Oakland schools just can’t seem to shake these computer-pilfering thieves — and the latest offenders might be wandering around with the Social Security numbers of the district’s new hires. Here’s a version of a Web story we posted just now:

Late last night, thieves broke into the Oakland school district’s human resources offices and stole as many as 12 computers with the personal information of an estimated 100 new hires.

Police believe the burglary took place around 11 p.m. Tuesday night; it was reported around 7:30 this morning when employees began to arrive, said district spokesman Troy Flint.

The thieves appear to have climbed onto the roof in the rear of the building, Read the rest of this entry »

I hope no one came to this morning’s Special Committee on School Admissions, Attendance and Boundaries meeting expecting solutions to chronic overcrowding at the city’s hills schools.

What the committee did seem to conclude, however, was this:

• Moving from full-day to half-day kindergarten isn’t the best or most effective way to increase a school’s capacity.
• To make sure all neighborhood families have a home school, the district will have to add classrooms to various schools (Montclair was mentioned), move attendance boundary lines, or both.
• The district needs to balance out the number of special education students at various schools (Some schools, if I heard correctly, have none; in others, special needs students make up to 30 percent of the student population).
• District staff needs to address “split-street” Read the rest of this entry »

The Oakland school district could eventually have to repay up to $24.7 million to the state because of expenditures made more than two years ago.

Auditors from the state controller’s office, in typically untimely fashion, just finished scrutinizing the books from the 2005-06 school year. But the auditors found the district’s financial records to be so spotty from that time period that they couldn’t render an opinion – good, bad, or in between – on the overall fiscal picture.

I’m at the board meeting right now, and the auditors just finished presenting their findings. Definitely a downer.

“It would seem to me that we need a state takeover of the state takeover,” board member Greg Hodge said. “We’re essentially saying that the state didn’t do better record-keeping than we did on our own.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tribune photo of Hillcrest Elementary School in 2007

Eight of Oakland’s elementary schools could really use some elbow room, according to the Oakland school district’s space formula.

But what to do about the increasingly popular Chabot, Hillcrest, Kaiser, Lincoln, Montclair, Redwood Heights, Thornhill and Peralta? Most of those schools have already added portables in recent years to expand their capacity, and they still don’t guarantee neighborhood families a slot.

At 7:30 a.m. Friday morning, Read the rest of this entry »

Who ever said that school board members and administrators couldn’t blog?

Oakland Unified is jumping into the blogosphere with news of upcoming events and positive news stories. Probably not much dirt, but you never know.

You can check it out here.

Wait, am I advertising for the competition?

When I reported on the departures of Harriet MacLean and Fred Brill, the two OUSD administrators who supervised Oakland’s middle schools, I neglected to mention MacLean’s replacement: Gia Truong. (I also didn’t tell you that yet another ”network executive officer,” Donald Evans, left for a job in Compton. That’s four out of the eight nexos.)

Truong was the principal at Urban Promise Academy, a district middle school in the Fruitvale area, for the last four years. She must have been appointed after the initial list of incoming and outgoing principals was compiled, since the school didn’t appear on the list. I’ve asked for an update.

Here’s the announcement that went out to district staff in July: Read the rest of this entry »

Oakland Unified proved an solid stepping stone for Fred Brill, a network executive officer who supervised half the district’s middle schools for the last two years and helped design the Alternative Learning Community.

The Lafayette school board is expected to announce tonight that Brill — former principal of Lafayette’s Stanley Middle School — will be the district’s new superintendent. Lafayette has about 3,000 students, and five schools.

I always enjoyed my interviews with Brill. He struck me as a high energy, enthusiastic and straightforward guy who could serve up a good quote. The hiring committee at the Lafayette School District probably thought so too (except, maybe, for the quotability part).

Here’s a blurb that’s running tomorrow in our sister paper, the Contra Costa Times: Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I started covering this beat, people who follow OUSD goings-on (including school board members) have complained that they have only a vague idea of what Expect Success is, other than a punchline for district critics.

They knew the district was spending millions of dollars in private funding on the initiative (or platform, or project, or slogan, or whatever it is), but the specifics remained a mystery.

At a 5 p.m. special meeting tonight, staff plans to unveil the inner-workings of Expect Success for the board, the audience and the government access television-viewing public: What it is; how much remains of its $43 million budget (very little) and where the money has gone; which mega-foundations have donated what; and which consultants are paid from it.

You can read up on it yourself, if you’d like. It is part of a broader report on OUSD goals for the coming school year under the new, interim supe.

And here are some other upcoming happenings of note: Read the rest of this entry »

Monday night update: State Administrator Vince Matthews put the parcel tax on the November ballot, despite the school board’s advisory measure to delay the initiative until it was vetted by the board and the public, possibly in 2009. Read the story here.

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As usual, the news didn’t stop while I was away. I checked my mail this morning, still a bit foggy from vacation, to discover that the state administrator might put a parcel tax election on the Nov. 4 ballot! And that the special meeting to discuss the issue is scheduled for 4 p.m. this afternoon!

The proposed levy is titled the “Outstanding Teachers for all Oakland Students Tax.” It would cost property owners $120 each year (per parcel) for 10 years. According to the version posted on the meeting agenda, 85 percent would go to teacher compensation, and 15 percent to charter schools.

It seems as though the additional funding would ease ongoing contract negotiations by giving the district the means (and the directive) to give its teachers more competitive pay. But the Oakland teacher’s union appears poised to oppose the tax initiative. Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow in Sacramento – the week after the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury released an unflattering report on the subject — legislators will hear all about state takeovers in Oakland and elsewhere in California.

A new Assembly committee recently formed to take a look at the school financial takeovers system. They’ll probably get no shortage of suggestions on improvements.

School board member David Kakishiba is expected to be there, along with other school board members, policy analysts, superintendents, and union representatives. I won’t be able to make it to Sacramento tomorrow. But if you go, you should consider writing a synopsis for The Education Report!

Read all about the hearing, straight from Assemblyman Sandre Swanson’s office: Read the rest of this entry »