Category Archives: Local

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.

Local

Mercury News: Two funds raise money to help Bay Area schools

October 21, 2012
By Sharon Noguchi

Spurred by the urgency of failing schools, two funds to nurture and spread innovation in education have launched this week, both hoping to harness technology to revolutionize the classroom.

The Silicon Schools Fund has raised half its $25 million goal to create up to 25 technology-heavy schools in the Bay Area within five years. The schools, which could be startups or transformed campuses, would feature “blended learning,” combining traditional classrooms with computer-delivered lessons.

And in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Innovate Public Schools hopes to create new charter schools and cutting-edge district schools. With $950,000 for two years, it also hopes to foster parent choice and strong accountability systems.

“We are trying to channel the urgency that families feel when their kids are stuck in a bad school,” said Matt Hammer, who will lead the organization. As executive director of People Acting in Community Together for 13 years, Hammer has successfully prodded San Jose school districts and the county school board to open charter schools and create more options for low-income and immigrant children.

He will take that passion to Innovate, which will be based at the Mountain View offices of the Community Foundation.

In 2010, Hammer said, only 15 African-American male students graduated from San Mateo County public schools with the credits required to enter a California public university. That’s 15 students, not 15
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percent. “That all ought to be causing a lot of us to be losing sleep,” said Hammer, 44. “Obviously it’s a crisis in the lives of all those families, but we need to be collectively working to solve the problem. It’s more solvable now than it ever has been.”

“Schools right now aren’t quite doing what should be done,” said Carrie Greco, a PACT parent leader, who sends her two children to Rocketship charter schools in San Jose.

But reforming schools involves more than simply adopting more technology. “We don’t think dropping laptops into classrooms will solve the problem,” said Brian Greenberg, founder and CEO of the Silicon Schools Fund. Like Innovate, the San Francisco-based fund hopes to incubate promising school models and scale them up. Too often, change comes hard for public education, reformers say.

To read more.

Local

SF Gate, Oakland Blog: Oakland’s Black Organizing Project to host school board candidates forum (Community Voices)

October 18, 2012

In an effort to give interested parents, teachers, students and community members an opportunity to meet the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education candidates, the Black Organizing Project is hosting a forum from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at Castlemont High School, 8601 MacArthur Blvd. in East Oakland.

The candidate’s forum will be moderated and include the nine candidates for Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. At the forefront of the discussion will be African-American male achievement gaps including the staggering drop-out rate of young people of color; budget cuts to school programs; recent school closures; and more. The event will give parents and local residents a chance to hear the candidates’ vision for the future of Oakland schools and help local voters make informed decisions at the polls on Nov. 6.

Read more of this story on http://oaklandlocal.com/

Local

Mercury News: Oakland Tech's 'Metamorphoses' full of energy, enthusiasm

October 18, 2012
By Sally Hogarty

Drama teacher Jessa Berkner loves a challenge. When she first came to Oakland Tech High School, the spacious auditorium was being used for storage and the performing arts had all but disappeared. In her seven years at the school, things have certainly changed.

Now the school boasts a busy art, dance and music program, and Berkner has formed the Oakland Theater Arts Initiative to encourage art programs at other area institutions. In 2010, Oakland Tech’s theater program won an American High School Theatre Festival award and was listed as one of the top 50 high school drama departments in the United States. That same year, Berkner and her students traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform their production of “Hamlet, Blood in the Brain” at the prestigious Fringe Festival. The adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” by local playwright Naomi Lizuka relocates the classic tragedy to the drug-ravaged world of 1989 Oakland.

Currently, the professional actress and teacher finds herself consumed with another challenging project — rehearsing Mary Zimmerman’s modern adaptation of “Metamorphoses.” Zimmerman uses Ovid’s epic poem as the basis for her stage adaptation, which adds a contemporary feel to the classical myths and legends with their unifying theme of transformation.

“I just love Mary Zimmerman’s work,” Berkner said. “I was looking for a show that speaks to where students are today, all the issues they have to deal with, and all the changes and growth they go through.

“This is also an ensemble piece, so I can give a voice to many actors,” Berkner said. She encourages her actors to “have each other’s back” in order to create a safe environment in which to take risks.

Berkner and choreographer Ena Dallas have used their own creative initiative to adapt Zimmerman’s script for their unique group of performers.

“We haven’t changed any of the language, but we’ve used the student’s individual skill sets to bring life to the characters,” Berkner said. To that end, the god Hades is a rock star showcasing guitarist Sasha Petterson’s musical abilities and several students perform acrobatic moves during the show.

“Since its based on mythology, the script is very lyrical,” Dallas said. “Postures and gestures say as much as the narration, so we’ve added very stylized movement for the gods and also utilized the talents of the students in my acrobatics class.”

Dallas, formerly a professional trapeze artist, taught Chinese acrobatics and aerial arts at San Francisco’s School of Circus Arts for 15 years.

To read more.

