Schools face low enrollment and teacher consolidations

Over a month into the new school year, Kaiser Elementary teacher Douglas Feague found himself in his principal’s office at lunch, digesting some difficult news: His position was being “consolidated.” In other words, the school could no longer afford an eleventh full-time teacher, and Feague, the least senior staff member, would need to relocate to a different school.

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School board candidates sound off on district challenges

School board candidates

This November, four seats on the Oakland Unified School District board are up for election. In three of the district races, incumbents face new opponents, while in District 5, candidates are vying for the seat being vacated by longtime board member Noel Gallo. Gallo, who has represented Glenview and Fruitvale since 1992, is currently running…

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African American students honored for perfect scores

OUSD students honored

For the third consecutive year, the Oakland Unified School District’s Department of African American Male Achievement honored students who earned perfect scores on their STAR exams, but this year’s ceremony honored both young men and women. To celebrate these students’ achievements, a boisterous crowd of parents, educators and other students attended an evening event at Frick Middle School in East Oakland on October 11.

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Former Lakeview Elementary parents and students adjust to new schools

Parents drop off their kids to Piedmont Elementary in Oakland during the first week of school.

Zarina Ahmad, principal of Piedmont Avenue Elementary in Oakland, put extra effort this year into creating a bright first day of school. She and her staff pasted a class list to the outside wall, with a photo of each teacher. Big orange cones separated children by their grades. Teachers ran a short pep rally, called the “Line Up to Learn.” Uniformed Oakland firemen welcomed kids into the school.

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Lakeview campus is now OUSD administrative building

On Tuesday, the former Lakeview Elementary auditorium served as a staging area for items in transit. In the future it will serve as a community space for FSCP events.

Tuesday marked two weeks since the former campus of Lakeview Elementary School became an Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) administrative hub. The campus is now home to OUSD’s Family, Schools, and Community Partnerships (FSCP) department, which was previously scattered among four locations.

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Q&A: Meet new Oakland Education Association president Trish Gorham

With the new school year approaching, Oakland North sits down with the newly hired Oakland Education Association (OEA) president, Trish Gorham. In this wide-ranging interview, the new head of the teachers’ union discusses school closures, the small schools movement, inequity among Oakland schools, the Lakeview protest, the challenges facing Oakland’s teachers and much more.

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Labor council decides not to sanction picket line at Lakeview Elementary

During a closed meeting on Wednesday, the Alameda Central Labor Council—an organization that represents over 100 workers’ unions and helps employers bargain to improve their workplaces—decided against a motion to sanction a workers’ picket line in front of Lakeview Elementary School which would have prevented unionized workers employed by the district from helping to develop the site into administrative offices.

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Lakeview Elementary School supporters host concert and rally

Over one hundred people gathered at Splash Pad Park on Sunday for a “Celebration and Convergence for Public Education” concert and rally hosted by the supporters of the Lakeview sit-in and People’s School for Public Education. The park became a home for the People’s School after the volunteer-run program, and the tent city it served, were raided at Lakeview Elementary School in early July.

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Lakeview protesters finish up last week of People’s School at Splash Pad Park

Canopies were up for The People’s School For Public Education on Tuesday at Splash Pad Park, where protesters who had previously been camping at Lakeview Elementary School have relocated the volunteer-run summer program to teach kids about social justice issues. Protesters are saying that Thursday will be the last time the People’s School will be held at Splash Pad Park before they choose another location.

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Alameda Central Labor Council considers sanctioning Lakeview picket line

On Monday evening the Alameda Central Labor Council—an organization that represents over 100 workers’ unions and helps employers bargain to improve their workplaces—considered a motion to get school workers’ unions behind an effort to form a sanctioned picket line in front of the closed Lakeview Elementary School to prevent district officials from moving into the building to use it as an administrative office, according to Oakland Education Association (OEA) members.

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After school camp shut-down, Lakeview supporters march to superintendent’s house

On Wednesday evening, a crowd of nearly 150 people, many of them parents, kids, and Occupy Oakland protesters, gathered on the concrete steps of Lakeview Elementary School hours after their two-week-old tent city was raided by Oakland Unified School District police and other law enforcement officers. The encampment was an effort to protest the district’s decision to close five elementary schools —Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell and Sante Fe—and keep all neighborhood schools open.

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