Comments on: Decision: Five Oakland schools to close

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:40:13 +0000

Hi OUSD parent – I believe that first point refers to the small-school mergers already underway on the Fremont and Castlemont high school campuses. I do plan to follow up on the grade configuration changes, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions on those as well. Email me anytime at kmurphy@bayareanewsgroup.com.

By: OUSD Parent

OUSD Parent — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:25:37 +0000

Katy, Do you or anyone else have more information on plans to close/merge additional OUSD schools? I received a form letter from the district today and it states several proposed options to streamline the number of schools in OUSD. The two that really caught my attention are:
1. Transforming seven high schools into two high-quality comprehensive high schools
2. Expanding the grade configuration of a set of schools to K-8, 6-12, PK-12
How far along are these discussions? Will the process be transparent? What is the timeline? As a parent I have a lot of questions and I’m not sure where to go to find answers. Any info would help.

By: really?

really? — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:20:18 +0000

moral = morale?

By: Alice Spearman

Alice Spearman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:19:25 +0000

All,
For clarification of my statement and vote, sometimes you must decide what is morale and what is just by law. Knowing that the district needs to close some schools, I choose to take what I considered the morale road. I was not comfortable with many explanations given by administration on justifying the choosen schools, especially Thurgood Marshall, but by no means did I agree with many of the statements given by Director Gallo nor did I lobby othe collegues to see things my way. I found it very uncomfortable to try to lobby board members who represent schools who agreed with the proposal, they know their individual schools better than I, they and administration knew my position from day 1. I did however along with other board members was able to enter in the resolution a desired outcome for Thurgood Marshall, a merging of the school in total with Grass Valley the next closest school to us, therefore the transition should move smoothly for the community I represent. Thank all of you who came out to represent their neighborhood schools. I do believe in the end it will work out.

By: Turanga_teach

Turanga_teach — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:19:25 +0000

Erg, delayed double posting. Please excuse and delete #7.

By: Turanga_teach

Turanga_teach — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:18:45 +0000

In the case of Spearman, the “right thing” to which you’re referring is looking the Board straight in the eye and saying, “I know some schools need to close, but I just can’t find it in me to vote to close schools.”

I don’t know if folks reading this ed blog run with the Harry Potter crowd, but I’m irresistibly reminded in this instance of Dumbledore’s comments on the importance of choosing between “what is right” and “what is easy”.

I’m also honestly not sure that it’s true that the schools around the closing ones are lower performing, as I think that was a specific, foundational part of identifying closure candidates and transition plans–that students impacted by the closures would have access, near the closing campuses, to “higher-performing” schools. And again, NOBODY is getting hired to head these task forces: that’s a straw man.

No quibble at all, though, with the wider point you make above: we do need to look at all the choices we’re making. They won’t all be popular, but they need to be sound.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:22:54 +0000

I can only imagine the uproar when Smith-Corona spoke of maybe cutting back on their typewriter factories.

Where would the worker’s go??

Of note from the conversations above. What happens when you close a low performing school and divert those students to a nearby high performing school?

Could it be that you are actually “closing” the high performing school? This is all rhetorical of course.

I just wonder of OUSD has any time left to change it’s ways and remain in the “school” business at all. I now conjecture that the urban schools are intended to be the continuation schools while the Charters are to be the “real” schools. Maybe this was the plan all along with NCLB. – Don’t for a minute believe NCLB was really about what it said it was.

And we bring you – Caste system America. Where birth determines where you stay in society and social mobility is ended. A Brave New World where Alphas are Alphas and Betas know their place (in this case, public schools).

We were all better off prior to Brown vs Board of Education and Federal takeover of Education.

By: Marie Altman

Marie Altman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:20:57 +0000

To address the statement about whether or not closed schools were higher or lower in performance: there were several factors taken into consideration of possible closure, some being performance, size, and proximity to neighborhoods, among other factors. The points were averaged, then compared to other schools of similar factors. So, in fact, performance could be lower or higher in the chosen schools. I can tell you that my school was recognized last year for having some of the highest gains in the district.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:52:27 +0000

As to the examples of Spearman and Gallo, very often the “easy thing” is the “wrong thing” in so many ways. There is nothing easier than giving away someone else’s(taxpayers) money or resources, especially in times when money is short. The culture of dependence must not be allowed to drag down and pervade the culture of responsibility and hard work. Equity should not be just handed out, it should be actively sought(like education, fulfilling work, honesty, diligence, and respect). Everyone ignores the root problems of a system that encourages irresponsibility and then people scream and shout when the well runs dry. it’s reality!

By: Turanga_teach

Turanga_teach — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:49:49 +0000

No quibble at all, though, with wider point you make above: we do need to look at all the choices we’re making. They won’t all be popular, but they need to be sound.