{"id":110826,"date":"2026-06-08T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/08\/inside-the-rapid-decline-of-berkley-maynard-academy-in-north-oakland\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:38:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:38:00","slug":"inside-the-rapid-decline-of-berkley-maynard-academy-in-north-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/08\/inside-the-rapid-decline-of-berkley-maynard-academy-in-north-oakland\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Rapid Decline of Berkley Maynard Academy in North Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Teachers, parents and staff say leadership turnover, staffing decisions and declining enrollment fueled the collapse of the North Oakland charter school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy in Oakland on Sept. 23, 2025. Teachers at Aspire said they feared retaliation for raising concerns about insufficient student services.<\/span>\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Nearly 60% of Berkley Maynard students are Black, the largest percentage of any Bay Area Aspire school.<\/p>\n

In just two years, Aspire leadership made a series of staffing decisions that fractured that entrenched school community, leading to high teacher turnover and unsafe conditions on campus, according to interviews with nearly two dozen former school staff members, current employees and family members of students.<\/p>\n

Teachers said they feared retaliation for raising concerns about insufficient student services. Many quit, and substitutes filled classrooms, former staff said.<\/p>\n

And then families started leaving.<\/p>\n

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Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy in Oakland on Sept. 23, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re wondering why, because they\u2019re not listening to the community,\u201d said C\u2019erah King-Polk, a Berkley Maynard alum whose siblings attend the school. She\u2019s never gone a year without a sibling at the school. \u201cThey\u2019re literally playing with a child\u2019s future. Now you displaced so many kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only an estimated 225 students, or about half of those who enrolled this school year, planned to return, said Jenna Ogier-Marangella, acting Aspire Bay Area executive director, during a recent board of directors meeting.<\/p>\n

Ogier-Marangella spent the past few months at Berkley Maynard\u2019s campus, and said that staff and families told her they were \u201cincredibly displeased with the quality of programming that we have been delivering the past two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

After announcing the closure in early May, school officials hosted an enrollment fair, but few participated, Ogier-Marangella said, suggesting those families had already found other schools and the number planning to return was even lower.<\/p>\n

There was no \u201cfiscally responsible\u201d way forward, Ogier-Marangella said. She did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

An Aspire spokesperson said in a written statement that, like schools across California, its enrollment and financial challenges are driven by changing student demographics and broader shifts in K-12 education.<\/p>\n

Why staff and families left the school<\/h2>\n

Oakland charter schools are seeing enrollment drops<\/a>, but families, teachers and staff who spoke with KQED blame Berkley Maynard\u2019s exodus on choices by school leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can a school that was thriving all of a sudden get to where it is now in two years?\u201d said Melinee Stewart, a former teacher at Berkley Maynard. \u201cThat\u2019s not a school issue, that\u2019s not a parent issue, that\u2019s an administrative issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart and others interviewed by KQED said 2024 marked the start of Berkley Maynard\u2019s unraveling. That fall, Javier Cabra Walteros, then-executive director of Aspire\u2019s nine Bay Area schools, served as the school\u2019s interim principal.<\/p>\n

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Iris Velasco at her home in Oakland on Sept. 24, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Months into the school year, Assistant Principal Iris Velasco was abruptly fired. Teachers wore black the next day in protest. Velasco later filed a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging she was retaliated against for raising the alarm that the school was failing to provide legally mandated services for students with disabilities. A teacher, Maryann Doudna, filed a similar complaint, alleging she had no choice but to leave when administrators ignored her pleas for help.<\/p>\n

In a previous statement, an Aspire spokesperson said the organization \u201cvehemently denies the egregious allegations made by these former employees.\u201d Aspire hired a permanent principal. By the fall of 2025, Aspire had brought on yet another principal, who previously worked at an Aspire school that is closing as part of a merger with another campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were like, \u2018What?\u2019 We didn\u2019t even interview this person. Where did this person come from?\u2019\u201d said Deana Lundy, a parent of a fifth grader. Lundy said that experience reflected a pattern of school officials not communicating with families or making decisions based on what they needed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe community is just as important as teachers, as test scores. If you don\u2019t have families, you don\u2019t have a school,\u201d Lundy said. \u201cThere were teachers who were well-qualified to be principals, who were down to support the community. But they let those teachers go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lundy said this school year was a \u201cwhole entire mess\u201d where some classes lacked permanent teachers, and students faced no repercussions for fighting or bullying. Students stopped learning, she said.<\/p>\n

