Charter Schools
Incumbent candidate Buffy Wicks appears to have easily defeated opponent Sara Brink for the California State Assembly District 15 seat.
Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy, formerly a bilingual teacher and president of the United Teachers of Richmond, has won by a large margin in the Area 4 race for West Contra Costa Unified School District. Gonzalez-Hoy won 50% of the votes with 100% of the precincts reporting, according to the Contra Costa County semi-official election night results. Y’Anad Burrell and Matthew Trujillo trailed behind for Area 4 with 19% of the votes each. Gonzalez-Hoy was among a slate of candidates endorsed by the…
In a supermajority vote, the West Contra Costa County School Board on Wednesday night approved a $575 million school construction bond to be placed on the March 2020 election ballot.
After months of debate and community campaigning, the West Contra Costa Unified School District board members voted 4 to 1 in favor of renewing the charter of Aspire Richmond California College Preparatory Academy (Cal Prep) before a large and passionate crowd. The board was also presented with data from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) on test score performance within the district. Nearly 35% of WCCUSD students overall met or exceeded standards for English Language Arts (ELA),…
Faculty, students, and parents from Aspire Richmond California College Preparatory Academy (Cal Prep) urged the Board of Education to renew the school’s charter at this week’s meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) at Lovonya DeJean Middle School. Cal Prep is a public charter and early college secondary school in Richmond. During a public forum at Wednesday night’s meeting, Cal Prep supporters testified that the charter renewal would allow Cal Prep to continue with its mission statement…
In December, the DeJean Middle School multipurpose room brimmed with onlookers—community leaders, public officials, parents and students—who cheered wildly as Stephanie Hernández-Jarvis and Consuelo Lara took their new seats on the West Contra Costa Unified Board of Education. The two newcomers had arrived ready and confident. The celebration was a pleasant, gratifying end to their campaigns, and they were prepared to make the hard-fought decisions of public office, including one that day: Whether to re-approve the charter of Benito Juarez…
West Contra Costa County school board discusses plans for new tech-heavy charter high school program
Public reactions are divided regarding whether Richmond College Prep should be given funds to start this new program.
On Wednesday, the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education passed a resolution calling upon the state to establish a moratorium on charter school expansion. The final resolution received widespread support from the public—including former and current city councilmembers, union leaders, teachers and parents—and from most of the board, who passed it with a 4-1 margin. The passing resolution was devised by board members Consuelo Lara and Valerie Cuevas and was first presented at a meeting earlier this…
The proposed resolution, inspired by several others—including one that passed last month following the teachers strike in the Los Angeles Unified School District—calls for a moratorium on charter school expansion from the California State Board of Education and seeks to establish additional oversight over existing charter schools.