Education
It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon and the new health clinic at Richmond’s John F. Kennedy High School is open for service. In an impeccably clean waiting area decorated with plants, a round table and a bright area rug, teenagers sit scrolling through their phones as they wait their turns, and Ferris Bueller plays overhead on the wall-mounted TV. LaShonda Williams, a health educator with Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), leans over and checks in briefly with a young man sitting…
Students from Richmond’s De Anza High School, along with their parents, protested in front of the school early Monday morning to help Tahitia Dean, De Anza’s Law Academy instructor of two years, keep her job.
Affordable and sustainable food is a priority for Laneisha Whitfield, the director of the Richmond Food Policy Council, and her young campaigners. So on February 17, the Richmond Food Policy Council created an online and door-to-door petition to address the issue of getting more nutritious food for students.
Peres Elementary School’s auditorium was filled with low murmurs of conversation Saturday morning as West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) held its second community town hall meeting of the year. Armed with questions, parents trickled in around 9 am, dropping off their children at the daycare service the district provided. Coffee and pastries were munched as community members, teachers, staff, parents and Spanish translators split off into four groups for light discussions. Each group discussed changes in the district…
Roughly 40 people filled up the theater at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park’s visitor center on Saturday morning to meet Elizabeth Escobedo, author of From Coverall to Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front. The author and associate professor of history at the University of Denver was invited to the museum to share her research. During her presentation, Escobedo showed a variety of advertisements, newspaper articles, and photos…
Addison Escobar had never lined up at forward for Richmond High School before Thursday night. But when his coach, Rene Siles, asked the senior to move up from midfield, he didn’t ask questions. “Wherever I play I put it in, a hundred percent, I give my all,” Escobar said. “Because the team comes first.” Escobar’s goal just before halftime helped the Oilers overcome heavy legs en route to a comprehensive 5-0 win over Hercules Thursday night at Richmond High School….
On Wednesday night, West Contra Costa Unified School District’s (WCCUSD) first board of education meeting of the year was packed with chatty bouncy children, a sea of blue shirt-wearing Caliber Beta Academy teachers, and people holding orange public comment sheets. Newly-elected school board president Todd Groves began the meeting promptly at 6:30 pm as eager parents and teachers waited to discuss pressing topics on the agenda, such as the charter petition renewal of Richmond College Preparatory Schools (RCPS), and the…
Long after the billboards come down, the campaign mailers rest in landfills and the New Year’s toasts come and go, 2014 may be remembered as Richmond’s big election year. We are honored to have been in Richmond’s streets and chambers, its homes and schools and everywhere else, helping write the first drafts of history in an important time and place. Chevron Corp. poured an unprecedented $3.1 million into the municipal races only to lose the open mayoral and city council seats to a progressive coalition on every…
If you walk down the hallways of Richmond College Prep Schools (RCPS), it looks like many other elementary schools. But there is one key difference: it is the highest performing school in Richmond. The school, located near the Iron Triangle, is ranked #1 in the city and #4 in the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) according to its 2013 Academic Performance Index (API) score. The majority of its students are Hispanic or African-American. 92 percent of students qualify…