Oakland School Designed For Black Male Students to Close

Families in east Oakland are "distraught" at the news that a public school designed specifically for black males must close, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fiscal woes and a declining enrollment mean that the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area Community School in Oakland will shutter Jan. 24.

That leaves the 75 students there -- out of 120 who started the school year -- looking for somewhere else to learn.

But that somewhere else won't have the mentoring and structure -- not to mention the breakfast, lunch, and snacks -- that the community school offered.

The board of directors call the closure a "setback" and say that with more money, the school may be able to reopen.

The school started in Sept. 2012 with 95 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. It had hoped to serve 900 students through the end of their senior year in high school.