Education

Are Oakland Public Schools Being Displaced by Local Charters?

Published

9 years ago

March 11, 2016

Oakland teachers, parents and students who are dedicated to maintaining and improving their schools are increasingly finding themselves in conflict with a school district leadership that is committed to turning over more space at their schools to charter school operators.

For the next school year, 14 charter schools, which are eligible for district space under the state law called Prop. 39, are requesting facilities at district schools, many of which will be required to “co-locate” charters on their campuses.

Among the impacted schools are Westlake Middle School, located on Harrison Street across from Whole Foods, which is being required to co-locate with Downtown Charter Academy; and Lafayette Elementary School in West Oakland, which may have to evacuate its campus and move to another site to make room for KIPP Bridge Charter.

Other schools listed as potential co-location sites include Allendale Elementary, Carl B. Munck Elementary, Garfield Elementary, Markham Elementary, Montera Middle, Bret Harte Middle, Roosevelt Middle, Fremont High and Skyline High, according to a resolution the school is expected to consider on March 23.

Many Oakland schools have some empty classrooms due to declining enrollment, caused by the displacement of low-income families who are renters. The growth of charters also causes compounding loss of enrollment at local schools, as elementary schools turn in charters, removing schools from the district, which would normally feed students into neighborhood middle schools and high schools.

The classroom space that a public school would need to expand enrollment will be used instead to “co-locate” charters that are competing with them for students.

Parents and teachers interviewed by the Post are uncertain whether they have any legal grounds to challenge the disruption of their campuses.

They fear that veteran teachers, students and families will abandon their schools as declining revenue and student populations decimate programs and eliminate the space to offer new programs.

At present, there are already 17 charter schools located on Oakland public school campuses.

Increasing the pressure on the school district on behalf of charters, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) filed a lawsuit this week against the Oakland Unified school District (OUSD) for failing to comply with Prop. 39.

“Despite clear obligations under the law, OUSD continues to prioritize district students and administrators over charter students within OUSD who attend charter schools, one of the largest charter school student populations in California,” according to Robin Doran of the California Charter Schools Association.

The Westlake Middle School community stood at the Wednesday School Board meeting to demontrate their solidarity with principal Misha Karigaca, who the distict is removing from the school. Photo by Ken Epstein.

At Wednesday’s school board meeting, a large group from Westlake Middle School came out to protest the removal of their beloved principal Misha Karigaca.

Not only are they being forced to co-locate Downtown Charter Academy on their campus – which will be extremely disruptive to Westlake – the district is also taking away their trusted school site leader, which in effect is a body blow to their school at a time when they most need solid, stable leadership, according to the Westlake community.

Speaking to Supt. Antwan Wilson and Board of Education members, Westlake student Leon Jones read a petition signed by more than 200 students.

“We believe in our school. We believe in our teachers. We also believe in our principal,” Jones said.

Said parent Kimlynh E. Chun, “The core, the heart, the basic culture that makes the school function is what is being attacked here – everything that cannot be put on paper.”

“I hope you will change your position. It’s not too late,” said parent Tandra DeBose.

“I don’t believe in Prop. 39. It’s an unjust law.”

Another Westlake teacher told the board she had worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, which was closed and then given to a charter. Then she taught at Lakeview Elementary, which was closed. Now the same process seems to be occurring at Westlake.

Responding to the community, Supt. Wilson said, “I understand how difficult it is. I appreciate your passion. However, we are where we are.”

He said the district would soon hold a meeting so the Westlake community can have input on the selection of a new principal, who will be picked in April.

Wilson also said the district would organize a “visioning” meeting so the community could talk about what characteristics they want to see in a school leader and what programs they want to see at their school.

“Why are you fixing something that is not broken?” Shouted someone from the audience.

The Lafayette Elementary School community learned about the possible Prop. 39 impact on their school on Thursday, Feb. 18 at a meeting at their school that was attended by about 25 people.

