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Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept. Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept.

Published

5 years ago

June 25, 2020

In a win for anti-police violence activists in Oakland, the Oakland School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to disband the OUSD Police Dept., committing to eliminate the department that has 20 sworn officers and 120 school resource officers.

The 7-0 vote followed a two-hour debate and several weeks of a campaign to cut the department led by the Black Organizing Project (BOP), a West Oakland-based group that has been organizing against police presence in Oakland schools since 2011.

The school board passed the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department, or the George Floyd Resolution for short, which calls for the board to disband OUSD police and reallocate the resources used on police to student support personnel like social workers, psychologists and restorative justice practitioners.

It also requires the district superintendent to launch a community-driven process to develop an alternative safety plan for the district that includes parents, students, teachers, BOP and other community partners.

The process must be launched by July 17, 2020, with a final plan to be adopted no later than December 31 of this year. OUSD spent more than $9.3 million on the school district’s police department between 2013 and 2018, according to the resolution.

According to BOP, Oakland’s school board is the first in the nation to move to disband its own police department. In May, the Minneapolis school district voted to cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department, which was providing school resources officers for the district.

“We are overwhelmed with emotion and filled with gratitude for this historic win,” BOP said in a written statement Wednesday. “We thank the Board for taking this monumental step, and the Black youth and parents, and community and administrative partners who fought with us to make this possible.”

According to the resolution, during the 2015–2016 school year, Black students made up 26% of OUSD students but 73% of arrests. Since 2016, there have been over 9,000 calls to police made on students. This kind of institutionalized policing in schools “has extremely significant consequences, foreclosing opportunities toward graduation, college, and employment for Oakland’s Black youth,” the resolution states.

“[…] The perpetuation of the school-to-prison pipeline is incompatible with our goal of creating safe, healthy, and equitable schools for all District students,” it continues.

The vote by the school board comes a day after the Oakland City Council voted to keep the budget for the Oakland Police Dept. largely intact, voting 5-1 to cut OPD’s budget by $2.5 million for the next fiscal year by delaying the start of a police academy.

Activists had been calling for a much more significant $25 million reduction in OPD’s budget and a reallocation of resources to the community.

Protests have occurred consistently in Oakland over the past several weeks as calls to defund the police and scale back police responsibilities have gained traction in the Bay Area.

Across the bay in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed announced earlier this month that San Francisco police officers would no longer respond to calls for service on non-criminal matters like those involving mental health, homelessness, school discipline and neighbor disputes.

Brandon Patterson

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

Published

1 day ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.