Before the closure was announced, Lundy had already decided her son would leave Berkley Maynard. Having attended school on the same campus as a child, she chose Berkley Maynard for her son when he started kindergarten during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one will get to experience the BMA that I experienced,\u201d Lundy said. \u201cThe community of students and families will be forever lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, an Aspire spokesperson said the organization\u2019s established processes for hiring school leadership include participation from regional leaders, staff, students and families. The spokesperson said Aspire communicated the decision to close as soon as leadership \u201cbecame aware of the enrollment data and financial realities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly three decades, we have partnered with families to provide high-quality public school options, and we will continue making thoughtful, responsible decisions that put scholars first,\u201d the spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n

Teachers and parents had little time to prepare for the news. Aspire informed teachers of plans to close on May 1, months after open enrollment for students had ended.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still angry,\u201d said Monica Franco, the Berkley Maynard business manager. \u201cIf you have to close, you have to close. Got it. I understand. However, you let people know this is happening so people can figure out what they\u2019re going to do with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chalk art decorates pavement outside of an old bus operating as a preschool at the Aspire Monarch Academy school in Oakland, California, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. (Paul Chinn\/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Franco helped start the school, and said when Berkley Maynard opened, founding staff went to churches, knocked on doors and stopped by daycares to spread the word. They asked the families of Robert C. Maynard<\/a> and Thomas L. Berkley<\/a>, two Black newspaper publishers in Oakland, for permission to name the school after them both.<\/p>\n

Franco said she never thought of leaving, even when conditions got tough. The school is her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a saying that rats are the first to get out of a boat when it\u2019s sinking,\u201d Franco said. \u201cI wanted to make sure my kids were gonna be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said school officials asked administrators to stay on longer, but she plans to leave on her own terms \u2014 when the students and teachers do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are my family. They are my people,\u201d Franco said. \u201cI\u2019m leaving with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Berkley Maynard closes, Aspire turns to its surviving schools<\/h2>\n

Berkley Maynard is not the only Aspire school in trouble. Last year, the Oakland Unified school board voted against renewing the charter for Golden State College Preparatory Academy. An Aspire spokesperson said the organization is currently appealing that decision.<\/p>\n

In an effort to address a $1.1 million deficit, nine positions with Aspire\u2019s Bay Area regional office were eliminated, according to a May email sent by Ogier-Marangella to staff.<\/p>\n

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The Oakland Unified School District Offices in Oakland on April 28, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Aspire spokesperson said the organization also created five new roles and encouraged impacted employees to apply based on their qualifications, adding that the staffing changes were made to align resources with organizational needs while continuing to support students, schools and staff.<\/p>\n

The eliminated positions include those in student services, academics, external affairs and hiring, said Aspire employees who spoke to KQED on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

The employees said that five out of nine people being laid off are Black and also lead the region\u2019s pro-Black and anti-racist school programming initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll nine people are people that are vocal and speak up for families and for students,\u201d one employee said. \u201cA growing number of us would like for leaders to either figure out how to better service students, families and teachers \u2014 or go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Berkley Maynard educators are preparing to say goodbye to their students. Families and alums are organizing a block party this evening to celebrate the school\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

One longtime Berkley Maynard teacher said the end of the school year is always hard, but this year the emotion is \u201cturned up to a thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A student walks down a hallway at Fremont High School in Oakland on Oct. 10, 2023. (Laure Andrillon for Cal Matters)<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As her students will disperse to schools across the Bay Area, she won\u2019t get to see them grow up and reach their potential in the same way, but she said her students will thrive anywhere.<\/p>\n

Students told her they\u2019re sad they won\u2019t get the chance to stop by her classroom and wave, as the older kids do. Some asked why the school was closing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018It\u2019s not any kids\u2019 fault,\u2019\u201d the teacher said she explained to her students. \u201c\u2018Grown-ups didn\u2019t do a good job, and we had to close the school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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