Bay Area

History is Made: Oakland Youth Cast their Ballots For the First Time for School Board Elections

After five years of campaigning and fighting to be heard, Oakland teens have finally crossed the finish line and began casting their ballots for city school board director elections outside of Alameda County Courthouse this week. In 2019, after a series of school closures throughout the district, many students felt as if their voices were not being heard or considered when the school board made decisions that would have lasting impacts on their education . This prompted the championing of allowing 16 and 17 year old students the right to vote for school board directors.

Published

7 months ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Unified School District high school teens gathered at Alameda County Courthouse to cast their ballots for school board directors. This is the first time in Oakland’s history that students 16 and 17 years old are allowed to vote in local elections. Photo by Magaly Muñoz

By Magaly Muñoz

In 2019, after a series of school closures throughout the district, many students felt as if their voices were not being heard or considered when the school board made decisions that would have lasting impacts on their education . This prompted the championing of allowing 16 and 17 year old students the right to vote for school board directors.

Natalie Gallegos Chavez, a second-year UC Berkeley student, was part of the early campaigning for youth vote and said she’s proud of the efforts of students to make this moment happen.

“I’m just so happy that our young people never stopped actually fighting for this change because it was so hard to actually get it implemented,” Chavez said.

The measure that allowed youth voting, Measure QQ, was passed in 2020, but got stuck for four years at the county level while the Alameda Registrar of Voters figured out a plan to implement the right voting software that recognized teen voters.

Oakland now becomes the largest city in the nation to allow teen voting. Students in Berkeley will also get the chance to vote in school elections, having passed their own measure eight years ago.

Students have often shared their frustration during campaigning for this voting ability, stating that adults did not take them seriously and didn’t believe that they were educated enough to understand the political process of voting.

Chavez told the Post that many students that they spoke to were already dealing with adult-level problems, such as translating important documents for parents or helping family members fill out election ballots. This meant that several students were already educated on the importance of voting and would take this new chance seriously.

Students who filled out their ballot early were escorted to the ballot drop off box outside of the courthouse while their fellow students cheered them on.

Alexis Garcia, a Fremont High School student voting for District 7, said he was thrilled to finally reach this moment of casting his vote after spending so much time educating others on the issue. He added that this movement helps prepare students for voting on a larger scale, like state and national elections, once they graduate high school.

“It’s absolutely exciting. I feel like my voice matters,” Garcia said.

Several students have shared that now that they get the opportunity to vote, they hope the board will think twice before taking action on important topics without seeking their input.

Maximus Simmons, one of two student directors on the Oakland Unified board, gave an impassioned speech about the need to have student voices heard, especially when those decisions impact them.

“Now I’ve heard many times that our generation is soft, weak, and pampered, and in reality, we are resilient, open minded, brave, but better than all of those, we aren’t scared to speak our truth,” he said.

Simmons shared that he once thought youth voting was unattainable and something you could only dream of, “because our system is built off the ideas of old white men, refusing to look through our perspectives.”

This step is the biggest students have taken since the initial movement in 2019, but they are assuring folks that they are not done fighting until all their rights and demands are heard and completed.

“How does it feel to be a part of history?” Simmons chanted.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Chevron Reports Progress in Flaring, Emissions at Community Town Hall

Don't Miss

Love Life Organization Shows Love

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.