School Board
A new Oakland Unified School District policy will ensure students graduate with an understanding of climate change–including how they can be advocates the environment. But there’s still a lot to do before climate change gets taught in all Oakland schools.
Protesters temporarily disrupted the October 10 school board meeting, during which members discussed an Opportunity Ticket for students affected by school closures and debated redrawing Kaiser Elementary’s attendance boundaries.
Community members took over Wednesday night’s school board meeting to protest the board’s recent decision to merge Kaiser and Sankofa elementary schools.
OUSD school board vote to merge two pairs of district schools draws outrage from parents, children, and educators, who turned out in force for a lengthy board meeting that continued until Thursday morning.
Oakland Unified School District’s leaders are overhauling budget planning processes for the 2020-21 school year.
There are just under 400 foster youth attending Oakland schools, and for many, one person at their school is dedicated to them: their case manager. This counselor provides support and offers one-on-one guidance—academically and for other issues that may arise outside of school. The Oakland Unified School District has four case managers for foster youth, but their jobs were threatened in March, when the school board passed budget cuts eliminating their positions. After a sustained effort by students to push…
Melvin Phillips has worked in Oakland schools for the last 27 years. He is currently the lead school security officer at Fremont High School and he is one of hundreds of classified employees in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Classified workers include instructional specialists like classroom support staff and tutors, administrative workers, custodians, security officers, and other school staff. During the Oakland teachers’ strike last month, classified workers joined the teachers on the picket lines in a sympathy strike….
Last Tuesday, the Oakland City Council passed a resolution to provide $1.2 million in funding for the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) restorative justice program, foster youth case manager positions, and school libraries. All three programs were at risk of enacting widespread layoffs or reductions to the services they provide following the Oakland school board’s vote last month to cut about $22 million from the district’s budget. When introducing the resolution, Council President Rebecca Kaplan (at-large) highlighted how each of…
While the teachers’ strike ended weeks ago, the Oakland Unified School District’s financial troubles are far from over. Less than 24 hours after the strike, on March 4, the school board narrowly voted to cut $22 million dollars from next year’s budget. The move was to keep the district from financial ruin, but school libraries are among the programs being affected by the cuts. We focused on the story of just one library at Frick Impact Academy in East Oakland…