Assembly member Swanson urgently needs supporters to come to Sacramento and help bring back Democracy and Accountability to Oakland’s schools!

WHAT: AB45, Assembly member Swanson’s bill to return local control to the Oakland Unified School District, will be heard on April 25th at 1:30pm in the Assembly Education Committee at the Capitol in Sacramento.

WHY: Show the legislators voting on AB45 that parents, students, teachers, and concerned Oakland residents are tired of being disenfranchised from our kids’ education.

Show Sacramento that Oakland wants, needs, and deserves local control!

Can’t make it to Sacramento? Show your support in these other ways:

Call your legislators!
On Monday & Tuesday, April 23rd — 24th contact the Education Committee’s Assembly members and let them know you strongly urge their support of AB45. The committee members’ phone numbers and a sample script is attached.

Write a Letter to the editor! Use the attached sample letter to the editor and send it to all your newspapers.

If you have any questions on the bill or any of these activities, please feel free to call me at 510-286-1670.

Your support is vital to AB45’s momentum in Sacramento. Tell your friends and neighbors, make your voice heard, and help bring Democracy and community participation back to our school district!

What: AB45 Hearing
When: April 25 th , 1:30pm (our office will confirm time and e-mail
changes if necessary)
Where: Room 4020, Capitol Building.
Action: Voice your support! Attend the hearing, call legislators the day before, write letters to the editor, and tell your friends and neighbors!

Douglas MacLean
Field Representative
Assemblymember Sandré R. Swanson, 16 th District

Douglas MacLean
Field Representative
Assemblymember Sandré Swanson
(510) 286-1670–District Office
(510) 286-1888 –Fax

Click here to download file. 

See information here. 

See file here. 

See file here. 

See the file here.

Subject: Medical Benefit Rates
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:12:07 -0700
From: “Reginald L Crowell” Reginald.Crowell@ousd.k12.ca.us
To: “Love, Nicole” , Rountree, Ward” , Betty Olson-Jones”

I noticed on the chart that staff has OEA paying the difference between Healthnet and Kaiser. OEA does not pay the difference and I will have staff amend the chart for OEA. OEA only pays ? % of salary for 07-08. So if anyone calls, tell them we are amending the chart since OEA has a different negotiated agreement. Thanks,
Reggie

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2007

Contact: Anne Abrams/Jennifer McVey
(415) 551-2075

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE COLOR PURPLE ALICE WALKER HEADS UP ESSAY WRITING PROJECT FOR BAY AREA STUDENTS

(San Francisco, CA) September 14, 2007…Today Oprah Winfrey Presents THE COLOR PURPLE and SHN proudly announced a very special education event for Bay Area students. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker met this morning with students at Skyline High School in Oakland, to kick off an essay-writing project, in association with the engagement of THE COLOR PURPLE at the Orpheum Theatre, October 9– December 9th.

All interested middle school, junior high and high school students are invited to write an essay of approximately500 words, on the subject selected by Ms. Walker “How I Changed My Own Life.” The essays will be read by a Bay Area panel of educators who will select ten semi-final essays which will be read and evaluated by Ms. Walker. Nine semi-finalists will each receive a pair of tickets to THE COLOR PURPLE at the Orpheum Theatre, and Ms. Walker will choose and critique a final essay, which will be framed for the writer and published on colorpurple.com. The writer will also receive a family four pack of tickets to THE COLOR PURPLE and a signed copy of THE COLOR PURPLE, A Memory Book of The Broadway Musical .

Essays can be submitted online at www.colorpurple.com/essay or mailed to The Oakland Tribune, the official newspaper sponsor of The Color Purple Essay Writing Contest at:

The Color Purple Essay Contest
The Oakland Tribune
7677 Oakport Street, Suite 950
Oakland, CA 94621

Submissions must be received by Saturday, Oct. 6 th at midnight.

Alice Walker met with students at Oakland’s Skyline High School to talk about the journey to create The Color Purple . “I suggested the title‘How I Changed My Own Life’ to inspire students to consider their own agency in choosing the life they wish to have. Celie in The Color Purple changes her own life by learning to read and, later, to write,” said Alice Walker.

Skyline High School boasts a special connection to the touring production of THE COLOR PURPLE: La Toya London who plays Nettie is a Skyline graduate. La Toya joined Alice Walker today to address Skyline students and talk about her time at Skyline High School. She said, “Skyline High School gave me the tools and confidence to pursue my dream of performing. It’s exciting for me to return here and talk to students about how a good education can open up a world of opportunities.”

London was named the early front-runner to win season three of American Idol by Simon Cowell and Elton John. On air she joined the ranks of the aptly named “Three Divas,” alongside Jennifer Hudson and Fantasia (who plays Celie in the Broadway production).

Alice Walker received the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple , which was published in 1982. The story was later made into a moving film by Steven Spielberg. It is the unforgettable and inspiring story of a woman named Celie, who finds the strength to triumph over adversity, and discover her unique voice in the world. With a joyous GRAMMY ® -nominated score featuring gospel, jazz, pop and the blues, THE COLOR PURPLE is about hope and the healing power of love.

