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OUSD Teachers, Parents, Ask for Weekly COVID-19 Testing

In an effort to ensure safety as the Delta variant has caused a surge in COVID-19 cases both nationally and locally, Oakland parents and teachers are asking the Oakland Unified School District to provide weekly COVID-19 tests to all students and staff.

Published

4 years ago

August 20, 2021

Christy Price

Oakland Unified School District teachers, parents, and students hold signs at a protest outside of School Board President Shanthi Gonzalez's home on August 6. They demanded expanded COVID-19 related safety measures, including weekly testing at all school sites for all staff and students. Photo by Zack Haber.

“I think that anyone who is going to be spending any extended period of time in a school site should be tested,” said Megan Bumpus, a fifth-grade teacher at Reach Academy, and a parent to two students at another OUSD elementary school.

Last week, two students in her class tested positive for COVID-19. Since these students sit next to each other in her classroom, she suspects the transmission happened at school. On August 16, in reaction to the positive cases, nursing staff came to her school to give all students in her class COVID tests. But Bumpus feels these tests should have happened earlier.

“If everybody had got tested right before the first day of school, I think we’d all be in a much better place,” she said.

Other OUSD community members agree with Bumpus and think testing should be expanded.

OUSD teacher and parent Olivia Udovic started a petition that asks for weekly COVID-19 testing at all district schools. It currently has over 1,500 signatures.

On the evening of August 6, the last weekday before the start of the OUSD school year, a crowd of about 20 people made up almost entirely of OUSD teachers, students, and staff protested outside of Board President Shanthi Gonzales’s home to demand expanded COVID-19 safety measures. Weekly COVID-19 testing at every school site was a key demand.

“In order to keep our families safe and let folks know what precautions they need to take, we need to know if there are positive cases,” said OUSD parent Mona Trevino at the protest. “If they make it impossible for us to get that information, we could have a lot of sick kids and parents on our hands.

The Oakland Post also received six e-mails forwarded to us from parents and/or OUSD teachers who had written to the school board asking for expanded COVID safety measures, including demands for weekly testing. Several pointed out that the Los Angeles Unified School District is both providing testing and requiring all school staff and students who participate in in-person schooling to be tested on a weekly basis for the virus.

When asked about COVID testing in Oakland schools, Gonzales wrote in an e-mail to The Oakland Post, “We are following guidance from the State Department of Public Health. As those guidelines change, we will continue to be responsive.” She also pointed out that OUSD has upgraded their ventilation systems, enforces masking requirements, and has upgraded contact tracing measures.

LAUSD tested 81% of staff and students just before their school year started. Of those tested, .8% of them, over 3,600 people, tested positive for COVID-19. Unlike LAUSD, OUSD is not proactively testing asymptomatic people unless they knowingly come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus. But, when staff and students do get tested, OUSD is tracking positive cases in the district and releasing that data on a weekly basis.

According to data released on Monday morning, 58 students and 10 OUSD staff members tested positive for COVID-19 during the first week of school, which started August 9. The data lists Reach Academy as having four positive COVID cases, but Bumpus reports that by the end of the school day on Monday, two additional students tested positive.

The site with the highest number of positive cases, according to OUSD’s data, is Oakland High School, where 16 people tested positive and one classroom of students are not currently reporting to school, as the district asked them to go into a full at-home quarantine. A similar quarantine period is occurring with a classroom of students at Montclair Elementary School, where five people tested positive for the virus.

In reaction to the initial positive cases at Oakland High School, OUSD greatly expanded testing on the site, which led to more cases being discovered. Oakland High School music teacher David Byrd compared the situation at his school to a nuclear disaster, and suggested if testing were expanded, another school could also be revealed to be in such a dire situation.

“Oakland High School is the Chernobyl of the COVID outbreak in OUSD,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday. “But, if every other school were testing like us, another site would be the Fukushima.”

OUSD Director of Communications John Sasaki said that the district is already making COVID-19 tests available to students and staff.

“At-home rapid antigen tests will be available for pick-up at each school site for those who develop symptoms during the day, or if they have another reason to get tested, such as if they have been exposed or if they are unvaccinated,” Sasaki wrote in an email to The Oakland Post. Onsite testing is also available in 10 of the district’s 118 schools.

District 5 School Board Director Mike Hutchinson wrote a resolution that, if passed, would direct Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell to ensure that COVID-19 tests be offered on a weekly basis to all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status.

Language from the resolution points out that “federal and state funds have been provided to help school districts cover the cost of COVID testing.” Unlike the current policy in Los Angeles public schools, Hutchinson’s resolution would not require students to take weekly COVID tests.

It would only offer the tests and parents would have the option of opting their students out, unless public health guidelines change to recommend all students be required to be tested weekly, which is currently not the case on the county, state or national level.

Hutchinson introduced the resolution during the August 11 school board meeting, but board president Gonzales did not put it on the agenda, so the board did not vote on it.

In an e-mail written August 6 that responded to a concerned OUSD parent and teacher, District 1 School Board Director Sam Davis claimed he believed it was important for the district to take “a more proactive stance on testing.”

“There are already at-home test kits available at every school,” he wrote, “but I think we need to go a step further and have staff provide tests to students at every school site on a regular basis, so that we can catch cases before they turn into outbreaks.”

In an e-mail to The Oakland Post, Davis clarified that he believed “we only need widespread testing of students during periods of high incidence such as what we are experiencing now.”

