Posts Tagged ‘charter schools’
School board candidates introduce themselves to voters, spar on charter schools
Nine school board candidates took the mic Tuesday night at Lighthouse Community Charter School to introduce themselves to Oakland voters. They are vying for four seats in Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7. Each candidate took turns answering the same three questions, which were printed in the audience’s programs in both English and Spanish. Connie…
Read MoreSchool board meeting attendees plea for Measure G funds for charter schools
The Oakland Unified School Board meeting Wednesday night was packed—and then it wasn’t. Hundreds of parents and children wearing pro-charter school t-shirts and waving roses filled the left hand side of the gym at La Escuelita Learning Center, spilling over onto the right side where union members from the Oakland Education Association sat. Over twenty…
Read MoreOakland Unified School District celebrates low teacher vacancies
The talent recruiters at the Oakland Unified School District worked around the clock this summer to make sure all students in Oakland would have a teacher waiting to welcome them back to school. They had to. Last year, students returned to find as many as 77 of their classrooms manned by an improvised crew of…
Read MoreCharter association sues district over quality of facilities
Proposition 39, also known as the “Smaller Classes, Safer Schools and Financial Accountability Act,” was passed by voters in 2000, and requires all California school districts to provide equivalent facilities to charter schools and the students who choose to attend them. The ballot initiative was based on the premise that students who attend charter schools would have otherwise attended district schools, so the district should have planned to accommodate those students with space and resources. To be “equivalent” means that the district must provide resources and facilities to a charter school that match what they provide children at schools in the same part of the district, and according to the proposition’s text, they must be “contiguous, furnished and equipped, and shall remain the property of the school district.”
Read MorePerformance, 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 MoreOUSD Board of Education approves expansion of KIPP Bridge Charter School
Few members of the public attended the beginning of Wednesday night’s meeting for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education. In a relatively empty room, the board heard a presentation from schools police chief Jeff Godown on arrests within OUSD schools and discussed budget priorities for the coming school year.
Read MoreSchool board considers options for proposed enrollment policy
On Wednesday, district officials presented a plan for improvements to the student enrollment system, Lance Jackson updated the board on the Central Kitchen Project, and the Oakland Athletic League (OAL) presented a progress report from the athletic department.
Read MoreVincent Academy’s students start classes in new facility
The building is the result of collaboration between the West Oakland public charter elementary school and BRIDGE Housing, a non-profit housing developer
Read MoreOakland school board approves two new charter schools
The Oakland Unified School District Board of Education approved two charter school petitions Wednesday night: Castlemont Junior Academy and the Conservatory of Vocal and Instrumental Arts (COVA) High School.
Read MoreOakland school board to consider new charter approval, teachers’ contracts
In its Tuesday meeting, the board will continue negotiating with the OEA over their agreement, hear a new charter school proposal and vote whether to create two new jobs in the Office of Post-Secondary Readiness.
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 MoreTwo OUSD schools will convert to charters after board vote
Two Fruitvale area elementary schools denied permission to become charter schools earlier this year had that decision reversed by the Oakland Unified School District board at a special meeting Wednesday night.
Read MoreReacting to closures, 3 Oakland public schools ask to become charters
On October 26 representatives from three of Oakland’s public elementary schools –ASCEND, Learning Without Limits, and Lazear—presented petitions to the school board to convert into charter schools. Closing the five schools, by the school district’s estimate, would save about $2 million. But if these three schools become charters, the district could lose as many as 1000 students from its rolls, pulling more than $4 million from OUSD.
Read MoreOakland parents on school closures: Where do we go?
Three weeks after the OUSD board voted 5-2 to close five elementary schools—Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell Park and Santa Fe—and relocate or merge several other schools, parents and staff affected by the closures are working to figure out what they will do. Their array of “options,” which will be handled by “transition coordinators,” includes no guarantees.
Read MoreSchool board hears complaints on budget cuts, death of Raheim Brown
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.”
Read MoreCharter schools petition for renewals at year’s first school board meeting
Four charter schools presented petitions to renew their charters at the Oakland Unified School District board meeting last night. Students, teachers and parents from the Oakland schools crowded the boardroom and took turns asking the board to let their schools continue to operate for five more years.
Read More