They were told that the school had two options for “sharing space” with a charter school, should the charter accept the offer extended under Prop. 39 rules.

Option one is that Lafayette could occupy part of the school and share space with KIPP Bridge Charter. Option two is for Lafayette to move to the Lowell campus with West Oakland Middle School and the KIPP program would take over the Lafayette campus.

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Activism

LIVE! — TOWN HALL ON RACISM AND ITS IMPACT — THURS. 11.14.24 5PM PST

Join us for a LIVE Virtual Town Hall on the Impact of Racism hosted by Post News Group Journalist Carla Thomas and featuring Oakland, CA NAACP President Cynthia Adams & other Special Guests.
Thursday, November 14, 2024, 5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PST

Published

1 week ago

November 12, 2024

Oakland Post

Discussion Topics:
• Since the pandemic, what battles have the NAACP fought nationally, and how have they impacted us locally?
• What trends are you seeing concerning Racism? Is it more covert or overt?
• What are the top 5 issues resulting from racism in our communities?
• How do racial and other types of discrimination impact local communities?
• What are the most effective ways our community can combat racism and hate?

Your questions and comments will be shared LIVE with the moderators and viewers during the broadcast.

STREAMED LIVE!
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/PostNewsGroup
YOUTUBE: youtube.com/blackpressusatv
X: twitter.com/blackpressusa

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Art

Brown University Professor and Media Artist Tony Cokes Among MacArthur Awardees

When grants were announced earlier this month, it was noted that seven of the 22 fellows were African American. Among them are scholars, visual and media artists a poet/writer, historian, and dancer/choreographer who each receive $800,000 over a five-year period to spend as they see fit. Their names are Ruha Benjamin, Jericho Brown, Tony Cokes, Jennifer L. Morgan, Ebony G. Patterson, Shamel Pitts, Jason Reynolds, and Dorothy Roberts. This is the third in the series highlighting the Black awardees.

Published

3 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Tony Cokes. Photo courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Special to The Post

Tony Cokes

Tony Cokes, 68, is a media artist creating video works that recontextualize historical and cultural moments. Cokes’s signature style is deceptively simple: changing frames of text against backgrounds of solid bright colors or images, accompanied by musical soundtracks.

Cokes was born in Richmond, Va., and received a BA in creative writing and photography from Goddard College in 1979 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1985. He joined the faculty of Brown University in 1993 and is currently a professor in the Department of Modern Culture and Media.

According to Wikipedia, Cokes and Renee Cox, and Fo Wilson, created the Negro Art Collective (NAC) in 1995 to fight cultural misrepresentations about Black Americans.^[^5]

His work has been exhibited at national and international venues, including Haus Der Kunst and Kunstverein (Munich); Dia Bridgehampton (New York); Memorial Art Gallery University of Rochester; MACRO Contemporary Art Museum (Rome); and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Harvard University), among others.

Like a DJ, he samples and recombines textual, musical, and visual fragments. His source materials include found film footage, pop music, journalism, philosophy texts, and social media. The unexpected juxtapositions in his works highlight the ways in which dominant narratives emerging from our oversaturated media environments reinforce existing power structures.

In his early video piece Black Celebration (A Rebellion Against the Commodity) (1988), Cokes reconsiders the uprisings that took place in Black neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Detroit, Newark, and Boston in the 1960s.

He combines documentary footage of the upheavals with samples of texts by the cultural theorist Guy Debord, the artist Barbara Kruger, and the musicians Morrisey and Martin Gore (of Depeche Mode).

Music from industrial rock band Skinny Puppy accompanies the imagery. In this new context, the scenes of unrest take on new possibilities of meaning: the so-called race riots are recast as the frustrated responses of communities that endure poverty perpetuated by structural racism. In his later and ongoing “Evil” series, Cokes responds to the rhetoric of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.”

Evil.16 (Torture.Musik) (2009–11) features snippets of text from a 2005 article on advanced torture techniques. The text flashes on screens to the rhythm of songs that were used by U.S. troops as a form of torture.

