Tag Archives: Oakland

Local

Oakland North: OUSD enrollment drops, academic performance still below state average

Jody London and Jumoke Hinton-Hodge present a framed resolution thanking Mynette Theard, who recently passed away, to her colleagues from the Service Employees International Union.

November 15, 2012
By Nausheen Husain

School board members found out Wednesday that Oakland district school enrollment is almost 1,000 students fewer than school officials estimated last year, and that achievement data remains below state levels in several key subjects.

At their evening school board meeting, board members looked at academic and enrollment data that showed both gains in enrollment for Oakland charter schools and losses for district schools. The district is also still below state levels for English, mathematics and science proficiency. While OUSD students have hit the 45% proficient or advanced mark for English and mathematics, the California average is 60%.

District 5 school board member Noel Gallo said he was worried about the quality of learning at the schools in his district. “My schools aren’t proficient, and they’re definitely not advanced,” Gallo said. “Our kids need to be able to compete.”

These issues are also deeply connected to OUSD’s 2013-14 budget priorities.  The board has goals of reducing OUSD’s structural deficit and increasing employee pay by 2013. But that will be harder to manage if more resources are needed to improve school curricula so as to attract more students. “We need a way to discuss charter schools, school conversions, school closures and contractors together, because all of this stuff is related,” said District 4 board member Gary Yee.

The board discussed the issues briefly during the meeting, but members said they intend to discuss the data in detail at the next school board meeting Dec. 12.

Maria Santos, deputy superintendent of instruction, leadership and equity-in-action for OUSD, said the district has in fact seen certain improvements in both attendance and student retention. She cited data showing that in 2007, the district lost 700 students after ninth grade; in 2010, the district lost only 50. Santos said OUSD has registered fewer absences this year, too.

“We’ve reduced chronic absence from one chronically absent student out of every nine students, to one chronically absent student out of every 10 students,” Santos said. “That is huge for our district.”

To read more.

Local

Mercury News: Oakland schools bond, Measure J, is winning

November 7, 2012
By Katy Murphy

A $475 million Oakland school facilities bond measure received overwhelming voter support on Tuesday. Returns posted early Wednesday morning showed Measure J far above the 55 percent threshold.

For homeowners, this will mean a property tax increase of up to $60 per $100,000 in assessed property value. The rate in the initial years is estimated to be lower, roughly $40 per $100,000.

Oakland Unified has said it will spend the money on improving the seismic safety of its buildings, new and upgraded kitchens, science labs, technology, energy efficiency and other infrastructure. The district has also identified about 10 schools to receive major improvements, including Fremont High School in East Oakland, which would replace its portable classrooms with a new structure.

Some of the other schools on the list include Glenview, Greenleaf, Sankofa and Sobrante Park elementary schools, Roosevelt and Madison middle schools and McClymonds High School.

Those who have pushed for more healthful school food have rallied around the measure, which would fund the construction of a central commissary and allow more schools to serve food made from scratch. In addition to those families, more than 40 students have spent a recent Saturday — or, in some cases, five — going door to door, trying to convince likely voters to say ‘yes’ to Measure J.

To read more.

Local

KQED: In the Studio with Rashidi Omari

November 7, 2012
Kristen Farr

Rashidi Omari is a performance artist, writer and educator at Destiny Arts Center, a violence prevention and arts education organization in Oakland. Growing up, hip-hop was an outlet that helped Rashidi deal with life’s challenges, and he works to provide today’s Bay Area youth with the same creative opportunities. We stopped by his dance studio to learn more about this dynamic Oakland artist, and find what hip-hop means to him and his students.

Watch Videos.

Local

Oakland Local: OakTown Gardens: Reducing waste to ‘green’ Lincoln Elementary

October 30, 2012
By Irene Florez

This year, Lincoln Elementary did something few schools would have dreamt of 10 years ago: It formalized a green connection with Waste Management to exchange food scraps for compost.

Lincoln and roughly 50 other Oakland schools are now taking part in “Green Gloves,” a collaborative effort to reduce and sort the waste leaving OUSD during meal times.

The aim, says Nancy Deming, OUSD’s Sustainability Program Initiatives Manager, is “to have a program that the school and its students are directly involved in that provides a much more meaningful environmental impact.”

According to Deming, the main impetus at Lincoln Elementary was Lana Cheung, Lincoln’s head custodian.

With more than 600 students and two meals served every day, Lincoln used to send 12 cubic yards of trash to the landfill every week. These days they have reduced that by 33 percent. Most of this reduction was through incorporating compostable trays and sorting trash after meals.

Cindy Seh, Lincoln’s head night custodian stands in for Cheung during sick days and vacations. She says though the green change requires more work for custodians, it’s a change for the better.

“It’s good to teach kids to save the earth,” she says. “Stressing the importance of keeping clean and recycling is good for raising responsible children.”

Seh’s children attended Lincoln. Both are now at American Indian Public Charter School.

Annie Liu, a 7-year-old in Chou’s class, says that the process is easy.

“You just separate and stack,” Annie says, while munching on the pretzels that accompanied her chicken soft tacos and trading her classmates milk for carrots.

All told, Lincoln Elementary’s 20 minute per child lunch period results in three and a half hours of lunch related work for custodians. In the end, 8-cubic yards ends at the trash every week and the school receives compost once a year. In total, WMEarthcare is committed to providing OUSD Green Gloves schools at least 100-cubic yards of compost per year.

So far the compost is used in the school’s playground kale garden and in Cheung’s flower garden located at the front of the school.

