Education
A day after outgoing Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell delivered a farewell address, the Oakland Unified School District announced Friday that former Chabot Elementary School Principal Denise Saddler will serve as interim superintendent for the next school year. The shift comes less than a year after the School Board extended Johnson-Trammell’s contract and a month after the board abruptly ended it in a 4-3 closed-session vote. The board has given no reason for her ouster, which is being called voluntary. But Johnson-Trammell…
OUSD names building after slain leader: ‘Thank you, Dr. Foster, for giving your life for this city.’
The Oakland Unified School District named a building Wednesday in honor of Superintendent Dr. Marcus A. Foster, the district’s first Black leader, who was assassinated in 1973. The new administration building at 1011 Union St., which opened in February, now carries the name of the superintendent who was killed by members of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army in November 1973, just months before the group kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in Berkeley. Marsha Foster, the only child of Marcus and Albertine…
Frustrated by what they see as their school district’s lack of urgency in responding to lead in drinking water, four Oakland High seniors have transformed a senior class project into a broader campaign demanding safe drinking water and stronger protections for future students. Out of a shared distrust of their school’s drinking water, Palmer Kayondo, Daniel Thomas, Jeremiah Evans and Nijeer Roy-Enis created Project Nemo, a name inspired by the movie “Finding Nemo,” about a campaign to return a fish…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Jessie Papalia has felt the panic and confusion among her students and their families at Bridges Academy Elementary in Oakland, a dual-language school with many students who have recently arrived in the United States. “The first week was rough. I had kids asking me if they could sleep at school because they were too…
The Oakland mayor’s office had been working to bring a Historically Black College to the city. That effort is now uncertain, after Oaklanders voted to recall Sheng Thao, who officially left the mayor’s post on Tuesday. Before her recall, Thao had appointed Deputy Mayor Kimberley Mayfield to lead a task force to bring one of the more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Oakland. Mayfield did not respond to follow-up requests for comment after the election. However, before…
Empty toilet paper rolls. Missing bathroom stall doors. Dirty sinks and desks. Those were among the top concerns identified by Oakland Unified School District students in a survey by their peers. This year, students hope a new form of leverage will push the district to fix things: their votes. As Oakland teens prepare to cast ballots for the first time, students have been organizing to make sure their needs as students are heard by School Board candidates. “If our representatives…
Three people were wounded by gun fire when a dispute between two groups turned violent in the parking lot of Skyline High School after a graduation ceremony Thursday. Oakland police and California Highway Patrol officers responded to reports of multiple gunshots on the north side of campus around 7:45 p.m. Two adult victims, a man and a woman, were in stable condition Friday, according to Oakland police Lt. Robert Trevino. A third victim later turned up at a hospital and…
Oakland Unified School District is behind schedule on implementing two important projects, one with over $75 million in state funding. Educators, parents and students voiced their frustration at Wednesday’s board meeting, saying the district has failed on its promise to establish a task force on student equity and a committee to allocate a grant for community schools. “We have a very simple ask tonight,” said Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, vice president of the Oakland Education Association, during public comment. “That the board…
Oakland and the Oakland Public Library are inviting residents to reimagine the Main Library. This year’s last Re-imagine the Oakland Main Library workshop is Thursday, during which attendees can create vision boards, fill out a survey and record a video responding to the prompt: “That Would Be Cool If…” The city has allocated $600,000 to contract with the architectural firm Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis to study the feasibility of an expanded or relocated Main Library. The Feasibility Study Team…