Posts Tagged ‘Oakland Public Schools’

After the Oakland Unified Schools District (OUSD) eliminated the district’s free supper program in 2018, student organizers from Oakland Kids First, a city organization that supports youth organizing and campaign work, and the OUSD Superintendent’s Office teamed up to recover and revamp the program.

“Educating Oakland,” an exhibit on the history of the city’s public schools, is now open at the main branch of the Oakland Public Library, and proves that Tom Hanks once wore a grass skirt in a school musical, and Castlemont did indeed look like a castle.

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.

Alameda County supervisor Keith Carson honored the school during its sixth annual Ready to Learn Fun Fair on Saturday. Peralta was selected as a National Blue Ribbon School last month. Tom Torlakson, California’s superintendent of instruction, nominates schools for the award that demonstrate superior achievement, especially in disadvantaged communities. Peralta, with just over 300 students, is one of only two schools to receive this award in Alameda County.

An emotional Oakland Unified School District board meeting that attracted hundreds of agitated parents and children went on until nearly midnight, though the board took no action in its controversial plan to close or consolidate more than a dozen of the city’s schools.

The preliminary list of OUSD schools recommended for closure three weeks has changed. Now five elementary schools are recommended for closure while two others are being proposed for “quality expansion.”

It’s that time of year again—time for school-age kids and their parents to pick which Oakland public school they’d like to attend. Starting on December 6 and running through January 14, Oakland’s “options process” is meant to provide students and parents with greater flexibility and allow them to select the schools that are best suited to their particular needs.

“We did submit a balanced budget,” said Troy Flint, the spokesperson for Oakland Unified School District, of the interim budget report board members approved Tuesday, “but, we’re headed towards potentially the biggest mid-year cuts in the history of California.”

Experience Corps, a national service program for adults 55 years and older, has enlisted Bay Area seniors—known as corps members—to tutor and mentor children in Oakland’s public schools since 2003.

Nationally, the program reaches roughly 20,000 students in 20 urban communities including New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Oakland’s corps is operated in seven elementary schools and includes roughly 50 corps members, many of whom are retired.

UPDATED to include slide show by Lindsay Wasserberger / Oakland North. Story by Lillian R. Mongeau / Oakland North.