The Reparations Resolution

WHEREAS, the Oakland Unified School District (“OUSD” or “the District”) has a responsibility to promote the healthy development of each one of its students, which includes protecting them from systemic racism and violence to the greatest extent possible while they are at school, and

WHEREAS, the OUSD Board (“the Board”) adopted Board Policy 5032 (“the Equity Policy”) to “interrupt patterns of institutional bias” within OUSD and defined equity as “providing students what they need to achieve at the highest possible level” in order to eliminate opportunity gaps between student demographic groups, including Black or African American students (referred collectively herein as “Black students”), and

WHEREAS, the 2018-19 state measures of academic progress, including chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate, and academic outcomes (which includes performance in English language arts/literacy and mathematics) for Black students mark the sixth consistent year of documented disproportionality of growth for Black students compared to other demographic subgroups, and

WHEREAS, the African American student subgroup is identified as a population on the California Schools Dashboard for which the District has not successfully implemented local strategies to generate student growth, and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the 2020 settlement of the Ella T. v. State of California lawsuit in which almost a dozen OUSD elementary schools have been identified as schools with significant populations of Black students who have not achieved literacy standards by grade level, and

WHEREAS, Black students represent 22% of all OUSD students but 57% of all suspended students, and the 33% of Black students with Special Education Individualized Education Plans (“IEP’s”) who are nine times more likely to be suspended than other students, and

WHEREAS, for the 2020-21 budget adoption cycle, OUSD changed they way it allocated Local Control Funding Formula (“LCFF”) Concentration dollars through use of an “Equity Index” which penalized schools with more than 50% Black students, causing significant strain on the school based investments available to support Black students, and

WHEREAS, OUSD has struggled with the recruitment, development and retention of Black educators, a proven strategy to raise academic success of Black students, and

WHEREAS, OUSD passed Resolution No. 1920-0260, entitled the “George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Police Department”, which calls for eliminating OUSD police and redirecting resources toward student safety supports, as designated in the community driven safety plan created by the Black Organizing Project (“BOP”), and

WHEREAS, OUSD seeks to ensure that Black Students are ready for College and Career, and

WHEREAS, OUSD seeks to take immediate action to stop and repair the harm to Black children and families caused by decades of structural racism and also by the differential impact of COVID-19 on Black communities by creating a targeted plan to monitor and invest federal, state, county and local funds for Black Students and for Thriving Community Schools in Black communities, and

WHEREAS, as a result of OUSD’s structures and practices, including over-policing, overidentification for special education services, school closures and charter co-locations in majority black schools and communities, disruptions caused by creating and dissolving new schools, both small schools and charter schools, which has also fueled the gentrification and displacement of Black communities, the District’s Black or African American student population has precipitously declined over the last twenty years from 25,540 in 2000-01 to just 8,314 in 2019-20, and

WHEREAS, OUSD acknowledges that student education happens not just in traditional classrooms, but also through a wide range of services which support the whole child, and that the individualized and small group provision of academic, mental health and special education services is an integral part of how schools are used in service of students and should be included in our utilization calculations, and

WHEREAS, the administrative regulations (5 CCR §§ 11969 et seq.) for Education Code §47614 (hereafter referred to as “Prop 39”) governing charter school co-locations have not been updated in more than ten years, despite the fact that charter school growth has exploded in OUSD and co-locations under Prop 39 have resulted in the harmful displacement of Black children from classrooms into closets, and

WHEREAS, research demonstrates that providing targeted resources to specified students directly correlates to improving outcomes and narrowing the opportunity gap for those students

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Board of Education (“Board”) directs the Superintendent to take all steps necessary to eliminate the Black Student opportunity gap across all schools by 2026 and work with the City of Oakland, County of Alameda, and other philanthropic and community partners to secure resources and funding to implement the initiatives, as set forth in this Resolution; 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board directs the Superintendent to take the following emergency actions immediately to address the disproportionate impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, to wit:

(1) create an Emergency Fund for Black Students and their families hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, funded by available resources included raised funds, to cover the payment of back rent owed, to ensure that Black Students are not displaced from their homes, negatively impacting their ability to learn, and

(2) prioritize, in OUSD’s role as a core partner of the Oakland Undivided campaign, all OUSD Black students, regardless of socio-economic status, as a highest priority applicant for the approval, assignment and distribution of Chromebooks and functional hot spots, beginning immediately and continuing as needed, to close the Black digital divide.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Board directs the Superintendent to establish a Black Student and Families Thriving Task Force (“Task Force”), not later than June 9, 2021, comprised of Black Students, caregivers, community members, educators and members of the Black Working Group of the Justice for Oakland Students Coalition, representatives from District compliance committees such as CAC, LCAP PSAC, CEEBSE, reporting directly to the Superintendent, that will guide and monitor the establishment and implementation of this Resolution, and take the following steps to develop a Black Student Thriving Plan which includes the following:

(1) The development of, not later than January 1, 2022, a set of Black Thriving Indicators (“Indicators”) that OUSD and its schools would use to set goals and measure success,

(2) the Task Force shall examine existing District programs and initiatives targeted to engage and increase the success of Black Students, families, and teachers and, where possible and appropriate, will integrate that work into the task force proposals and align both sets of work where indicated,

(3) the Superintendent or their designee shall, as part of the proposed Literacy Initiative and Curriculum adoption, do the following:

(a) include members of the Task Force, to ensure a community driven process of curriculum selection which will accelerate literacy development in Black Students to achieve targets to be identified by the Task Force, which targets will be met not later than November 2023,

