The city and school district are holding another free event for dropouts and their families this Saturday, Nov. 14. It goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

You can find a flier for the event here. Pre-register here or call (510) 238-7906.

THURSDAY UPDATE: I meant to link to a recent blog post on the issue of school food in Oakland: “The Schoolyard Foodie: Props to the People.” The author, Melrose Leadership Academy teacher Gehry Oatey, writes for Teacher, Revised.

photo of Glenview Elementary School students by D. Ross Cameron/Staff.

A story in tomorrow’s Tribune looks at grassroots efforts to give every child access to fresh produce and a healthy meal, as well as the Oakland school district’s progress on that front. What are your ideas?

Nia Lozano, whose daughter attends Edna Brewer Middle School, tells us her impressions of a recent open house at Oakland Tech. (At 6:15 p.m. tonight, Skyline High School holds its event for prospective families.) -Katy

photo from Oakland Technical High School’s Web site

Last Wednesday I attended the Oakland Technical High School open house. This was unusual, as I normally find it taxing to come out to any extraneous school events and have missed my share of Halloween parades and school performances. What is even more significant is that my oldest child will not start high school until the year after next, and I generally consider myself to be a pretty low key parent. But I was not alone. I ran into half a dozen other seventh-grade families I know, checking out this Oakland public high school early. 

The Oakland Tech building is architecturally striking, with huge columns and a white marble foyer, but what really struck me was the number of people swarming through the doors. We were directed to an auditorium that looked to hold about 500 people and was nearly packed!

The evening consisted of a series of six short periods in which you visit classrooms and learn about the various academic programs. Apparently, everyone had heard about the successes of Paideia and the Engineering Academy as there was a monumental rush to get into these classrooms. My daughter and I were turned away from the Paideia classroom twice, and when we finally got in, it was standing room only. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Dan Honda/Contra Costa Times

If you look around, you’ll see adult education coming apart, piece by piece. That was the message teachers, students and administrators gave state politicians this morning at a forum in Richmond.

Not only were adult ed programs cut by 22 percent this year, but this spring, the state Legislature gave school districts the go-ahead to spend the money as they wished.

Faced with huge budget shortfalls, districts have been doing just that. According to a new survey taken by the California Council for Adult Education, 85 percent of Bay Area school districts have used at least some adult ed money to balance their 2009-10 books.

Alameda and Contra Costa counties alone are serving 15,000 fewer students this fall as a result of all of these cutbacks, according to the council. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a sobering statistic: Of the 2,890-plus Oakland Unified students who live in West Oakland, 1,270 attend schools in other parts of the city, according to school district data.

That’s 44 percent, and it doesn’t count children who go to public charter schools or private schools — or to Berkeley Unified, for that matter.

What to do? A new group of city, school and county officials and community leaders has formed to revitalize public schools in West Oakland during a time of ongoing budget cuts ($27 million out of next year’s OUSD budget).

The group is called the West Oakland Brain Trust, and it was convened this fall by school board member Jumoke Hinton Hodge, who represents District 3.

Some of OUSD’s top dogs came to its Tuesday morning meeting. Superintendent Tony Smith Read the rest of this entry »

During a town hall meeting last week at International High School, Superintendent Tony Smith talked about Portland’s efforts to make school-based fundraising more equitable. He said each school could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that anything over that cap was diverted to needier schools.

Well, he was partly right. I just got off the phone with Beryl Morrison, who’s president of the Portland PTA and a board member of the Portland Schools Foundation. Here’s the story:

Portland’s PTAs do not have a cap. But some schools, in addition to a PTA, have established local school foundations – school-based organizations that can legally fund teaching positions (on the district’s payroll). The foundations were established in 1995 by the Portland school board.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Laura A. Oda/Tribune Staff

This morning, I saw a School Safety Patrol in action outside the Manzanita elementary school campus in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. The safety operation seemed to be working well enough, but it wasn’t until the volunteers had packed up and left the intersection (after the morning rush) that I realized how important their presence was.

Tony Smith recently said that when he visit schools, he sometimes takes a lap around Read the rest of this entry »

A music class at Montclair Elementary School, taken in 2008 by Alex Molloy/Tribune

This morning I headed up the hill to Oakland’s Montclair Elementary School on a research mission, aided by Principal Nancy Bloom.

It all started when a parent pitched a story about the Montclair PTA’s annual all-day fundraiser, the Metrathon (that’s happening Oct. 17), and its tied-for-first-place API score of 957. I don’t normally cover fundraisers – don’t get any ideas! – but after I hung up the phone, I decided to see for myself how the work of a powerhouse parent group can manifest itself at a school.

Let’s start with the front stoop. A large planter overflowing (intentionally, of course) with beautiful greenery. Step inside, and the first thing you see is a bulletin board with photos of parents and families at the Back-to-School Coffee, the New Parent Party, and Play Dates in the Park. Next on the wall are a list of fee-based before and after school language courses: Mandarin, Italian and Spanish. Read the rest of this entry »

Mission figs, anyone? Every Tuesday afternoon, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Glenview Elementary School kids crowd a tent with locally grown fruits and vegetables. (These lovely photos from parent Joseph Bansuelo are so last week, but we took some new ones during a visit today.) The PTA started the new produce stand, which is run by volunteers, including Carol Kuelper, a woman from the neighborhood who doesn’t even have kids at the school.

I saw one little boy tear into a red cabbage like an apple (makes for a great photo, but a rather challenging interview), and another buying greens that his mom requested for dinner tonight. He told me that grapes were so sweet — and cheap — that he ate them “for fun.”

About 10 more of these weekly farmers markets are opening at Oakland schools this year, thanks in part to funding from the East Bay Asian Youth Center. What kind of nutritional progress are you seeing at your school (and at your school’s cafeteria)? Are you noticing an improvement? Tell us about it.

Some more of Bansuelo’s photos of Glenview’s stand below: Read the rest of this entry »

Oakland’s new superintendent will talk about the challenges ahead and respond to your questions and comments at a North Oakland town hall meeting at the end of the month. 

The forum takes place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Oakland International High School, 4521 Webster Street. It’s open to the public, and you don’t have to be a North Oakland resident to attend, said school board member Jody London, who organized the event for her district.

“I think he’ll provide some great information about the state of the district — where we are, where we’re going,” London said.

London said other board members are planning to organize events with Smith in their respective districts. Read the Sept. 30 meeting flier here.

Tribune file photo by D. Ross Cameron/Staff