Parents and students in Oakland on Tuesday will learn about the fate of their schools as the district tries to close a major budget deficit.
At its meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Oakland Unified School District board will vote on whether or not to go along with staff recommendations to merge 10 of its schools into five.
The proposed school mergers are as follows:
- International Community School with Think College Now
- Manzanita Community School with Manzanita Seed
- Acorn Woodland with Encompass
- Esperanza with Korematsu Discovery Academy
- United for Success Academy with Life Academy
Those 10 schools are already located on shared sites. Students would continue their classes as normal at these new combined schools, but the district estimates that by merging these campuses, they’ll be able to cut down on administrative costs by an estimated $2 million to $3 million a year.
It's merely one small step towards closing the district's projected budget deficit of $95 million next year.
There has been a lot of pushback since school closures and mergers were first proposed, with a big crowd of concerned parents at one school board meeting. At the time, one teacher told NBC Bay Area the mergers are a bad idea that would take away services from students.
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Oakland Unified trustee Jorge Lerma, who represents District 5 where the majority of the proposed school mergers are located, says the area is also home to a large minority population, and some critics say it isn't coincidental.
Lerma believes school restructuing needs to happen- but says student success must be a priority. He doesn’t anticipate layoffs but says administrators could be reassigned or moved to other locations.
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If the school board approves the mergers, they would take effect next fall.
