Education
Dozens of palm-sized faces hang from the ceiling in Steve Mainini’s art classroom at Kennedy High School. The ceramic reflections of former students dangle in wire cages and defy gravity as if trapped in some sort of bad dream. But for the hundreds of students that have enrolled in Mainini’s art classes the past eight years, the art teacher with a crew cut is no Freddy Krueger—instead his students and peers regard him as an inspiration. “Soul Cages,” Mainini called…
Kennedy High freshman English teacher Aaron Colacion does it his way. And because of that the school and the district may reap a financial reward. The third-year teacher is one of five finalists competing for the Bay Area’s 2013 Comcast SportsNet All-Star Teacher Award. Grand prize: $20,000. Colacion said if he won the twenty-grand he’d like to buy Kennedy High School small Acer computers called Nettops. He said because students are so strapped for computer lab time, that would help…
Mr. Wilks strides onstage, a 12-ounce bottle of Coca Cola in hand. The bottle fizzes as he cracks open the seal. He takes a gulp. “Man, that’s good.” Between swigs of soda, he tells an audience his family has been in Richmond since the beginning. His grandparents were shipbuilders during WWII. His grandfather went to work at Chevron. His parents were teachers and “community folks,” and now he’s a teacher at Richmond High. Actually, Wilks isn’t a teacher; he’s an…
When Jose Irizarry took his Richmond High School class to visit San Francisco General Hospital recently, it was not your typical field trip. The students donned scrubs and spent time with hospital surgeons learning how to tie sutures and practice with arthroscopic surgical machines. They even got to study a human cadaver. For Irizarry, the trip was a chance to teach real world skills required for a career in a health profession. The visit, and the goals, are part of…
Hands slapping against plastic, followed by the beep of a digital clock, were the only sounds heard over the constant hum in the Richmond Recreational Complex during the weekly community chess night. Two boys, Ayanius Saucer, 10, and Akai Strong, 8, were looking intently at the board in front of them, pondering every move. As decisions became less obvious, and strategy more important, the boys took longer and longer to decide. When they did, their eyes would get wide and…
As part of a system-wide initiative to increase its African American student population, officials from California State University, Sonoma visited St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Richmond on Sunday with a message: “Send us your best and brightest,” CSU president Rueben Armiñana said to church members from the pulpit.
Every holiday season Nancy DeWeese and her husband, Gary, host a Christmas party. But it’s not your average family gathering, because this is not your average family. At these parties, three dozen children from all walks of life, including the couple’s four biological kids, gather to share in a common experience: Each child has spent part of their lives growing up at the DeWeese family home in Moraga. “They see each other and they’re like, ‘Oh, we started out as…
With frantic little-kid energy, the Panthers under-10 boys basketball team races around the pavement lot next to the Shields-Reid Park in North Richmond. The kids are fresh from a 42-0 victory over the El Cerrito team, their third straight victory in their youth league. Some of the kids play a pick-up game against their coaches—older boys, brothers, cousins, neighbors—who shout directions and jokes. Around the edges of the court, kids drift in and out of the game, jousting with each…
When Carlos Martinez, an undocumented college student who lives in Contra Costa County, checked his bank account last Sunday he could not believe what he saw. Like at the start of most college semesters, he logged on to his account expecting to see a bill for close to $500, payment for his courses at the City College of San Francisco. But this time, the account showed a bill for only $23. “I logged out and logged back in again, and…