Education
This year, there are three seats up for election on the West Contra Costa Unified School District board, but only the Area 2 race will appear on the ballot. The other two candidates are running unopposed and will automatically get the seats. For her second term, Incumbent Jamela Smith-Folds will represent Area 1, which includes part of Hercules, Pinole and the Hilltop neighborhood of Richmond. Incumbent Mister Phillips is leaving the board, saying he needs a break after eight years…
El Cerrito Principal Malcolm Norrington was at the center of a student walkout this week, after a letter surfaced in which Norrington apparently reported to the California Interscholastic Federation that the school would forfeit six football games because of ineligible players. The student protest also was in response to the West Contra Costa Unified School District’s decision to place the team’s head coach, Jacob Rincon, on administrative leave in September. The district has not said why it suspended Rincon –…
A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, rejecting the argument that the district had violated students’ rights to a safe school and certified teachers. Judge Terri Mockler denied the petitioners’ request for a writ of mandate, which would have ordered the district to address staffing shortages and complete the requested repairs at Stege Elementary School. The case was the first to use the 2004 Williams v. California ruling,…
To remain within its projected spending limits, the West Contra Costa Unified School District must shave $7 million from its 2025-2026 budget. The only question is, how. The district’s fiscal staff offered a new approach called purpose-based budgeting at the Budget Committee meeting on Sept. 24th. The framework forces the district to match its spending to its goals. Purpose-based budgeting will be implemented in the creation of the next budget. If the district is unable to make the projected cuts,…
Three years after taking the helm at the West Contra Costa Unified School District, Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst announced Monday that he will retire at the end of December, forcing the board of the beleaguered district to appoint an interim superintendent for the second part of the school year. The news comes months after the board took the unprecedented move of voting not to adopt the Local Control Accountability Plan, which meant it could not approve a budget by the…
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: How has the school year started for your child? We asked parents at the DeJean Middle School complex, where Stege Elementary School students were sent when their school was abruptly closed in August. “Amazing. I love it. I love it. I didn’t like the other school at all. At all. The transition’s…
Five days before the start of the new school year, parents of Stege Elementary School students left a meeting with district officials Wednesday with many of their questions unanswered. Last month, citing environmental hazards, the West Contra Costa Unified School District announced Stege’s immediate closure for renovations that could take up to three years. Since then, district officials met several times with the community, including a meeting Wednesday in which parents voiced concerns about transportation to the host school, crowding,…
If the West Contra Costa Unified School District doesn’t pass a Local Control Accountability Plan by Aug. 15, it’s not clear what would happen next because the school board’s decision to reject the plan last week was “unprecedented,” said Contra Costa County Schools Superintendent Lynn Mackey. The parent-led plan sets the course for about $64.8 million in district spending, particularly for the most vulnerable students. Without an LCAP, the board could not pass the proposed $509 million operating budget, which…
The West Contra Costa Unified School District board veered into uncharted territory Wednesday when it rejected the Local Control and Accountability Plan, a parent-led proposal that sets the course for the next year’s spending. Without an LCAP, the board could not pass the 2024-25 operating budget, which is supposed to go into effect on July 1. If the board misses that deadline, the Contra Costa County Education Office will step in to help craft a budget. “This is really serious…