“NOT ONLY DO school closures not save the school district money today, but they will also cost the district more tomorrow,” says Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF). “If students, families and educators are not leading these discussions, then the district is setting itself up to fail because we’re the ones in classrooms every day.”

Communities are under attack across California as school districts consider closing schools to “solve” budget problems caused by declining enrollment, expiration of COVID funding and inadequate funding from the state. Claiming that schools must be closed to balance district budgets and avoid a “loss of local control,” superintendents in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Vallejo, Sonoma County and Imperial Beach are taking their communities through school closure processes while educators organize and work to lift community voices against closures.

School closures are disruptive and cause short- and long-term harm to students, families and communities. Despite what school district administrators tell parents and communities, research shows that closing schools doesn’t actually save any money, according to Chris Jackson, Oakland Education Association (OEA) second vice president.

“In fact, they destabilize communities,” says Jackson, a high school science teacher. “What we’ve been hearing most from parents is that they’ve lost trust in the process and the school board. That’s where OEA is coming in to fill that gap, talking with our parents and community and providing guidance about what school closures actually do to our communities.”

Here’s how educators are organizing in locals across the state to center to fight school closures and center students and families in these discussions:

SAN FRANCISCO:
Educators fight off closures, organize for next battle

UESF members fought off school closures earlier this school year and are now organizing against the district’s massive layoff proposal.

“Our members are demanding fully staffed schools, fully funded education in California and for fully funded IDEA (the federal law regarding special education funding) — the need continues to grow and we are here to serve our students,” says UESF’s Curiel. “We’ve been doing more with less every single year and we can’t continue to do that. It’s morally objectionable.”

UESF members are organizing for the schools their students deserve following a late-2024 school closure process paused just before the former superintendent resigned. Curiel says the new superintendent has not expressed her feelings on closures and UESF members don’t have much confidence in the district moving forward. While the school closure fight is currently on hold, UESF leaders have pivoted to a layoff fight — Curiel says the district intends to reduce about 500 positions, through early retirements to avoid layoffs.

When closures were still on the table, UESF leaders went to all the impacted schools (those targeted for closure and those that would receive their students) to engage members and gather information about what parents and families were being told at sites. Since there hadn’t been a lot of outreach by the district, Curiel says that families were relying on educators to help them navigate the process and amplify their concerns.

“Our members did a lot of outreach — even at schools that were not impacted — ensuring that solidarity is an action,” Curiel says. “We said ‘even if your school is not on the (closure) list, your students, school and colleagues will be impacted, so we have to take action.’”

UESF organized a broad coalition of stakeholders, issuing a public statement about the long-term harmful impacts of school closures, emphasizing the need for additional support for schools and families during any transition. With 40,000 students at 120 sites, Curiel says any attempt to close schools in San Francisco needs to place the needs of the community at the center of the discussion.

Curiel says a major concern of school closures is who they will impact and how. With high reliance on local public transit, closures can impact programs, change enrollment patterns and affect other logistics.

“One thing you have to understand about school closures is those students aren’t going away. Everyone has to go somewhere else,” Curiel says. “Closures change what make San Francisco schools special.”

Curiel had a conversation last year with the president of the teachers union in Seattle to discuss how they might work together with leaders in other major West Coast cities to fight against school closures and for robust public education funding. Much like the famous union quote “an injury to one is an injury to all,” Curiel says any closure affects every student.

“Any school closure is going to impact the district overall,” Curiel says. “It could impact so many different sectors of our city in a lot of different ways.”

ALUM ROCK:
Advocating for students as district closes seven schools

“Charter school encroachment is one of the top reasons that closing schools in our area is so difficult,” says Sandra Rivera, president of Alum Rock Educators Association (AREA). “And when charters locate in the district, it’s not just the initial drain, it’s an ongoing drain. We’re now going to have six relatively empty campuses, where new charters are a possibility.”

The damage of unchecked charter school proliferation is on full display in East San Jose’s Alum Rock Union School District, where more than 4,000 students who live in the district attend charters. This has resulted in rapidly declining enrollment and a December board decision to close seven schools at the end of this school year. She says AREA members are focused on student wellness and safety, lifting their voices on the school consolidation committee to center student concern, like walkability to schools.

