Oakland’s teacher strike concludes its second day

Thousands of teachers and supporters gathered at DeFremery Park on Friday morning to rally during day two of the strike. Teachers wore red to show support for the national "Red for Ed" movement.

On Friday morning, Oakland teachers returned to the picket lines as their strike entered its second day. The bargaining teams from the Oakland Education Association (OEA)—the teachers’ union—and the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) met in the morning to resume negotiations but as of 4 pm Friday afternoon, had not come to any resolution. The…

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Charter 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.”

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OUSD school closures vote Wed follows years of creating small schools, then having to pay for them

The Oakland Unified School District’s controversial proposal to close five elementary schools this fall, and more in coming years, follows a multi-year program of encouraging small small schools–subdividing bigger facilities into multiple smaller ones, each with fewer students and a more intimate climate. But funding and enrollment changes have pushed the district to what promises to be an emotional meeting and vote Wednesday night.

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