By Dara Kerr/OAKLAND

“Students shouldn’t suffer because adults can’t budget,” read one of the hand-written signs a child was holding at Oakland’s Unified School District board meeting last night. The meeting’s top agenda item was to look at the district’s five-year fiscal plan, which included the possibility of closing or merging small schools.

Student holds up sign at school board meeting

Hundreds of angry and worried parents, teachers and students filled Oakland Technical High School’s auditorium to tell the board why small schools are important.

“I consider myself to be a walking example of what big schools and small schools can do,” said Esteban Huayna, a senior at Youth Empowerment High School. Since transferring to Youth Empowerment, Huayna’s grade point average went from under 1.0 to 3.67.

Oakland’s school district has an $18 million budget deficit, an $85 million debt and will not receive any increase in education funding from the state this year. These constraints have led the Oakland school board to consider some unpopular ideas, like closing small schools.

The Oakland school district funds schools by using a system they call “results based budgeting.”  It works by giving schools money based on enrollment. “Results based budgeting” was originally created to lessen the inequality of funding between schools in wealthy neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods, but has led to small schools getting less money because they have fewer students.

An analysis done by the district showed that schools with fewer than 300 students need subsidies to stay open. Of Oakland’s 108 schools, 40 have fewer than 300 students. Five of these schools are already in the process of being closed and the board is examining whether it can cut costs by closing or merging others.

“If we go back to the huge comprehensive high schools, it is taking a step backwards,” said Andrew Wilson, who is the president of the All City Council, a student group that represents public schools in Oakland. He explained that the bigger schools have more violence, lower grade point averages and lower attendance than the small schools; this is largely because of big classrooms and the lack of individual attention.

People line up to tell the school board that small schools are important

Shreena Jackson is the parent of an autistic child at Tilden Elementary School. Before she enrolled her son at Tilden, she was told that she shouldn’t expect her child to do well in school; he had no eye contact, he could not speak, he could not even point.

Now, Jackson’s son is talking, reading and doing math. She credits his progress to the small classes at Tilden and the teachers “who are in the trenches with these children.”

Audience members suggested other ways to cut costs, including eliminating education consultants, aligning with other school districts and asking the state to forgive the $85 million debt.

“If they can come up with a new deal in the great Depression, they can find the money for Oakland schools now,” said Tanya Tucker, a teacher at Oakland Technical High School.

The board members listened and thanked each person as they spoke.  School board president David Kakishiba told the crowd, “We will not be closing 15 schools in Oakland, that is not the path this school board or school district is taking.” But he did not say the board wouldn’t merge schools or close a smaller number of schools.  The discussion is still open for future meetings as the district’s budget crisis continues.

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