OUR DEMANDS

• Design a community informed plan for a safe and healthy return to school prioritizing Black students and their families as the hardest hit by the covid-19 pandemic. Work with other county agencies to bring economic relief to Oakland’s Black and vulnerable families.
• Commit to closing the Black digital divide that disproportionately limits access to information and resources to Black families. Provide all students with the technology and equipment they need to access information and learning resources during and beyond Covid-19.
• End the Schools to Prison pipeline and implement the Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for police-free schools. End discriminatory discipline practices and disproportionate expulsions and suspensions of Black students.
• Stop school closures and co-locations of charter schools at in-district schools. Especially at schools with high percentages of Black students. Create and invest in a new cohort of ‘historically Black’ schools (that are currently being targeted for closure).
• Stop using the new ‘anti-Black’ equity formula that unfairly cuts from schools with high percentages of Black students. Undo the harm by restoring concentration funds, as well as any lost clerical staff or Assistant Principals that were taken away at those schools.

We demand a new aspirational vision and a multi-million dollar reparations fund for the remaining 8,314 Black students in OUSD to thrive.

• Establish a Black Thriving Fund that brings targeted resources and opportunities (at the scale needed to dismantle anti-Black racism) to secure a just and equitable education for Black students. Use existing and new resources including LCFF and stimulus dollars, fundraising from multiple sources, partnering with the state, city and county, passing Schools and Communities First, etc.

• Create a real Racial Equity Formula that takes into account all of the historic and current factors impacting Black communities (across designations of Foster Care, Homelessness, Special Education etc..)
• Adopt a community-defined Black Thriving Index to establish the needs of Black students, and set goals, outcomes and indicators for the district and schools to be held accountable to and measure progress towards Black thriving.
• Establish a Black Thriving Governance body that represents the voices of Black students, parents, families, communities and has the power to monitor the implementation of targeted plans and resources for Black thriving. Ensure that Black youth and Black family leaders are integrated into all district, city and county committees that monitor the ongoing implementation of these demands.

During the pandemic, Community Schools have become essential to Black families serving as hubs for much needed resources and support. A new deeper investment in the community schools model must center the needs of Black students and families and provide wrap-around services. To ensure that these schools center the needs of Black students and families we demand that OUSD:

• Invest in Black Family Engagement by increasing opportunities to participate in decision making at the school and district levels.
• Ensure that Black Students are ready for College, Career and Civic Leadership by providing resources for Black students to successfully obtain career training and complete A-G requirements.
• Dramatically increase the literacy rates of Black students across all grades by creating a city-wide literacy campaign for Black students starting Summer 2020.
• Prioritize resources for Black Academic Growth and Achievement by conducting an assessment of how the district uses LCAP funds to address the academic and socio-emotional needs of Black students across various designations.
• Prioritize resources (facilities bond monies) to ensure that Black students in Alternative Education classes, programs and schools can thrive by funding a hub that supports the youth and their families.
• Prioritize resources to create anti-Black racist cultures of belonging and  increase the cultural competence of our educators, staff and their school communities to center Black Thriving.
• Resource and ensure that all Black families have access to pre-K early education including resources and services that support early family engagement.
• Provide professional advocacy services to Black families who have children with IEPs.
• Recruit and retain Black teachers and Black school leaders by meaningfully supporting and investing in them.