Mobilization: Wednesday, 4PM, State Building: Stop the Closure of Oakland Schools

Forward Widely!

MOBILIZATION TO STOP THE CLOSURE OF THE "OAKLAND 5" ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS!!
Wednesday, 4PM, California State Building
1515 Clay Street, Near the 12th Street BART
More Information or an E-mail Copy of the Flyer: Contact Mike Seigel 510.289.3318 michaeljwsiegel [at] aol.com

It is time to put the pressure on Senator Perata and Assemblywoman Chan to stop the closures of Oakland Schools!

Enclosed:
1. Who is Randolph Ward, Research from the Equal Opportunity Now Caucus
2. A Repulsive Letter from Senator Perata (Call His Office at 510.286-1333
3. Letter from Pamela Drake
4. Oakland Tribune Article
5. March 4 Call to Action for Books not Bombs


WHO IS RANDOLPH WARD?

Randolph Ward is the unelected Trustee of the Oakland schools. His record of union-busting and imposing deep cuts during his six years as Trustee in Compton (1996-2002) won him the Oakland job at well over $250,000 a year, paid for by OUSD.

THE DAMAGE HE DID TO COMPTON

Under the Compton takeover, over half of Compton’s teachers left the district. Ward’s austerity policy of imposing wage freezes ensured that Compton’s teachers remained the worst paid in the Los Angeles Area. The school bus drivers union in Compton was busted and services contracted-out (Data Center Report, Youth Strategy Project).

Ward left a legacy in Compton that will not be quickly repaired. Even today, nearly half of all Compton teachers are employed on Emergency Credentials. This compares to fewer than 4% of Oakland teachers with Emergency Credentials (California Department of Education, Educational Demographics, 02-03). In an August 21, 2001 interview with Scripps Howard News Service, Ward stated his preference for Emergency Credentialed teachers and exposed his anti-union, anti-education sentiments saying “When we get emergency credentialed people they come in totally open-minded. Too often when we have veteran teachers with established instructional strategies, they tend to be resistant to change.”

In a series of LA Times articles in 2000, four years after Ward became Trustee of the Compton schools, Compton high school students spoke-out against the conditions in their schools -- describing a protest in which dozens of students wore ribbons of different colors to protest different issues – green for lack of teachers, red for the absence of extracurricular activities, etc. Students stated “the school needs more of everything” (LA Times, 12/10/00).

In 2000, students at Centennial High in Compton filed suit with the US Department of Education because the school’s failings constituted a violation of their civil rights (LA Times, 12/10/00). Just last month, after three additional years under Ward’s control, Centennial High, one of three high schools in Compton, lost its accreditation, meaning that students may not receive credit for classes they took in Compton when they transfer to another District or apply to college (Christian Science Monitor, 1/13/04).

In Compton high schools Ward approved new grading policies that tied student grades to racist standardized test scores (LA Times, 12/10/00). While pushing high-stakes testing, Ward failed to implement programs that would help Compton students get into college. In 2000, because of a lack of school counselors, Compton High School and Centennial High failed to participate in a new program that would have guaranteed the top 4% of their graduates a place at a UC campus (LA Times, 12/10/00).

Between 1996 and 1999, in a District with about 800 graduates a year, Compton sent only 26 students to a UC school. Randolph Ward bears responsibility for overseeing this appalling record of impoverished and substandard education.

In 1998, while trustee of the predominately Latino Compton schools, Ward implemented the anti-immigrant Unz Initiative (Prop. 227) in the harshest manner possible, dictating that classrooms in Compton use “English only” 90% to 98% of the time (LA Times,9/2/98). This was in stark contrast to virtually every other majority Latino district in California. These were the actions of a conscious conservative who chose to impose the harshest possible educational conditions on Compton's Latino students. Ward also left special education programs scandalously out of compliance during his administration.

In September, 2000 the Dallas Morning News revealed that Ward was registered for eight years with the American Independent Party (AIP) – a far-right wing libertarian party which ran George Wallace and Pat Buchanan for president, advocates eliminating affirmative action and bilingual programs, denying public education to children of undocumented workers and repealing the US Voting Rights Act.

