It would take me approximately 15 years to write about every single failing school in California, assuming I did so at the rate of one per week. So, I’m not going to do that, but I do want to highlight as many as I can for as long as I can. We will start today with one of (if not) the lowest-performing schools in the state.
Castlemont High School, in East Oakland, California holds the unfortunate distinction of being that school. We want that addressed and changed! We want to force the Oakland Unified School District and the state of California to fix this failing school.
Castlemont High School is a traditional public school serving 564 students from grades 9-12. The 4 year High School Graduation rate is 65% with only 36% of the students meeting UC/CSU entrance requirements. Greatschools.org rates the school at 1/10. With a 23:1 teacher/student ratio, it has relatively small class sizes for a high school. Teachers at this school are mostly certified but hard to keep. 60% of the teachers have 3 or more
Castlemont is predominantly Hispanic and Black with an 81% of the students coming from low income households.
Look at the numbers for suspensions. These numbers show that there is little tolerance for students with disabilities and that the school does not make much of an effort to provide behavioral support for students with disabilities. This is very concerning. Parents could sue the district, and I suspect that they have around this issue. Special note that funding for Special Education is mostly federal and not state, and therefore, this population of students is governed by federal laws as well as the education code in the California Constitution.
Test scores at the school are the lowest in the state. They have been for many years. Generations of kids have passed through the halls and classrooms of Castlemont High School and have been forced to attend school here despite the abhorrent conditions in this school. The administrative staff, teachers, counselors, school board, community
I urge the readers who are reading this to contact every single person in the state of California who has the authority to fix this failing school and make it a priority. And incidentally, these board members should be ousted, so I am including their district and term expiration.
Oakland Unified School Board:
District 1
- Vice President Jody London
- jody.london@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x31
- Third Term Ends: January 4, 2021
District 2
- President Aimee Eng
- aimee.eng@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x32
- 2nd Term Ends: January 2, 2023
District 3
- Director Jumoke Hinton Hodge
- jumoke.hintonhodge@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x33
- Third Term Ends: January 4, 2021
District 4
- Director Gary Yes
- gary.yee@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x34
- Term Ends: January 2, 2023
District 5
- Director Roseann Torres
- roseann.torres@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x35
- Second Term Ends: January 4, 2021
District 6
- Director Shanthi Gonzales
- shanthi.gonzales@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x36
- 2nd Term Ends: January 2, 2023
District 7 (Castlemont HS)
- Director James Harris
- james.harris@ousd.org
- 510/879-8199 x37
- Second Term Ends: January 4, 2021
Tony Thurmond
- State Superintendent of Public Instruction
- General: 916-319-0800
- DEMAND ACTION
The legislators for this district are as follows:
Assembly Member Rob Bonta (DEM) [YES OF AB1505]
Capitol Office
- State Capitol
- P.O. Box 942849
- Sacramento, CA 94249-0018
- Tel: (916) 319-2018
- Fax: (916) 319-2118
District Office:
- 1515 Clay Street, Ste. 2204
- Oakland, CA 94612
- Phone: (510) 286-1670
- Fax: (510) 286-1888
Senator Nancy Skinner (DEM) [YES OF AB1505]
Capitol Office
- State Capitol, Room 5094 Sacramento, CA 95814
- Phone: (916) 651-4009 Fax: (916) 651-4909
District Office
- 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2202 Oakland, CA 94612
- Phone: (510) 286-1333 Fax: (510) 286-3885
Ah yes. The audacity of legislators who want accountability in schools, but only for charter schools, and not traditional schools. They want your kids in schools like Castlemont, not Oakland Charter. I did not know when I started writing on Castlemont that these two kid haters were the representatives for this district.