Education
After nearly 40 years with the Contra Costa Community College District — the last four years at the helm — Chancellor Mojdeh Mehdizadeh has announced she will retire on Dec. 30. Her interim replacement until the end of July is Micaela Ochoa, who currently serves as executive vice chancellor of administrative services. She has been with 4CD since 2022. While this change in leadership comes in the middle of an academic school year, several district officials expressed confidence that the…
In the morning and afternoon at Betty Reid Soskin at Pinole Middle School, students cross the street and weave through cars without a crosswalk or crossing guard. Cars double park and attempt illegal U-turns, risking head-on collisions. Drivers ignore prominent signage prohibiting left turns into the school, causing backups deep into the neighborhood. Susana Silva, parent of a seventh grader, sees cars lining up to make the illegal left turn. She had raised traffic concerns with the West Contra Costa…
Kennedy High School will reopen for students on Tuesday, allowing school to start on schedule and on campus, two weeks after the site was closed because of toxic vapors. The Kennedy High community has been living with uncertainty since July 31, when tests confirmed the presence of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, in soil vapors on the campus at Berk Avenue and Cutting Boulevard. PCE was found in six locations within 0.7 mile of the campus, on the north and…
Kennedy High School students will begin their school year on schedule, with several backup locations under consideration while further testing for a toxic chemical on campus is conducted. Richmond’s Kennedy High School was closed on Monday after preliminary test results indicated levels of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, underground. At a town hall meeting Thursday night, Jeff Carter, West Contra Costa Unified School District interim associate superintendent of business services, said the district is “planning for no delays to the…
On a Thursday afternoon at Lincoln Elementary School, about 15 fifth graders are standing in the front of the classroom. There’s a nervous energy and some giggling. “Hands at your sides. Nice and loud,” says their instructor, Maribel Lopez. She encourages them with a smile. One by one, they step up and say their names. They’re part of a new after-school program at the school that teaches students what it’s like to speak in front of a room full of…
After a 12-hour bargaining session Tuesday, United Teachers of Richmond reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday with the West Contra Costa Unified School District, ending a weeklong strike. Teachers will return to the classroom on Thursday. Union President Francisco Ortiz said in a news release that the agreement “lays a foundation for the safe and stable schools our students deserve.” The next step is for the union to take the contract to its members for a vote, ratifying it. According…
This story was co-published with KQED. Bundled against the morning cold, teachers marched outside the Nystrom Elementary School entrance in Richmond early Thursday, cheering as passing cars honked, and carrying yellow and red picket signs reading “We Can’t Wait.” Educators at all 56 West Contra Costa Unified School District sites picketed before and during school drop-off on the first day of an open-ended strike, marching for higher pay, smaller class sizes and a reduction of the use of long-term substitute teachers and outside…
The Pinole Valley High School Marching Band will perform at the halftime show of the Golden State Warriors game Tuesday at the 18,000-seat Chase Center in San Francisco after months of preparation. The 33-member band will perform a two-song mashup of “This is Berk” by John Powell and “Locked out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars. Under the supervision of rotating substitute teachers, the students have been running their own rehearsals since September, when the band director went on administrative leave. …
Teachers will go on strike Thursday in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, but the superintendent says schools will remain open. United Teachers of Richmond announced at 7 p.m. Monday that it had rejected the district’s latest offer of a 3% salary increase, and 90% coverage of health care benefits beginning in 2027 “Striking is the last resort — we want to teach,” UTR President Francisco Ortiz said in an email to members. “But we know this truth: The status quo…