In 1997, over three years after the abolition of an elected Compton school board and the year after Ward became the appointed administrator; the school district was sued by the ACLU (Serna v. Eastin) for providing unequal education for black and Latino students.

*****************

HIS PLAN FOR THE OAKLAND SCHOOLS: UNION BUSTING, CORPORATE DOWNSIZING, AND PRIVATIZATION



Ward was recommended for the Oakland Trusteeship by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in consultation with billionaire businessman Eli Broad (Alameda Times-Star, 8/11/03). Ward and his Chief of Staff “Woody” Carter are both affiliated with the Broad Foundation, a training program for school superintendents and trustees that includes voucher supporter and Bush-appointed Secretary of Education Ron Paige as a member of its staff. Eli Broad, who funds the foundation, is an advocate of right-wing “reforms.” Broad supports charter schools and merit pay while maintaining that teacher transfer and seniority rights should be eliminated and locally elected school boards abolished.



Since arriving in Oakland in June 2003, Ward has acted as an unelected, unaccountable overseer attempting to strip down, degrade, and privatize education in Oakland. Ward implemented a 4% wage cut on Oakland teachers in August, before they even returned to school, imposing an illegal contract despite his knowledge that it was illegally ratified with a mail-in ballot which clearly violated the OEA Bylaws. Another of Ward’s first actions was to layoff more than 60 school custodians. After Ward attended a closed-door summit of California superintendents in November, 2003 with new California Secretary of Education Riordan (R), he and other Superintendents stated they had discussed “contracting-out” unionized school services in order to save money. (LA Weekly, November 21, 2003).



Ward also made cuts at the expense of quality education programs. In announcing his plans to make cuts in services to students in the special education program, Ward states “I don’t think we need five-star programs for everybody.” (Montclarion, 6/27/03).



Ward is proposing a corporate-style “results-based budgeting” plan that would increase the inequality between Oakland schools, by throwing each school into competition with all others for scarce resources. Each school’s funding would be based on student attendance instead of enrollment, and the site administration would have only this limited budget – minus deductions for downtown administration as well as special education and other programs – to pay for all school expenses, including teachers’ salaries. Staffing decisions would be made for economic expediency rather than educational quality. For example, school administrators might decide that veteran teachers are too expensive and try to staff the school with newer teachers. Staffing levels would no longer be guaranteed based on the number of students enrolled at the school, and could also decrease as a result. Ward has already announced he plans to close five elementary schools by next August.



Oakland has a long and proud history of struggle. We must end the disenfranchisement of the Oakland community, return to a locally elected and accountable school board, and build the movement for equal quality education. We must act now to show that Oakland will not allow Randolph Ward to attack Oakland’s schools, students, teachers, and communities. Randolph Ward must go!



Equal Opportunity Now Caucus

For more information call 510-978-0846 or contact EON at: equaloppnow [at] aol.com 1/28/04
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A Repulsive Letter from Senator Perata (Call His Office at 510.286-1333

Text of January 29th Letter Regarding Closure of 5 Schools

Dear Dr. Ward:

I urge you in the strongest manner possible to delay your decision to close the five schools until after the voters decide the March 2 parcel tax. Give them the opportunity to reinvest in the local public schools, as they have so often and generously in the past.

Perhaps the closure of schools is inevitable. I know other districts are making similar cuts. But waiting until March at least gives you the maximum range of possibilities with which to make this decision.

Closing schools will create a hardship on families and young students, many of whom are already among the most educationally disadvantaged. In days when we should all work to convince local taxpayers to help our bankrupt district to avoid or defer these radical changes, the controversy (however limited it may be) over closing schools is divisive and self-defeating. Change is often more obvious to those charged with making it than it is to those most affected. Neighborhood schools are among the most cherished benefits of a public school system.