Local

Contra Costa Times: Education Report: 13 Oakland schools to lose a teacher because of bad enrollment projections

October 10, 2012
By Katy Murphy

This year, 14 teachers are being moved to other schools, a process known as “consolidation,” because fewer students enrolled in a particular school than the district expected, the Oakland school district has reported.

Enrollment projections are complicated, especially when school closures and new charter schools are in the picture, as was the case here. Another problem, which affects even the most popular schools? When families admitted to a school don’t bother to tell anyone they’re sending their child elsewhere — essentially, holding their spots until the last minute.

According to a report I requested from OUSD, 14 teachers from 13 schools are being reassigned in what’s become an annual process to balance the budget. They’re from Bella Vista, Cleveland, Hoover, Kaiser, Claremont, Melrose Leadership Academy, Bret Harte, Roosevelt, Frick (two teachers), Piedmont Avenue, Allendale, La Escuelita and Rise. The report also included three vacant positions that are being consolidated at Burckhalter, Markham and Grass Valley elementary schools.

To read more.

Local

SFGate: Oakland Measure J to upgrade school kitchens

October 11, 2012
By Katharine Mieszkowski
Public schools in Oakland are looking for major kitchen remodeling with a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot.

If approved, Measure J would authorize the Oakland Unified School District to issue as much as $475 million in bonds to improve school facilities.

Along with seismic upgrades and lead-paint removal, the bonds could help underwrite a planned overhaul of school kitchens in the district, including building a new central kitchen in West Oakland. It’s part of an effort to improve the food the district serves to students, 70 percent of whom are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Oakland has made strides toward serving healthier and fresher food in recent years. For instance, the district now buys more fresh fruits and vegetables from within 250 miles of Oakland. There are salad bars at 67 schools.

‘Kitchen dinosaurs’

But it’s infrastructure, not ingredients, that has become the biggest barrier to making lunches healthier and tastier. Many schools have antiquated kitchens – if they have a kitchen at all.

“It’s a very attractive museum of kitchen dinosaurs,” said Zenobia Barlow, executive director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The facilities limit what food can be served.

“A lot of what is served is processed and prepackaged and frozen,” said Ruth Woodruff, who has a first-grader and a fourth-grader attending Chabot Elementary School. “It gets unwrapped and put on trays and heated.”

Some schools, like Piedmont Avenue Elementary, don’t even have a kitchen. Meals there are reheated in the corner of a multipurpose room.

Events, Local, Youth Media

Video: The Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards

On September 13, 2012 The Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards(OYFBA) recognized and honored businesses that have gotten involved in helping our young people find jobs and internships in Oakland.
KQED, Oakland’s America’s Promise Alliance, Inner City Advisors, the Jonas Family Fund, Oakland Youth Commission, All About the Biz, a youth business program which is an active partner that is managing the event logistics and development and other community stakeholders hosted Oakland’s first Youth Friendly Business Awards event.

Watch here: Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards

 

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

I-SEEED Guest Youth Blogger: Prevailing by Pelesani Sua

October 6, 2012
By Pelesani Sua, youth representative of the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational and Environmental Design (I-SEEED)

It only took one person to stop me from believing that I could go to college.

When your teacher passes you up for a school funded college tour because she says she knows you’re not going to make it to college, let alone graduate high school it falls right into the category of oppression. Although this would be a great learning opportunity you won’t even have the chance to experience it because your teacher has already decided your future. Or when your teacher doesn’t believe that you could’ve gotten everything correct on a test and accuses you of cheating, because of your race.   I’ve been in situations like this one many times.

I now know that some people don’t believe in encouraging others that don’t belong in the same racial background as them. So from that day on I told myself that I wasn’t going to diminish someone else’s education just because I wasn’t good enough myself. I would just pick myself up and keep trying to prove that I could be the best. It didn’t matter to me whether or not that teacher believed in me because the years afterwards I met better teachers who believed in and encouraged me to become the intelligent young lady I am today.  In a way I would like to thank that one teacher, because the racism and institutionalized oppression she showed to me in middle school actually gave a me an extra push to do better as I got older.  But not every student responds the way that I did, and they shouldn’t have to.

It’s a dream of mine to see a world of equality not only in education but in government and the communities around me. People need to not just know how to unite with their own, but with all people. I would love to wake up to a world where people know their neighbors, school officials, and people in office. When a person knows when the next election is, not the next football game. Where people don’t settle for satisfactory, but they push the limit.  When people get together not only to support themselves, but also the elderly and disabled. It would be wonderful to be able to walk around my neighborhood and know I’m safe and think “which park will I go to?” and not “which fast food restaurant is the closest?”. These are the issues close to my heart and I hope I will be one of the many people to unite to fight against these detrimental issues at hand.

I would like to end by saying that it starts here with me. I will someday lead an army of people who believe in the same issues as me and want to unite against it all to protect our future generations from falling to the hands that the government has given us.