On a Thursday, during school hours, students from middle and high schools across the Oakland Unified School District met to conduct business. Held at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, students, teachers, and advocates gathered for the All City Council Students Unions’ 9th Annual Youth Action Summit. The theme this year was #StudentVoiceMatter: Building Real Partnership to Real Student Power.
Gema Quetzal Cardenas, 16, to join California’s State Board of Education as a student representative
Gema Quetzal Cardenas was selected to serve as the 2018-2019 student representative on California’s State Board of Education.
On Thursday, a row of people carrying umbrellas gathered in downtown Oakland, standing in a long line going down the entire block, despite the spurts of rain. Although the people in line were smiling, they were here to conduct a serious conversation. The panel discussion, hosted by Lincoln, an organization that helps children and families through social programs, was titled “Equity in Education.” The free event invited members of the community to come together and discuss important topics affecting the…
On March 10, students from seven schools in the Oakland Unified School District participated in the 2018 Prescott Theater Circus showcase. The circus partnered with the Oakland Spirit Orchestra and the Museum of the African Diaspora to create the show entitled “Uplift.”
Over 100 students were awarded medals during the final showcase of the 39th Martin Luther King Oratorical Fest. The performance categories this year ranged from famous to not-so-famous speeches, dramatic scenes, published poems and students’ original work. Each performer in the showcase was a finalist from their individual school’s competition.
Zella’s Soul Food Kitchen was opened in October 2014, by Dionne Knox. Zella’s can be found in the right corner of the Mandela Food Cooperative, a worker-owned grocery store opened since 2009.
In the meeting room at the Oakland Public Library’s Cesar Chavez Branch, girls grades 6 to 12 gather for their Tuesday club meeting. They remove their school backpacks and power on the laptops provided by the library. With some instruction from their club advisor, they immerse themselves in learning a new language: the language of coding. This Girls Who Code club is one of the hundreds nationwide. This particular club location was launched four years ago. During each school year,…
In a six to one vote, the Oakland Unified School District school board voted to cut $9 million from the district’s budget on Wednesday night. Earlier in the afternoon, members of the Oakland Education Association assembled at Lake Merritt to protest the proposed cuts, then marched down the streets toward La Escuelita Elementary School, where the board meeting would take place. Olivia Udovic, a parent and teacher at Oakland Montessori School in the Fruitvale neighborhood, marched proudly in the front…
Fresh bread is baking in the oven. Feet shuffle swiftly along the kitchen floors. Chefs begin bagging and packing food to go. Two deliverers place big black boxes on carts to wheel to their vehicle. Inside each one are several neatly packaged white boxes filled with lunch orders. About seven people dance around the kitchen to assist them with the deliveries. Smooth 90’s R&B plays in the background while the staff works in unison. The chefs in this kitchen aren’t…
Following the discovery of lead in the water at McClymonds High School in August, water testing has begun throughout the entire Oakland Unified School District. Currently, 13 additional schools in the district have been reported to have lead in their water. At a school board meeting on November 8, Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell read from a statement regarding the status of lead of Oakland schools. “In August 2017, water safety concerns regarding the lead levels of water at McClymonds High School…
On Wednesday, while the school board met in closed session, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) took to the street to protest. With handmade signs, teachers gathered at seven different locations in Oakland to express their thoughts on the proposed school budget.
Every Monday night, from 7-8 p.m., teenagers gather at the Benioff Children’s Hospital’s Sport Medicine Center in Oakland for a Pilates class. The classroom participants range from young athletes to children regaining their strength after surgeries.
After years of hard work and numerous volunteer hours, the East Bay Children’s Book Project will be temporarily closing down after losing their lease.
The chant of “Black girl power!” chant echoed throughout a room filled with purple balloons and ribbons early Saturday morning. More than 100 girls and their mothers, teachers, mentors—and one father—filled an auditorium on the Mills College campus for the first Black Girl Power Conference hosted by the African American Female Excellence Program (AAFE). The AAFE is a new initiative from the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Office of Equity. The initiative’s goal is to increase the academic achievement of…
During the public hearing session, community members filed to the podium to express concerns about Measure G1 funding, including whether or not charter schools would be eligible.
Every Saturday, the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment holds a free scratch programming class as an educational resource for youth to learn basic coding.