Oakland’s School Merger Plan Has Stalled, and the District’s Huge Deficit Remains

A controversial proposal to merge 10 schools appears to have stalled at the Oakland school board, which opted not to vote on the consolidations on Wednesday night as planned.

Oakland Unified School District is at risk of running out of money if it does not take steps to quickly close a $95 million shortfall projected in next year’s budget and a larger structural deficit long-term, according to its most recent financial report. The mergers, which would combine 10 small schools that share five campuses, could save $3 million, according to the district — leaving significant cuts to be made as OUSD faces a possible backslide into total state control.

The board did pass a resolution on Wednesday, giving the district permission to implement more than two dozen other cost-cutting measures into the 2025–26 budget to try to bridge that nearly hundred-million-dollar gap, though it represents only an initial step and no confirmed cuts.

Among the long list of budget-balancing proposals from district staff, the school merger plan was especially unpopular with families and school employees, who worried it would disproportionately hurt low-income schools and remove specialized programs.

“The proposals, past and present … are not OK. They are not inclusive of our families and our students,” said parent Elizabeth Knight, whose child is in transitional kindergarten at International Community School, one of the schools that would have merged. “If the district’s vision to reduce the footprint is to get every elementary school to 500-plus students, say this transparently without jargon. And include the schools that are not under-resourced, that are not serving majority socio-economically disadvantaged students.”

After hearing from emotional students, parents and staff members, no board member made a motion to vote on the item.

“There has been no motion, so there is no vote, and this will not happen,” Board President Sam Davis told the packed board room. “This will not move forward. There’s nothing happening on the mergers tonight.”

The newly elected school board could return to some version of the merger proposal in January after it is sworn in, though the plan likely won’t gain any more support. Davis, one of the strongest advocates for the mergers, will depart the board after this term. Rachel Latta, who will fill his seat, and Patrice Berry, who will represent District 5, have both been skeptical of the effort.

Wednesday wasn’t the first time that school closures, posited as a cost-saving measure for the district as it battles low enrollment and rising costs, have been kicked down the road in OUSD. In 2021, a plan to shutter 11 campuses — which spurred widespread outrage and even a hunger strike by two staff members — was reversed.

Board member Mike Hutchinson, who led the effort to reverse the earlier school closures, did not appear at the dais until after discussion of the mergers ended on Wednesday. He has also been vocally opposed to this year’s proposal for school closures, which was initially a more robust plan to shutter campuses in addition to the mergers.

Davis, who supported the wider closure plan, said a larger list of campus consolidations presented to board members by Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell was dropped due to a lack of support.

Because of Oakland’s movement toward small schools and declining enrollment, it is operating more schools than it needs to, according to the district. OUSD currently has 77 school sites, despite an efficiency analysis that suggested it should only have 46. Davis believes the true number that OUSD should maintain, considering equity and other factors, likely falls somewhere in the middle.

While the consolidation plan won’t go forward as of now, district staff warned the board that there isn’t time to push off deep and likely painful cuts.

“We are a billion-dollar organization, which is why you have got to make billion-dollar organization decisions,” chief business officer Lisa Grant-Dawson said. “I don’t see it, and I’m very concerned about the darkness. I don’t see how we’re going to get there.”

The district certified a negative budget on Wednesday, which indicates that if its spending remains as is, it will likely be unable to pay its expenses over the next two years.

Meanwhile, it is 18 months away from completing its final loan payment to the state and exiting state receivership. OUSD has been under state control since 2002, when it ran out of funds.

In recent years, OUSD has worked toward good financial standing and built up a strong reserve fund, but its growth has quickly turned into overspending, as wages and the community school model have driven up spending and pandemic relief funds dried up.

In June 2023, the board voted to give teachers a 10% raise after they went on a seven-day strike. But without making necessary budget adjustments elsewhere, the district has been spending beyond its means to cover these new wages.

“This is a crisis that we very intentionally created because we decided as a board that we absolutely needed to prioritize giving increased compensation to all of our employees because people are leaving education, costs are rising around the Bay Area,” Davis said. “We needed to give raises to all of our employees, even though we didn’t have the resources to do it.”

The budget-balancing proposal passed by the board on Wednesday gives the district permission to implement 30 outlined cost-cutting solutions into the 2025–26 budget. Those include centralizing contracts, both with service manufacturers — like those that provide copiers — and community agencies. Both have historically been managed by school sites.

Other options are to reduce schools’ discretionary funding, potentially eliminating some positions and reducing the majority of overtime pay.

The motion passed with four votes. Board Directors VanCedric Williams, Valarie Bachelor and Davis dissented for differing reasons.

Even with the other cost-cutting measures, though, Johnson-Trammell said she believes school consolidations are only a matter of time.

“We can’t get to closing the deficit for good without addressing the number of schools we have,” she said. “This is math. This isn’t conjecture. There is not $95 million worth of investments, staff — support and central office — to get you out of that.”