Duration

 It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. - Fun Boy Three

A number of my loyal readers and friends who don't have time to keep track of the goings-on of the Oakland Unified School District have asked me: "Are they still closing your school?"

The simple answer is "yes." The powers that be have us scheduled to be here for one more (school) year, and then we will all, students, staff, families, be scattered to the winds. Horace Mann Elementary will be on its way to being a memory in a year. This puts us squarely in the "lame duck" portion of our campaign. While we work to rally support among the community and spread the message that we will not go quietly, there are still those who look askance as if to say, "Oh, you're still open?" 

Yes, even now, we are preparing our kids to face the barrage of year-ending cumulative assessments. Standardized testing in an environment that is filled with bigger questions like, "Where will I go to school next year?" and "Will I still be with my friends?" There's no standardized answer for those questions. 

And what about the biggest one: Is the school really going to close? As a hopeful member of the staff who has had his eternal optimism tested on a regular basis by the arcane directions of a district that often to be rudderless and adrift on the seas of education, I want to believe there will be some sort of peaceful resolution to this conflict. Over the past few months since the announcement was made, the stages of grief have been negotiated and a prickly version of acceptance has set in. What still hasn't settled in is the way we were told that the place we work and live out our professional lives while attempting to instill a sense of safety and comfort to our young charges could be abandoned like a fast food franchise that couldn't meet its rent. 

It wasn't brought to us as a concern a year ago. We were never asked, as a staff, how we felt about the potential of having to uproot from our workplace and all the relationships we have fostered over these many years. Parents were not consulted or encouraged to comment about a fiscal crisis that the school board insists has no other recourse but to close schools. All comments were embarrassing afterthoughts to a decision that had come down from on high. There are no choices. These have been made for you. Exacerbating an already untenable position, parents are being called by district personnel asking what school they would like their children to attend next year. "You know that school is closing," they confide. "Not for another year," insist our most loyal customers: Our parents. 

But if the issue is declining enrollment, how can it do anything but make that situation even worse by calling to poach the students we do have. What might happen if the district had put this same effort into calling parents to encourage them our way a year ago when we were first returning to in-person instruction? Did anyone offer to come by from the central office to help us enroll some of the students who were siphoned off by charter schools in the area? How about if our school board member offered to sit down with a group of our parents and teachers to discuss what might happen to us all if the school was closed?

Those don't seem like radical or ridiculous suggestions. And yet, our insistence that we try and keep our school open is. So the answer is, currently, our school is open. Depending on to whom you are speaking, that will stay true. But for how long?