This year and next, we are committed to ensuring that students at Parker, La Escuelita, and Community Day and their families have what they need to transition to new OUSD schools and programs. We are also working to support impacted staff members at the three schools as they move to different schools. Although the students at RISE Community School and New Highland Academy are on the same campus, the merging of those two schools will also be supported by our team to ensure that transition is smooth for everyone involved.

We are focused on supporting our affected school communities with the following:

Enrollment / Opportunity Ticket

Welcoming Schools 

Additional Supports

On January 12, 2022, the OUSD Board of Education directed the OUSD Superintendent to bring forward a list of schools for possible consolidation (closure or merger). At a special Board of Education meeting on January 31, 2022, several schools were recommended for consolidation (closure).

• See presentation Recommendation for School Consolidations
• See proposal for School Consolidations for 2022-23 and 2023-24

On February 9, 2022, the OUSD Board of Education voted to make significant changes to the structure of the District through school consolidations, as follows:

Phase 1 - To Happen Before 2022-23 School Year

• Full Closure: Parker K-8, Community Day School
• Partial Closure (truncating grades): La Escuelita 6-8
• Merger: Rise Community School and New Highland Academy

Phase 2 - To Happen Before 2023-24 School Year

• Full Closure: Carl Munck Elementary, Brookfield Elementary, Grass Valley Elementary, Horace Mann Elementary, Korematsu Discovery Academy
• Partial Closure (truncating grades): Hillcrest grades 6-8
• Merger: N/A

These schools were removed from the original proposal and will not undergo a change:

• Prescott Elementary 
• Merger between Westlake Middle School and West Oakland Middle School
• Merger of Ralph Bunche Academy and Dewey Academy
• Merger of Manzanita Community School and Fruitvale Elementary 

All students deserve safe schools with strong instruction and significant social-emotional supports—all things which require adequate staffing. However, under enrolled schools cannot support a sufficient number of staff to offer a strong instructional program nor can they properly serve as community schools. Under enrolled schools also draw a disproportionate amount of resources to operate, which means that other, fully enrolled schools receive less funding than they otherwise would, which negatively impacts these schools’ ability to properly serve as community schools and offer strong instructional programs. 

Without making additional on-going revenue available, the District cannot stay solvent, provide competitive compensation to attract and retain high quality staff, operate such a disproportionately high number of schools (many of which are under enrolled), and avoid making programmatic reductions that fundamentally undermine the ability of the District to operate and provide a basic level of instruction to all of its students, particularly those students with the highest needs. Given these difficult tradeoffs, the Board opted to reduce the number of schools that the District operates.

With these considerations in mind, the Board of Education passed Resolution 2122-0026 on January 12, 2022, directing staff to bring forth recommendations for possible school closures and mergers.

For years, Oakland Unified School District has struggled financially and been stretched too thin to adequately invest in staff, facilities, technology, and updated curriculum. All of this has harmed schools, and more importantly, harmed students. But as a district that receives more money than most other districts in the area - and most other large urban districts in the state - how is that possible?

Read the full message from CBO Lisa Grant Dawson