For nearly 20 years, the Oakland Unified School District has paid the consequences of relying on the state to bail it out of financial trouble. During that time, it has slashed the budget, cut salaries, laid off staff and closed schools, as it tries to repay a $100 million emergency loan it borrowed in 2003, when the district fell under state receivership. And the cuts keep coming — with 11 schools set to close, merge or downsize in the next…
Around 60 people attended a town hall meeting Monday at Parker K-8 to discuss ways to save that school and six others that the Oakland Unified School District board has decided to close in the next two years. Most of the parents, teachers and students at the meeting were from Parker, which is set to close at the end of this school year, and La Escuelita TK-8, which will lose its middle school grades in 2023. A divided school board…