School Board
About two dozen protesters jammed the entrance of the Oakland Unified School District’s office building near Lake Merritt on Wednesday afternoon, demanding the dismissal of recently-appointed OUSD interim police chief Barhin Bhatt, who was involved in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Raheim Brown earlier this year. Bhatt was appointed to head the district’s small police force earlier this month after the previous chief stepped down.
A dozen students from Marbella Rios’ fourth grade class lined up in front of the microphone on Wednesday night to ask the school board to allow their teacher to stay in her classroom.
Lacy Lefkowitz teaches ancient history at Claremont Middle School, but last night she gave her students a lesson in current affairs. Six of Lefkowitz’s sixth graders stood before the board to read their letters about what they thought ought to be cut, and what ought to be saved, at their school next year.
There will be no budget-based layoffs of elementary school teachers in Oakland next fall, Deputy Superintendent Maria Santos announced at Wednesday night’s school board meeting. About 230 teachers had received lay-off warning notices in March.
Oakland Unified School District may soon have to consider one of the least popular moves a school district can make: closing schools. In short, the district has room for 10,900 more students than it’s serving, and not a single extra dollar to spend on maintaining empty space.
With some passing drivers honking to express support, dozens of teachers and students rallied in front of Oakland’s Elihu M. Harris State Building on Wednesday afternoon to protest the severe budget cuts awaiting school districts if Governor Jerry Brown’s tax extension proposal fails.
As part of a packed agenda, on Wednesday night the Oakland school board heard presentations from two East Oakland charter schools hoping the board will grant them charter approval: American Indian Public High School and Aspire – College Academy.
When the first 45 minutes of public commentary were exhausted at Wednesday night’s school board meeting, there were still 37 speaker cards on file with the board secretary. The most popular message? “No more budget cuts.”
Teachers in Oakland can expect a 2 percent raise next year, but that was the only positive budget news from Wednesday night’s school board meeting. The district is expecting to lose more of its state funding this year, is running low on much of its one-time-use federal funding and continues to struggle with low enrollment.