of color across the city, and specifically on Black communities. OUSD has a history of disproportionately impacting majority Black schools for closure, closing 16 majority Black schools in two decades. Unfortunately, the list of schools slated for closures currently is no exception - with all eight schools proposed for closure being majority Black schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on our school system, disrupting students' lives and ability to learn, creating difficult and stressful environments for Oakland teachers, students, and families, and intensifying existing issues around equity within our schools. However, due to the enduring strain of partially-paid state loans, the district is proposing school closures as a means to balance their budget during this already turbulent time. Yet, research shows that cost savings from school closures are generally limited, particularly in the short term, and the task of putting closed buildings to productive use is extremely difficult. 

With California anticipating a $45.7 billion surplus for the 2022-23 fiscal year, eliminating OUSD’s remaining state debt through state funding would require an infinitesimal amount, less than one fifteenth of a percent, of the State’s operating surplus.”

As an OUSD parent, an educator and organizer and advocate around issues impacting OUSD students for more than two decades, I find it heartbreaking and unconscionable, but not surprising, that the District is considering shuttering community schools that serve majority Black and Brown students. As a society the decisions we make reflect our values and what is being said with these potential closures is that these kids, their education, their communities, and their futures don’t matter. With tens of billions of dollars in California budget surplus, this issue could disappear instantly. We have the power to make slogans real and are calling on the district to end all closures and the State to stop underfunding and penalizing our schools and to eliminate OUSD’s outstanding debt

You can read more here where you will also find a link to the resolution. 

In service and solidarity,

Councilmember Carroll Fife