The soundtrack includes Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Britney Spears’s “… Baby One More Time,” songs known to have been played to detainees at deafening decibel levels and on repeated loops. The dissonance between the instantly recognizable, frivolous music and horrifying accounts of torture underscores the ideological tensions within contemporary pop culture.

More recently, in a 2020 work entitled HS LST WRDS, Cokes uses his pared-down aesthetic to examine the current discourse on police violence against Black and Brown individuals. The piece is constructed around the final words of Elijah McClain, who was killed in the custody of Colorado police. Cokes transcribes McClain’s last utterances without vowels and sets them against a monochromatic ground. As in many of Cokes’s works, the text is more than language conveying information and becomes a visualization of terrifying breathlessness. Through his unique melding of artistic practice and media analysis, Cokes shows the discordant ways media color our understanding and demonstrates the artist’s power to bring clarity and nuance to how we see events, people, and histories.

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California Black Media

On Your November Ballot: Prop 2 Seeks to Modernize Public Education Facilities

Proposition 2 would authorize the state to issue $10 billion in bonds with $8.5 billion dedicated to elementary and secondary educational facilities and $1.5 billion for community college facilities. If approved, the proposition will make changes to the formula used to determine the amount each district is required to contribute to be eligible to receive state funding from the bond revenue. It would also require the state government to cover between 50 and 55% of construction project costs and 60 and 65% of modernization project costs.

Published

3 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (Courtesy Photo)

By Edward Henderson, California Black Media

Proposition 2 would authorize the state to issue $10 billion in bonds with $8.5 billion dedicated to elementary and secondary educational facilities and $1.5 billion for community college facilities.

If approved, the proposition will make changes to the formula used to determine the amount each district is required to contribute to be eligible to receive state funding from the bond revenue. It would also require the state government to cover between 50 and 55% of construction project costs and 60 and 65% of modernization project costs.

Supporters argue that the money is critical for making safety improvements in schools, as well as modernizing science labs, performing arts spaces and kindergarten classrooms. School districts in lower-income areas have no other way to pay for these improvements.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 38% of students attend schools that don’t meet the state’s minimum safety standards. The research shows that schools with sub-standard facilities tend to have students with lower attendance rates, lower morale and lower overall academic performance.

California Black Media spoke with a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) spokesperson on why she believes it should be a YES vote on Prop 2.

“Measure US, Los Angeles Unified’s Local Public Schools Safety and Upgrades Measure on the November ballot would provide $9 billion to upgrade Los Angeles public schools for safety and 21st century student learning and college and career preparedness. The average annual cost to property owners is estimated at 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed (not market) property value. The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education adopted a Resolution on October 22 to support Los Angeles Unified’s Measure US, and State Propositions 2 and 4,” the spokesperson said.

Opponents argue that the state should include school repairs in its regular budget instead of putting the burden on taxpayers. Opponents also argue that the proposition would not directly impact students. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is on record as one of the organizations opposing the proposition.

“Proposition 2 is $10 billion of bonds, new state debt, to pay for school facilities. It is almost certain to result in higher property tax bills, because school districts must provide a ‘local match’ of funds in order to receive money from the Prop. 2 state bonds. That will lead to districts issuing new local school bonds, which are paid for by adding new charges to property tax bills,” said Jarvis.

Opponents also have voiced concerns about what they view as an inequitable distribution of funds. They believe that lower-income school districts should receive a greater share of the state’s sliding scale for matching funds.

“Enrollment is declining in both K-12 district schools and community colleges and the declines are projected to continue. But Proposition 2 commits California to pay an estimated $18 billion, including interest, for school buildings that may not even be necessary. Vote no on proposition 2.”

A “yes” vote gives approval to the state to issue $10 billion in bonds to fund construction and modernization of public education facilities.

A “no” vote will prohibit the state from issuing $10 billion in bonds to fund construction and modernization of public education facilities.