Education

With community schools strategy, WCCUSD becomes model for other districts

Wellness centers. Mental health counseling. Youth leadership development.  These are examples of community schools initiatives in practice. With passage of a new contract that specifically endorses community schools, the West Contra Costa Unified School District is poised to become a model for the strategy. United Teachers of Richmond considered community schools a must in the contract, alongside salary increases. According to UTR, community schools lead to lower absenteeism, better student work habits, grades, test scores and behaviors, higher enrollment in…

Teachers needed: Contra Costa schools use recruiting events to fill widespread vacancies

Prospective teachers are interviewing on the spot and some are getting offers at winter and spring job fairs across Contra Costa County. Last month, dozens of candidates met recruiters at Alhambra High School in Martinez, where many districts competed for prospective employees amid a national teacher shortage. And from 9 a.m. to noon this Saturday, West Contra Costa Unified School District will hold a job fair at DeJean Middle School. WCCUSD has been hit hard by the shortage. At the…

Afro-Peruvian dance in Richmond: ‘We are making sure the tradition is still alive for future generations.’

On a cloudy Saturday morning, Carmen Román and her husband, Pierr Padilla, filled the basement of the Golden Gate Library in Oakland with a symphony of sounds, using their feet, hands and traditional Afro-Peruvian instruments. A small group of children shrieked with glee and bumbled around the room, dancing as their parents nodded to the beat being created by Román and Padilla opening and closing the top to their cajitas, a box-shaped Latin percussion instrument, and hitting it with a…

UPDATE: WCCUSD teachers vote for tentative contract

A potential strike and district-wide shutdown has likely been avoided after West Contra Costa Unified School District and the United Teachers of Richmond reached a tentative three-year contract agreement Friday, the union said in a newsletter Monday. On Friday, 73% of the 1,182 members casting ballots voted to ratify the deal. Since negotiations began a year ago, WCCUSD and UTR have been unable to agree on salary and on contract language regarding Community Schools, a strategy that focuses on partnerships…

‘I feel like you guys don’t care about our school’: Stege students, staff ask WCCUSD to fix 80-year-old building

“Thirty-eight schools have better stuff than us — why do y’all always put us in the bottom?”  “Can you please help the school? Because we really need a good school because I think having a good school helps me learn.” “I feel like you guys don’t care about our school.”  That’s what Stege Elementary School fourth graders wrote in letters to the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board last school year. Other students wrote letters, too, citing a variety…

School bus driver shortage affecting WCCUSD special ed students

Viva Millan-Alioto has six children, two of whom have special needs and qualify for transportation to and from school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. But a bus driver shortage has stressed the system, making the service less reliable.  Millan-Alioto has had to get on the phone with school officials to ensure pickups, or do the driving herself.  “You have to be very active to get things done,” she said.  As with the teacher shortage, the school bus…

WCCUSD teachers union prepares for next step after two-week impasse over salaries

More than two weeks after the West Contra Costa Unified School District declared an impasse with United Teachers of Richmond, many educators are feeling scared and uncertain about the future of their jobs.  Since the negotiation process began in February, UTR’s focus has been on ensuring all students have high quality, certificated educators; providing emotionally and physically safe learning environments; and prioritizing shared decision making among students, their families and teachers. But the sides have been unable to agree on…

‘It’s just a beautiful experience’: Community groups plant trees to make Verde school greener.

For years, even on hot mornings and afternoons, Verde Elementary School students have spent their recess and physical education periods on a cracked and sun-drenched blacktop — a wide open space with colored lines drawing volleyball courts and soccer fields, a running track along the edge. But the school will soon live up to its colorful name, with green scenery to cover the blacktop and shade the kids. Last month, volunteers from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and 100K…

Teacher shortage threatens to crumble popular dual-language schools that WCCUSD built over years

Fourth grade dual-language immersion teacher Wendy Gonzalez has been fighting for bilingual education since 1998, often feeling that the school district treated it as more of an afterthought. A teacher shortage in the West Contra Costa Unified School District has exacerbated the problem, she said, leaving dual-language immersion in a precarious place.  “If we don’t have support, it’s going to fail,” she said. “It’s going to crumble.” Three elementary schools — Washington, Stewart and Downer — use the dual-language immersion…