UPDATE: The Oct. 8 board meeting will be held at Oakland Technical High School, 4351 Broadway, instead of at the administrative offices on Second Avenue. The public portion of the meeting starts at 5 p.m.

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This the third year that I’ve covered Oakland schools for the Tribune, and I’ve seen three rounds of school closures (or potential closures). But this one is different.

I went to a community meeting tonight at Montera Middle School, one of six sessions about the district’s shrinking budget and the prospect of closing schools.

When I walked back to the parking lot with Kirsten Vital, OUSD’s chief of community accountability, Vital made it clear that what’s happening has nothing to do with the “Portfolio Management” reform model of years past (in which the district evaluated its schools — including their enrollment — and decided whether to support them, redesign them, open a new school from scratch, or simply shut them down).

This time, it has to do with money. Read the rest of this entry »