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Agenda Item
I.-1 24-2794 Adoption by the Board of Education of AB 1912 Recommendations (Votes, if any, shall be Recorded In Consecutive Legislative Files):
First, Adoption of Resolution No. 2425-0020 - Concluding the AB 1912 Community Engagement Process; and
Second, Adoption of Resolution No. 2425-0015 - Initiating School Mergers (Second Reading), effective 2025-26 Year (Or alternatively 2026-27 Year).
My two daughters have had an exceptional time at SEED. The teachers and community here are amazing. We chose to send our children to Manzanita SEED because it is a dual Spanish/English that our friends spoke highly of. We moved to further East Oakland to the Havenscourt area of District 6 and continue to drive our kids out to SEED. I am strongly opposed the possible merge between Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community. The classrooms are already large and I’d hate for our teachers to be strained with the more work from the additional students. We also don’t want to loose the language immersion that our kids experience at SEED.
I think we all know tough decisions have to be made to tackle the enormous deficit faced by the district but I urge the board to vote no on the Manzanita Community/ Seed merger and all other mergers. I was born and raised here in Oakland and attended and graduated from OUSD schools. I have sacrificed a great deal to commit to living in Oakland and was extremely intentional about my two children growing up in Oakland and attending OUSD schools as well. Please reevaluate whatever analysis you used to justify this short cited solution to potentially saving such a meager amount. The fact that the populations most affected by this proposal are also going to become the most vulnerable with this country's new incoming administration is extremely disheartening and not an Oakland I want to be a part of. Find that Oakland in you that's creative and fearless and do what you were appointed to do and come up with solutions that make sense. Vote no on school mergers!!
I urge you to vote no on merging Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community School. The small amount of money saved ($132,000) won't help much with the district's big budget deficit ($95 million). Rushing this vote will hurt the quality of education and the sense of community that we love here. We're also worried about what will happen to the special programs at each school, like the dual language program at SEED.
The school board should work with parents and the community to find a better way to strategize and optimize change without blindly hurting our children's education.
As a parent and homeowner in Oakland, I urge you to vote no on the proposed mergers because this proposal fails to address the budget deficit and disproportionately impacts vulnerable families such as newcomers and those for whom English is not the primary language at home.
There is no clear plan for these mergers to be successful given the ~$95m deficit. Without additional and intentional support, a dual language track within a larger school is at risk of dissolving. Moreover, there will be minimal savings. Merging 10 schools is projected to at best save $2.1 million annually. Some directors shared that merging SEED and MCS would only save $132,000 and create the largest elementary school in OUSD. Others have noted that losing certain grants because of a merger could actually cost OUSD more money rather than save any.
The school board should give our community a fair chance to engage and participate in processes that address the budget deficit, rather than rush this vote.
I oppose the proposed merger of Manzanita Community and Manzanita Seed. This proposal will harm our children and the teachers/staff team. Please vote NO.
I have a 4th grader and a 1st grader at Manzanita Seed. I strongly disagree with merging the schools. There has to be another way! This will only hurt our children in an already very vulnerable community. Our children deserve better! We need you the board to be on our side, on the childrens side.please vote no on this merger.
As the parent of 2nd and 4th graders at Manzanita SEED, I urge the board to unanimously vote NO on the proposed school mergers. The potential cost savings from merging schools will be negligible and perhaps turn into revenue loss when students leave their mega school of over 800 students due to reduced spaces in the after school program, de-prioritization of dual-immersion learning, and even less resources than they have now. Mergers disproportionately target dual language programs that serve predominantly minority communities. A joint statement from PSAC, ELLMA, and CAC state that “The equity impact analysis in the proposal to merge 10 schools is incomplete and insufficient” and that, as a result, “OUSD is not in the position to prevent great harm for specific groups of students.” Why are we even thinking about doing this to our kids? There should be room for community-based solutions to help resolve this budget deficit instead of doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable youth.
Estoy opuesto a esta fusión de escuelas porque pone a riesgo un programa bilingüe que funciona. SEED no solo provee una buena educación bilingüe pero también atrae a una población diversa en muchos ámbitos. Y no es eso precisamente lo que queremos ver más en una ciudad como Oakland? Hay que replicar esto, no disolverlo.
