Features

On Friday afternoon of last week, apparently without warning to Burbank administrators, workers from the Oakland Unified School District’s central office demolished a portable building and the mural that had decorated it for several years. The work was done in full view of students present for after-school activities. State Administrator Randolph Ward said later that the portable had long been scheduled for demolition, and its destruction had nothing to do with the possible pending closure school.  

Burbank is one of five Oakland schools tentatively slated to be closed down next June by Ward, who has been running the Oakland school system since it was taken over by the state last year. 

An ad hoc group of parents organized to save the school issued a release stating that “young students and teachers arrived [at Burbank] Monday morning to find the ruins of their buildings still on the playground, with huge trucks and equipment finishing off the remains. Children and adults alike were devastated and disoriented by the inexplicable disappearance of their school buildings. The children are asking if the rest of the school will be torn down around them.” 

Following a Monday evening meeting, a group of Burbank teachers passed out a leaflet noting that “earlier in the week [that the portable was destroyed], people came from the District offices to Burbank and without notice, visited classrooms with video cameras and note pads and started recording teachers’ equipment, supplies and inventory as a part of the closure process. The combination of both events and the fact that there was no notification of either resulted in the teachers feeling more than frustrated with the lack of knowledge about what’s going on.” 

Ward has said that a final decision on the closing of Burbank and the four other schools is still under consideration.›