Oakland Unified School District, California
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Contents |
Website evaluation
This website was last evaluated Jan. 18, 2012.
The good
- Revenue information is provided.[2]
- Budget documents are available.[3]
- Meeting dates are posted.[4]
- Meeting agendas and minutes are available.[5]
- Names, term, and contact information is provided for elected officials.[6]
- Administrative officials' contact information is provided in a department directory.[7]
- Vendor contracts and RFP's are posted.[8]
- Teacher contracts are available.[9]
- Audits are available.[10]
- Public records staff contact information is provided.[11]
- School Accountability Report Cards provide academic achievement information.[12]
The bad
- Local tax information is not provided.
- Background check information is not provided.
Leadership
School Board
The district's elected policy-making body is the Governing Board, referred to as the Board of Education. Seven members are elected to four year terms, each representing a particular district.
| Member | District | Term Ends |
|---|---|---|
| Jody London, Vice-President | 1 | 1/7/2013 |
| David Kakishiba | 2 | 1/5/2015 |
| Jukome Hinton Hodge | 3 | 1/7/2013 |
| Gary Yee, President | 4 | 1/5/2015 |
| Noel Gallo | 5 | 1/7/2013 |
| Christopher Dobbins | 6 | 1/5/2015 |
| Alice Spearman | 7 | 1/7/2013 |
Teacher Contracts
Teacher contracts are negotiated with the Oakland Education Association. Contracts can be found here. District salary schedules are posted here.
Administrative Officials
The current superintendent is Anthony "Tony" Smith, Ph.D. He was named superintendent on May 22, 2009, following unanimous approval by the Board of Education. He had previously served as deputy superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, California. Smith comes to the position with a "holistic approach to progress," in which the whole of the community is the driving force for change.[13]
Unions
The Oakland Education Association is the primary bargaining partner within the district. It is an affiliate of the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association. According to the IRS, OEA revenue for 2007 totaled $672,097.[14]
OEA President Betty Olson Jones was among a group of 60 protestors arrested at the state Capitol for refusing to breakup a protest after the building's closure. Olson Jones and others were protesting education budget cuts being proposed by Governor Jerry Brown. Ms. Olson-Jones was quoted before her arrest saying, "We are not just here to lobby. We are here to raise some hell."[15]
School Budget
The FY 2010-2011 Board approved budget expected $280 million in total revenues. It budgeted nearly $238 million in expenditures. $103 million of expenditures went towards certificated salaries, and $55 million to employee benefits.[16]
A chart of the district's budget process can be found here.
Oakland Unified School District on average receives $14,764.26 in revenue per pupil according to the California School Finance Center[17]
Academic performance
Five schools in the district have been identified by the state Department of Education as Tier I "Persistently Low Achieving Schools", meaning that they are within the bottom 5 percent of student performance and improvement. The schools are Alliance Academy, Elmhurst Community Prep, Explore Middle, ROOTS International Academy, and United for Success Academy.[18] The school district refuted this assessment, claiming that four of the schools could not be designated "persistently low achieving" because they had not been around long enough to be "persistent" in anything, and had in fact shown strong growth measurements.[19]
The 2010 Academic Performance Index, which assesses student performance on a yearly basis and sets growth targets for the following year, found in 2010 that 63% of schools in the district had met their targets. 21% of schools either remained the same or saw declines in the API scores.[20]
Reform
OUSD's largest reform efforts have come through a "new small school" initiative. The New Small Autonomous Schools District Policy was adopted by the board in May, 2000. Part of this initiative was the goal of giving every district family at least two education options, with the ability to select from different options. Key to the program is giving individual schools a larger level of autonomy to be more responsive to their communities. Autonomy in this sense refers to curriculum, instruction, and assessment decisions, along with increased budget autonomy to reallocate funds. Since the program's inception, a certain level of autonomy with regards to curriculum has been taken away, and now schools must apply for curricular autonomy after their first year in operation. By 2007-2008, the district had opened 49 new small schools.[21]
References
- ↑ Fast Facts
- ↑ Revenue
- ↑ Financial Reports
- ↑ Meetings calendar
- ↑ Meetings
- ↑ Contact
- ↑ Directory
- ↑ RFP's
- ↑ Collective bargaining agreements
- ↑ Audits
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ School Accountability Report Cards
- ↑ OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith defines strategy for Oakland public schools, "Oakland Local," March 14, 2010.
- ↑ Oakland Education Association, "TeachersUnionsExposed.com."
- ↑ 60 arrested in state Capitol rally protesting school budget cuts, "Ventura County Star," May 9, 2011.
- ↑ 2010-2011 Third Interim Financial Report
- ↑ School Finance Center, Oakland Unified School District, Return on Investment
- ↑ Tier I Schools, California Department of Education
- ↑ School Improvement Grant Process
- ↑ 2009-2010 Accountability Progress Reporting, California Department of Education, July 12, 2011
- ↑ Vasudeva, A., Darling-Hammond, L., Newton, S., & Montgomery, K. (2009). Oakland Unified School District new small schools initiative evaluation. Stanford, CA: School Redesign Network at Stanford University
External links