Los ahorros que se estiman podrían resultar de esta fusión no son mayores. Los problemas presupuestarios de nuestro distrito requieren pasos más grandes. Deberíamos discutir ese tipo de temas en vez de usar fusiones de colegios contiguos como distracción momentánea.
I am a parent of a child at Manzanita SEED, and I ask board members to vote NO on the merger of Manzanita Community/SEED and other planned mergers. California is urging the expansion of Dual Language education, which has been proven to create the best academic outcomes for English Language Learners. Why would we put several of our district's successful dual language programs in jeopardy for such meager cost savings? OUSD promised that an in-depth analysis of where schools were needed would be done, along with an Equity Analysis of impacts to special populations, before any closures or mergers would be proposed. Where is that big-picture analysis? The Equity Analysis on these mergers was insultingly brief and lacked even basic demographic data. This feels like yet another OUSD reactive crisis-mode proposal without any thought of the big picture or long-term goals - which will create new problems, like the old lady who swallowed a fly (and then a spider, and a bird, and a cat...).
Estoy en contra porque afectará para la educación de nuestros hijos si así como estan con 27 alumnos en clase no están aprendiendo con más alumnos todo será más desordenado
Each of you are brilliant people, elected to make tough decisions. By merging 10 schools to save maybe $2M as compared to a total deficit of over $90M you are not utilizing your creativity to address the root of the problem. It appears that low enrollment is the root cause of the problem. In order to address this, I would hope to see a balanced strategy that includes both how to cut costs and how to increase enrollment, minimizing harm to our most historically under resourced schools and communities. This decision puts the burden of implementation on school staff and families. Please vote no and instead make the hard decisions that get at the root problem and support a greater strategy thay will leave OUSD as a more attractive option for families, not a less attractive option.
No me gustaría que las escuelas se funcionaran pienso que tal y como están las dos cumplen sus objetivos, Mis hijos se encuentran en Seed donde cuentan con la atención además de brindarles apoyo y educación de calidad mi esposo y yo nos encontramos satisfechos con el trabajo del personal y nos gustaría que las cosas permanecieran como están en este momento. Gracias.
The cost saving are far too small to be worth the enormous cost to our school community. How many families will leave ousd as a result of these mergers? And how many future families will opt out entirely after seeing even more bad press? There are many better less destructive ways to save the money.
I am opposed to these poorly-thought though-mergers. They threaten immense harm to students without a plan that would even guarantee the proposed savings. Because the mergers are for schools that already share a campus and are not under-enrolled, potential savings are minimal. The district states it would preserve vital programs at affected schools, like specialized programming for differently abled students and dual-language programs, but has not given any details as to how it would support schools and administrators to do so while cutting staffing (the main mechanism for savings) AND dumping the logistics of the merger itself on the school communities. These mergers also put at risk individual grants that schools have from the state and outside funders such that the affected school communities may lose many times over the projected savings. I understand there is a large deficit and painful cuts will be required. But these mergers sacrifice our kids for the mere ILLUSION of savings.
Aaron Byrd, Parent - Manzanita SEED
at December 10, 2024 at 9:28pm PST
I am a parent of a 1st grader at Manzanita SEED. I oppose this merger plan. I urge the board to unanimously vote NO. The school district faces an enormous budget deficit, and there are many cuts coming to schools across the district. I support significant cuts to the central administration and contractors. The money proposed to be saved by these mergers cannot be justified by the ends it will cause. I doubt that the $2M-$3M in annual savings proposed by the District will be realized, which less that 5% of the total deficit. The Manzanita campus would become the largest elementary school in Oakland with 800 students. Significant numbers of students would lose access to after school programming, duplicate grant funding that the individual schools have would be reduced or lost, and our most vulnerable and marginalized students and families will suffer. This is a cruel means to make cuts. This Board should be appalled by the limited budget options presented by the District.
I urge you to vote no on the proposed mergers, to protect access to dual language learning. The proposal disproportionately and inappropriately targets dual language schools that serve a crucial need in a state that is increasingly multi-lingual. The District should seek out cost-savings that do not come at the expense of students' access to learning and safe school environments, particularly in low-income areas.
I oppose the Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community merger. I believe it will weaken both schools, which are currently full, and result in minimal monetary savings. With a change in programming, this will impact enrollment and potential grant revenue. Have these parts of the financial equation been considered? What resources would be allocated to ensure that a bilingual program will remain strong? Look closely at what happened with the merger at Lockwood and how the language immersion has changed since the merger. Please vote no on a merger. Thank you!
