Education

School District Prepares for Second Round of School Closures

Published

7 years ago

June 28, 2019

The district also is beginning the process of selling or leasing school properties.

The Board of Education is moving ahead with a second set of school closures, mergers and consolidations, called “Cohort 2,”which is scheduled to be approved in August.

The plan, called the “Blueprint for Quality Schools Update,” was presented to the community at the June 19 school board meeting by Supt. Kyla Johnson Trammell and Yvette Renteria, Deputy Chief of Innovation, who promoted the district’s decision to reduce the number of Oakland schools as a way to save money and improve the quality of the remaining schools.

Opposing the administrators’ approach were Oakland Education Association (OEA) members who participated in the district’s Ad Hoc Committee on school closure, which was established to provide community involvement in the process.

OEA members on the committee criticized the district for lack of transparency and engagement with the community, saying that except for the teacher union representatives on the committee, all of the 15-20 participants in the closed-door meetings were selected by the district.

The OEA teachers’ counter report, presented at the board meeting by OEA member and Reach Academy teacher Megan Bumpus, said there is no evidence or research from the wave of school closures across the country that indicates that shutting down public schools saves money or improves the remaining schools and particularly harms Black and Brown students, who overwhelmingly are those who are most impacted.

Asked by the Oakland Post for a list of school closings for next year that are scheduled to be approved in a little over a month, the district produced a PowerPoint slide called “Cohort 2 Scenarios,” which indicated it was “applying recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee” but was more murky than transparent about what the district is planning to do.

Listed on the PowerPoint slide were possible mergers of Kaiser Elementary School with Sankofa on the Sankofa campus, which might also include Peralta and the “soon-to-be-vacant” Santa Fe Elementary. Also mentioned were a merger of Manzanita SEED, Manzanita Community School, Oakland SOL and Fruitvale Elementary, which might be redesigned. A proposed expansion of Melrose Leadership Academy and a new location for Oakland SOL “may impact nearby schools,” the slide said.

The goal of these changes, according to the administrators’ presentation, is to “concentrate resources in fewer schools,” based on the idea that “with fewer schools, central office supports and services will be more efficient and leaner.”

According to the plan, the campuses of schools that will be closed can be leased or sold to generate income. With more money and fewer schools, the plan says optimistically, the district will recruit and retain better school leaders. In addition, “larger schools provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate and support one another.”

The OEA teachers’ rebuttal was blunt. “If the goal is saving money, closing schools won’t do that. If the goal is expanding access to quality schools, closing school won’t do it,” the report said.

“As the district has been unable to provide any research-based rational for closing, consolidating or merging schools…OEA members of the Ad Hoc Committee could not participate in the misleading survey the district staff used to develop the committee’s recommendations or sign onto (those) recommendations,” said Bumpus, speaking at the board meeting.

When OEA members pressed administrator Renteria about how much money the district saved when it closed five schools in 2011-2012, she replied “We don’t have information on what money was saved,” the report said.

“Fourteen of the 18 OUSD schools closed since 2002 now house charter schools, which we know are leeching $57 million annually from students in Oakland,” Bumpus said, citing the OEA report.

“Given the realities of the OUSD’s highly class- and race-segregated schools and an enrollment process that disproportionately concentrates need, it is no mistake that schools targeted for closure and consolidation have student populations in which African American, Latinx, special education students and students with trauma are highly represented,” she said, adding that 17 of the 18 schools closed since 2001 were majority African American.

Looking at the closure of Cohort 1 school Roots International Academy, a neighborhood middle school in East Oakland, Bumpus said teachers “rebuke the district for the irreparable harm done to the Roots community in this past school year” and called on the district to “take the path of improvement,” rather than the path of closures.

The district’s 7-11 Committee, charged with approving “surplus properties for sale or lease, was scheduled Wednesday evening to be approved by the school board to begin considering the sale or lease of “First Phase Properties.”

The four vacant properties are: Edward Shands Adult School, Tilden CDC, Piedmont CDC, Webster CDC and Sankofa CDC.

The district currently has 86 schools. The Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT), a state-funded nonprofit that has been driving school closures in Oakland since 2003, has said publicly that the district should not have more than about 50 schools.

The full report on school closings by OEA members is available at http://bit.ly/OEAAdHocReport

Ken Epstein

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Community

WCCUSD Joins Statewide Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative

Other districts involved include: Alameda USD, Albany USD, Berkeley USD, Capistrano USD, Cupertino Union SD, Hayward USD, Laguna Beach USD, Lagunitas Elementary SD, Mt. Diablo USD, North Monterey County USD, Pajaro Valley USD, San Leandro USD, San Ramon Valley USD, Santa Clara USD, Sausalito Marin City SD, Tahoe-Truckee USD and West Contra Costa USD.

