Oakland Sit-in Summary and Next Steps

A semi-complete list of on-line media coverage follows this in depth summary from the San Francisco Bay View

http://www.sfbayview.com/030205/protesters030205.shtml

Six protesters arrested at Oakland School District HQ

Town Hall meeting Tuesday, March 8, 6-8pm, 1st Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland


Students demonstrate for good schools, the kind of schools they deserve.

Oakland – Six Oakland residents, all long time community leaders – Micah Clatterbaugh, Chicano Moratorium Coalition; Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; Anne Weills, civil rights lawyer; Michael Siegal, Coalition Against School Closures; Linda Halpern, teacher at Community Day School; Pamela Drake, canditate for City Council District 2 – were arrested Tuesday when they staged a sit-in to demand restoration of local democratic control of the Oakland schools.

The six began their sit-in at 3:45 p.m. in the office of the state administrator of the Oakland schools when their demand for a meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell was refused. At the same time, about 75 students, parents, teachers and labor leaders rallied outside.

“We do not recognize the current district leadership as legitimate,” says Kali Akuno, an Oakland-based educator who was one of those arrested. “We call on Superintendent O’Connell to restore democratic control to Oakland’s public school system.” As part of their action today, the coalition issued four demands for Superintendent O’Connell. They are:
1. The immediate restoration of local democratic control over the Oakland Unified School District;
2. No school closures and no charter conversions;
3. No layoffs; and
4. An immediate meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell to discuss the implementation of these demands.

Michael Siegel of the coalition, also arrested, added: “Recent actions by State Administrator Randolph Ward to close schools without community input, to open our campuses to private school and charter school corporations and to threaten the complete shutdown of our adult education program only further our resolve to resist this hostile takeover until Oakland parents, educators and community members can once again decide how best to educate our children, youth, and adults.”

The community coalition includes parents of Oakland Unified School District students, educators, high school students and representatives from Youth Together, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the Million Worker March, the American Federated County State and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME), Oakland Parents Together, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Education Not Incarceration.
State administrators plans

Oakland is outraged over what the state administrator is planning on doing to Oakland schools:
1. Shut down the Adult Education Department, which serves 25,000 students;
2. Shut down six more Oakland schools;
3. Transform eight Oakland elementary schools into charter schools, run by a top-down outside organization, “Education for Change,” that would be directed by Kevin Wooldridge, who was until last week assistant to the state administrator;
4. Lay off 200 elementary school and middle school teachers;
5. Cut 50 of the remaining art and music teachers from Oakland elementary schools;
6. Lay off 47 of the already understaffed middle and high school counselors;
7. Cut 30 high school art and music teachers; and
8. Cap teachers’ health care benefits.

Next steps
On Tuesday, March 8, 6-8 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland, the Coalition to Defend and Improve Public Education will be holding a large Town Hall meeting of around 1,000 people.
On Tuesday, March 15, 4 p.m., a major rally at the Oakland State Building, 1515 Clay St., is being called by the Oakland Education Association.
For more information and to get involved, contact Kali Akuno, (510) 593-3956; Michael Siegel, (510) 289-3318 (Kali and Michael are currently being detained); Fannie Brown, Oakland Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), (510) 610-0107; or Jonah Zern, Education not Incarceration Coalition, (510) 654-8613; and go online to the Education not Incarceration Coalition, http://www.ednotinc.org.

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San Francisco Bay View
http://www.sfbayview.com/030205/protesters030205.shtml
Indybay (Currently the Headline!!)
http://www.indybay.org/ or http://www.indybay.org/education/
Oakland Tribune
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2592858
Benecia News
http://www.benicianews.com/articles/index.cfm?artoid=283944
KTVU
http://www.ktvu.com/news/4245036/detail.html
Oakland Rising
http://www.oaklandrising.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=165&mode=&order=0&thold=0

All local TV News stations carried a report and the Berkeley High School Paper is currently printing one in their issue that is is completed today.