Education
Frustrated by what they see as their school district’s lack of urgency in responding to lead in drinking water, four Oakland High seniors have transformed a senior class project into a broader campaign demanding safe drinking water and stronger protections for future students. Out of a shared distrust of their school’s drinking water, Palmer Kayondo, Daniel Thomas, Jeremiah Evans and Nijeer Roy-Enis created Project Nemo, a name inspired by the movie “Finding Nemo,” about a campaign to return a fish…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Jessie Papalia has felt the panic and confusion among her students and their families at Bridges Academy Elementary in Oakland, a dual-language school with many students who have recently arrived in the United States. “The first week was rough. I had kids asking me if they could sleep at school because they were too…
The Oakland mayor’s office had been working to bring a Historically Black College to the city. That effort is now uncertain, after Oaklanders voted to recall Sheng Thao, who officially left the mayor’s post on Tuesday. Before her recall, Thao had appointed Deputy Mayor Kimberley Mayfield to lead a task force to bring one of the more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Oakland. Mayfield did not respond to follow-up requests for comment after the election. However, before…
Empty toilet paper rolls. Missing bathroom stall doors. Dirty sinks and desks. Those were among the top concerns identified by Oakland Unified School District students in a survey by their peers. This year, students hope a new form of leverage will push the district to fix things: their votes. As Oakland teens prepare to cast ballots for the first time, students have been organizing to make sure their needs as students are heard by School Board candidates. “If our representatives…
Three people were wounded by gun fire when a dispute between two groups turned violent in the parking lot of Skyline High School after a graduation ceremony Thursday. Oakland police and California Highway Patrol officers responded to reports of multiple gunshots on the north side of campus around 7:45 p.m. Two adult victims, a man and a woman, were in stable condition Friday, according to Oakland police Lt. Robert Trevino. A third victim later turned up at a hospital and…
Oakland Unified School District is behind schedule on implementing two important projects, one with over $75 million in state funding. Educators, parents and students voiced their frustration at Wednesday’s board meeting, saying the district has failed on its promise to establish a task force on student equity and a committee to allocate a grant for community schools. “We have a very simple ask tonight,” said Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, vice president of the Oakland Education Association, during public comment. “That the board…
Oakland and the Oakland Public Library are inviting residents to reimagine the Main Library. This year’s last Re-imagine the Oakland Main Library workshop is Thursday, during which attendees can create vision boards, fill out a survey and record a video responding to the prompt: “That Would Be Cool If…” The city has allocated $600,000 to contract with the architectural firm Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis to study the feasibility of an expanded or relocated Main Library. The Feasibility Study Team…
Kid-friendly covers of today’s hits echoed through Oakland Chinatown Sunday morning as students walked laps around Lincoln Elementary to raise money for school activities. “Good job, dragons,” teachers and volunteers chanted, as the children splashed through the rain. “Keep on walking!” The goal was to raise $45,000 in Lincoln Elementary’s 14th annual Walk-a-Thon. Each student found sponsors who pledged a certain amount per lap of the city-block circuit they completed. Mukta Sambrani, Lincoln principal, said the fundraiser was started by the…
Every Sunday for the last six weeks, Craig Morris has walked through Oakland streets populated by drug users to St. Mary’s Center, the shelter, soup kitchen and transitional housing provider that pulled him from the brink. There, Morris, who is 60 years old, painted a canvas as part of the Sacred Storytelling Art Project, a program created by St. Mary’s and the Center for ArtEsteem to uplift older Oaklanders. Morris and 11 others worked on self-portraits depicting some difficult aspect…