After Outcry, Oakland Softens Turnaround Schedule for Five Failing Schools

By Doug Oakley
doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com
Published January 2015
OAKLAND -- School officials are giving five failing schools the option to delay turnaround efforts announced in December after a series of tense community meetings this month highlighted fears of charter takeovers and school closures. 

Last month, the school district issued an open call to school administrators, community groups and charters to submit turnaround plans at the five schools with an April deadline and a relaunch of the schools in August 2016. 

Now the district is offering a second, optional timeline with a proposal deadline between July and October and with a school restart in August 2017. 

"The advantage of timeline two is that it does provide more time to process the information and develop proposals," said schools spokesman Troy Flint. "The downside is that it delays for another year the introduction of a new and improved school that has been developed with community input." 

Following the Dec. 19 announcement, teachers bristled at the idea of losing jobs and allowing charter organizations to submit plans. Students worried their schools would be closed or changed. 

McClymonds High School, Fremont High School, Castlemont High School, Brookfield Elementary School and Frick Middle School were targeted for turnaround based on falling enrollment and poor academic ratings, school officials said. 

Schools Superintendent Antwan Wilson referenced the slower time line during a Jan. 14 school board meeting that featured numerous denunciations of the plan by students and adults. 

"We want to do a better job at communicating," Wilson said. "I didn't fully appreciate how much people need to be told on the front end. But we are focused on the fact that this process will involve community engagement." 

Part of his reasoning for including charters in the process is to be open to all possibilities for creating quality schools, Wilson said. Charters in Oakland have a better high school graduation rate, 72 percent, than schools under direct control of the school district, which have a 67 percent graduation rate. 

"You have to be open from the beginning to consider all possibilities and keep quality as our north star," Wilson said at the Jan. 14 school board meeting as he was interrupted by catcalls and boos. "The majority of our schools are district-run schools, and that will continue to be the case. And we can't arrive at final solutions absent community engagement." 

Easing fears 

James Harris, the newly named president of the school board, sought to ease fears about charters taking over Oakland public schools and to acknowledge the troubled seven-year program starting in 2000 that divided large schools into smaller ones only to have some of them changed back again with no support from the central office. 

"This piece about charter schools, don't trip on that," Harris told a group at McClymonds High School on Jan. 13. "If you don't want charter, say 'I don't want charter' and I will hear you. Let that be your truth. Don't get it twisted. If you don't want charter, I want to ask you to make something much better." 

Harris said he understands that people don't trust Oakland's school leaders, whose schools have a 21 percent dropout rate, and he wants to change it. 

"I get it as a citizen and I understand when you say 'I do not trust Oakland Unified,'" Harris said at the school board meeting. "But there is new blood, new membership, new people working to gain your trust. This is not top down. This is not us telling you what to do." 

Gloria McNeal, a parent at McClymonds who attended the school, as did her mother, said she'd rather not have a charter school take its place. 

"I don't think we need a charter here," McNeal said. "I do understand they want to make McClymonds a better school. And I'm hopeful they do the right thing." 

McClymonds parent Misty Cross said she feels cynical and distrustful about the process, but she does want something different. 

"I honestly feel they already have a plan without us," Cross said at the meeting at the school. "I'm open to a charter. If its for the kids, I'm for it." 

Following Denver's example 

Cross said she wanted to know how Oakland's new Chief of Schools, Allen Smith, carried out a 2010 turnaround of 11 schools at Denver Public Schools that she had heard about "and was it sustained." 

At the time, Smith worked for Wilson who was an assistant superintendent there. According to a 2011 presentation to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the program was mostly successful. 

Of 11 schools in the turnaround effort from 2010 to 2011, all but three had increased enrollment. Denver school district documents show turnarounds were different for each school. In some, principals and staff were dismissed, a new academic plan was put in place, and the school restarted. In others, schools were closed and restarted with two, three or four schools in their place. The district ended up with 16 new schools, three of them new charters, documents show. 

"And after the first year, all of them met or exceeded state standards," Smith said. "It has been called the most successful turnaround effort in the nation." 

In Denver, Smith said he used five "pillars" as standards for improving each school, including extended teaching time during the day, individualized math tutoring, building a college-going culture, using data to drive academic program decisions, and investing in "human capital." 

"But in Oakland, we want to pick pillars that are unique to Oakland," Smith said. 

He said initially, each Oakland school administration slated for a turnaround will be given $12,000 to hire proposal and letter-of-intent writers. Letters of intent to turnaround the schools are due March 12 for those schools that want to move quickly. 

After a plan is approved by Wilson and the school board and a new school opens, the district will stick around with intensive support for the next three years, Smith said. 

"Those are the most critical years in the transformation," he said. "The first year we look at culture and school climate. The second year we go deeper in construction of the program. The third year is for tweaking and the fourth is full build-out." 

Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney, who attended the McClymonds meeting, pleaded with the sometimes hostile crowd to give Wilson and his staff a chance. 

"We should hold open the possibility that this is not the same old same old," McElhaney said. "What I'm hearing the district say is they want this community to write down what you see is the best way to educate the kids. Lets hold open the possibility that this superintendent is sincere, and he wants the best for our kids." 

Differing schools concepts 

Steve Jubb, the former executive director of Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, led a seven-year effort ending in 2007 in Oakland schools to break large schools into smaller ones and give students a choice which school to attend. He said the program showed promise in the first few years but then it lost steam as new superintendents came and went without supporting the 48 new schools that were created. 

McClymonds was one of those. In 2005, it split into three schools only to be switched back to one in 2010. 

"In concept, Wilson's plan is not a bad idea," Jubb said. "But here's the problem. The big mistakes districts make is they look at the stats and say, 'This is outrageous and we're going to do something about this,' and they push reform before they have consensus. You have to make sure the community who articulated the need for these schools stays close. That takes a lot of maintenance." 

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