Education
“Phoenix Rysing,” is a bi-weekly intensive writing workshop, specifically created by RAW Talent and the California Shakespeare Theater to address the trauma of losing loved ones to violence.
About two dozen volunteers needed just a few hours under the afternoon sun to transform a drab stretch of asphalt into a colorful play area for students at Grant Elementary School in Richmond.
Despite signs of improvement, test scores in the West Contra Costa Unified School District continue to fall short of expectations. That was the message on Wednesday night when the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board met to discuss the school district’s test results and Academic Performance Index ratings. Nearly 75 percent of the district’s schools fall below the state’s target API score. The district includes 50 schools and 30,000 students of varying ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. “As a district, we…
The first asthma clinic in Contra Costa County is slated to open later this month. The clinic is part of a larger program that starts Monday.
Relying partly on a grant from Chevron, the West Contra Costa Unified School District rolled out its new five-year strategic plan at a community meeting in Pinole on Monday night. “This is about setting priorities and then allocating resources,” superintendent Bruce Harter said. The plan elicited guarded support from some classroom teachers. Parents, teachers, students and administrators gathered in the gymnasium at Collins Middle School and sat in rows of folding chairs facing a large projector screen as the district’s…
This year, Salesian High School students traded in their textbooks for iPads, in a move designed to enhance the learning environment. Mary Lou Flannery, the assistant principal for academic affairs at Salesian, said the iPad education program has been in the works for over a year. The school was previously using technology in the classroom but integrating personal mobile devices into the curriculum was the next step. “We began with research,” Flannery said. “We went out to various schools and…
Schools across the West Contra Costa district welcomed back students on Tuesday with officials saying that safety of students is a top priority.
A young man previously convicted in the group rape of a 16-year-old girl four years ago testified against two other suspects on Thursday. Ari Morales, 19, never testified during his own trial in January. His comments last week marked the first time his version of events has been recorded in court. The testimony is part of a new trial against suspects Marcelles Peter, 20, and Jose Montano, 22, both of whom were charged with rape, rape with a foreign object…
Kennedy High School senior Kelssie Sontay has a hero, and it’s not Wonder Woman. It’s Sontay’s dad, a man who she said didn’t get the opportunity to finish elementary school. Sontay recently won a full scholarship to UC Santa Cruz, and says her father was her inspiration. “He’s been my motivation for everything he went through in his childhood,” she said. Her father, she said, taught her that “it doesn’t matter what I have right now.” Now, what the 17-year-old…