Community

Community Participation in School HQ Development Is “100 Percent Authentic,” Says District

Published

11 years ago

March 6, 2015

Isaac Kos-Read, newly hired Chief of Communications and Public Affairs for the Oakland school district, has responded on Facebook to an Oakland Post article that raises serious questions about transparency and public involvement in the development of the prime real estate where the district’s former headquarters is located on Second Avenue.

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The article, “Does OUSD Want Community Input or Just a Rubber Stamp on Headquarters Development,” focuses on concerns raised by most of the community members on the OUSD community engagement committee, who complained that the whole process was “inauthentic.”

The article, published last week in the Post’s print edition, online and on the newspaper’s Facebook page, followed up on an earlier article about former facilities manager Tim White, who was forced out of his job and had raised similar concerns.

Like the paper does with a number of its major stories, the Post paid a small fee to “boost” the story, that is, to send it to many of the people who “like” the paper on Facebook.

“The community engagement process we are implementing is 100 percent authentic and focused on getting constructive input on the future of the site,” said Kos-Read who earns $192,000 a year and frequently speaks at meetings as the superintendent’s representative.

“That’s why we created the committee and engaged some of our most active citizens to be on it,” he said, “and why we’ve set up this website on the project and conducted numerous – almost weekly – public engagement sessions: https://2ndaveproject.wordpress.com/.”

Kos-Read went on to lambast the newspaper for promoting its news coverage.

“By the way, I’m shocked there is a paid boost on this post on social media – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a news outlet sponsor and promote an article like this. Commenting at the risk of giving it any credence at all, but only so that everyone can have access to an information-filled public website on which we would welcome your feedback and input, so as not to help boost this post anymore,” he said, inviting people to email him at isaac.kos-read@ousd.k12.ca.us.

A man by the name of Doug Appel responded:

“Honestly, Issac Kos-Read, I don’t know quite what to think. Between the comments by Tim White and the comments by the committee members, it sounds as though this process has some question marks around it. As it is likely to take many millions in public funds, I’d prefer to be certain that everything was clean as a whistle and on the up and up. If the District’s response is to attack the reporting and try to spin it, maybe that investigation should come from the Alameda County Grand Jury or DA’s office.”

Also responding was Betty Tyler: “Things are not going well for the new guy. Disappointing.”

The school district headquarters flooded in January 2013, causing the entire building to be evacuated. Since then, the district’s central offices have been temporarily located at closed school sites around the city and in an office building in downtown Oakland at Broadway and 11^th Street.

In addition, the city is selling land to a company to build a condominium tower next to Dewey Academy, which is adjacent to the old headquarters. Dewey students and supporters held a series of protests last year to pressure the district to halt a proposal to sell the property to the company to help pay for the new headquarters project.

The original community involvement was dropped after protests amid community suspicions that the district was arranging to sell Dewey Academy out from under its students and teachers, and hand over the school district headquarters property on Second Avenue to private developers.

The new process was begun in December and is supposed to conclude on March 22. Communitiy Engagement Committee members who do not work for the district are saying they have never learned enough about the development project to make an informed recommendation

“You have to accept it all on blind faith,” said Bruce Kariya, a former school board member and member of the engagement committee.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

20 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke