{"id":363876,"date":"2026-06-17T05:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T05:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:43:36","slug":"ousd-vowed-reparations-for-black-students-five-years-ago-but-the-promise-remains-unfulfilled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363876\/","title":{"rendered":"OUSD vowed reparations for Black students five years ago, but the promise remains unfulfilled"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was first published in The Mercury News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Pecolia Manigo\u2019s eldest daughter lost out on a $20,000 scholarship after a breakdown over a grade dispute, Manigo heard more than one family\u2019s frustration with a school system.<\/p>\n

She heard the harm she had spent years trying to prevent.<\/p>\n

As a co-chair of Oakland Unified School District\u2019s original Black Thriving Task Force, Manigo had helped build an unprecedented framework aimed at repairing the harms Black parents and community leaders say the district has inflicted on generations of Black students. Now, five years after OUSD pledged to pursue reparations for Black students, Manigo says her own children are still feeling the consequences of a promise that fell through the cracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost a $20,000 scholarship for my child because one teacher didn\u2019t know how to maneuver through your system to change a grade,\u201d Manigo said.<\/p>\n

Another daughter, she said, has dealt with colorism at school, where she has been made to feel lesser because she is one of the darkest girls in her grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has no sense of belonging,\u201d Manigo said. \u201cIf that happens to me, who is literally writing policy, imagine what other Black parents are experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A plan and then inaction <\/p>\n

In March 2021, during a Zoom meeting 10 months after George Floyd\u2019s murder in Minneapolis, the Oakland Unified School District board voted to pursue reparations for Black students.<\/p>\n

Parents, teachers and community leaders soon began meeting to imagine what repair could look like: stronger academic support, Black-centered cultural programming and resources for families long underserved by the district.<\/p>\n

Five years later, much of that plan remains unrealized.<\/p>\n

\"WomanProtestors call attention to the high rate of suspensions among Black OUSD students. (Caly Plowman)<\/p>\n

The school board\u2019s resolution created a 24-person Black Thriving Task Force charged with developing a five-year plan to improve outcomes for Black students by 2026. But the original group stopped meeting after about a year, amid internal conflict and district leadership changes. Interviews with former members show the effort fractured over disagreements about school closures and the role of district officials in the reparations work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was as if we all got together and wasted our collective breath for a whole year,\u201d said Kevin Hill, a task force member and organizer with the Brotherhood of Elders Network in East Oakland. \u201cOne of the harsh realities I learned in this process is that the district can just wait people out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The task force continues today in a new form, but its work looks different. Some educators, including teachers and school administrators, say pieces of the original promise continue quietly in a handful of schools. Others argue the district never followed through on its commitments.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were ahead of our time\u2019<\/p>\n

The original task force was unusual. It was set up as a public body, with open meetings and records. Former members described the listening sessions as healing, both as former students and as current parents of children in Oakland schools.<\/p>\n

Members envisioned \u201cimplementing healing-centered, anti-racist interventions, holding the system accountable and becoming advocates for students,\u201d according to the Black Thriving Plan posted on the district website.<\/p>\n

The plan was sweeping. It called for the creation of a Black Thriving Fund, a dedicated pool of money intended to hire more Black teachers, expand Black-centered curriculum, require anti-racism training for all staff and increase outreach to Black families facing barriers to participation in the district.<\/p>\n

The fund also was supposed to provide emergency financial assistance to Black families affected by COVID-19, including help with rent and overdue payments to prevent displacement.<\/p>\n

The task force was charged with developing measures of Black student success and monitoring both the initiative\u2019s progress and how money from the Black Thriving Fund would be distributed.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get ridiculously crazy in love about Black children,\u201d said Lawanda Wesley, then-director of early learning education who served on the task force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we were imagining \u2014 we were ahead of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stark disparities <\/p>\n

Task force members began in 2021 by reviewing district data on Black students. The disparities were stark: Black students had some of the district\u2019s highest absenteeism and suspension rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept looking at these data points \u2014 chronic absenteeism, literacy, mathematics \u2014 it was just dismal,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n

The Black Thriving Plan acknowledged the district\u2019s responsibility directly: \u201cOUSD has a responsibility to stop perpetuating anti-Black racism. We must acknowledge our past actions \u2014 and lack of action \u2014 that have caused harm to Black students, families, and educators.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s goal was to close achievement gaps and reverse declining Black enrollment by 2026.<\/p>\n

