Education
A majority of the Oakland Unified School District’s close to 2,400 teachers are expected to participate in a one day strike Thursday. School will be in session anyway. Though the district began hiring “emergency temporary teachers” close to a month ago, only 300 such teachers have been cleared to work tomorrow, according to OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint.
Michael Moore, the Oakland Athletic League’s commissioner, is in charge of one of the oldest high school sports organizations in the state—but it’s also the smallest, and under pressure to combine with larger sections. The league’s future was in doubt until Moore came along and could still face more questions about its status—but Moore wants to keep the league independent.
Over one hundred students and parents gathered for the conference that was a collaboration between the Criminal Justice Department at Merritt College and the Oakland Police Activities League (PAL), a non-profit organization that aims to forge a relationship between kids and cops.
The Oakland Unified School District announced Thursday at a press conference that the school board voted unanimously last night to impose the teacher contract that is their “last, best and final offer.”
At a campaign event at Redwood Heights Elementary, Oakland mayoral candidate Jean Quan sought to position herself as the “education candidate” and discussed the upcoming Oakland teachers’ strike.
Thirty-five people showed up at Wednesday night’s school board meeting in downtown Oakland to speak on non-agenda items—a significant turnout given that there was no union-organized rally or charter school petition on the agenda.
Jurena Storm is back in school at age 35 and said the recent legislation supporting student loan reform is “a relief.” A student at College of Alameda, Storm told her story Tuesday at an Organizing For America press conference held at Laney College to highlight the local impact of the student loan reforms signed into law by President Obama last month.
Eight-foot tall kids wearing brightly colored costumes and wizard-style hats were the focus of everyone’s attention at Frank H. Ogawa plaza in downtown Oakland on Friday. This was not an elongated Harry Potter costume party, but a cadre of Prescott Circus Theatre stilt dancers showing off their stuff.
Like Oakland Unified School District’s K-12 system, Adult Education is facing massive cuts and administrators have had to narrow the program’s focus to the district’s highest needs: foundational literacy, basic skills and workforce training.