The next OUSD school board meeting is August 25. Unless an emergency meeting is announced, that would be the next time Hutchinson’s resolution requiring COVID-19 testing be offered on a weekly basis could be voted on.

In the meantime, Bumpus is still worried about COVID-19 spreading in OUSD schools through people having COVID-19 while not being aware that they are carrying the virus.

“Having to focus on this right now is awful. I can barely focus on lesson planning,” said Bumpus. “When it comes to testing, it doesn’t feel right not to air on the side of caution.”

The Oakland Post’s coverage of local news in Alameda County is supported by the Ethnic Media Sustainability Initiative, a program created by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services to support community newspapers across California.

Christy Price

Posts by Christy Price

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Oakland Post: Week of April 23 – 29, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 23 – 29, 2025

Published

1 day ago

April 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

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#NNPA BlackPress

Chavis and Bryant Lead Charge as Target Boycott Grows

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises.

Published

4 days ago

April 23, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

Calling for continued economic action and community solidarity, Dr. Jamal H. Bryant launched the second phase of the national boycott against retail giant Target this week at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises. “They said they were going to invest in Black communities. They said it — not us,” Bryant told the packed sanctuary. “Now they want to break those promises quietly. That ends tonight.” The town hall marked the conclusion of Bryant’s 40-day “Target fast,” initiated on March 3 after Target pulled back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments. Among those was a public pledge to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025—a pledge Bryant said was made voluntarily in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.“No company would dare do to the Jewish or Asian communities what they’ve done to us,” Bryant said. “They think they can get away with it. But not this time.”

The evening featured voices from national movements, including civil rights icon and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who reinforced the need for sustained consciousness and collective media engagement. The NNPA is the trade association of the 250 African American newspapers and media companies known as The Black Press of America. “On the front page of all of our papers this week will be the announcement that the boycott continues all over the United States,” said Chavis. “I would hope that everyone would subscribe to a Black newspaper, a Black-owned newspaper, subscribe to an economic development program — because the consciousness that we need has to be constantly fed.” Chavis warned against the bombardment of negativity and urged the community to stay engaged beyond single events. “You can come to an event and get that consciousness and then lose it tomorrow,” he said. “We’re bombarded with all of the disgust and hopelessness. But I believe that starting tonight, going forward, we should be more conscious about how we help one another.”

He added, “We can attain and gain a lot more ground even during this period if we turn to each other rather than turning on each other.” Other speakers included Tamika Mallory, Dr. David Johns, Dr. Rashad Richey, educator Dr. Karri Bryant, and U.S. Black Chambers President Ron Busby. Each speaker echoed Bryant’s demand that economic protests be paired with reinvestment in Black businesses and communities. “We are the moral consciousness of this country,” Bryant said. “When we move, the whole nation moves.” Sixteen-year-old William Moore Jr., the youngest attendee, captured the crowd with a challenge to reach younger generations through social media and direct engagement. “If we want to grow this movement, we have to push this narrative in a way that connects,” he said.

Dr. Johns stressed reclaiming cultural identity and resisting systems designed to keep communities uninformed and divided. “We don’t need validation from corporations. We need to teach our children who they are and support each other with love,” he said. Busby directed attendees to platforms like ByBlack.us, a digital directory of over 150,000 Black-owned businesses, encouraging them to shift their dollars from corporations like Target to Black enterprises. Bryant closed by urging the audience to register at targetfast.org, which will soon be renamed to reflect the expanding boycott movement. “They played on our sympathies in 2020. But now we know better,” Bryant said. “And now, we move.”

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

#NNPA BlackPress

The Department of Education is Collecting Delinquent Student Loan Debt

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt.

Published

4 days ago

April 23, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

Trump Targets Wages for Forgiven Student Debt

The Department of Education, which the Trump administration is working to abolish, will now serve as the collection agency for delinquent student loan debt for 5.3 million people who the administration says are delinquent and owe at least a year’s worth of student loan payments. “It is a liability to taxpayers,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at Tuesday’s White House Press briefing. She also emphasized the student loan federal government portfolio is “worth nearly $1.6 trillion.” The Trump administration says borrowers must repay their loans, and those in “default will face involuntary collections.” Next month, the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt. Leavitt says “we can not “kick the can down the road” any longer.”

Much of this delinquent debt is said to have resulted from the grace period the Biden administration gave for student loan repayment. The grace period initially was set for 12 months but extended into three years, ending September 30, 2024. The Trump administration will begin collecting the delinquent payments starting May 5. Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Talladega College, told Black Press USA, “We can have that conversation about people paying their loans as long as we talk about the broader income inequality. Put everything on the table, put it on the table, and we can have a conversation.” Kimbrough asserts, “The big picture is that Black people have a fraction of wealth of white so you’re… already starting with a gap and then when you look at higher education, for example, no one talks about Black G.I.’s that didn’t get the G.I. Bill. A lot of people go to school and build wealth for their family…Black people have a fraction of wealth, so you already start with a wide gap.”

According to the Education Data Initiative, https://educationdata.org/average-time-to-repay-student-loans It takes the average borrower 20 years to pay their student loan debt. It also highlights how some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans. A high-profile example of the timeline of student loan repayment is the former president and former First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who paid off their student loans by 2005 while in their 40s. On a related note, then-president Joe Biden spent much time haggling with progressives and Democratic leaders like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill about whether and how student loan forgiveness would even happen.