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Oakland School District Superintendent Tony Smith speaks during an Oakland Unified School...
OAKLAND -- Residents bracing for a second wave of school closures, wondering if their neighborhood school will still exist in 2013, should heed this news: Round 2 has been canceled.
The downsizing plan announced in 2011 -- expected to last for two to three years -- has ended after just one.
In October, the Oakland school board voted to close five elementary schools and merge a number of others, reducing the number by about a dozen. Originally, Superintendent Tony Smith had said the district, which operated nearly 100 schools for 38,000 students, needed to close 20 to 30 to get its finances in order. That target has since changed.
"Currently, I have no intention, and I don't think it's going to be necessary next year, for more closures," Smith told a group of teachers gathered at Youth