Again, why are they leasing Santa Fe when Emeryville, like all districts, is cutting curriculum offerings, support programs, and staff for their students?

There is an alternative site the Hawley school which Piedmont has been leasing (but is done with this year) but it is smaller, especially for sports.

Many Emeryville students are from other cities, FYI, such as Oakland, Antioch, Richmond, etc.

I think most folks would be astonished by the geographical mobility of high school students in the East Bay. Some parents seem to think kids will get in less trouble if they school far from their neighborhood.

It does really rankle that there will be no public schools below Telegraph. I fail to see why a school so close to Sante Fe (sharing the same boundries with Peralta) with tiny enrollment, poor test scores that haven’t improved, no neighborhood kids, very close to a middle school that is also under enrolled should receive close to $10 mil in upgrades and be transformed K-8 while Sante Fe is shuttered. What are the ulterior motives here? What is the real plan and where is the transperancy?

I am immensely proud of the parents at Santa Fe who sought out legal recourse, and extremely grateful to Michael Siegel for his pro bono work.

Having visited several schools with an eye toward next year’s placement, I have been flooded with gratitude for the opportunity to teach at Santa Fe. The staff, children, and facilities will be hard to match.

As has been stated quite well in the litigation papers, there is no justifiable reason for closing Santa Fe.

Thanks again to Mick and Peach for your encouraging words.

Santa Fe is the latest casualty in the march to eliminate all public schools in West and North Oakland. This will further facilitate the growth of charters. More importantly, it will create empty buildings for the children of the new middle class inhabitants of West and North Oakland and Emeryville.

The same is the case of schools near the estuary and port. The Chief Illusionist of the American Indian School was helped to create a distraction so that its growth to include elementary grades would pass the Board late in the night. Since the development of housing in the Jack London and estuary area began, there have been plans to build a school in the 9th Avenue or Laney College area. These plans were foiled.

Now with the American Indian School offering elementary grades, space will be freed up in Lincoln Elementary for a themed magnet or some such for the children from the loft districts. Also there will be the bright new building on 10th Street for La Escuelita. Charter schools are already being established nearby. These developments may allow Lazear to exist for a few more years if it is not needed for others.

The children of working and low income parents, like those at Santa Fe and Lazear, are so often sacrificed for the convenience of advantaged parents.

I wish the litigants success.