School Board

Before the state finalized its budget on Friday, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) had already made $122 million in cuts for the 2010-2011 school year, and had scheduled several child development centers for closure. Superintendant Tony Smith had called the further cuts “a possibility,” a scenario which district officials now say will be unlikely.

In a surprise announcement during Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Superintendent Tony Smith named Chris Chatmon, of the organization 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, as the district ‘s first director of African American Male Achievement. The creation of the new position, which is supposed to focus on identifying and reducing of institutional racism in education, is a part of Smith’s 2010-2015 Strategic Vision for OUSD.

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.

Despite plans to close eight early childhood development centers Monday, Oakland schools’ Superintendent Tony Smith said Friday that funds had been found to keep six of those centers open. However, North Oakland’s Golden Gate Childhood Development Center is still slated for closure. In response, members the local group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) began what they called an all-night occupation of the center in the early afternoon. “I believe that the only success is if we keep fighting,” Mark Airgood…

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.”

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 Time Equivalencies” or FTEs. One FTE is the equivalent cost of one full-time job, but it does not necessarily make up an individual position….

A majority of Oakland’s 2,339 teachers and 38,826 students were expected to be out today due to the strike but district spokesperson Troy Flint said he didn’t expect to have final numbers until Monday. Teachers’ complaint is that they have not received a raise since 2003, and despite two years of contract negotiations with the district, will not be offered a raise for the 2010-2011 school year either.

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.

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.”