“It was our voice trying to make sure there was the least amount of family impact and building the strongest communities possible out of these decisions,” Rivera says. “We have many lanes of traffic students will now have to cross. To have the kids walking further is not an ideal situation. We asked about busing, and at first they said no but at the last board meeting, they were considering a shuttle bus to help get students to and from school safely.”

Budget issues and declining enrollment in Alum Rock are compounded by another impact of charter school proliferation: Alum Rock has a higher percentage of students in special education (about a third) than most districts because of charters’ established practice of “cherry picking” general education students and leaving students with special needs to public schools. This costs the district about $32 million a year.

“In public education, we provide services to everyone,” Rivera says. “Part of what makes it really hard for us in Alum Rock is that charter schools offer 7:30 a.m. until 6 at night care for the children. I’ve been trying to work with the district to provide something comparable — so parents stay in our district.”

Rivera says AREA’s priorities now are resilience and healing, coming together as educators for their students.

“What happened is really difficult. We understand and want our students to know we are going through it with them,” Rivera says. “We want to be the example and advocates for how to heal, move forward and emerge stronger than we’ve ever been before.”

Rivera says educators are eager to try new approaches with fewer campuses, working to forge new partnerships and obtain more focused resources for their students.

“We’re trying to highlight and showcase all the resources we have available at neighborhood public schools,” Rivera says. “We want our families to commit to our public schools so there won’t be any further drain.”

OAKLAND:
Educators and community defeat school closure proposal

Union educators and the Oakland community organized and defeated a school closure proposal in December.

“We know that Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) plays fast and loose with the numbers and with public process,” says OEA’s Chris Jackson. “We as educators know the money is in the district.”

The power of educators and community united for students was on full display in December when OEA and district families rose up to fight back against a consolidation proposal that would have seen five schools close — winning when district officials opted to back off the plan, for now. Jackson says OEA expects the district to resume the process with community meetings in spring with the goal of another school closure proposal in fall or winter.

“It was a lot of hard work from our community and parents to get the decision to delay, and it was really a stress test,” says Jackson. “We were able to talk with parents and community about the kind of impacts these closures were going to have and see how far they were willing to go to fight them.”

OUSD’s declining enrollment issues are self-inflicted, Jackson says, with decades of unchecked charter school proliferation draining neighborhood public schools of students, ushered in by charter school industry-funded school board members. OUSD’s repeated school closure attempts have further caused families to leave the district, Jackson says.

“We saw in 2022 that OUSD violated state law in the way they closed schools, with no community process and barely a public process,” he says. “We’ve had to live with that for the past three years with those schools being closed, those communities being devastated and watching our families leave the district. This time around, when the district sang the same song, everybody knew what beat it was, which made it possible to counteract the district’s message because we already heard it.”

Jackson says OUSD has a history of understating its financial health, starting every school year projecting a massive deficit and then somehow ending the year with a surplus. This lack of transparency and history of misdirecting resources — OUSD spends more on consultants and middle management than comparable school districts — has OEA educators challenging the district’s bloated budgeting.

“When they say they have a $95-million deficit, we’re very skeptical,” says Jackson, noting that the district budgets substantial amounts for textbooks and materials annually, yet seems to never have new materials. “I was in college when my science textbooks were created. My books are older than my students, but the district says it spends millions on books every year.”

Moving forward, Jackson says OEA will continue to be engaged in the community process to center students and community, lift educator voices and fight unnecessary school closures. This in addition to OEA’s participation in CTA’s We Can’t Wait campaign along with other CTA locals throughout California.

“Our priority is to make sure we have fully staffed schools that are safe for our kids, that our school sites are fully funded and our budget process is transparent,” Jackson says.

IMPERIAL BEACH:
Educators opposing unnecessary closures

The Imperial Beach community is rallying to stop the South Bay Union School District superintendent from closing schools when there is no financial reason to do so.

“Our district isn’t in a deficit, but our superintendent is planning ahead,” says Southwest Teachers Association (SWTA) President Vanessa Barrera, about South Bay Union School District. “He’s saying ‘we don’t want to be like Oakland, which has to close schools because they don’t have any money.’”

