Tag Archives: Oakland

Local

KQED: Oakland Schools' New Effort to Fight Soaring Suspension Rates


December 26, 2012
By Ana Tintocalis

Oakland’s public schools are heading into the New Year with an ambitious plan to curb a skyrocketing student suspension rate.

The vast majority of Oakland’s suspended kids are African-American, even though they make up just a third of the school population.

Federal civil rights officials investigated the suspension rate. And that led the school district to adopt a plan requiring all teachers to use so-called “Restorative Justice” practices in the classroom.

That approach keeps kids in school, encouraging them to examine their attitudes and the impact of their behavior.

But faculty members like Benjie Achtenburg, who teaches eighth grade at Melrose Leadership Academy, says the district is not providing enough resources and training.

“Being a public school teacher in Oakland,” Achtenburg says, “you are already overwhelmed by everything you have to do, no matter how many years you’ve taught in this district.”

Superintendent Tony Smith says teacher buy-in is one of the district’s big hurdles.

OUSD has five years to reverse the troubling discipline trend or face sanctions.

View article.

Local

KQED's Forum: Living With Gun Violence

December 21, 2012

The entire nation has been shaken by the brutal killings of 20 children and six adults from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Less discussed has been the pervasive gun violence in some urban communities. Last year in Oakland, nearly 150 kids under the age of 18 were victims of shootings. Six were killed. We discuss the effects of gun violence on a community. How does it impact children and their families, and what can be done to help?

Hear audio.

Local

Mieko Scott, Founder of Imagine That Kids

December 21, 2012
By Lisa Hewitt

Imagine That Kids, an Oakland non-profit, began in 2008 when Mieko Scott, a former kindergarten teacher, found herself laid off and frustrated with the educational system in California. “During my lay off I was thinking about what I could still do and I was very depressed…I started to see the affect I had on those kids and their families. It just didn’t sit well with me.” She knew she wanted to continue to work in education and with children but actively sought to work outside the system to effect change. By providing educational enrichment and resources to kindergarten through 5th grade students in Oakland and surrounding cities, Imagine That Kids strives to support students, their families, teachers and the local school system. Their focus is primarily on children of incarcerated parents, underprivileged, foster and homeless youth. Operating with just six staff people, this non-profit relies heavily on the contributions of volunteers, including many young people.

One of Imagine That Kids’ programs, which is sustained almost entirely by volunteers, is in partnership with the Oakland Unified School Police. A literacy program, it serves exclusively African American male students in first and second grade at Cole Elementary every summer.  Students from McClymonds High School volunteer their time and help tutor the students, while strengthening their own literacy abilities.

Beyond the literacy program, Imagine That Kids does six big give-aways every year beginning in January with a coat drive. As a One Warm Coat agency, Imagine That Kids solicits donations from retailers around the region and distributes the coats to families in need. It’s deliberately scheduled for after the holidays when donations dramatically decrease.

Additionally, in February they organize a mother-son dance called Boys Need Love, designed for boys typically 5 to 11 years old. Scott explains, “We created that because we found that a lot of boys are afraid of love. They think love is something nasty, it’s gay. Why should I hug? Why should I love? When I saw that I wanted to create something for them…The sons can come and respect their mothers and learn etiquette on how to behave.” The event highlights an essential aspect of Imagine That Kids’s mission: to involve parents. They hold an event called Oakland’s Parent Cafés, which are enrichment programs that allow parents to come together and share different parenting techniques they found to be effective.

Imagine That Kids works with a variety of community partners including KQED, which co-organize the Back to School Rally in Oakland’s City Hall every August. Imagine That Kids gives K-5 students backpacks with school supplies, lunch boxes filled with one days worth of lunch  with healthy snacks like sealable pineapple strips and apples, Quaker oat bars and bottles of water. Scott reflects that in her own life, she was able to succeed in school because she had every amenity she needed. She adds, “Having books and the resources and the pens and pencils and everything that we needed helped me not want. So I tried to think about what stuff I could do to help these kids succeed…The [Back to School Rally] supplies the kits…those are things that when you’re a low income family, it’s not a necessity.” The events and give-aways Imagine That Kids organizes serve an assortment of purposes. For instance, their mission is to give young people the resources they need to succeed in school and beyond, but at the same time they strive to instill vital life and social lessons in the young people about respecting their family, their peers, their teachers and themselves.

Imagine That Kids plans to deliver presents to families on Christmas Day. If you’d like to help out with this event or any other Imagine That Kids events please visit imaginethatkids.org.

