Angry Parent-Teacher Demonstrators Rally to Protest Oakland School Closures
OAKLAND (KPIX) -- Opposition is growing over the Oakland Unified School District's plan to close up to 16 schools for budget reasons. On Saturday, a rally at one of the threatened schools expressed outrage and called for the district to shut down.
First established in 1869, Prescott Elementary in West Oakland is the oldest school in the district. On Saturday, parents and staff members held a rally on its playground to try to keep the school from closing after this academic year.
"You can hear in my voice what we're going through!" said an emotional principal Enomwoyi Booker.
One by one, parents and staff members of the affected schools stepped to the microphone to address the crowd.
"Let's keep these kids motivated!" said Prescott parent Timothy Conover. "Let's keep these kids here! We can't push them out."
"They just recently came back from a pandemic. They've been out for a year," said Tiffany Casillas, a mother of two young students. "If they merge schools and close schools, it's just going to make it worse for them to get back on track."
Sixteen schools could close or be consolidated under the proposal. Board director Mike Hutchinson was the one who revealed the plan to the public. The final closure list was only posted on Sunday and the district plans to vote on it this Tuesday.
"A lot of us have been fighting this for a long time," he said. "We've never seen anything like this, where our own school board directors would release a plan with a 10-day window to close a dozen of our schools."
The district says it must decrease the number of campuses to prevent budget deficits going forward. In a statement Saturday, they said they support people's right to protest adding, "We know that our students, staff and families all agree that we need a district of thriving schools, yet not everyone necessarily agrees on how best to get there."
Parents are outraged, especially since their only chance to respond was a single Zoom meeting on Monday, attended by 2,000 people and lasting until 3 o'clock in the morning.
"The legality is questionable but it is happening, right?" said Oakland city councilmember Carol Fife. "And it is clear that the intention was not to include community voice as a part of the process. I find that to be very problematic."
They're hearing that voice now, and it included a call, from retired McClymonds High basketball coach Ben Tabscott, for a general strike by the students and parents of the district.
"We can shut this school district down and send a message that we're not going to take it anymore, that we're going to fight, that we're going to shut this district down," he said.
The district's statement said they still plan to vote on the proposal at a special meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8