Teachers, parents & students fight to stop school closings

While some parents got some good news on Feb. 11, most of the over 800 parents and children who attended the school closure meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) did not. The school board voted to close four schools this year and four schools next year. Parents, teachers and students are outraged.

A protest to stop school closings organized by the United Teachers of Richmond (a local union of the California Teachers Association) ended with more than 800 community members marching into the Richmond Civic Auditorium chanting, “Save our schools!”

WW photo: Judy Greenspan

An hour-long public comment period brought up speaker after speaker who demanded that no schools be closed. Otheree Christian, president of the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council, summed up the sentiment in the room when he said, “We don’t want any of our schools to close.” Christian urged the audience to “make some noise if you want a better future for our kids!”

Jovanka Beckles, a concerned resident of Richmond, challenged the school board when she said, “You cannot balance the budget on the backs of our children.”

Many of the speakers called on the school board to join the struggle to bail out the schools. One speaker, Lisa Salinas, called upon the board to tell Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, “We won’t take it anymore.”

Christy Thomas from the UTR asked, “If you close our neighborhood schools, where will the children go? You say that teachers won’t lose their jobs, but we know they will.”

A promise of funding from the city of Richmond took several Richmond schools off the chopping block about a week before the school board meeting. The city is contributing $3 million over two years to keep three other schools open. Shannon Elementary School in Pinole was removed from next year’s closure list after the mayor of that city promised to come up with some funding.

However, the reprieve is only for two years. Dr. Bruce Harter, WCCUSD superintendent, is pessimistic about schools like Kennedy High School remaining open past the 2009-2010 school year. Kennedy has a well-deserved reputation of sending more African-American students to four-year universities than any other high school in the Bay Area.

The Feb. 11 school closure meeting was the culmination of over two months of public hearings, school board meetings and community gatherings. The United Teachers of Richmond, concerned parents, students and community activists let the board know that they will continue to fight the school closings.

This writer is a teacher in the West Contra Costa Unified School District.