Published

1 week ago

October 13, 2026

Post News Group

West Contra Costa Unified School District food services team members pose for a photo at Back-to-School Night. Photo courtesy of WCCUSD.

By Richmond Standard Staff

Seventeen California public school districts, including West Contra Costa Unified (WCCUSD), have joined a purchasing cooperative to pool their buying power and expand access to organic food in school meals.

The nonprofit Conscious Kitchen recently announced the launch of the Conscious Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative. Its founding districts serve more than 300,000 students combined.

The cooperative partnered with food distributors UNFI and Sysco to expand the organic products available to participating districts. Combining schools’ purchasing demand helps distributors plan with suppliers while creating more dependable markets for organic farmers and food makers, according to Conscious Kitchen.

Other eligible California school districts can access the cooperative’s products and pricing through its existing contracts without conducting their own bids. Mt. Diablo Unified School District serves as the lead district for the cooperative’s grocery bid.

Barbara Jellison, WCCUSD’s executive director of food services, said the cooperative builds on years of work bringing fresh, organic food into school kitchens.

“The next challenge has always been how to make that possible for more districts,” Jellison said. “The Co-op gives schools a way to take what we have learned and move it to a completely different scale.”

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Community

Asm. Corey Jackson Announces Launch of 24-Hour Childcare in His District

Assemblymember Corey Jackson has secured $2 million in state funding for a proposed childcare special district in Moreno Valley and Perris. This funding aims to establish a system providing 24-hour, seven-day-a-week childcare, which would be California’s first special district focused solely on childcare. The initiative seeks to address the area’s designation as a “childcare desert” and high costs for working families. The funding will cover startup, planning, and formation costs for the district. Read more about the specifics of this groundbreaking initiative.

Published

4 weeks ago

September 28, 2026

Post News Group

Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley). File photo.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) has secured $2 million in state funding to launch a proposed childcare special district serving families in Moreno Valley and Perris, paving the way for a system designed to provide childcare 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Moreno Valley-Perris Childcare Special District would be the first special district in California focused specifically on childcare, according to Jackson’s office. The state funding will cover startup, planning, and formation costs and help the district meet requirements set by the Riverside Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO.

The proposed district would coordinate a mixed-delivery childcare system that could include home-based and center-based care. The goal is to provide universal childcare for families who work overnight, early morning, or other nontraditional shifts.

Jackson’s office says Moreno Valley is a certified “childcare desert,” with licensed childcare spaces available for only 15% of children with working parents. Infant care in Moreno Valley averages $2,776 a month, or about 35.7% of median household income. In Perris, licensed infant care can cost more than 60% of an individual worker’s gross median earnings, according to the assemblymember’s office.

“Securing this $2 million in startup funding is a monumental victory for the working-class families of Moreno Valley and Perris who have been trapped in a childcare desert for far too long,” Jackson said.

The proposal follows Jackson’s unsuccessful effort to establish the district through Assembly Bill 2083. The legislation would have created the district as a dependent special district covering Moreno Valley, Perris and their spheres of influence, with Riverside LAFCO responsible for reviewing its formation and boundaries.

The new funding allows the district’s formation to move forward without requiring mandatory contributions from local school districts and other stakeholders, according to Jackson’s office. His spokesperson, Daniel Peeden, said Jackson hopes the district can be operating by 2028.

The proposal has faced questions from some local officials. Moreno Valley City Councilmember Ed Delgado, who is running against Jackson for the 60th Assembly District seat, said he supports affordable childcare but questioned how the proposed district would operate and how much it would ultimately cost.

“Basically, he didn’t have a plan. We didn’t see a plan,” Delgado said, adding that officials had questions about operating costs, insurance and eligibility.

“It’s going to take a lot more than $2 million to create a special district to provide affordable childcare,” Delgado said.

Delgado has suggested working with existing childcare centers to subsidize costs for local families rather than creating a new agency.

Jackson’s office says the program will lower barriers to “workforce participation” and reduce “affordability anxiety” for young families. This landmark District is poised to trigger a virtuous cycle of economic upward mobility and long-term regional prosperity in the 60th Assembly District, his office added.