Local

SF Gate: As reported shootings rise, analyzing gun violence, and its effect on young people, in Oakland

December 17, 2012

Scid Howard III grew up on the streets of East Oakland, so he knows what it’s like to be a teenager in a city where some young people are lost forever to gun violence and others live on, scarred physically and mentally. Howard himself was shot at age 19 and witnessed the shooting death of his best friend at age 17. He now counsels young people for several support organizations in Oakland to save them from a similar fate.

“My job is to figure out the math of it and try to solve it,” Howard said. “And I love these kids.”

In a city where 1,077 shootings were reported in 2011, no one is affected more than the city’s young people—city and community leaders say shootings of minors are not only particularly tragic but deeply affect them for years to come. Of the 1,594 reported shooting victims in Oakland last year, 143 were 17 years old or younger, according to data from the Oakland Police Department. Of these, six shootings were fatal. Some—including Howard—say the danger of gun violence among the city’s young people is increasing. “Today you got men teaching their children, “He gonna be the next me, he gonna be the next killer,’” Howard said. “It’s getting worse.”

Data compiled by the Urban Strategies Council—which works with, and collects data for, agencies like the OPD—shows the overall number of reported shootings rising in recent years, from 869 in 2009 to more than 1,200 in 2011, the highest since 2003, the earliest year for which they have data. Homicides—which are by and large committed by people with guns—have followed a similar trend. As of early December, 2012, the city had already seen 117 homicides, soaring past 103 for last year and perhaps reaching the highest total since 2008 police say, when 124 people died.

While the final statistics for the number of shootings in 2012 will not be available until early 2013, Oakland North reporters worked with the Oakland Police Department to obtain citywide shooting statistics for 2011, the most recent complete year on file. The data gives a unique snapshot of gun violence in Oakland. In particular, Oakland North analyzed shootings in which minors were victims to provide a better picture of gun violence in the city.

To learn more.

Local

Mercury News: Oakland library chief ready for life's next chapter

December 13, 2012
By Maggie Sharpe

By The director of the Oakland Public Library is beginning a new chapter in her life.

Carmen Martinez, 62, who has led the library through ups and downs for the past dozen years, is set to retire Saturday.

“It was a benchmark that I wanted to retire when I was 62,” Martinez said. “You still have the energy and curiosity to keep active and intellectually stimulated. There’s a lot to look forward to without the structure of work.”

Martinez’ contributions to what she calls a “noble cause” were recognized in a formal proclamation from Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland City Council at the Dec. 4 council meeting.

“(The City) commends Carmen Martinez for 12 years of outstanding service and congratulates her on the occasion of her retirement,” reads the resolution.

Martinez, a native of Los Angeles who grew up in Glendale, received her bachelor’s in arts degree from then-CSU Hayward in Spanish language and literature; a certificate in proficiency in language from the University of Barcelona; and a master’s degree in library science from CSU Fullerton.

Martinez was recruited to Oakland in 2000 from the Los Angeles Central Library, where she worked for eight years. The same year, Gerry Garzon, who is taking over from Martinez as interim library director, joined the Oakland Public Library as associate director. He had previously held that position with the Arapahoe Library District in Colorado.

“We both came from library systemswith a lot of money,” Martinez said. “So it was a big adjustment for both of us when we came to Oakland.”

She said that before she began her job, there hadn’t been a director for three years.

To read more.

Local, National

Huffington Post: Oakland Schools To Allow Federal Monitoring Of Black Student Discipline

December 10, 2012

The Oakland Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Education agreed last week to allow for at least five years of federal monitoring as the district attempts to reduce the disproportionately high black student suspension rate, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The resolution, of which the Oakland school board voted 6-0 in favor, concludes an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights into whether discipline of black students was harsher and more frequent and harshly than for their white peers.

Data released by the Department of Education in March showed that black students are three-and-a-half times as likely to be suspended or expelled as their white classmates.

Under last week’s agreement, federal officials will keep watch on 38 Oakland schools and oversee the district’s five-year plan to address students’ needs by offering mentoring services to at-risk students, providing training for teachers and staff and combatting disciplinary issues without resorting to suspensions.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, almost 20 percent of Oakland’s black males were suspended at least once last year — six times the rate of white students. In middle school, one out of every three black students was suspended at least once. Furthermore, research conducted during the 2010-11 school year found that more than half of African American male students in the Oakland Unified School District are at risk of dropping out.

Russlynn Ali, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, told theLA Times that last school year, African American students comprised about 39 percent of the district’s total enrollment but accounted for 63 percent of students with at least one suspension and 61 percent of those who were expelled.

“Historically, they have been the whipping boys in our district,” Chris Chatmon, executive director of the district’s African-American Male Achievement Office, told the Oakland school board. “We are here today to ante up and reclaim our children.”

