Teachers have arrived early at Oakland public schools on Friday but not to go to their classrooms — instead they are picketing as part of a one-day strike in protest of nearly one dozen planned school closures.
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Hundreds of educators held demonstrations across the 11 Oakland schools which are slated to be closed, merged or reduced in grades either at the end of this school year or the next, as voted on by the school board last February.
As a result of the protest, district officials urged parents not to send their kids to school on Friday.
At the protest, Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown called for school board members who approved the closures to be voted out of office.
"Vote in new school board members who believe in racially just and safe schools and believe in our kids and community," he said.
The 11 schools on the chopping blocks have student bodies that are, on average, 78% Black or Hispanic, according to Oakland Unified data.
Brown added that Oakland educators combined to sacrifice more than $1 million in wages to participate in and "send a powerful message" at the one-day protest.
"Schools should be at the center of your decision making, we shouldn’t be the first ones cut," Hillary Chen, a teacher at Parker Elementary in East Oakland, one of three K-8 schools scheduled to close permanently at the end of this school year, told KCBS Radio. "It should be someone from the top."
"These school closures, they don't just affect parents and students but whole neighborhoods," she said.
Oakland Unified previously cited declining enrollment as one of the main reasons for school closures. New data from the state found that student enrollment dropped at least 2% statewide, and over 6% across the Bay Area compared to pre-pandemic levels.
In response to Friday's demonstration, Oakland Unified Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell on Tuesday called the action "illegal" because it is not over health and safety dispute or a contract and therefore violates state law. The district previously threatened to sue should teachers go through with the protest.
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