Recent rulings by a state board and a new state law could have big implications for the Oakland Unified School District as its leaders ponder potential school closures.
This month, the state Public Employee Relations Board, which has the authority to settle disputes between labor unions and government employers, ruled that Oakland teachers were within their legal rights when they engaged in a one-day teachers strike on April 29, 2022. The teachers union held the walkout to protest a vote by the OUSD board to close seven schools, including two closures within a few months of the board’s decision.
The union alleged at the time that OUSD was in violation of a policy the board approved following OEA’s 2019 strike—that no school closure or merger could be implemented without a nine-month planning period, and that the district failed to negotiate in good faith with teachers over the impacts of the closures. The district argued that the union was violating labor law by striking before reaching an impasse.
The ruling declaring the union’s strike was legal builds off a previous decision from October that found OUSD failed to provide adequate notice to OEA to bargain over the effects of the closures. The rulings could strengthen the teacher union’s ability to resist school closures.
“School closures are a serious topic that affects our working conditions. Anything that has an effect on our working conditions, we have a right to bargain,” OEA President Ismael Armendariz told The Oaklandside. “How much notice is given to teachers, relocation costs, things like that.”
In February 2022, the OUSD board approved a plan to close Parker Elementary, Community Day School, La Escuelita middle school, and merge Rise Community Elementary with New Highland Academy in June 2022. The plan also included the closures of five more elementary schools in 2023, plus eliminating the 6th to 8th grades at Hillcrest. Supporters of the plan said OUSD operates too many schools compared to the number of students it has, and the district can save money with fewer, larger schools.
Opponents of closures criticized the district’s hasty decision-making and say closures cause distress for school communities facing downsizing, which are often in mostly Black neighborhoods.
OUSD and districts across the state still face declining enrollment and lower revenues, leaving big questions—including big budget deficits—that district leaders must address. Since 2018, the number of public school students in Oakland (in district and charter schools) has decreased from more than 53,000 to 49,000 last year. The number of students in OUSD district schools has declined from more than 36,000 in 2019 to 34,000 last year.
Last year, the school board reversed the decision that would have closed five additional elementary schools.
“It’s a problem that a lot of districts are wrestling with right now,” said OUSD Board President Sam Davis. “I think our enrollment stabilization plan has been really successful, there’s just not more students to fill our schools with, so we have to figure out something to do.”
Over the next few months, the school board is expected to discuss the possibility of merging up to 10 small schools that share the same campuses into five larger schools.
District leaders point to gentrification and increased costs of living pushing families out of Oakland, and lower birth rates that are impacting urban areas across the state.
Armendariz, the union leader, believes the recent legal wins give teachers more power in negotiating over school closures.
“This reasserted our right to strike when the district commits unfair labor practices,” he said. “I think that’s going to potentially have an impact on how we deal with declining enrollment across the state. Locals now have more of a right to bargain over impacts.”
Davis said that OUSD has the option to appeal the ruling.
Following OUSD’s 2022 closures decision, Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who represents the East Bay, brought forward Assembly Bill 1912 that requires school districts to measure the equity impacts of a closure before carrying one out.
Davis agreed that more engagement should be done with school communities before making a decision to close or merge schools. Next month, Davis and the board’s vice president, Mike Hutchinson, are holding a town hall about Assembly Bill 1912 to hear from the community about what measures the board should use to evaluate the impact of closures.
In the past, decisions have been made based on whether a school is providing a quality education to its students, whether a school has a high enough enrollment to financially sustain itself, and geographic factors like if there are too many schools serving the same grades in close proximity to each other.
Conversations about closures should also include discussions of how the buildings could be used once a school is closed, Davis said. Kaiser Elementary, which closed in 2020, is now open as an OUSD preschool. Parker Elementary, part of the 2022 closures, is operating as an adult education and community resource center. Other vacant OUSD properties have been slated for workforce housing and foster youth services.
“I think if people had a sense that the district was actually going to use vacant property for something positive, whether it’s community services, preschools, or affordable workforce housing, those are all positive things that I think people would be able to get behind.”
Following the Feb. 1 forum, the school board could vote on the equity measures by the end of February, staff would conduct the analysis this spring, and by the end of the school year the board could vote on merging schools. The consolidations would not be implemented until fall 2025, Davis said.
