26-02-2025
Multiple Oakland charter schools facing closures once the school year ends
OAKLAND — Multiple Oakland charter schools could close after this school year, which would impact more than 1,500 students.
There would be five closures, and it includes high schools, elementary, and middle schools as well as Oakland's only public Montessori school.
Joaquima Dyer sends both her kids to Urban Montessori Charter School, but she lives in Vallejo.
"Even though it's a 70-mile round drive, it's totally worth it," said Dyer.
Dyer said it's the only school that has worked well for her son. He has autism and ADHD.
"By the time he had moved to this school, halfway through first grade, he had already been to four schools," said Dyer. "Think about that, in a year and a half, he had been to four schools because people didn't understand him."
He is now in third grade, and her daughter is in first grade.
"Self-esteem, my son's self-esteem was rock bottom," said Dyer about life before Urban Montessori. "He would say some really alarming things about feeling like he didn't deserve to live, and he always let people down all the time, and to hear a 5 or 6-year-old say something like that is pretty alarming."
The Alameda County Office of Education denied renewing Urban Montessori's charter because of higher-than-average chronic absences and low test scores.
Head of School Daniel Bissonnette said that's partly because the Montessori philosophy is different, focused on a child-centered education and not test scores.
"We have multi-age classrooms, and they look very different from a traditional class, so we're the only offering in Oakland," said Bissonnette. We're pretty proud of that."
Bissonnette said that teachers evaluate kids by watching how they interact with their classmates, how they engage with the materials, and by talking with them.
"Students work independently, there's a lot of choice in what they work on," said Bissonnette. "Where they work. Who they're working with."
He said it allows kids to work at their own pace and be more successful. Both his children attend the school.
He was devastated when the ACOE denied their charter, but they aren't planning to appeal. Now, he's trying to see if the Oakland Unified School District can bring the Montessori model to an in-district school.
"We've been trying to work with OUSD for several years around bringing Montessori into the district. There's a lot of obstacles in that process, but I think right now there's definitely some more momentum to build more Montessori schools in Oakland."
He said he is cautiously optimistic despite the fact that OUSD has announced plans to merge 10 schools into five for the 2025-26 school year.
Dyer said, for families like hers, with neurodivergent students, the Montessori method has become a necessity and that some of the children who currently attend the school won't thrive in a traditional environment.
"We need this school, or some sort of iteration of this school," she said.
Some Montessori parents are still urging the ACOE to reconsider their vote for a two-year provisional renewal.
This year, four other Oakland charter schools are facing closures.
OUSD denied charter renewal for American Indian Public Charter school, Leadership Public Schools Oakland R&D, and Oakland Charter High School. All those schools plan to appeal the decision.
The Alameda County Office of Education oversees Aurum Preparatory Academy. They chose not to pursue renewal at all.
