I'm filling in my OUSD Enrollment Options application tonight. So here are my disorganized notes on schools I've toured so far.
These are the things I took notes on: student diversity, staff and teacher diversity*. Art/music/P.E. Library. Garden. Outside time and facilities. Language instruction. Bathrooms.
Other factors that schools kept bringing to my attention: whether or not lower grades had separate cafeteria and recess time or separate yards for younger grades. After-school programs and enrichment. Computers and technology.
Glenview was the first school I visited. On my first visit, I got bad vibes. I could not for the life of me put a finger on what it was, and after a second visit I still can't. The best I can say is that it talks the talk but I am not convinced it really deeply feels the principles it espouses. And if I'm reading the statistics correctly, it shows a bit of an achievement gap and I didn't hear a lot about how that's being addressed. Lots of people love Glenview, it's a high-demand school. They were having an assembly to honor an award-winning Kindergarten teacher the second time I visited. But I am trusting my gut. They are not on my final list. Further Glenview notes: this is the school that prompted my uniform question. Strangely, it's an opt-out uniform policy, which kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Also, it's a pain-in-the-ass walk from the 57 bus.
Another school that didn't make the cut was Joaquin Miller. I liked the principal and the curriculum, except for one thing -- they have a Living History Day program where one of the grades re-enacts Thanksgiving every year, and there was War Bonnet Fail in the video we were shown. It's a small thing, but as it turns out, Oakland Unified is full of good schools so I can be petty about some things. Other than that I didn't get any bad vibes or anything, I just wasn't excited either. Also this is up in the hills and thus a bit of a challenge to get to. The 653 heads straight there in the mornings but otherwise it's a two-bus deal.
Chabot didn't make my list either, although I thought it was a charming school. (This is where I was the morning of the shooting in Connecticut.) Nothing wrong with them, really, but they're hard to get to -- a long walk from the Rockridge BART station. And they didn't thrill me but nor did they turn me off particularly. A lovely library, music, art, a garden, Kindergarten Spanish four times a week. Diversity is a concern.
Sequoia was the second school I visited, and I fell in love. If we lived closer it would be my top school. It still may be my top school; I keep flip-flopping. I really liked Sequoia's vibe. The principal trusted us to wander the halls by ourselves and check out things without her snooping over our shoulder (before last week, anyway...), which was offputting to some people, apparently, but I was thrilled. I had a nice conversation with a parent volunteer as a result. Sequoia has a big old school buildingish building, a lovely garden, tons of outside time -- they eat snack outside -- a diverse student body in terms of both ethnicity and socioeconomics, scads of POC teachers and staff, a library, an artist in residence -- when I visited there was a school-wide project oriented around the concept "This Is Not A [cardboard] Box," presumably inspired by the book of the same name. They have large motor skills once a week for kindergartners. Half the grades have music enrichment once a week -- African drumming in the K classes. Sequoia is in the Lower Dimond neighborhood and easily accessible via either the 57 or 653 bus.
Cleveland is the other school I am in love with, and may be my top school, we'll see in a minute or two. It's closer, for one thing, once again via the 57 or other lines that run up and down Macarthur. I think it's less than a mile away, and in this nice earthquake-vulnerable city that's something I think about a lot. Cleveland consists of two separate buildings with a sunken yard and garden between them. Upper grades in one building, lower grades in the other. No parking lot but what do I care? A nice library, a charming P.E. coach, music, art via a contract with MOCHA, a garden/ecoliteracy program that they are very proud of. Also the chance that one of my children's preschool buddies might go here.
I would also be swooning for Peralta if it wasn't housed in tiny modular classrooms with small windows and bright fluorescent light dominating everything. The outside grounds are gorgeous, chock-full of art everywhere, and there's also a garden. No library -- no room! Two artists in residence and a heavy arts focus. Spanish once a week. Music, P.E. They use Handwriting Without Tears. No male teachers but otherwise staff is diverse. The principal impressed the hell out of me. Peralta is a high-demand school and I can see why. It's a bit of a pain to get to -- two buses, but both frequent. And it's near several folks who count as our extended family. I agonized for weeks over how I really felt about Peralta because knocking it down over fluorescent lights makes me feel like a crank. But on the other hand, did I want it just because other people wanted it a lot too? Or because the principal was my people? Did it really serve *my* needs best? And back and forth and back and forth. Ugh.
Crocker Highlands is a school whose demand is so high it's caused tons of controversy because there are a lot of parents who wanted to get in last year but didn't. It's in the ritzy neighborhood just to the other side of Lakeshore, the one that gives me hives. So I expected to hate this school, I really did. But as it turns out, I like it. The principal really impressed me, partly by saying she was committed to keeping Crocker available to the greater community of Oakland as a whole. It was a lot more diverse than I would have guessed, too, on both staff and student levels. It does, however, inhabit a building whose geography is dizzyingly complex. I just talked to another parent this evening who asked me, unsolicited," so what did you think of Crocker's building? I thought it was confusing." You can say that again! Also, this is rather infamously the school that was teaching the fourth-grade kids to sing along to Jefferson Starship in music class, apparently as part of its "music of the Bay Area" unit. But it's got a nice library and computer lab, and Spanish instruction via a grant, and P.E. and art and a garden. So I will put it on the list, and I will not get in because I didn't put it first.
Montclair was another school that impressed me more than I expected it to, mostly again because of the principal. In this case, she was blunt, grew up poor, has two children of widely divergent academic abilities and told us this to explain how she is committed to supporting every single student in her school. The staff is diverse, the student body could be better but not bad for a school in the hills. They have an integrated Kindergarten Spanish program four times a week, but other grades take it as an enrichment course after school for pay. Music, P.E., art, library, garden, hooray. Also an "infusive motor skills" program for kindergartners administered by a certified OT. Another unique aspect are the small groups that meet once a week before the start of the school day proper, so kindergartners get a chance for individualized attention. They're building a whole new building with a living roof that will open in August; the upper grades will be housed there while the lower grades stay in the building I toured. I swear it is not on this list just because the bus stop is across from House of Bagels.
And last but not least, Redwood Heights, the last school that I visited. It's two bus rides away, which is a pain. On the other hand, it has both a LGBTQ parents group and a POC parents group, plus a "special assignment" teacher, a woman of color whom I am given to understand is there in large part to directly address how to close this school's achievement gap. They do a neat thing where your child's Kindergarten teacher follows them into first grade, so your child gets the same teacher two years running. A lovely library with a reading nook. A very accessible campus. P.E., art, music, garden. The school is on the smallish side but that's OK. Diversity is good. It's right next door to the Redwood Heights Recreation Center (as I discovered by, um, going to the wrong building for my tour), so they don't offer a lot of after-school programs themselves. Also unusual for a hills school, they raise relatively little money through the PTA; there is, instead, heavy volunteerism. They admitted to being weak on computer tech but if anyone wanted to help...The principal was young and bubbly and I kind of liked her. And let's face it, LGBTQ parents group. They thus earn the last spot on my list.
Now is the moment when I worry that I missed a school somewhere along the line. Laurel? Emerson? Franklin? Bella Vista? Carl Munck? La Escuelita? There are a couple nice-looking Spanish dual immersion schools, too. SHUT UP BRAIN.
* A note on "diversity": This was one of those 'perspective' moments for me as a white parent of black kids. We call it "diversity" but that's a misnomer. That is, there's an embedded assumption of default whiteness to many diversity discussions. I am looking for faces that look more like my kids, not simply less like me. From their perspective, it isn't diversity, it's familiarity. See?
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