Federal education officials say they are hopeful Oakland can serve as a model for other districts that are seeking to address disproportionately high rates of suspensions of minority students, the AP reports.

“Disparities in disciplinary procedures are inherently wrong and all too common,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “I commend Oakland for being the first district to directly confront this challenge.”

 

Local

Oakland North: American Indian Model Schools file response to allegations of financial, organizational misconduct

AIMS board chairperson Jean Martinez looks on as attorney Paul Minney addresses the OUSD board at the Sept. 27 board meeting. Photo by Lauren Kawana.

November 29, 2012
By Nausheen Husain

Administrators at the American Indian Model Schools—a set of three Oakland charter schools, two middle schools and one high school—responded late Monday night to a 1,080-page notice of violations given to them by the Oakland Unified School District, OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint said Wednesday.

School officials had been given until November 28 to respond to the district’s allegations regarding improper business contracts, inappropriate credit card usage and lack of school board meeting documentation, but filed their response two days early. If the response does not appropriately answer the questions posed by OUSD school board members about the schools’ finances and organization, the district could decide to revoke the schools’ charters.

The response will be summarized and released to the public after the Oakland school board members read it and remove confidential information, such as student or employee names, Flint said. “It was a long response. It filled up many binders,” Flint said. “The board will have some guidance from our legal team, but they will ultimately decide the fate of AIMS, whether the schools will remain open and in what capacity.”

AIMS operates three charter schools in Oakland: American Indian Public Charter School, American Indian Public High School and American Indian Public Charter School II. The schools reported a total enrollment of almost 500 students during the 2010-2011 school year; in that year, reports to the California Department of Education indicated that almost 70 percent of the students were Asian, 18 percent were Hispanic and 1 percent were American Indian. For the past few years, the schools have had consistently high Academic Performance Index scores, which measure a school’s yearly progress and determine federal funding. During the 2009-2010 school year, American Indian Public Charter School had an API of 988, the highest of all the schools in the state.

The district’s review of the school’s operations began in 2011, when it was given information from a confidential source regarding “improper financial dealings” at the AIMS schools, Flint said. Early this year, the Alameda County Office of Education requested that the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) audit the AIMS schools. The audit was released this June. According to the audit, the study team found evidence of problems, including conflicts of interest in awarding school contracts, inappropriate credit card charges made by school officials, and a lack of documentation for decisions made by the schools’ board members in their meetings. 

This September, the district issued a “notice of violations” to the schools based on that audit, as well as public records and previous correspondence between OUSD and AIMS board members. The AIMS administration was given 60 days to provide documentation that the FCMAT auditors said had been missing when they compiled their June report. AIMS administration members were also required to provide a written response to the OUSD, including an explanation or defense against the notice’s accusations, and a plan for remedial measures.  This is the written response the district has just received.

At a heavily-attended September 27 school board meeting, when OUSD formally gave AIMS the notice of violations, board members emphasized that the notice did not mean they would close the schools, something that concerned AIMS schools parents in attendance.    But if this new AIMS response proves unsatisfactory, officials made clear, OUSD could begin the process of revoking the schools’ charters.

Some of the central allegations in the district’s notice focus on financial transactions involving Ben Chavis, the founder of two of the AIMS schools and the former director of all three.  The notice asserts that Chavis and his wife, Marsha Amador, collected almost $4 million from contracts made between the AIMS schools and Chavis’ businesses, including lease agreements, storage agreements and construction contracts—upgrading restroom facilities in 2006 and 2007—for the schools.

According to the notice, though the AIMS school board approved the contracts, there is no indication that they were aware of the money Chavis and his spouse would make from their businesses, including Lumbee Holdings and American Delivery Systems. Since state laws prohibit public officials, officers and employees from engaging in a contract in which they have a financial interest, Chavis’ membership on the AIMS board and the AIMS contracts that financially benefited him appear to be conflicts of interest, according to the FCMAT audit report.

To read more.

Events, Local

The Education Report: Oakland’s new youth theater company opens its season Dec. 6

Gritty City Rep rehearsal

November 28, 2012
By Katy Murphy

Gritty City Rep opened in January, and its executive artistic director, Lindsay Krumbein, says it’s the first stand-alone youth theater company in Oakland.

The group rehearses six hours a week in downtown Oakland. Its first show of the season opens at the Berkeley City Club Theatre on Dec. 6 and runs for two weeks. The actors will be performing “Anon(ymous)” by Naomi Iizuka, which Krumbein describes as “very physical, minimalist, dealing with issues of war and immigration, exploitation of refugees – relevant stuff. Not your typical `high school theatre’ by any stretch of the imagination.”