“Unfortunately our school isn’t located in a green open space,” says Lincoln’s principal. “So, with composting and gardening we can each do a little to bring attention to our environmental connection.”

To learn more.

Local

Mercury News: Election 2012: Oakland schools get out the youth vote

November 1, 2012
By Katy Murphy

This week, a group of boisterous teenagers marched down to a ballot box a few blocks from their school. The first-time voter contingent and their sign-holding supporters whooped and chanted all the way to the Alameda County Courthouse, eliciting friendly toots from passing cars.

“I feel like I’m always complaining about what’s wrong with the world,” said Di’Jahnay Stewart, a Dewey Academy student who turned 18 on May 23 and registered to vote shortly thereafter. “I feel like if I vote, at least it’ll mean something.”

Many young Americans aren’t as quick to exercise their new electoral power. Although they voted in larger numbers in 2004 and 2008 than they had in decades, their turnout was still the lowest of any age group. For all the buzz surrounding the 2008 presidential race, for all the YouTube videos and the plugs on MTV, just 41 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds and 47 percent of 21- to 24-year-olds reported voting in that election. By contrast, 58 percent of all age groups and 68 percent of those 65 and older went to the polls that year, according to a survey of noninstitutionalized adults by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“I’m finding a shocking number of young people who just won’t vote,” said Deanita Lewis, a parent leader who has long been involved in Oakland’s public schools. The reasons she most often hears? “‘My vote doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter. Nothing’s going to change.'”

To read more.

Local

SF Gate: Oakland Blog: High school students cast ballots at Oakland Youth Vote Forum

In the Castlemont High School library, Da’Janique White, 17, stood with a mic in hand, demanding more energy from her fellow students. “Okay, listen. I don’t like dead crowds. I don’t like people not being participation-ish,” said the Fremont High School senior. “Seriously. So, y’all gotta boost it up for me a little bit, okay?”

As president of the All City Council (ACC), the Oakland student government body, White was charged with getting the young crowd that was gathered there pumped up to vote.

The Oakland Youth Vote Forum 2012 drew nearly 90 high schoolers to East Oakland on Tuesday after school. Hosted by the ACC and other Oakland youth organizations, the event featured Oakland city council and school board candidates in a forum with pre-selected questions asked by students. At the end, students submitted their orange ballots, checking off the names of the people they wanted in office. Though most of the attendees are too young to vote in the general election on November 6, they were excited to see the candidates in person and hear a forum-style argument about issues specific to students.

To learn more.

Uncategorized

The Education Report: In Oakland, tumult in special education leads teachers to organize

October 8, 2012
By Katy Murphy

A series of decisions about the costs, staffing and structure of Oakland Unified’s special education department caused parents to mobilize in June against last-minute reductions to the program.

Months later, the 11th-hour reassignment of dozens of special education teachers appears to have had a similar effect on teachers. (District staff have since reported that many, but not all, of those changes have been rescinded.)

Within the teacher’s union, a new group has emerged: The OEA Special Education Caucus website features a blog, a statement of purpose, and possible solutions for improved communication and logistics, including something as simple as a roster with department staff names and contact information.

Emily Sacks, one of the organizers, said the upheaval brought teachers together. The thinking?  ”We can get really specific about things that are not rocket science, but that could impact the situation dramatically.”

At Wednesday night’s board meeting, as new special education director Karen Mates gives a presentation about plans for the department (and community involvement in the making of those plans), there could be a large special education contingent.

Local

The Education Report: Oakland, Alameda teachers named Alameda County Teacher of the Year

October 5, 2012
By Katy Murphy

Congratulations to the two Alameda County teachers of the year: I’Asha Warfield, from Oakland’s Frick Middle School, and Chris Hansen, from Alameda’s Lincoln Middle School.

They learned of the distinction last night, at an awards night organized by the Alameda County Office of Education. Now, they go on to compete for California Teacher of the Year.

In this video of Warfield, she talks about the conversations and debates that take place in her classroom. “I really, really believe in my students,” she said. “Their intellectual capacity is so great.”

Stephen Davis, a kindergarten teacher at Global Family Elementary School, was Oakland Unified’s other nominee for 2012-13. At a school board meeting last week, he said he had three rules for his students: 1) Be kind. 2) Be kind. 3) Be kind.

To read more.

Local

KQED News: Future Looks Bright for Lacrosse at Oakland Public Schools

September 26, 2012
By Juan Antonio Martinez

Despite having a reputation of being a rich white sport, this fall, hundreds of students at Oakland public schools will be introduced to the game of lacrosse.

The Oakland Lacrosse Club – which is a newly created, but not yet completed 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation – intends to work with several Oakland schools to introduce lacrosse to students that the sport has not traditionally served.

“I want every kid in Oakland to have access to play lacrosse,” Kevin Kelley, the boys game director for the Oakland Lacrosse Club, said. “My goal is to expose the sport to 500 middle schoolers and then in the spring create two under 13 teams; one boys and one girls.”

To read more.

Local, National

Los Angeles Times: Oakland schools to let feds monitor discipline of black students

By Stephen Ceasar
October 1, 2012

The Oakland Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Education reached an agreement last week that would allow federal officials to monitor the district’s efforts to curb the number of out-of-school suspensions of its African American students.

The resolution, which the Oakland school board passed unanimously, closes an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights into whether African American students were disciplined more frequently and harshly than their white classmates. The agreement was reached Thursday.

Last school year, African American students made up about 39% of the district’s total enrollment but accounted for 63% of students with at least one suspension and 61% of those who were expelled, said Russlynn Ali, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights.

To read more.