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Business

County Office of Education Says OUSD Finances Are Getting Healthier, Materially Stronger

The Oakland Unified School District’s recent budget submission has been deemed “materially stronger” by the Alameda County Office of Education, reflecting deliberate work by the new board and superintendent. Despite needing further cuts in the coming years, the district is progressing toward financial health, according to ACOE Superintendent Alysse Castro. This assessment counters critics who suggest a dire financial outlook for Oakland schools, acknowledging the district has made significant reductions and adopted a plan to address structural challenges. The ACOE commended the district’s efforts to get its financial house in order. Read more to learn about the details of these financial improvements.

Published

4 weeks ago

September 27, 2026

Post News Group

ACOE Supt. Alysse Castro; OUSD Supt. Dr. Denise Saddler. File photos.

By Ken Epstein

County’s letter counters critics who offer Doomsday scenarios for Oakland schools

The Oakland Unified School District, under the leadership of a new board majority and new superintendent, recently submitted a budget to the county “that is a materially stronger submission than the district has filed in recent years, (which) reflects difficult and deliberate work,” according to a letter to the district from Supt. Alysse Castro of the Alameda County Office of Education.

While OUSD still must make more budget cuts in the next two years, the district is on the road to financial health, according to a Sept. 15 letter from Castro to the district.

Under the California Education Code, Alameda County and other county offices of education (COEs) have the legal responsibility to review, approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove local school district annual budgets and interim financial reports.

“The Alameda County Office of Education wants to acknowledge that the district has submitted a budget that shows a positive fund balance, meets the state minimum reserve for economic uncertainty in each year of the multiyear project and is accompanied by a board-adopted commitment to close the remaining structural challenges,” the letter said.

“After two decades of state receivership and significant changes in OUSD’s budgeting practices,” it is understandable that there may be “considerable confusion” in the public about the district’s current financial condition, according to the letter.

However, the district’s current fiscal position and practices are “materially” better than prior years, though they “do not yet eliminate underlying structural challenges,” the letter continued.

Castro also commended the board and staff for working to get their financial house in order.

“There are three essential parts to addressing a structural deficit: staff must identify and bring

forward hard choices; the governing board must make those choices; and staff must follow

through and implement them,” she wrote.

“All three appear to be happening in OUSD, and that represents meaningful progress,” she wrote. “The district has made significant reductions to ongoing expenditures, increased its use of available restricted resources, and adopted a plan to address the remaining gap.”

According to the County, the district already has approved budget cuts of about $30 million in the current year. Additional reductions of about $30 million will be necessary next year, and another $11 million the following year.

These cuts are necessary, the county says, because “the district is still operating at a structural

deficit, meaning spending more every year than it brings in.”

In a statement released earlier this month, the district announced it had “finished the year with $170.1 million in its General Fund and an unrestricted reserve of $32.3 million, finishing $16.4 million ahead of what the district projected in March.”

The budget reflects progress toward putting the district in a stronger financial position to better serve students and families, said district leaders, while also acknowledging the need for significant reductions across the board.

“This turnaround happened because our board was willing to make difficult decisions rather than pass them along, and because our staff did the work,” said Supt. Dr. Denise Saddler. “None of this came easily, and there is more ahead of us. What these closed books show is that the direction is right.”

In October 2025, the board directed staff to prepare budget scenarios totaling $100 million in adjustments. In December, presented with a choice between borrowing to bridge the gap and making the reductions directly, the board chose the latter, the district statement said. As part of the reduction plan, the board approved cuts to more than 400 certificated and classified positions, along with a retirement incentive that converted some layoffs into voluntary departures.

“Closing our books is not the same as finishing the work, and we are not stopping here,” said Tara Gard,deputy superintendent of Business and Operations. “We will continue with the actions in our Financial Stabilization Plan because of where they lead.”

In a statement released on social media, Oakland Education Association (OEA) President

Kampala Taiz-Rancifer strongly criticized those who allege the district is collapsing and supported members of the school board majority who are working hard to stabilize the district’s finances while minimizing disruption for schools and employees.

Jennifer Brouhard (D2) and Valarie Bachelor (D6), who are running for reelection, “are moving the district toward a ‘materially stronger’ financial position than we’ve seen in recent years—all while investing in school sites and the employees who serve Oakland students,” she wrote.

“For years, we’ve heard billionaire-backed board members say they had to make ‘tough choices’ to balance the budget,” she continued. “Those choices almost always caused disruption and instability for our schools and communities. This is a different approach: financial stability alongside investments in students, schools, and workers. All in the effort to improve student outcomes.”

“The real hard work is tuning out the rage bait, the chaos agents, the attacks on unions and workers, and ignoring the loud corporate profiteers—and staying focused on what matters: improving outcomes for students while creating stable teaching and learning conditions,” said Taiz-Rancifer.

“Let’s not go backward into the days of manufactured panic.”