Minimal cost savings by merging the Manzanita schools, harming families who specifically chose English-only or bilingual education intentionally.
My two daughters have had an exceptional time at SEED. The teachers and community here are amazing. We chose to send our children to Manzanita SEED because it is a dual Spanish/English that our friends spoke highly of. We moved to further East Oakland to the Havenscourt area of District 6 and continue to drive our kids out to SEED. I am strongly opposed the possible merge between Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community. The classrooms are already large and I’d hate for our teachers to be strained with the more work from the additional students. We also don’t want to loose the language immersion that our kids experience at SEED.
Voting NO on merging Manzanita Community and Manzanita Seed
I think we all know tough decisions have to be made to tackle the enormous deficit faced by the district but I urge the board to vote no on the Manzanita Community/ Seed merger and all other mergers. I was born and raised here in Oakland and attended and graduated from OUSD schools. I have sacrificed a great deal to commit to living in Oakland and was extremely intentional about my two children growing up in Oakland and attending OUSD schools as well. Please reevaluate whatever analysis you used to justify this short cited solution to potentially saving such a meager amount. The fact that the populations most affected by this proposal are also going to become the most vulnerable with this country's new incoming administration is extremely disheartening and not an Oakland I want to be a part of. Find that Oakland in you that's creative and fearless and do what you were appointed to do and come up with solutions that make sense. Vote no on school mergers!!
I urge you to vote no on merging Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community School. The small amount of money saved ($132,000) won't help much with the district's big budget deficit ($95 million). Rushing this vote will hurt the quality of education and the sense of community that we love here. We're also worried about what will happen to the special programs at each school, like the dual language program at SEED.
The school board should work with parents and the community to find a better way to strategize and optimize change without blindly hurting our children's education.
As a parent and homeowner in Oakland, I urge you to vote no on the proposed mergers because this proposal fails to address the budget deficit and disproportionately impacts vulnerable families such as newcomers and those for whom English is not the primary language at home.
There is no clear plan for these mergers to be successful given the ~$95m deficit. Without additional and intentional support, a dual language track within a larger school is at risk of dissolving. Moreover, there will be minimal savings. Merging 10 schools is projected to at best save $2.1 million annually. Some directors shared that merging SEED and MCS would only save $132,000 and create the largest elementary school in OUSD. Others have noted that losing certain grants because of a merger could actually cost OUSD more money rather than save any.
The school board should give our community a fair chance to engage and participate in processes that address the budget deficit, rather than rush this vote.
I oppose the proposed merger of Manzanita Community and Manzanita Seed. This proposal will harm our children and the teachers/staff team. Please vote NO.
I have a 4th grader and a 1st grader at Manzanita Seed. I strongly disagree with merging the schools. There has to be another way! This will only hurt our children in an already very vulnerable community. Our children deserve better! We need you the board to be on our side, on the childrens side.please vote no on this merger.
As the parent of 2nd and 4th graders at Manzanita SEED, I urge the board to unanimously vote NO on the proposed school mergers. The potential cost savings from merging schools will be negligible and perhaps turn into revenue loss when students leave their mega school of over 800 students due to reduced spaces in the after school program, de-prioritization of dual-immersion learning, and even less resources than they have now. Mergers disproportionately target dual language programs that serve predominantly minority communities. A joint statement from PSAC, ELLMA, and CAC state that “The equity impact analysis in the proposal to merge 10 schools is incomplete and insufficient” and that, as a result, “OUSD is not in the position to prevent great harm for specific groups of students.” Why are we even thinking about doing this to our kids? There should be room for community-based solutions to help resolve this budget deficit instead of doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable youth.
Estoy opuesto a esta fusión de escuelas porque pone a riesgo un programa bilingüe que funciona. SEED no solo provee una buena educación bilingüe pero también atrae a una población diversa en muchos ámbitos. Y no es eso precisamente lo que queremos ver más en una ciudad como Oakland? Hay que replicar esto, no disolverlo.
Los ahorros que se estiman podrían resultar de esta fusión no son mayores. Los problemas presupuestarios de nuestro distrito requieren pasos más grandes. Deberíamos discutir ese tipo de temas en vez de usar fusiones de colegios contiguos como distracción momentánea.
