Posts Tagged ‘OUSD’

Every day Samantha Solomon opens the Calvin Simmons Library to students at United Success Academy and Life Academy in Oakland. She greets each child by name as they file in during their lunch breaks to read, play games, do homework or converse with each other.  The library serves both schools, which share a building, and…

Riley Mitchell loves to cook. When the 55-year-old isn’t bragging about making the “best potato salad this side of the Mississippi,” Mitchell enjoys cozying up with a good book. Since the pandemic, Mitchell started to re-read classics like The Color Purple, mostly for pleasure. But since the library where Mitchell took adult literacy classes closed,…

The grassy area at Verdese Carter Park looks nothing like a football field. There are no yard markers to measure by or yellow uprights to kick through. But on a hazy afternoon in early October, there’s just enough space between dog-walkers and pickup basketball games to squeeze in a Castlemont High School football practice.

Forty elementary schools in Alameda County submitted reopening plans as of Oct. 16, and 10 resumed in-person learning in some capacity this week. All of them are private or charter schools.

Voters will decide next month whether to approve a ballot measure which could provide a windfall for schools and local governments, but a far greater burden on businesses and tax assessors.  The existing property tax law is governed by a 1978 ballot measure, Proposition 13, which significantly limited state property taxes. But the new measure,…

The Oakland school board considered a budget update and a new facilities plan at its final meeting of 2019.

At a special meeting on Wednesday night, Oakland school board members voted to deny one charter school a petition for renewal and failed to approve renewals for two others, planning to consider both again at the December 2 meeting.

Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine released a study last month regarding an Oakland Unified School District program focused on boosting achievement for Black male students. The study showed that the program has led to an increase in graduation and retention rates among participating students over the last dozen years.

At the auditorium of La Escuelita Elementary school Wednesday evening, Oakland Unified School District police officers were notably absent. So, too, were the barricades that had been set up to block protestors during a previous school board meeting on October 23, which had ended with the arrest of several protesters who oppose school closures and…

Protesters temporarily disrupted the October 10 school board meeting, during which members discussed an Opportunity Ticket for students affected by school closures and debated redrawing Kaiser Elementary’s attendance boundaries.

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.

There are just under 400 foster youth attending Oakland schools, and for many, one person at their school is dedicated to them: their case manager. This counselor provides support and offers one-on-one guidance—academically and for other issues that may arise outside of school. The Oakland Unified School District has four case managers for foster youth,…

Melvin Phillips has worked in Oakland schools for the last 27 years. He is currently the lead school security officer at Fremont High School and he is one of hundreds of classified employees in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Classified workers include instructional specialists like classroom support staff and tutors, administrative workers, custodians, security…

Last Tuesday, the Oakland City Council passed a resolution to provide $1.2 million in funding for the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) restorative justice program, foster youth case manager positions, and school libraries. All three programs were at risk of enacting widespread layoffs or reductions to the services they provide following the Oakland school board’s…

Tensions from the recent Oakland teachers’ strike were still reverberating among attendees during a special meeting for the Board of Education on Wednesday night. Hundreds of people filled the auditorium at La Escuelita Education Complex, holding small green signs that set the theme for the night. One side of the signs read “No new charters.”…