If you want to ride with the scraper bike king, you better wear a helmet. Tyrone “Baybe Champ” Stevenson Jr., known around Oakland as the “king” and creator of the scraper bike movement, announced his new rule of the road Saturday near Oakland City Hall.
Education
At daybreak, already in line for free school supplies
August 30, 2010 – 6:00 am
Several hundred people gathered on Saturday in Frank Ogawa Plaza, where promises of free back-to-school supplies attracted a wide range of students, from kindergarteners to college freshmen. Many parents arrived hours before the official start time, children in tow, in order to ensure a good place in line for the give-away.
Last-minute funding for all but two children’s centers
August 28, 2010 – 6:35 pm
After weeks of threatening the closure of seven Oakland childhood development centers, the Oakland Unified School District announced Friday that five of the seven centers will remain open until at least the end of December.
School board opener brings harsh budget news
August 26, 2010 – 3:50 pm
Despite many heartfelt pleas to keep arts programs and continue running early childhood development centers, Superintendent Tony Smith told the audience at Wednesday night’s school board meeting that there just isn’t enough money for all the programs people care about. “If we can’t pay for it,” he said, “we can’t have it.”
A night hike through the cosmos
August 17, 2010 – 7:25 am
A simulated walk through the solar system takes hikers through a roughly four-mile loop in the East Bay Regional Parks, starting at the Chabot Space and Science Center and ending in the dark.
Childhood development centers get a month’s reprieve
August 3, 2010 – 9:38 am
Teachers searching for new jobs and parents looking for new childcare options got some last-minute good news—the seven childhood development centers slated to close last Friday due to budget cuts will remain open for another month. The Oakland Unified School District announced it was allocating $400,000 in federal stimulus money to keep the centers running through the end of August.
Eight Childhood Development Centers set to close Friday
July 29, 2010 – 10:14 am
Judy Lee has already begun packing her boxes. Full of art supplies and Shel Silverstein books, the boxes sat neatly stacked near the wall of her spacious classroom at the Piedmont Avenue Early Childhood Development Center on Wednesday, a telltale sign of the center’s imminent closure.
A garden tour raises funds for healthy food education
July 26, 2010 – 8:01 am
In the shade of large, leafy lettuce and kale and tall stalks of beans, approximately 150 Bay Area residents met Saturday at the Saint Martin de Porres Elementary School garden to show their support for the nonprofit organization that planted it to give Oakland students a chance to learn about nutrition.
A streetcar for Oakland? A student shares his plan
July 15, 2010 – 8:19 am
At a time when Oakland is strapped for cash and seems to have no clear plan for economic revitalization, one Stanford University junior says he has the answer: a streetcar system.
Phat Beets farmers’ market opens in North Oakland
July 5, 2010 – 11:15 am
What do you get when you mix an outdoor market, workshops on healthy eating and food justice? A Phat Beets farmers’ market. This new North Oakland weekly farmers’ market, which debuted on Saturday, is more than just buying food locally—it’s about education, health and the community.
Girls learn empowerment through rock music
June 29, 2010 – 8:43 am
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp kicked off last week in downtown Oakland. Eighty girls, from ages 8 to 18, learned to play guitar, drums, synthesizer and sing. This is the third summer of Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, where attendees get to do more than just learn about music—they also go to screen printing classes where they design band logos and print them on t-shirts, take self-defense classes, participate in image and identity workshops, and learn about song writing and music her-story.
Bring out the paintbrushes and hammers — arts and science camp begins
June 24, 2010 – 8:00 am
On an outdoor deck overlooking Lake Merritt, kids are busy sawing, hammering and sanding wood. Carpentry is just one of the classes offered at the Junior Center of Art and Science during its summer arts and science camp, which just kicked off on Monday. The Junior Center of Art and Science is an independent non-profit organization that has been in Oakland for 55 years and works to use a hands-on approach in teaching kids about science and art.
Multimedia report: Learning in Golden Gate
May 17, 2010 – 7:58 am
In this special report, we have created an audio-visual map of the learning resources in Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood.
Three schools, three visions, one neighborhood
May 12, 2010 – 10:24 pm
The three schools in the Golden Gate neighborhood are Santa Fe Elementary, a traditional K-5 public school; Civicorps Elementary, an environmentally focused K-5 charter school; and Berkley Maynard, an Aspire K-7 charter school. Each school has its own character and its own focus, according the principals of the schools and the many community members we [...]
Follow the money: OUSD projected staffing cuts
May 12, 2010 – 10:15 pm
The Oakland Unified School District is set to cut $85 million from its budget next year. Inevitably, this will include some cuts to staffing. The infographic above reflects the projected staffing cuts in the Oakland Unified School District for the 2010-2011 school year.
Staffing cuts in the district are allocated based on the idea of “Full [...]
Getting to Golden Gate for school
May 12, 2010 – 10:12 pm
A number of people interviewed for the Learning in Golden Gate project said that many of the 1,100 students attending Golden Gate neighborhood schools* do not live in the area. To see where students were coming from we collected the zip codes of students attending the three Golden Gate neighborhood schools: Berkeley Maynard Academy, Civicorps [...]