I know better than most the tough decisions you face. I appreciate the enormity of your job. But I know too that how Oakland voters decide the parcel tax and statewide voters decide the deficit bond will have dramatic consequences on your fiscal and administrative decisions. Please, take a few months until we know more precisely what we do and don't have to work with - locally and in Sacramento.

Thank you for your consideration in this difficult issue.

Don Perata
*********************************




Pamela Drake" <pamelad205 [at] mac.com>
To: teachnobombs-announcements [at] lists.riseup.net
Subject: Last night I attended the Oakland School Board Meeting
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 13:09:24 -0800



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From Wednesday, January 28th

Last night I attended the Oakland School Board Meeting (or whatever we're calling it these days). I was met again with a large show of police force and no little amount of intimidation. School security and police officers straddled the steps. It was not apparent that you were able to enter at all. I went around them successfully and found at least a half dozen OPD officers immediately inside filling up the hallway.

I asked the officer in charge why such a large force was needed. He said he probably needed more and had I seen what had happened at the last meeting. I said I had and there had been no incident. He told me that they were required to enforce the fire safety laws (or something to that effect). I asked him why folks were not allowed to stand in the halls as they always had in the past when the room filled up. He felt that there were already too many people in the halls. At the time, most of people in the halls were TV reporters and cameramen. He commented that if there were an emergency, a gurney would not be able to get through. So I’m guessing that next the press may be excluded for causing a hazard.

I made my way to the meeting hall. There was an officer blocking the door. He said that the room was not yet open. Dan Siegel was coming down the stairs from the Closed Session. He asked Ward if the meeting room could be opened to the public now. But when I tried to enter, I was asked who I was. He then told me that I had to have a ticket. I was unable to locate the ticket “vendor”. A teacher from Burbank School came up to me and got me to the lady giving out the tickets. She asked me if I were a Burbank teacher or parent and the teacher said that I was; so using subterfuge I was able to get into an OUSD “public” meeting.

Once in the meeting there were numerous police and security personnel (as there were also in the entire hallway. I asked one guard if her were on overtime and he said yes). The speakers from Burbank were asked to line up at the mike to speak. About 30 folks lined up and spoke very emotionally, many of them children.

As I got up to leave I observed an audience member (whom I know somewhat), almost get into an altercation with an officer apparently over handing out flyers. Another officer calmed the first one. I saw that more security was coming in. I also saw an officer from the hallway ask if more citizens could come in. He said no. I watched as numerous people left, but it was still no. I could see the OPD and school security forming a barrier at the top of the stairs. Citizens were being ushered out the side entrance and not allowed back into the hallway. I watched a mother plead with the group of officers to let her take her daughter to the bathroom. They escorted her out. I shifted myself to the door and quickly left as an officer attempted to grab me before I could get through.

I was told that the room would be “cleared” before the next school could come in to plead their case. I will be submitting a complaint to the ethics commission on this violation of the Brown Act. If you know of any other witnesses who wish to complain, please notify me. I am outraged and believe that if we do not stop this thwarting of public participation, the flaunting of laws and intimidation will continue to grow. In my opniion, it has already reached an unacceptalbe level.

Pamela Drake

*****************************



Oakland Tribune


Last-ditch try to save 5 schools
State administrator hears concerns, though he said he's already made up
his mind on closures
By Alex Katz
STAFF WRITER


Thursday, January 29, 2004 - OAKLAND -- Parents, students and teachers
made a last-ditch effort to save their schools Wednesday, when a few
hundred people testified at a hearing on the impending closures of five
city campuses.

It was the second hearing this month on State Administrator Randolph
Ward's plan to close and consolidate five elementary schools with
declining enrollment.

Ward said his decision to close five schools -- Burbank, Foster,
Longfellow, Swett and Toler Heights -- at the end of the academic year
was already made. But Ward said he wanted to hear more public comments
on the matter and make the decision official in an open meeting.

He was expected to finalize the closures at the end of the hearing,
which was scheduled until 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Fifth-grader Rogelio Gonzalez broke down after talking about the
closures to a television reporter on the sidewalk outside the hearing.