To read more.

Local

Oakland North: Oakland Raiders, students sort food at Alameda County food banks

Long snapper Jon Condo sorts carrots.

November 21, 2012
By Sam Rolens

When Brad Lubeck, 11, and his mother Stacey showed up at the Alameda County Community Food Bank for an afternoon of volunteering with his Boy Scout troop, he didn’t expect much in the way of thrills. Food bank staff showed Brad and the others what to do with the broccoli and carrots they’d be unloading, and said it would be the Scouts’ job to teach the process to another group of volunteers arriving shortly.

Then the surprise was sprung. Six giants in black and silver strolled up to the boys and asked for instructions. The Oakland Raiders had arrived.

Brad, who is something of a football fan, would be beaming for the rest of the day as he packed up carrots. “We have a cat named Raider,” said his mother. “He got to name it.”

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Oakland Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor, long snapper Jon Condo, wide receiver Derek Hagan, linebacker Aaron Curry, defensive end Matt Shaugnessy and running back Taiwan Jones sorted donated food alongside local high school students, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts at the Food Bank’s warehouse across the highway from the Coliseum.

“I wear the black and silver on TV every Sunday,” said Condo. “Kids look up to us. Adults look up to us. This shows people watching that we’re in this together for the cause of our community.” Condo said that every Tuesday, which is the only day off from workouts for the Raiders, members of the team are volunteering somewhere in the city. Condo, originally from Pennsylvania, said the community spirit he’s seen in Oakland has impressed him. “They’re very dedicated people,” he said. “It’s a close-knit community committed to helping each other.”

The Oakland Raiders are also hosting a virtual food drive over the holiday season in partnership with the Food Bank that collects money for food and supplies.

The cavernous warehouse is kept cold inside. Volunteering kids wore warm beanies and coats on Tuesday, while the Raiders wore their jerseys without pads or helmets. Conversation was lively, as kids clustered around one or two towering players at each of the cardboard boxes holding donated vegetables.

Big hands and small hands worked quickly through the veggies, while conversation covered primarily school and football. “They’re tough,” said Condo, who was paired with Brad’s Scout troop. “They’re hard little workers—packing carrots just as fast as I was.”

Food Bank communications manager Mike Altfest said the facility needs all the help it can get from volunteers in the weeks leading up to the holiday season. “The operation is ticking this time of year the way we’d want it to be ticking all year,” said Altfest. The Food Bank provides food for 49,000 people (enough food for roughly 300,000 meals) each week through its 275 partner food pantries, soup kitchens and other facilities.

But the amount of donations peaks at this time of year, said Altfest, and so does the Food Bank’s need for volunteers. People tend to sign up for shifts during the holiday season, he said, but interest starts flagging by January. He encourages anyone who wants to volunteer to sign up for shifts after the holidays by using the Food Bank’s volunteer webpage.

“The Raiders have been helping us out a lot this year,” said Altfest. “It’s a great morale booster, and it helps bring awareness to hunger in Oakland.”

Not far from the Food Bank’s warehouse, at the Columbian Gardens Food Pantry, pro-bowl defensive tackle Richard Seymour was handing out frozen chickens, canned corn and collard greens, and boxed stuffing mix with the help of his family. Altfest said Seymour had specifically asked to pass out food, and that the appearance was “just something Richard wanted to do.” Seymour was helped by his wife Tanya, his kids Richard, Kayla, Kennedy and London, and other friends and family.

To read more.

Local

The Education Report: Another Oakland student news blog: Castle Crier!

Pre-Distribution

November 13, 2012
By Katy Murphy

 

Student journalism in Oakland has popped up at yet another high school. At Castlemont High, students have launched an online site with a wonderfully old-school newspaper name, the Castle Crier.

AP English language students are the publication’s first reporters.  Guided by teacher Marguerite Sheffer, they post updates three or four times a week. This winter, the Crier will have its first print edition.

Today, we can read all about John Lynch, the new principal of the newly consolidated school, an ethnic studies partnership with San Francisco State, and what it’s like to be an Asian-American at Castlemont. Not to mention an exclusive interview with Castlemont’s Freshman Princess, photographed in a Raiders hat and Holy Names University sweatshirt.

As a journalist who wrote for her own high school newspaper (The Torch looks so 21st Century now!), I find it heartening to see teenagers learning how to tell newspaper stories and report what’s going on around them.

Across town at McClymonds High, the Mack Smack blog is still going strong, and Fremont High’s Green and Gold newspaper is award-winning. Oakland Tech’s paper, The Scribe, came back to life four years ago, and Skyline’s Oracle keeps students up to date on the latest administrative changes and policies.

To read more.