(b) the Task Force shall review, prior to adoption, the recommendations of the Superintendent or her cabinet for the Literacy Initiative and Curriculum to determine whether the proposed changes in programming meet the needs for the literacy development of Black Students as set forth in this resolution and make recommendations as needed to identify the deficiencies to be addressed, and

(c) the Superintendent shall select, based on this community informed process, a culturally relevant, research-based curriculum which currently includes Black studies, or will agree to update and fund any selected materials not meeting this standard by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, in partnership with the Task Force, and the funding for these updated materials must be identified and reserved prior to the adoption and purchase of the original curriculum, and

(4) As soon as feasible and not later than January 1, 2022, the Taskforce shall present to the Board and Superintendent a Black Student Thriving Plan that sets criteria for the continuous monitoring of all OUSD schools with 10 or more Black or African American students enrolled (by annual census date or thereafter) to determine whether academic and socioemotional resources are effectively creating Black Student Academic Growth and Achievement, including distributions as needed from the publicly and privately raised resources included in the Black Thriving Fund, as defined below;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Board directs the Superintendent to immediately establish a new revenue account entitled the Black Thriving Fund and OUSD, with the Task Force, will:

(1) Develop and implement a fundraising plan to resource the Black Student Thriving Plan and other elements necessary to for implementation of this Resolution, and

(2) Code targeted resources from LCFF, Title I, Title II, Alameda County Office of Education, and other public and private sources which will be used to fund the Plan as part of the Black Thriving Fund, and will ensure that these funds are used ONLY to implement the Black Student Thriving Plan, and

(3)Discontinue the use of the anti-Black Equity Funding Formula that disproportionately harmed schools with significant percentages of Black Students, and establish in its place a “Racial Equity Funding Formula” that takes into account the needs of Black Students across the district and across designations,

(4) Recommend how resources are invested from the Black Thriving Fund for additional learning support, both virtually (during the pandemic) and in person when schools have been safely reopened in full, for Black Students and their families to receive consistent support in the areas of credit recovery, post- secondary preparation, job training, literacy and social emotional learning and further provide wrap-around services for youth and their families in the college and career matriculation process, and

(5) Ensure that the Emergency Fund established above will be included as a sub-fund of the Black Thriving Fund;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Board agrees to identify and invest in Historically Black Schools, defined as an OUSD school with 40% or more of African American students enrolled in 2020-21 and transform them into Black Thriving Community Schools, with available wrap-around services and supports needed to achieve the thriving indicators developed by the Task Force to ensure that Black Students thrive;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board directs the Superintendent to conduct an equity impact analysis, not later than September 30, 2021, of the existing “Utilization Formula,” particularly as to the disproportionate impacts on Black Students and Historically Black Schools;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board directs the Superintendent or designee to work with the Task Force to develop an equity impact analysis of any proposed closures, mergers or consolidations of OUSD schools, prior to any vote on school changes pursuant to the Blueprint for Quality Schools. In addition, the Board will ensure that the engagement criteria set forth in Board Resolution 19-0481 are followed;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board directs the following additional steps to be taken to implement this Resolution:

(1) The Superintendent, in consultation with the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education (“CAC”) and local disability advocacy and disability justice organizations:

(a) set goals that are supportive of the needs of Black Students with
dis/abilities and that value the dis/ability experiences of Black Students
and their families, especially those with the most intensive needs, and

(b) contract with a community-based organization, in partnership with the Regional Center of the East Bay, to provide professional advocacy services and training to families and caregivers of Black children with IEPs to ensure
Black Students with dis/abilities thrive in OUSD,

(2) The Board shall adopt and include the legislative priorities created by the CAC and submitted to the Board in January 2021,

(3)The Superintendent shall continue to implement the terms of the George Floyd Resolution to end anti-Black discriminatory discipline practices and reinvest in restorative practices and other alternatives to suspensions, in accordance with the community-derived BOP’s People’s Plan, and in alignment with this Resolution,

(4) The Board and the Superintendent shall advocate for and participate in the development of a citywide “birth to kinder” plan to increase, stabilize, and sustain the access of Black Students and families to early education including resources and services that support early family engagement and training for Black parents and guardians, and

(5) The Superintendent shall initiate a workforce development initiative by August 1, 2021 that increases the cultural competence of all Board members, administrators, educators, staff, and school communities by providing regular training on anti-Black racism, Black healing-centered practices and how to embed Black studies in all classrooms in order to increase the skill and knowledge of the district to ensure that Black Students are thriving;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the board directs the Superintendent to create a publicly-available transparency dashboard which monitors the Black Thriving Fund expenditures as well as the progress of each site’s planning, implementation and success with the Black Student Thriving Plan, and will further provide the Board with a quarterly update on the progress of Black Students in OUSD, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that OUSD will direct the Superintendent to include this Plan within the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan to increase and maintain the necessary mandated infrastructures and resources to develop the engagement, leadership and decision making power of Black students, Black families and communities. These infrastructures and resources will ensure ongoing engagement in district wide and school site strategies to improve the academic and socio-emotional development of Black Students and to achieve annual targeted growth within the California School Dashboard or equivalent monitoring tools for Local Control Funding Formula, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Board directs the Superintendent to include in the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan the creation of a recruitment and retention plan for Black teachers and Black school leaders that meaningfully develops their capacity through implementation of competitive salaries and benefits, professional training, coaching and mentorship, and opportunities for growth.

PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Board of Education of the Oakland Unified School District this 24th day of March, 2021, by the following vote:

 PREFERENTIAL ABSTENTION: Student Director Samantha Pal and Student Director Jessica Ramos

 AYES: Aimee Eng, Gary Yee, Vice President Benjamin “Sam” Davis, President Shanthi Gonzales

 NOES: Mike Hutchinson

 ABSTAINED: Vancedric Williams, Clifford Thompson