Gonzalez said he came to Burbank Elementary two years ago not knowing
any English. He's now fluent.

"I learned everything there," he said. "They've got good leaders. They
help you to be successful in life."

Ward says the district shouldn't be paying for principals, cafeterias,
janitors, clerks and utilities bills at schools with only a few hundred
students and falling enrollment.

By consolidating schools, the district can spend less on administering
campuses and more on classrooms and students, Ward says.

That argument has not won much support among parents. They say it's
more
important to have small schools -- declining enrollment or not -- in
their neighborhoods.

Ward was appointed to run the Oakland schools during the state takeover
of the near-bankrupt district eight months ago.

Closing schools "won't be more efficient, because you'll have a higher
absentee rate," said Longfellow Elementary teacher Linda Williams, who
also attended Longfellow as a student. "If I have to send Sally 14
blocks to go to school, and it's raining, I'm not sending Sally to
school."

Speaking in Spanish, parent Cecilia Chavarria said Burbank is "a school
that's 100 percent good for us."

Chavarria said a number of parents at Burbank don't have cars to drive
to the next-closest school, which is probably Burckhalter Elementary.

"Some parents don't know how to drive, and some have no means of
transportation," she said. "So how are they going to get to other
schools?"

Lack of adequate transportation has been one of the biggest objections
to Ward's plan. Young children can't walk up to a mile away to get to
school, parents and teachers say.

Ward maintains that parents in affected neighborhoods will be able to
reach other campuses without much trouble. The distance to other
schools
was one of the criteria Ward used to decide on closures.

All schools on the list are using less than 70 percent of their
classroom space, according to district data. Ward also chose schools
with less than 300 students and declining enrollment.

Henry Hitz, head of the community group Oakland Parents Together,
called
for parents to keep children out of school if Ward doesn't change his
mind. A large-scale school boycott would cost the district a huge
amount
of money, and would put financial pressure on Ward, he explained.

Other parents said Wednesday's hearing was far from a last effort.

"We're really just pulling all our parents together," said Rev. Jeffrey
Parker, a Burbank parent. "We're not done. We're going to fight this
until the end."



*******************************************
On March 4th, 2004, demand:
*BOOKS NOT BOMBS
*END THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF OUR SCHOOLS
*DEFEND FREEDOM ON THE HOME FRONT

http://www.nyspc.net
http://www.campusactivism.org/booksnotbombs
*******************************************


What's in this message:

I. March 4, 2004 "Books not Bombs" Call to Action.
II. The "Books not Bombs Agenda" (i.e., our demands).
III. How YOU Can Help Make This Happen.


I. CALL TO ACTION
On March 5th, 2003, thousands of young people in more than 450 high
schools
and colleges nationwide participated in a Student Strike for Books Not
Bombs and against the impending war on Iraq. The strike was initiated
by
the National Youth & Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), a broad coalition
fighting back against the militarization of our lives and our world.

One year later, it has become even clearer that our generation will
continue to be betrayed by this
government's drive to make our country an empire.

So we will stand up as a generation on March 4th because...

*There's always enough money for building weapons of mass destruction
and
for locking up young people, but there's somehow never enough for
education. For every new missile or prison built, another public school
is
allowed to crumble, and another class of students can't afford to pay
for
rising tuition.

*We are losing our basic freedoms and constitutional rights one by one,
as
the government expands its power through Patriot Acts and detention
camps.
Those who speak out are treated like criminals, innocent people are
rounded
up from their homes, and we're all being watched--yet we are no safer.

*In place of decent jobs and schools, young people have been given
military
recruiters, who get students' information without their permission.
Low-income youth and youth of color have been extensively targeted by
military recruiters just as they have been consistently denied access
to
higher education.

*Our colleges and universities are complicit in the war machine and the
infringement of our rights, from performing research for the Pentagon
to
turning in students' records to investing in killer corporations. Our
schools are supposed to be independent, but many now serve these
military
and corporate interests instead of the public good.

