Posts Tagged ‘American Indian Model Schools’
Performance, charter school renewal are priorities at school board meeting
Wednesday night’s Oakland school board meeting started off sparsely populated; board president James Harris joked that it would be a short meeting. But within two and a half hours, it was standing room only, as parents filed in to attend a special meeting on charter schools’ performance measures and two charter renewals. The meeting began…
Read MoreAmerican Indian Model Schools to remain open
Despite facing an FBI probe and losing its accreditation, American Indian Model Schools (AIMS), a nationally lauded charter school, will remain open at least until the end of the 2014 school year. On Friday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo granted the school a preliminary injunction, ruling that the Oakland Unified School District made…
Read MoreAlameda County school board faces decision on American Indian Model Schools
The Alameda County Board of Education will rule on Tuesday whether to reverse a decision that revoked the academic accreditation of a nationally lauded charter school system. American Indian Model Schools operates three schools in Oakland, spanning kindergarten through high school. It lost its status in March after a 4-3 vote by the Oakland Unified School District.
Read MoreAt AIMS meeting, few answers on the future of the schools’ leadership
It may have been the shortest school board meeting in recent history.
Read MoreAIMS board members fire director; board president resigns
During a volatile meeting of the American Indian Model Schools (AIMS) board Friday, the board members lost two of the schools’ most fierce defenders: AIMS Director Sylvester Hodges was fired during a closed session, and board President Toni Cook resigned soon after the closed session and left the meeting. AIMS site administrator Jennifer Avelino was…
Read MoreOUSD votes to revoke American Indian Model Schools charters
At a long-awaited special school board meeting, and after over six months of hearings and notices, Oakland Unified School District board members voted to revoke the three American Indian Model Schools’ (AIMS) charters. The 4-3 vote came after Superintendent Tony Smith recommended the board revoke the charters, and after a particularly emotional and dramatic series of public comments and discussion.
Read MoreAn AIMS graduate returns to help her school through challenging times
Karely Ordaz remembers the first time she realized that good grades had good consequences. She was an eighth grader at Oakland Charter Academy and she had just found out that she was one of ten middle school students chosen for an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. “Never in my wildest dreams as an eighth grader did I think I’d be able to go to the capitol for free just because I had good grades,” she recalls. “That’s when I decided that I’d keep doing it.”
Read MoreAIMS community to OUSD: Please don’t close our schools
About three dozen American Indian Model Schools (AIMS) students and parents took turns Wednesday, each speaking for one minute, hoping to convince the Oakland school board that their three schools shouldn’t be shut down. The board voted in January to give the AIMS administration a “notice of intent to revoke” the schools’ charters after alleging fraud and financial mismanagement at the schools.
Read MoreOUSD starts process of revoking three AIMS schools’ charters
American Indian Model Schools founder Ben Chavis said Tuesday that the Oakland Unified School District’s recent decision to start the process of revoking the three AIM Schools’ charters is unfair and based on biases. “OUSD is upset because I did my job right and they lost students to me,” Chavis said. “They just want their kids back so they can get more state and federal funding.”
Read MoreAmerican Indian Model Schools file response to allegations of financial, organizational misconduct
Administrators at the American Indian Model Schools—a set of three Oakland charter schools, two middle schools and one high school—responded late Monday night to a 1,080-page notice of violations given to them by the Oakland Unified School District, OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint said Wednesday.
Read MoreSchool board approves plan to address civil rights complaints over student suspensions
In a crowded boardroom and to strong applause, the OUSD board unanimously passed an agreement yesterday that resolved to address the Office of Civil Right’s (OCR) compliance review of the district’s discipline of African American students.
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