One week after thousands of people marched to protest massive budget cuts projected for education, Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Tony Smith shared his vision, strategies and needs at the Great Oakland Public Schools meeting Thursday night in Oakland. Speaking passionately to about 75 teachers, principals, education workers and community members, Smith asked the group to rethink and imagine Oakland Unified as a “full service community district.”

He said teachers will receive a letter today telling them who will and won’t be working next year due to the $85 million budget cuts. Smith acknowledged that Oakland teachers are woefully underpaid and said he is adamant about providing the best health care and keeping salaries from dropping further.  He said he supports a parcel tax that would provide money for teacher compensation if passed.

Smith said he wants to create a counter-narrative to kids hearing how bad they are, how bad their schools are, and how bad Oakland is.  He wants to create a more joyful learning experience and celebrate successes.

“We have assets, we’ve gotten used to the diminishing resources and the negatives of Oakland Unified, but not only do we have this extraordinary academic progress, we hold 500 acres in Oakland, bought over time, “ he said. “We have more than 100 schools, more than 5,000 employees, assets we can turn towards the public good, which hasn’t been done.”

The superintendent’s vision involves a holistic approach to progress. He wants the community to be the driving force in shaping the district, which is committed to focusing on what the public cares about. Smith’s goal includes not only high quality education in every neighborhood, but also high quality affordable housing, accessible healthcare and workforce development.

“We not only have school dependent children, but a district dependent city,” said Smith on March 11. 

Smith said he has great confidence that Oakland can achieve these ambitious goals based on the huge successes that have already been realized.

In the last eight months of community outreach, he said he was surprised to discover many people don’t know Oakland was the most improved urban school district in the state last year.  He thanked audience members for their work redesigning small schools and before- and after-school programs, which helped contribute to this triumph.

“That story gets pushed aside as soon as we start talking about youth violence, as soon as we start talking about the ways in which Oakland remains divided between race and class, is still a place where politics gets in the way of really taking personal responsibility for the things we care about and building alliances, “ he said.

Rousing applause met Smith’s announcement that the district just received a $400,000 California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program grant to do anti-gang work at Castlemont Community of Small Schools and Fremont Senior High School.

“We know that children are craving connection and community, we’re failing to give them that. We’re competing with the gangs for the well being of our children,” said Smith. “We are wasting lives. We have young people killing each other, not because they want to, but they don’t see other options. We’re adults, we have a responsibility to walk towards people, we belong to each other.  If we don’t take responsibility for being in relationship with one another and for walking towards children and helping them on a different path, we’ve failed. “

When asked how he would work with four schools named by the state Board of Education as persistently low-achieving schools, Smith criticized the list as “deeply flawed and inaccurate,” adding that it was “demoralizing” because the schools have made positive strides. He said the district will work with schools and families to build on the good work.

The schools that made the list, Alliance Academy, Elmhurst Prep, Roots Academy and United For Success Academy, are part of the Oakland small schools network. In 2006, the schools were converted from larger schools that performed below proficiency standards; they’ve only been tracked for three years. Yet one of the criteria for being placed on the list, according to officials, is for a school’s average test scores to gain less than 50 points over five years.

The schools have seen steady improvements in test scores in three years, officials said, but still fell short of the 800-point scale that’s deemed proficient.

Smith asked Matt Duffy, former principal of Elmhurst Community Prep Middle School in East Oakland, and current network executive officer for the district, to address the group. Duffy had testified Thursday before the Board of Education about the faults in the formula to determine which schools are “lowest achieving.” He also requested, based on their age, that the schools be removed from the list so they don’t face restructuring. 

“How can a school be persistently failing when it hasn’t been persistently open?” asked Duffy, who led Elmhurst Middle School while creating the smaller Elmhurst Community Prep under its auspices.

Smith was asked why no high schools landed on the list; he said the state exempts schools that have fewer than 100 10th-graders’ test scores for three years running. In Oakland, the majority of high schools don't have enough students to meet this criterion. (Only half a dozen Oakland high schools are large enough to be counted.)

"Sadly," Smith said, 12 to 14 of Oakland’s high schools would have been on the list if they were larger.

Being on list would allow the schools to qualify for federal money, said district spokesman Troy Flint. But the funds would bring with them a number of guidelines and restrictions.

Tilden Elementary School, Explorer Middle School,  BEST High School and Robeson School of Visual and Performing Arts will close next fall. Over the next few years, Smith will close about 25 more. Oakland has about 18,000 fewer students than it did in 1999.

The audience met Smith with thunderous applause when he said he’ll create a position in his office called “Chief of African American Male Achievement” to address the fact that only four in 10 black males graduate from city schools.

Until we focus our energy and are relentless about what’s not working, Smith said, nothing will change.

“We’re going to invest in, create and share practices that make a big difference,” he said. “And you know what? They’re going to be some people who have strong opinions about that, both positive and negative, but under my leadership and where we’re headed, the pattern of achievement we have right now is unacceptable. And I don’t think we’ll interrupt that unless we get serious about it.”

Smith will be in Washington, DC, with the Council of the Great City Schools on March 20 to learn more about the Investing in Innovation grant. He’ll pursue it for the district in partnership with other local and national community redesign groups.

He pointed out that the suspension of Proposition 98 is illegal and that our state government says they can change it, even though California voters passed it to provide money for education. Prop 98, a minimum funding law designed to protect money for education, was passed in 1988. He said community shouldn’t just be asking “for some back,” but for much more, “to give us what is legally and morally just.”

“The effect of inequity accumulates over generations and over institutions,” Smith said. “And if we continue to gut our public institutions that care most for kids in high need, we will see a bifurcated society and the destruction of the democracy.”

Smith in January discussing California's new education reform laws on KPIX