We believe the US can be better than this. But unless we take action,
the
threats to our lives and liberties will only continue to grow.

Our generation can join together now in questioning and resisting the
course that has been set for us--against our interests, against our
will,
and against some of our most deeply held values. As young people have
before, we can ignite real change starting in our own schools and
communities.

**Because NYSPC recognizes that the war at home is directly related to
the
war abroad, the March 4th Day of Action this year will be organized in
solidarity with and leading up to the March 20th Global Day of Protest
Against War & Occupation.**

Initiated by: 180/Movement For Democracy and Education, Black Radical
Congress Youth Division/TransAfrica, Campus Greens, Coalition to
Demilitarize the University of California Muslim Student Association of
the
US and Canada, National Youth Advocacy Coalition, New York Youth Bloc
(New
York City), Not With Our Money, Student Environmental Action Coalition,
Student Peace Action Network, Students Transforming and Resisting
Corporations, Students United For a Responsible Global Environment,
United
States Student Association, United Students Against Sweatshops, Uptown
Youth for Peace & Justice (Manhattan), Young Communist League, Young
Democratic Socialists, Young People's Socialist League, Youth PAWR
(Philadelphia)

Endorsed by: United For Peace and Justice
To add your organization to the list of endorsers please email us at
info [at] nyspc.net.


II. THE BOOKS NOT BOMBS AGENDA

*Funding for Education, not Empire.
Currently only $.02 of every federal dollar is devoted to education
funding. We demand funding increases for education, especially
programs
targeting low-income youth such as the Pell Grant, TRIO, and GEAR
UP. Further, we demand that the drug provision in the Higher Education
Act--which denies federal education funds to convicted drug
offenders--be
repealed, and that Congress pass legislation (such as the DREAM Act and
the
Student Adjustment Act) that would increase educational opportunities
for
undocumented youth.

*No Military Recruitment in our Schools
College administrations should support the ongoing legal challenge to
the
Solomon Amendment, and both colleges and high schools should make it
campus
policy to prominently advertise the rights of students and parents to
opt
out of having student information released to military recruiters.

*Respect our Civil Liberties
Provisions that violate youth and students rights in the Patriot Act
must
be revised. School student governments and administrations should pass
resolutions to oppose the implementation of such provisions.

*Campuses for Peace, not War
Campus administrators must publicly disclose all military-related
research
and all financial relationships with weapons manufacturers. Campus
administrators must pledge to work towards severing these relationships
and
agree to a freeze on any new military research or additional dealings
with
weapons manufacturers.

*Schools not Jails
College administrators must divulge all university business relations--
including contracts and investments--with companies that profit from or
finance prison construction or operations. College administrations
should
set up recruitment and retention programs for communities adversely
affected by incarceration, specifically low-income youth and youth of
color. Lastly, state governments must invest more money in education
and
rehabilitation programs instead of prioritizing incarceration.


III. JOIN US!!
Across the country, on March 4th and the weeks leading up to it, we
will be:

*winning student government, faculty, and administration resolutions in
support of the Books Not Bombs agenda, and demands like cutting
tuition,
divesting from militarism, and keeping the Pentagon and the Patriot Act
out
of our schools.

*registering voters for peace and freedom, and calling on young people
to
build our political power in 2004 to show that our government can no
longer
ignore us.

*organizing demonstrations, parties and concerts to bring people
together,
have some defiant fun, and help build our movement.

*publishing articles in newspapers, creating artwork for people to see,
performing poetry and theater against the war at home, fusing our
culture
with our cause.

*reaching out at neighboring schools and other places where youth
congregate, to raise consciousness of what's going on and bring more
people
into this struggle.

*thinking about what actions will send the most powerful statement on
March
4th, uniting our local communities around the campaign, then going out
and
organizing up a storm.

GET INVOLVED! For more info and resources, and to connect with other
young
people who will be making this campaign happen, check out http://www.nyspc.net
and
http://www.campusactivism.org/booksnotbombs. Contact us at info [at] nyspc.net, or
215-222-4711. Let's do this!