Brian Rogers may be running for a nonpartisan office — the District 1 seat on the Oakland school board, against Jody London and Tennessee Reed – but his Republican party affiliation has hardly been a non-issue.
The Oakland public school parents Yahoo! group has lit up in recent weeks with debates on Rogers’ politics, knee-jerk reactions to those politics, his endorsement by Jerry Brown and his large donation to Mitt Romney (who is a proponent of private school vouchers, according to his Web site). Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday, the fateful day on which the governor’s May revise is released, the Oakland school board holds its regular meeting. Check out the agenda, if you’d like.
The state administrator votes on recommendations for Measure E parcel tax funding, and the board could vote to ratify the contract for interim superintendent Roberta Mayor, which includes a salary of $250,000 plus six weeks of vacation and other perks. (Read the full contract here.)
Also, the board decides whether to add another portable on Peralta’s Elementary School campus to alleviate a space shortage, which has been the cause of much drama in the last few weeks. Here is the resolution.
The McClymonds boys basketball team, which won the state championship this year, were honored today by the state Assembly for their accomplishment. They are shown here, striding onto the Assembly floor behind Assemblymember Sandre Swanson.
For all of the progress I’ve been hearing about at Claremont Middle School, it sounds like a handful of kids are giving it a bad name in the neighborhood – most recently, by flashing a gun on their way home from school.
Below is an e-mail string between Kate Fitzgerald, a homeowner who apparently spotted a group of kids with a gun last Friday, and David Chambliss, principal of Claremont Middle School.
This isn’t the first I’ve heard of friction between Claremont kids and neighbors. Earlier this year, my editor handed me a copy of a letter that Jan Christensen-Heller, of the Christensen Heller Gallery on College Avenue, wrote to the manager of Trader Joe’s. She had met him at Claremont’s Community Day, and urged him to adopt a “zero-tolerance” policy with shoplifting.
When Sobrante Park Elementary School kids came to school this morning, they saw a burned out portable classroom where they used to make art projects.
The fire happened last night, and firefighters say it looked suspicious – much like the arson at Peralta Elementary School last year. (Here’s a brief on last night’s fire.)
Carmen Denhams, the school secretary, told me this is the third time in a year this has happened. Read the rest of this entry »
I usually steer clear of schools when they’re taking their annual spring exams, so I don’t have a good sense of what the atmosphere is like during these high-stakes periods.
Some schools, I hear, organize i-Pod giveaways and other gimmicks to motivate kids to show up and take the tests seriously. Last year, Mt. Diablo High School in Concord held a controversial assembly in which kids were grouped by ethnicity (and pumped up accordingly).
Hello everyone, I really shouldn’t be blogging right now seeing as my AP U.S. History exam is at 8:00 am this Friday, and studying is my top priority, but I wanted to update everyone about our exams and how it’s going.
AP exams began this Monday (May 5th) and will continue until next Friday (May 16th). Personally, this year I am taking 3 exams: Statistics, U.S. History, and Environmental Science. I got through the first one, two more to go!
But enough about me, let’s talk about AP classes. I get a lot of questions from my parents, teachers, and other kids about AP classes, so I’ll pose some to you… Why should students take AP classes? For the college credit, the challenge, the boost in GPA, or some other reason I can’t think of right now? Is the AP system unfair in certain respects? Read the rest of this entry »
In January, I blogged about a middle school boy who was handcuffed at Montera Middle School. I thought that was pretty young.
How about 5 years old?
A mom recently called to report that a security officer cuffed her son to a chair at an elementary school in North Oakland. (She’s not sure for how long.)
The mother told me that the officer said he had been unable to control her son, who had been screaming and throwing a tantrum, and that he later apologized to her for what happened. “My goal is to Read the rest of this entry »
You may have heard stories today of a principal stopping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the gate of an East Oakland school, or about arrests at Berkeley High, or about King Middle School kids being loaded into a van.
Those rumors are false, according to school staff, district police and even ICE, themselves. But there is truth at the heart of the matter. As Mark Coplan, the Berkeley school district’s public information officer, put it: “This whole experience is so terrifying that it really brings out the greatest fear in everybody.”
When the final bell rang this afternoon at Korematsu and Esperanza academies in East Oakland, a number of aunts, uncles and other family members with legal immigration status came to pick up children from school.
The Trib ran two stories today about a $15 million Atlantic Philanthropies grant to fund health clinics, family services and more after-school and summer programs at seven Oakland middle schools (five campuses). Above is a video posted on YouTube about the kids who have been involved in researching their peers’ behavior — and weighing in on what services each school should offer.
Brian Rogers may be running for a nonpartisan office — the District 1 seat on the Oakland school board, against Jody London and Tennessee Reed – but his Republican party affiliation has hardly been a non-issue.
For all of the progress I’ve been hearing about at Claremont Middle School, it sounds like a handful of kids are giving it a bad name in the neighborhood – most recently, by flashing a gun on their way home from school.
When Sobrante Park Elementary School kids came to school this morning, they saw a burned out portable classroom where they used to make art projects.
I usually steer clear of schools when they’re taking their annual spring exams, so I don’t have a good sense of what the atmosphere is like during these high-stakes periods.
Hello everyone, I really shouldn’t be blogging right now seeing as my AP U.S. History exam is at 8:00 am this Friday, and studying is my top priority, but I wanted to update everyone about our exams and how it’s going. 
In January, I blogged about a middle school boy who was 
Those rumors are false, according to school staff, district police and even ICE, themselves. But there is truth at the heart of the matter. As Mark Coplan, the Berkeley school district’s public information officer, put it: “This whole experience is so terrifying that it really brings out the greatest fear in everybody.”