If the district fusion the school, there will be more children in the classroom
I am a parent of a child at Manzanita SEED, and I ask board members to vote NO on the merger of Manzanita Community/SEED and other planned mergers. California is urging the expansion of Dual Language education, which has been proven to create the best academic outcomes for English Language Learners. Why would we put several of our district's successful dual language programs in jeopardy for such meager cost savings? OUSD promised that an in-depth analysis of where schools were needed would be done, along with an Equity Analysis of impacts to special populations, before any closures or mergers would be proposed. Where is that big-picture analysis? The Equity Analysis on these mergers was insultingly brief and lacked even basic demographic data. This feels like yet another OUSD reactive crisis-mode proposal without any thought of the big picture or long-term goals - which will create new problems, like the old lady who swallowed a fly (and then a spider, and a bird, and a cat...).
Estoy en contra porque afectará para la educación de nuestros hijos si así como estan con 27 alumnos en clase no están aprendiendo con más alumnos todo será más desordenado
Each of you are brilliant people, elected to make tough decisions. By merging 10 schools to save maybe $2M as compared to a total deficit of over $90M you are not utilizing your creativity to address the root of the problem. It appears that low enrollment is the root cause of the problem. In order to address this, I would hope to see a balanced strategy that includes both how to cut costs and how to increase enrollment, minimizing harm to our most historically under resourced schools and communities. This decision puts the burden of implementation on school staff and families. Please vote no and instead make the hard decisions that get at the root problem and support a greater strategy thay will leave OUSD as a more attractive option for families, not a less attractive option.
No me gustaría que las escuelas se funcionaran pienso que tal y como están las dos cumplen sus objetivos, Mis hijos se encuentran en Seed donde cuentan con la atención además de brindarles apoyo y educación de calidad mi esposo y yo nos encontramos satisfechos con el trabajo del personal y nos gustaría que las cosas permanecieran como están en este momento. Gracias.
The cost saving are far too small to be worth the enormous cost to our school community. How many families will leave ousd as a result of these mergers? And how many future families will opt out entirely after seeing even more bad press? There are many better less destructive ways to save the money.
I am opposed to these poorly-thought though-mergers. They threaten immense harm to students without a plan that would even guarantee the proposed savings. Because the mergers are for schools that already share a campus and are not under-enrolled, potential savings are minimal. The district states it would preserve vital programs at affected schools, like specialized programming for differently abled students and dual-language programs, but has not given any details as to how it would support schools and administrators to do so while cutting staffing (the main mechanism for savings) AND dumping the logistics of the merger itself on the school communities. These mergers also put at risk individual grants that schools have from the state and outside funders such that the affected school communities may lose many times over the projected savings. I understand there is a large deficit and painful cuts will be required. But these mergers sacrifice our kids for the mere ILLUSION of savings.
I am a parent of a 1st grader at Manzanita SEED. I oppose this merger plan. I urge the board to unanimously vote NO. The school district faces an enormous budget deficit, and there are many cuts coming to schools across the district. I support significant cuts to the central administration and contractors. The money proposed to be saved by these mergers cannot be justified by the ends it will cause. I doubt that the $2M-$3M in annual savings proposed by the District will be realized, which less that 5% of the total deficit. The Manzanita campus would become the largest elementary school in Oakland with 800 students. Significant numbers of students would lose access to after school programming, duplicate grant funding that the individual schools have would be reduced or lost, and our most vulnerable and marginalized students and families will suffer. This is a cruel means to make cuts. This Board should be appalled by the limited budget options presented by the District.
I urge you to vote no on the proposed mergers, to protect access to dual language learning. The proposal disproportionately and inappropriately targets dual language schools that serve a crucial need in a state that is increasingly multi-lingual. The District should seek out cost-savings that do not come at the expense of students' access to learning and safe school environments, particularly in low-income areas.
I oppose the Manzanita SEED and Manzanita Community merger. I believe it will weaken both schools, which are currently full, and result in minimal monetary savings. With a change in programming, this will impact enrollment and potential grant revenue. Have these parts of the financial equation been considered? What resources would be allocated to ensure that a bilingual program will remain strong? Look closely at what happened with the merger at Lockwood and how the language immersion has changed since the merger. Please vote no on a merger. Thank you!