UPDATE: Oakland School Board Votes to Proceed With Planned Campus Closures
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- An emotional, highly-charged emergency meeting wrapped up Friday night with the Oakland Unified School District board voting to proceed with a controversial plan to close or truncate 11 schools despite vociferous community opposition.
Nearly 1,000 people tuned into the virtual Zoom meeting which went on nearly three hours.
During the public comment portion, dozens of students, parents and teachers called in to oppose the district's decision. In the end the board voted 2-3-1 on delaying the plan.
School board directors VanCedric Williams and Mike Hutchinson voted to postpone the school closures while Gary Yee, Aimee Eng and Clifford Thompson voted to keep the current plan. Sam Davis abstained and Shanthi Gonzales was absent.
"Y'all put on a show tonight," Hutchinson told his fellow board members. "You think this is going to work. This isn't going to stop anything - this is the start of it. I'm so insulted that you would make us and the community sit here for over two hours knowing that you weren't going to do a darn thing to change the situation."
The amendment would have delayed the closures of two Oakland schools -- Community Day and Parker -- to the end of the next school year. Another school, La Escuelita, is set to be reduced to an elementary school.
In the 2022-2023 school year, Brookfield Elementary, Carl B. Munck Elementary, Grass Valley Elementary, Horace Mann Elementary and Korematsu Discovery Academy will close. Hillcrest K-8 would close its middle school grades. Rise Community Elementary and New Highland Academy will merge this year into one school.
"Y'all put on a show tonight. You think this is going to work. This isn't going to stop anything - this is the start of it. I'm so insulted that you would make us and the community sit here for over two hours knowing that you weren't going to do a darn thing to change the situation," said impassioned Board Director Mike Hutchinson.
Oakland Education Association head Olivia Udovic condemned the vote on Saturday.
"We are extremely disappointed in the vote that was taken last night," said Udovic, who is also a kindergarten teacher at Manzanita. "We're disappointed with the way the community has been treated throughout this whole process by the elected members of the school board to abruptly close schools mid-year."
News of the closures and mergers prompted students, parents and teachers to take to the streets in protest. Most of the schools set to be closed are predominantly Black and Latino.
"I'm disheartened and disgusted that you Garry Yee, Aimee Eng, Sam Davis, Clifford Thompson and especially Shanthi Gonzales who is not here tonight, have not even come to our school site to see how the closure is impacting our students and affecting the families," teacher told the board.
"If you have a problem and that problem is overbudgeting, you don't solve that problem by taking away the service that you're supposed to provide, I mean like I thought we were better than this I really did," said one person who identified himself as a statistics student.
Two teachers -- Westlake Middle School teachers Maurice-Andre San-Chez and Moses Omolade -- are on their 18th day of a hunger strike.
"I knew that I would probably die for this cause because of the greed and the name of saving money," San-Chez said.
Those dissatisfied with the vote promised more action.
"If you chose to vote no, abstain, or amend the resolution presented to you tonight, I will go on a hunger strike starting tomorrow February 19," said one teacher.
Hutchinson shamed the board for their decision.
"You have the nerve to go visit Parker and La Escuelita and see those crying babies and moms who know what you're doing to them... I'm ready for this y'all I warned you, let's go," he said.
