Last night, the Peralta Community College District board called for an investigation into a no-bid contract given to one of Chancellor Elihu Harris’s business partners (whose relationship to the chancellor was not disclosed beforehand). The board might also ban the use of credit cards for personal expenses.

The Alameda County community college district, however, has so far kept secret the details of the $4,000-plus in personal expenses charged to Trustee Marcie Hodge’s district credit card.

These issues, and others, were uncovered by reporters Matt Krupnick and Thomas Peele. In case you missed the stories, you can find them here.

Taxpayers spent $3,740 for Peralta Community College District Chancellor (and former Oakland mayor) Elihu Harris and his wife to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration. They also covered over $4,000 in personal expenses that Trustee Marcie Hodge racked up on a district credit card before she was asked to repay the money.

Through public records requests, my colleagues Matt Krupnick and Thomas Peele uncovered these spending practices at the local, four-college district – a destination for many Oakland public high school grads. Those findings and others were reported in Sunday’s Tribune and Contra Costa Times. Read the rest of this entry »

Sobrante Park Elementary School in East Oakland has been plagued by suspicious fires in the last couple of years. This time, a 10-year-old boy – a student who was suspended from the school — was arrested on suspicion of arson.

What a way to end the school year.

The air in the board meeting room was so thick and humid Wednesday night it was almost sticky, and it wasn’t because of the weather. People jammed the place — and the overflow room upstairs — to speak on one of many, many matters.

I didn’t stay until after 2 a.m., when the meeting finally wrapped up, but one of the things that struck me from the first five hours of the meeting was the principal theme that emerged.

Dozens of people — parents, teachers, neighbors, and even City Councilwoman Desley Brooks — urged the board to keep Al Sye, the popular new Skyline High School principal who received a layoff notice this month after an investigation into the complaints of several staff members. There was also a supportive contingent from Maxwell Park, a newly redesigned/reopened elementary school whose principal, Mary-Louise Newling, got the same dreaded release letter, to staff’s dismay.

And then there was something you don’t see too often: a whole crew of teachers speaking out publicly against their principal. Read the rest of this entry »

image by DAN ROSENSTRAUCH/Bay Area News Group

I’m still at a loss for words about what happened on Saturday. What do you say to young children and teenagers about the tragedy — or about their safety, in light of the proliferation of weapons in the community? How has the death of four Oakland police officers affected your students, or your own children?

What questions are they asking?  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long day, so I’ll let an old-fashioned newspaper story tell you what I learned about the allegations against Skyline High School Principal Al Sye — from Sye, himself.

Well, indirectly.

It’ll be in the paper tomorrow, but you can read it here.

photo courtesy of The Skyline Oracle

We finally have some answers about the 10-year-old boy who collapsed yesterday at East Oakland’s Achieve Academy and later died at Children’s Hospital-Oakland.

Juan Sanchez Barrozo was walking to the school library with his fifth-grade class yesterday morning when he fell to the ground. An autopsy today found Read the rest of this entry »

The principalship at Oakland’s largest high school is notorious for its political challenges. It’s no place for beginners. But from what I’ve heard, Skyline High School’s various factions have embraced Al Sye, a veteran administrator — and the latest in a string of people to inhabit the principal’s office.

Recently, however, Sye became the subject of a central office investigation, and it remains to be seen how long he’ll stay at Skyline, or whether he’ll return for a second year. Chris Dobbins, a school board member who represents the high school, said Sye is off for two weeks, but didn’t say why.

What happened? Read the rest of this entry »

Come fall, officers from the Oakland Police Department will no longer be providing security at the city’s public middle and high schools.

I’m at the OUSD school board meeting now, and interim superintendent Roberta Mayor has told the audience that the district will discontinue its $1 million annual contract with OPD to save money. (It still has about $29 million in cuts to go, based on Arnold’s latest budget proposal.)

I caught Mayor during a break and asked for a few more details. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it: The more I learn about the Bryant & Brown law firm controversy, the more confused I become.

As I reported in today’s Trib, the Oakland school district filed a federal lawuit against the small Oakland law firm (pictured here), alleging racketeering, fraud, theft of public funds — you name it.

What I didn’t realize until recently was that Deb Cooksey — who led the Bryant & Brown investigation for OUSD until she resigned (her last day was Friday) – was once a close friend of Meredith Brown and Guy Bryant. Read the rest of this entry »