OAKLAND -- Parents and students from Oakland's Santa Fe Elementary School have filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court to prevent the closure of their school.
Santa Fe is one of five Oakland elementary schools which the Oakland school board voted to close at the end of the school year as part of a plan to downsize the district. More than half of the 130-some students currently in grades K-4 were placed at Emerson or Sankofa, elementary schools about a mile away, according to Oakland Unified.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, from the firm Siegel & Yee, claim that the closure violates the rights of North Oakland African-American students to an equitable education; that the school board is wasting public money by closing the school, which recently underwent improvements; and that the school board failed to consider the cumulative impact of closing five schools in North Oakland during the last eight years.
Last week, the school board approved a plan to lease the Santa Fe building to the Emery Unified School District for $500,000 a year.