But years later, many of those gaps persist. In the 2024-25 school year, Black students made up less than 20% of Oakland Unified\u2019s enrollment, down from nearly half two decades ago, according to district data.<\/p>\n

Black students also had the district\u2019s lowest proficiency rates in math and English on 2025 district testing. About 46% of Black students were chronically absent, and nearly 10% had been suspended.<\/p>\n

According to multiple former task force members, tensions escalated when the district began discussing school closures as a way to address a growing budget deficit. Historically, school closures in Oakland have disproportionately affected Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

The task force co-chairs said they opposed closures. But Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, the other original co-chair of the Black Thriving Task Force, said a district administrator told the school board the task force supported the proposal.<\/p>\n

Taiz-Rancifer, current president of the Oakland Education Association, said the closures were expected to bring roughly $10 million in financial relief to the district. She said the task force was told it might receive about $2 million in funding if it supported the plan.<\/p>\n

Taiz-Rancifer and her co-chair said they rejected the idea, arguing that closing schools in Black communities would undermine the purpose of the reparations effort.<\/p>\n

The dispute fractured the group. According to Taiz-Rancifer, members stopped showing up, and then-Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell ordered the task force to pause indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Three former members said they felt frustrated.<\/p>\n

Hill described the experience as \u201cbureaucratic paralysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream realized, not executed,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n

\"LunchFremont High School Cafeteria (File photo) <\/p>\n

Manigo said she still does not know what happened to the Black Thriving Fund, where the money went or whether money was ever allocated to it. No cash payouts were made to Black families, she said. At one point, she said, the district offered \u201cmillions\u201d that could have been directed into the fund, but there was never confirmation.<\/p>\n

Manigo said the group presented its master plan to the board, but the proposal was never taken up and remains unimplemented, despite still being posted at the bottom of the district\u2019s reparations webpage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just not the political will to do it,\u201d Manigo said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t even take them 365 days to violate their own resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, Manigo took the school closure issue to the ACLU, which urged the California Department of Justice to investigate the plan to close majority Black schools. The complaint was resolved when the OUSD board reversed the school closure decision in January 2023.<\/p>\n

Manigo said she believes the district focused less on addressing the needs of Black students than on \u201clooking right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Taiz-Rancifer continued pushing for the reparations resolution to survive in some form.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Taiz-Rancifer and other advocates pushed to include task force provisions in a memorandum of understanding tied to the teachers\u2019 contract, arguing that would make it harder for the district to ignore or dismantle the work.<\/p>\n

When disputes later emerged over whether the district was required to implement those provisions, members of the teachers union and reparations advocates filed a grievance with OUSD. Organizers said the grievance process brought more teachers into the effort and helped lead to the current version of the task force, now co-chaired by Kamisha McLean and Kehinde Salter.<\/p>\n

Black Thriving Schools <\/p>\n

This newer version has attracted far less public attention. The district\u2019s reparations website has not been updated since 2021, and the task force no longer holds public meetings. Organizers say that has been intentional.<\/p>\n

McLean and Salter said they helped develop a revised Black Thriving proposal in 2023, then presented it to fellow members of the Oakland Education Association and the school board, which ultimately approved it. The proposal focused on improving outcomes for Black students through stronger family engagement, culturally responsive programming and expanded support systems at schools with large Black student populations.<\/p>\n

Instead of immediately rolling out recommendations, organizers said the task force spent its first several months building relationships with families and community members, developing bylaws and establishing leadership structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about teaching different communities how to engage with students and uplift Black students,\u201d Salter said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a lot of work even before you tell the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLean said the strategy was to move slowly and deliberately, building a foundation of trust before expanding the work. The task force now largely focuses on supporting \u201cBlack Thriving Schools,\u201d campuses where at least 40% of students are Black. There are currently 11 OUSD schools in that category.<\/p>\n

To support them, the district has created new roles, including Black Thriving Teachers on Special Assignment. Five positions have been allocated, though one is currently vacant. The remaining four teachers make up the rest of the new, smaller task force.<\/p>\n

District spokesperson John Sasaki said in an email that the \u201cBlack Reparations Task Force is currently active and moving forward under strong leadership, with a clear focus on supporting Black student achievement and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasaki acknowledged the new board resolution does not include cash payouts to families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain committed to this work and to keeping our community informed as it progresses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Programs vary widely depending on each school\u2019s needs. At some sites, the focus has been on addressing literacy gaps for students reading below grade level. Salter, a former Black Thriving Teacher of Special Assignment at Sankofa Elementary in North Oakland, said she initially concentrated on teaching children to read because many were struggling academically.<\/p>\n

