OAKLAND — A coalition of college households, educators and others has sued Oakland Unified Faculty District over its plan to shut, shrink or merge colleges, alleging that district leaders violated the California Environmental High quality Act (CEQA) as a result of it didn't analyze whether or not the plan will exacerbate “important environmental harms” to Black and Latino communities affected by the choice.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice for Oakland College students coalition this week in Alameda County Superior Courtroom, says the college district was required by CEQA to investigate the environmental impacts of the college closures, which it says will result in elevated visitors and air pollution, or to elucidate why the plan to shut colleges is exempt below that regulation.
College students who presently stroll or bike to their neighborhood colleges will now must commute, usually by automotive, the lawsuit explains. That would result in elevated visitors and worse air high quality within the the neighborhoods the place the scholars from closed colleges can be going.
The district “voted to shut these colleges in a course of that was rushed, not clear, and we now know, in violation of its obligations below CEQA, Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, a member of the coalition and Oakland mum or dad, mentioned in a written assertion. “OUSD wants to begin over in a considerate and lawful course of that protects not simply its college students however the East Oakland communities already affected by bronchial asthma and different well being points associated to air pollution and emissions earlier than closing neighborhood colleges that our households can stroll to.”
Azlinah Tambu, a mum or dad of youngsters at Parker Faculty, which is slated for closure, added, “some households don’t have transportation in any respect, so these youngsters can be strolling on streets that already weren’t secure and now can be worse.”
District spokesman John Sasaki declined to touch upon the lawsuit, citing the district’s coverage of not talking publicly about pending litigation.
When it accepted the closure plan, the college board cited a necessity to economize so it might spend money on higher programming for college students and better salaries for educators. It additionally mentioned the transfer would assist scale back a looming funds shortfall, since its funding has been unfold skinny working extra colleges per scholar than most different college districts in California.
However opponents of the college closure plan have blasted the college board for approving the plan with out additional evaluation of the impacts of college closures on college students’ wellbeing, notably in Black and Latino communities. After asserting which colleges have been on a listing for potential closure in January, the board accepted its plan lower than a month later.
Final month, the ACLU of Northern California filed a grievance with the California Division of Justice on behalf of the Justice For Oakland College students coalition, asking state Legal professional Basic Rob Bonta to research the board’s plan to shut colleges with out an fairness evaluation.
At six of the seven colleges slated for closure, Black college students are both the vast majority of these enrolled or are enrolled at the next share than throughout the district. Black college students make up a few fifth of scholars districtwide.
Equally, the lawsuit filed this week asks the court docket to require Oakland Unified to conduct an environmental
fairness evaluation to find out the influence of the closures on colleges that may take up the additional college students, that are principally in East Oakland.
This lawsuit hits the identical factors addressed within the ACLU grievance, mentioned Erin Bernstein, an lawyer representing the coalition.
“They only pushed this via on a really expedited foundation,” Bernstein mentioned in an interview Thursday, noting there was no actual evaluation of the racial fairness or the environmental impacts of the choice.
Whereas CEQA is introduced up extra usually in selections involving giant development developments, there's authorized precedent for its bearing on college closures.
In 2015, a California appellate court docket dominated that the Barstow Unified Faculty District’s determination to shut two colleges and switch the scholars to different colleges was not exempt from CEQA, because the district had claimed.