Oakland to Announce School Closures

On October 26th, Oakland will publicize a list of recommended school closures and consolidations. According to OUSD's presentation on August 24th, the consolidation will serve these purposes:

• Reinforce neighborhood schools by focusing decision-making on where children live, attend school, and where facilities are designed to sustain quality programs long-term.

• Increase access to quality alternatives by prioritizing placement of displaced students, expanding capacity in existing quality schools, and further investing in existing quality school programs.

• Reduce displacement of students and families by considering innovative program designs and the possible relocation of some school programs in tact.

• Consider a variety of factors in decision‐making by taking into account multiple district priorities.

• Integrate school closure among multiple strategies to achieve goals by also expanding school grade configurations, transforming low performing schools in high density areas, increasing quality options, and consolidating multiple schools into high quality single‐school options in some cases.

Currently, Oakland has 101 public schools to serve its 38,440 students. This is a high ratio considering that Clovis has 36 schools serving 38,000 students. In its 6-step process, it looks as though OUSD is going to consolidate low-ranking schools that are in proximity with other low-ranking schools (based on performance, school choice and fiscal health). Perhaps with joint resources, these schools can better serve their students.

For more information, please read Katy Murphy's blog entry in The Education Report.