She also developed initiatives such as African American Female Excellence, in addition to the African American Male Achievement chapter already on campus. Salter, who is Black, said she often heard Black students speaking negatively about one another, which motivated her work to affirm and uplift them.<\/p>\n

When a child was teased about the color of his skin, she intervened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s up, chocolate drop \u2014 do you know how beautiful your hair and skin are?\u201d she recalled telling him.<\/p>\n

She cited the interaction as an example of the importance of Black educators in predominantly Black schools, emphasizing the role they play in affirming students\u2019 identities.<\/p>\n

Cultural programming is another major component. Salter helped organize a districtwide Black History teach-in and frequently incorporates Black history education into her programming.<\/p>\n

Other schools have focused on leadership and enrichment opportunities for Black students. McLean described taking students on trips to the state Capitol, helping start a robotics club and encouraging Black students to take on leadership roles in school programs.<\/p>\n

At Westlake Middle School, she helped organize a large Black History Night featuring performances, a choir, dance programs and guest speakers including local leaders such as Mayor Barbara Lee, former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and activist Cat Brooks.<\/p>\n

She also helped establish student affinity spaces, though she emphasized the work goes far beyond affinity groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to support students in imagining futures outside the limits they may see around them,\u201d Salter said.<\/p>\n

Black families are leaving Oakland<\/p>\n

Still, many of the recommendations developed by the original task force have never been implemented districtwide. Manigo said the original framework measured Black student success more holistically, emphasizing not only academic outcomes but investments in arts programs, outdoor learning opportunities and other nontraditional pathways for Black students.<\/p>\n

There were also discussions of paid student fellowships for Black students focused on addressing anti-Blackness in public schools. The plan called for emergency funding to support Black families. Most importantly, Manigo said, the proposal outlined efforts to close longstanding achievement gaps affecting Black students, including academic credit recovery programs and job training intended to support success after graduation.<\/p>\n

Outside of a handful of schools, Manigo said, little has fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the tangible educational outcomes for Black students and the way that Black students feel in the district, I cannot tell you that that has remarkably changed,\u201d Manigo said. \u201cPeople have just made their Black History Months a little bit prettier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill said that when the needs of Black families are not heard, families might leave Oakland \u2014 something he says is already happening as Black families move to cities like Antioch, Stockton and Hayward and the city\u2019s Black population disperses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Black people don\u2019t have a cultural hub anymore,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThere\u2019s cultural implications to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The broader goal, Wesley said, was to make Oakland public schools so supportive of Black students that Black families would want to return to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can be the Oakland I knew in the \u201970s,\u201d said Wesley, the daughter of an original Black Panther Party member who was raised in Oakland.<\/p>\n

Manigo said she hopes to reconnect with the original community task force members when she returns from maternity leave to evaluate the reparations policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my life\u2019s work,\u201d she said. \u201cI sacrificed. My kids suffered. We as a family invested in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf in your heart and in your body you cannot accept an injustice, then you have a duty to fight against it,\u201d Manigo said.<\/p>\n

Continuing the work<\/p>\n

Wesley said that despite her feelings of defeat, she does not regret the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept calling it a roadmap,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a blueprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Oakland, she added, the conversation has never stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the private spaces of Oakland, the communal spaces of Oakland, it\u2019s still happening,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s happening loudly in really quiet places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taiz-Rancifer said the task force took an emotional toll on her, but she remains dedicated to the cause. She is the point of contact for the newly launched Black Thriving Newsletter, which updates parents at Black Thriving Schools on the reparations effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story is about how Black parents have navigated the system,\u201d Taiz-Rancifer said. \u201cWe were able to solidify the work so it can\u2019t be taken away anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

She acknowledged that many Black families in OUSD still have needs that are not being met. But she said the new task force is continuing the work in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Taiz-Rancifer recalled an instance of racism involving her son in first grade and echoed Manigo\u2019s earlier point: Even as president of the Oakland Education Association, she said, the work remains personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in this skin,\u201d Taiz-Rancifer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite supremacy is not something that will disappear overnight,\u201d she added. \u201cUndoing it is the work we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racial disparities undermine Oakland\u2019s contracting process. Can the city fix it?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was first published in The Mercury News. When Pecolia Manigo\u2019s eldest daughter lost out on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[147781,143,145,144,3272,8212],"class_list":["post-363876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-black-students-reparations","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-unified-school-district","tag-ousd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}