Oakland school serving black boys to shut down

Jill Tucker:

An Oakland public school created to serve African American males will shut down in January, just 18 months after it opened.

The 100 Black Men of the Bay Area Community School, a public charter school, struggled financially and suffered administrative turnover as well as loss of enrollment during its three semesters of operation. Its last day will be Jan. 24.

The school, located at the former Thurgood Marshall Elementary campus in the city's southeast hills, had 120 students at the start of this school year and 75 this week.
Short of funds

"Our problem is a lack of money, not a mismanagement of funds," said Dr. Mark Alexander, a member of the school's board of directors. "This is the responsible thing to do."

Alexander believes the closure will be a hiatus to give the school time to reorganize, determine what went wrong and reopen in the next year or two.

"It's a setback for us," he said. "We've come too far to let this dream go."

Related: The proposed Madison Preparatory Academy IB Charter School - rejected by a majority of the Madison School Board.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 25, 2013 4:37 AM
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