SWTA members, who organized late last school year and were able to delay a school closure decision that had been developed with very little public input, are leading efforts to advocate for students and stop the closures as the superintendent tries yet again. Unlike the other districts, South Bay Union is trying to pre-emptively close one to three schools, which Barrera says would upend local communities and potentially exacerbate declining enrollment issues.

Barrera is speaking out against the closures and visiting school sites (using a CTA President’s Release Time Grant)=to keep members informed about the situation and potential impacts “Our biggest concern is that if they close schools, it’s going to leave that community without a school — the nearest school is 36 minutes walking distance for those kids,” Barrera says.

While SWTA is not officially part of the district’s committee examining school closures, Barrera says she is in the room, ensuring the discussions don’t stray into matters that should be addressed in bargaining. Members are also speaking up for students and parents, especially with relation to safety issues.

Meanwhile, the district is giving mixed messages about the closure proposal, telling the committee one thing and the public another, Barrera says, causing SWTA to organize and collaborate with parents, community members and their local CSEA chapter. Barrera is concerned about current and long-term impacts of any closures — research shows school closures usually result in a 10% loss of students — which includes layoffs and the potential need for more closures.

“Because our superintendent is not only talking about closures but also reorganization of our entire district, I am worried we’re going to lose more students and impact our declining enrollment even more,” she says. “We are organizing around the school closures and our ongoing bargain … we are the voice for our students and families who might not always know their rights, so it’s our job to advocate for them.”

IS YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT CONSIDERING SCHOOL CLOSURES?

Take a proactive approach if your school district is considering school closures (often called “consolidations” by districts). Reach out to your local leadership and CTA primary contact staff to learn more about how you can help your union support your students and school community. Here are some good practices:
• Emphasize the impact on students, families and communities. District discussions about closures often leave out the people who will be impacted most. Lift student and community voices on your platforms and use input opportunities to call for more attention to these impacts.
“The way to fight school closures is with the community it directly impacts — on the closure level and the receiving level,” says UESF President Cassondra Curiel. “This is a justice issue — we need to be in solidarity with students, families and communities who are under attack.”
• Don’t let the district decontextualize and describe closures with jargon. School closure discussions focus on numbers and data, stripping out their role in our neighborhoods. Take every opportunity to amplify the value these special places have to students and families (and be sure to call them closures).
• Shine a light on layoffs. Districts avoid talking specifically about potential pink slips until closure decisions have already been made by the school board. Lift and share that school closures often come with layoffs of educators and classified employees, which is devastating for students and school communities.
“We’re only as strong as our collective voice,” says AREA President Sandra Rivera. “One voice saying something is different than 500 voices saying something. If we say it together and we stand together, our voice will be heard.”
• We Are CTA. Approach school closures in your community collectively with other CTA locals. Show up for each other and your students. Reach out to neighboring locals for support and to share information. Contact fellow locals around the state fighting closures to learn more about how they’re fighting back.
• Be mindful of charter encroachment. When public schools are closed and create significant distance between remaining schools, charter schools often pop up and siphon students away from traditional public schools. As school closure plans are being developed, pay attention to empty areas created by proposed school closures and call out potential charter encroachment in your school district.
“We’re concerned about charter encroachment because closures will leave large areas without a neighborhood school nearby,” says SWTA President Vanessa Barrera.

PRO TIPS FOR ORGANIZING AGAINST SCHOOL CLOSURES

“Educate yourself. Remember that we are the voice for our students and families who might not always know what their rights are, so it’s our job to advocate for them.”
—VANESSA BARRERA, SWTA president

“Everyone has to be talking with families — and with the same messages, too. It’s so important for the local to provide clarity and some easy-to-communicate and
understand talking points, to get aligned with the community.”
—CASSONDRA CURIEL, UESF president

“Communication, especially face to face, is key. This year, I have been to every school site multiple times. I am at the staff meetings, in the lunchrooms, listening and offering suggestions and advice. Build connections with community in creative ways: food drives, boy and girl scouts — do these things so people see us as part of that space.”
—SANDRA RIVERA, AREA president