Education
Elementary schools across the West Contra Costa Unified School District opened their doors Thursday evening for Back to School Night, inviting parents to meet educators and learn what the school year holds.
It’s an early Thursday morning and Maribel Lopez is about to read Eric Carle’s “The Tiny Seed” to her bilingual second grade class as they learn about a plant’s growth cycle. The students are all seated “crisscross applesauce” in their blue and white uniforms, waiting patiently to hear Lopez begin reading. Lopez was just recognized as one of 22 of Contra Costa County’s teachers of the year—one of the two from the West Contra Costa Unified School District. According to the…
It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon in April at the Richmond College Prep School, and the fourth grade students were divided among three tables near the outdoor garden. In front of the tables was a mobile kitchen called the Charlie Cart that can roll from classroom to classroom. Each table had placemats, bowls, cutting boards and the cooking lesson for the day. The students were making spring salad with garlic vinaigrette. As for the Charlie Cart, imagine a kitchen, shrunk…
The California Grizzly bear has been immortalized on the state’s flag, but the four-leg symbol is not around California anymore—at least not since 1924, when the last specimen was spotted in Santa Barbara County. However, other creatures inhabit California’s land, water and sky. The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) includes more than 100,000 acres, 65 parks and more than 1,200 miles of trails in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. These parks, like the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland, or the…
As she gets off BART, Chloe Lipton makes her way to one of her favorite destinations: Maya’s Music Therapy Fund. Her new caretaker, Kayla Jenkins, worries that they might be going in the wrong direction. But Lipton knows exactly where she’s going—after all it’s been 25 years. Lipton, Maya’s most loyal client, has cerebral palsy, a disability resulting from damage to the brain, which manifests itself in muscular incoordination and speech disturbances. For the past 27 years, Maya’s has provided music therapy…
The concept is simple: a handful of books in a wooden box, mounted in a public space. The books are free. Peruse the selection. Take a book if you’d like. Leave a book in its place if you can. Enjoy. Called the Little Free Library, these informal neighborhood lending libraries have popped up in front of schools, homes, parks, bike paths and cafes in all 50 states and more than 70 countries since a man named Todd Bol installed the…
It is just shortly after noon on a Saturday, and the sun stands high over the historic Atchison Village in Richmond. Not a single cloud is in the sky. In its northwestern corner, a small crowd has gathered in front of one family home. The housing complex was originally built during World War II to accommodate workers from the nearby shipyards. In a small revolution, it was later sold to its residents and turned into a mutual housing cooperative. Today,…
The West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school board meeting Wednesday night included discussion of the need to find a home for Caliber Beta charter schools, updates on the district’s bond program, and recognizing the Richmond High School soccer team. The night started on a light note with a video representing the achievements of the Oilers soccer team. Not only did the team win the championship in the 2014-15 North Coast Section Division 2 soccer league, but the players have done…
Sixth grader Clemon Brown loves reading books, but he has a hard time finding books outside of school. “Two weeks ago, I was sitting in my room [and] I want to read a book,” Brown said. He said he wanted to visit a library, but his mom’s car wasn’t working at the time. Brown lives in North Richmond, almost three miles away from the nearest Richmond public library. “That’s really the difficulty,” Richmond Public Library Director Katy Curl said. “[We’re]…