Activism

Protests Surge as District Moves to Close Black and Latino Schools

This Saturday, there will be a rally for members of Oakland communities and affected school communities to fight against the closures beginning at 10 a.m. at Prescott Elementary at 920 Campbell St. in West Oakland. Prescott, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019, is one of the predominately Black schools facing closure in June. The school community has pushed back against the district for years as central office administrators tried to suppress the school’s enrollment, urging families not to enroll their children at the school.

Published

4 years ago

February 12, 2022

Oakland Post

Day 8 of a hunger strike continues as Oakland Unified School Board is slated to take a vote Tuesday on a controversial proposal to close 16 schools. (Video: ABC 7)

By Ken Epstein

More than 2,000 outraged teachers, parents and community members attended a Zoom school board meeting Monday evening to speak out against the closures, consolidations and mergers of 15 predominately Black and Latino schools this year and next year.

Some Oakland schools facing closure this year are (From top, clockwise): Prescott, Horace Mann, Brookfield, Westlake, La Escuelita and Grass Valley. Photos courtesy of OUSD.

The meeting lasted until 3 a.m., with hardly a speaker supporting the closures, as hundreds of speakers opposed these draconian measures, demanding that school and community voices not be ignored. The board majority, led by Board members Gary Yee and Shanthi Gonzales, may be hoping to avoid prolonged protests by rushing to a vote at a special board meeting next Tuesday, Feb. 8 to finalize the closing of the schools in June.

Only Board members VanCedric Williams and Mike Hutchinson are opposing the closures.

This week’s Board meeting may have witnessed the largest turnout at a school board meeting since 2003 when State Receiver Randy Ward took over the reins of the school district and announced he was unilaterally closing about 25 schools.

At that time, thousands filled the street in front of the administration building and packed the hallways and boardroom, forcing terrified overseers to significantly reduce the numbers of schools on the chopping block.

The affected schools are now mobilizing their communities and reaching out to broader communities in Oakland. On Tuesday, Westlake Middle School students and staff walked out and marched to the district headquarters at 1000 Broadway, where several Westlake staff had started a hunger strike. Families, teachers, and students at La Escuelita also walked out and marched to the district office.

Prescott, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019, is one of the predominately Black schools facing closure in June. The school community has pushed back against the district for years as central office administrators tried to suppress the school’s enrollment, urging families not to enroll their children at the school.

The school board and the district administration, while turning a deaf ear to the community, is seeking to satisfy the demands of the Alameda County Superintendent of Schools L. Karen Monroe and state-financed nonprofit agency, Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT), which are demanding school closures and as much as $90 million in budget cuts.

FCMAT made its position clear in a Jan. 4 letter, which was sent to the district, calling for “affirmative board action to continue planning for, and timely implementation of, a school and facility closure and consolidation plan that supports the sale or lease of surplus property.”

Some activists point out that Oakland schools are caught in a vicious cycle at the hands of the state, Monroe and FCMAT. Saying the district was in fiscal crisis, the state and its representatives moved in and took over in 2003 and since then has never left.

While some hold out hopes that officials will someday be satisfied with the endless cuts and closures the state is demanding, it appears they don’t ever plan to give up their behind-the-scenes power over Oakland schools, say school observers.

School activists are also asking how the district can achieve the elusive goal of “fiscal stability” as long as these officials are the ones running OUSD’s finances and continuously moving the goalposts of the nebulous standards of fiscal health.

Since FCMAT arrived in 2003, it has been pushing for closing schools, according to observers of the school district. At first, FCMAT did not justify closures as a way to save money. They said there was a state formula for how much real estate a district should have per student at elementary, middle school, and high school levels — and the district was not aligned with this state formula.

In this writer’s experience, the story was going around the school district administration building in 2003 that there was a plan to transform the district of 58,000 students and over 100 schools into a district that was small enough “to fit in your hands.”

That’s when the rush began to bring charter schools into Oakland, reducing the public school student population by over 13,000 and placing more than 40 charters in the city, costing the district an estimated $57 million a year.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Protests Save 7 Oakland Schools; Board Moves Ahead to Close or Merge 11 Others

Don't Miss

Voting Error Leads to 6-Year Prison Sentence for Black Woman in Tennessee

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

1 week ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.