Three mornings a week before school, when it’s barely light outside, more than 100 teenagers are lacing up their skates at the Oakland Ice Center. They come of their own free will, even if it means showing up at 6:45 a.m. – more than an hour before they need to be at Oakland Technical High School.
photo by Laura A. Oda/Staff
Kelley Haskins, a physical education teacher at Oakland Tech, started the before-school P.E. class this fall. She said she worried that she wouldn’t meet the 35-student minimum, but her roster now includes 115 names.
I visited the class this morning with a photographer, and watched the teenagers swizzle, slide and speed around the rink. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever wanted to see what an Oakland public school looks like from the inside, but didn’t want the hassle of setting up an appointment?
Now’s your chance to see a school at work.
An organized tour might not offer as candid a snapshot as if you dropped in one morning without the herd of parents, but it’s probably much better than going on hearsay alone.
For elementary school tour dates, click here. For middle schools, here. For high schools, here.
(The above photo, by Tribune photographer Laura Oda, was taken during a 2006 tour of Crocker Highlands Elementary School.)
Teresa Williams, the principal of Oakland’s Bret Harte Middle School, said it seems like a brochure for some “Mean Girls” conference crosses her desk at least once a week.
Williams hasn’t attended such a seminar yet, but her school experienced a real-life example Nov. 7, when a seventh-grader was jumped at lunchtime by another girl – and then by two or three of that young woman’s friends.
The 13-year-old girl, who had transferred to Bret Harte from another Oakland school this year, suffered head, neck and arm injuries and spent at least two nights at Children’s Hospital Oakland. She did not belong to a gang, Williams said, but one of the suspected attackers claimed there was a Norteño/Sureño conflict at play.
The girl who apparently instigated the beating is awaiting an expulsion hearing and “most likely will not return,” Williams said. (That girl and the victim are Latina, and the others are African-American, according to the principal.)
The victim probably won’t return to Bret Harte, either – or any other Oakland school, for that matter. Her family apparently plans to move to Guatemala.
“That’s what’s sad,” Williams said, adding that many of her students were upset by what happened. Read the rest of this entry »
Hello again. It’s been awhile since I’ve had the free time to blog but I thought I would add a recent update on what senior year is like at Skyline. For starters the school seems to be functioning well enough, much smoother than last year. Mr. Sye does seem to have things under control and I’m starting to hear all these new announcements about students who are tardy to class starting next week will be detained (maybe it’s just me but that made me chuckle awkwardly considering how much we’ve been reading about the Patriot Act in government class).
I’ve been enjoying my senior year but it is crazy busy. I’m currently loaded down with three AP classes, plenty of homework to keep me busy, a job three days a week, participating in three clubs while running one of them, and trying to apply to colleges all at the same time. Yes… my head starts to explode probably every other day. Let’s just say I HIGHLY recommend that every student in this type of situation use a day planner… it’s been saving my life.
Ronald Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Green & Gold student newspaper on East Oakland’s Fremont campus, had this advice for his fellow students. -Katy
It’s great to see students excited about a presidential election. It’s great to see a minority make it all the way to the White House. It’s great to see the “equality” in America become a little more equal.
But we think there is a lesson here that students at Fremont Federation need to learn.
Obama was dedicated and committed to his goals. He used hard work and integrity to achieve what most would have called 20 years ago “the impossible.” He didn’t let race be an issue that stood in his way to success and neither should we.
Each year, some 14 percent of Oakland’s public school teachers leave the district, and many of those vacancies are filled with rookies. The Tribune has devoted quite a bit of space and ink to the subject of teacher quality, most recently in our series following first-year teacher Andy Kwok through his year at EXCEL High School.
Want to learn more about how OUSD hires and supports teachers, or to offer your own two cents? There’s a District 1 (North Oakland) town hall meeting on that very topic at 7 p.m. next Monday, Nov. 17 at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, 4314 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland.
Did you know the Oakland school district has a city-wide governing council made up of high school students? One of its leaders, Arwa Omar (pictured below, second from right), asked if I’d share some information she had written about the council’s work, as well as some thoughts from her colleagues. -Katy
courtesy photo
All City Council (ACC) is a platform for youth empowerment and youth voice. We work with the leadership classes throughout the Oakland school district to push for positive change in our schools. We consist of eight governing board members: President, Vice President, Secretary, Historian, two Student Board Directors, Media/Outreach Director, and Treasurer. These positions are vital because they are the bridge linking the students to the decision makers (Board of Education).
Andrew Wilson, MetWest High School (President)
All City Council is important to me because first and foremost I am an advocate for student voice. It has shown me that with enough effort and determination anyone can push for positive social change. Read the rest of this entry »
While cutting through a canyon near Skyline High School, some teenagers stumbled upon a human skeleton and a makeshift shelter.
Troy Flint, spokesman for the Oakland school district, said the students apparently collected the bones last week, on their way home from Saturday school, and that they brought them Friday to the principal’s office at Skyline, where Oakland police officers later identified them as human remains (A police sergeant told our crime reporter that he thought the kids found the bones today, but that he wasn’t certain).
Today, Oakland High School kids took part in a “Video Your Vote” campaign sponsored by The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Hundreds of people across the country have uploaded Election Day interviews and footage onto the site, and the PBS program chooses the best ones to broadcast.
Here’s one interview filmed by an Oakland High student named Karen:
TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is not going to file criminal charges against Tyska.
*********************************************************************
The school district’s police chief, Art Michel, has returned the videotape he confiscated from Tribune photographer Jane Tyska last Friday. Michel accused Tyska of hitting his patrol car with her elbow — and, later, of trying to incite a riot — while she was filming a student demonstration.
Warning: Some of the language in this clip is not exactly family-friendly.
