Education
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…
A mix of beats, rapping and acting turned Eugene O’Neill’s drama masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, into a bracing new blend of hip hop and theater.
De Anza High School’s three-year-old law academy brings in practicing Bay Area lawyers to give students a real-life view of the legal world. Local district attorneys visit the classroom to mentor students and provide legal insights. The program is designed to give students a head start on a legal career, and it has already made an impact, with several students saying they intend to pursue legal studies.
Magaly Rodriguez, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was an infant, is not a U.S. citizen. To get Rodriguez to Brown University, ILC and university officials had to navigate a web of regulations that inhibit undocumented students. But they were also helped by a key new federal program—DACA.
Young people at the RYSE center use rap and video to call for social change. The video will be screened on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
The last thing you’d expect to sit opposite Jerry’s Cocktail Lounge in Richmond is a family-oriented, Muslim place of worship, let alone a full-fledged Islamic school. Yet every Sunday, over 150 parents, students, elders, and teachers pile out of their cars or from the closest bus stop to walk over to Richmond’s Masjid Al-Rahman. Many families come from as far as Albany and Emeryville. Mosques in West Contra Costa County are sparse – the only other Muslim place of worship in…