Tickets for THE COLOR PURPLE range in price from $35 to $99 and can be purchased online at shnsf.com, through Ticketmaster by calling (415) 512-7770, at ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers and the Orpheum Theatre Box Office (1192 Market at 8 th St., M-S, 10am– 6pm). For groups of 20 or more, call Group Sales at (415) 551-2020. To learn more about THE COLOR PURPLE and other SHN shows, please visit www.shnsf.com

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm
Added Performance: Sunday evening, October 14 at 7:30pm and Friday matinee, November 23 at 2pm
No Wednesday Matinee: October 10
No performance: Thursday, November 22-Thanksgiving

SHN is the pre-eminent theatrical entertainment company in San Francisco and owns and operates the Curran, Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres—San Francisco’s premier theatrical venues. SHN’s Best of Broadway theater series provides Bay Area audiences with pre-Broadway world premieres, original Broadway cast productions, award-winners and current hits fresh from Broadway. For information on all SHN shows, please visit shnsf.com .

September 18, 2007

Jack O’Connell
Superintendent of Public Instruction
California Department of Education
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814-5901

Dear Superintendent O’Connell,

On behalf of the nearly 3,000 teachers, nurses, counselors, school psychologists, speech therapists, and librarians of the Oakland Education Association, we urge you to immediately restore local control to the Oakland Unified School District. With the departure of Dr. Kimberly Statham barely one year into her tenure, we are deeply concerned that the pattern of continuing  instability will accelerate.

It is clear that Stateadministration of the District has deepened the crisis. Over the past four years there has been an increasing turnover in the central office and rate of experienced teachers leaving the District. By the District’s own measures, academic achievement has remained flat at best.  With over 30 charters currently draining our student population, the District faces the prospect of more school closures.  Last and certainly not least, the fiscal crisis the State promised to repair has deepened.

To confront these tremendous challenges requires leaders at the District level who know, understand, and are committed to remaining in our community. We need leaders who are committed to stopping the wholesale growth of charters by putting sufficient resources into our existing schools. We need leaders who understand that genuine educational reform will not come from imposing a “business model” on our schools, or from more standardized testing. We need leaders selected for and by our community.

Your decision to appoint Vincent Matthews as Interim State Administrator raises numerous concerns. Mr. Matthews is new to Oakland, having served as Chief of Staff to the State Administrator for only the past five months (although he did spend three months as Principal of Dewey several years ago). Not only is Mr. Matthews a long-time proponent of charter schools (formerly serving as Principal of the for-profit Edison School in San Francisco), but like his predecessors, Dr. Ward and Dr. Statham, he is a proponent  of and committed to the Broad Foundation’s vision of school reform.

Our concerns about the Broad Foundation’s growing influence in public education are widely shared even by several leading figures in the testing and standards movement. Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education under the elder Bush  and currently a senior fellow at the Hoover and Brookings Institutions said recently:

“… the business leaders who think they have the cure for the schools are likely to emerge from this era of faux-reform looking like Enron educators. They may get the scores, and they may pull the wool over the eyes of the press. But eventually the day of reckoning will arrive when their incredible test score gains will prove to be ephemeral, indeed in-credible, as in not credible; when the students discover that they never got an education… May [the] day come soon….when educators find their collective voice and say loud and clear: ‘Enough.’”

Mr. O’Connell, that day has come. Enough is enough! It is time to turn over authority to the elected School Board and allow them, with full community input, to select a new Superintendent. The huge support for Assembly Member Swanson’s AB45 clearlyshows that the citizens of Oakland are ready for a return to local control of our school district. We call on you to continue the process you began in July, when you restored control of governance and community relations to the elected School Board.

We have been and will continue to bring to the elected Board very concrete ideas on how to put Oakland on a stable financial footing. We support efforts to create success for students and teachers with measures that include reducing class size, restoring school libraries, increasing the number of school nurses and counselors, and expanding early childhood education.  To help fund these necessary programs we will continue to organize support for levying a just tax on the Port of Oakland, major real estate developers, and corporate Oakland.

We urge you to use Dr. Statham’s departure as the opportunity to listen to the educational community and the community at large, and return full control of the Oakland Unified School District to its citizens and their elected Board.

Sincerely,

Betty Olson-Jones
President, Oakland Education Association

Cc: David Sanchez, President, California Teachers Association
Ronald V. Dellums, Mayor of Oakland
Barbara Lee, U.S. Congresswoman
Sandré Swanson, State Assembly Member
Sheila Jordan, Superintendent,Alameda County Office of Education
Vincent Matthews, Interim State Administrator
Oakland Board of Education
Oakland Education Association Executive Board
Henry Hitz, Oakland Parents Together
Oakland Tribune
The Montclarion
San Francisco Chronicle
Berkeley Daily Planet