Oakland school closures impact Black, Latino families

10-26-2011

By Dani McClain/New America Media

Daaimah Waqia passes four elementary schools on the way to take her 9-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter to Lakeview Elementary, a K-5 school near Oakland’s Lake Merritt. When her family moved to the Fruitvale neighborhood in the city two years ago, Waqia didn’t even bother surveying her new neighborhood for options. She knew she wanted her son to stay at Lakeview and her daughter to begin her education there. “We know everybody. The principal, the staff know my child,” said Waqia, speaking during a recent school board meeting to stop the impending closure of Lakeview and four other elementary schools in the city. “It’s truly a village, and that’s extremely important.” Waqia and her family were among the hundreds of people who gathered on Oct. 12 in an effort to convince the Oakland Unified School Board to reverse its plan to close these schools before the start of next school year. (more...)

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