Until Monday morning, Chabot Elementary School, like several other schools in the Oakland Unified School District, was still struggling to heat all of its classrooms in the cold days following Thanksgiving break. Last week in the school’s newly constructed “D-building,” which houses first and second grade students, teachers were forced to hold class in the hallways, administrators said, which were warmer than the unheated classrooms.
The weather outside is frightful, but thrifty Oakland art lovers and gift-shoppers might consider braving the chill to head down Telegraph Avenue for the Temescal Winter Art Hop, which will run Friday night from 6pm to 9pm between 42nd and 50th streets.
Oakland mayor-elect Jean Quan, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, and other local leaders joined a handful of Oakland students on the steps of City Hall on Thursday afternoon to urge Congress to pass the federal DREAM Act, which would give the children of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
It was a question left unanswered in a press-release issued by the Oakland Unified School District last week: What do Oakland Schools, the Oakland Police Department, and a project to build a 60,000-pound bronze monument in downtown Oakland have in common? The answer: about $10.5 million.
Basmati rice bags, colorful packets of spices, and bins of honey-sweetened candies pack the aisles at Marwa Market on Telegraph Avenue. A small freezer full of turkeys sits at the front of the store. “Thanksgiving is not a Muslim holiday, but all religions say thanks to God,” Owner Temur Khwaja said. “We always get a few orders for halal turkeys.”
This is a recipe that I got from my roommate in college, and now it’s a Thanksgiving favorite at the Chin household. Note that it is for two quiches (my family eats a lot), so cut the ingredient list in half to make one quiche. Matt’s Mommy’s Yummy Quiche Ingredients 2 pastry crusts 1 1/2 onions, fried in butter (enough to comfortably cover the bottom of each pan) 2 small bunches of chopped up, uncooked broccoli About 14 ounces grated…
In their first meeting since the November election, Oakland’s school board members reflected somberly on the near-passage of Measure L, the $195 property tax that would have raised $20 million per year for ten years, increasing salaries for school employees.
Members of the Oakland teachers’ union voted tonight on whether to reaffirm its rejection of the teaching contract imposed by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in the spring, and authorize actions up to and including a district-wide strike.
Until it burned to the ground, Tiki Tom’s waterfront restaurant and bar, with its giant inflatable rooftop frog and bright yellow exterior, was a difficult place to miss.
Oakland North reporter Teresa Chin provides an on-scene update of police arresting protesters who were reacting to the Johannes Mehserle sentencing.
Oakland North reporters Nicole Jones and Teresa Chin have been following tonight’s Johannes Mehserle sentencing protests. From the site of the first arrests, they filed these video reports.
A peaceful protest at Frank Ogawa Plaza turned ugly after the gathering was forced to break up at 6 p.m. Police estimated 300 to 500 protesters moved into the streets of downtown, where they blocked traffic and jumped on moving vehicles. For the full story, click here.
Measure L, the $195 parcel tax that would have raise money for teacher salary increases, was receiving 58 percent approval in early returns tonight, with just over 10 percent of precincts reporting. But that fell short of the two-thirds supermajority required in California to pass any new tax increase.
Oakland has accumulated many paranormal tales: A ghost at the-now-defunct Holmes Book Company on 14th Street allegedly liked to throw books around, and customers reported feeling uneasy while browsing shelves alone; Ghostly orbs have been said to appear in photographs taken at Preservation Park downtown, particularly at the historic Pardee Home, the house of former California governor George Pardee; One man told Oakland North that he felt an overwhelming sense of “pure evil” while visiting the master bedroom during open house on Mall Court in Oakland.
The district’s annual report on Measure B, the $435 million school facilities bond passed in 2006, prompted words of praise from principals on improved school facilities and a brief discussion about the lack of 10th grade bathrooms at Oakland High School.
Although three of the seven board members are up for re-election in November, only one seat is being challenged. Incumbents David Kakishiba and Christopher Dobbins have no opposition, and so will automatically retain their school board seats. But Gary Yee, the current board president, has an opponent who is also a longtime adversary—former teachers’ union president Ben Visnick.
Piedmont Avenue Elementary has garnered attention as an up-and-coming school in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). This year, Piedmont was one of 12 OUSD schools that raised their Academic Performance Index (API) by more than 50 points. That’s twice the average increase for the district.