This article mentions that the school district says there are too many schools. This issue has been examined in depth by local media, and it appears to be true. Oakland has significantly fewer kids per school compared to other area school districts. Every school has its own set of administrators and facilities staff, so the result of too many schools is that available revenue is spent on redundant administators, facilities and facilities staff instead of on teachers. So while Oakland has fewer kids per school, it also has lower-paid teachers than other school districts, which means that they have high turnover, especially of good teachers that can find work elsewhere relatively easily once they've learned to teach in Oakland.
The parents may have a valid argument that the wrong schools are being closed, but I don't know enough about that to say. However, the argument that no schools should close doesn't seem to have merit. The problem is that local politicians and school board members are afraid to offend anyone, so instead of consolidating schools in a way that hurts the fewest people, they always back off closures because they find a bit of money and end up extending the problem another year.
Lakeview School by the way, is not in a "working class" area, and is not in East or West Oakland - it is in what's probably the nicest urban part of Oakland. Most single-family homes in the area start around $600K for a small, 100-year-old house, even after losing 25% of their value since the peak of the bubble.
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