Community

Continuing Pressure for Community Involvement in Hiring of Oakland Schools’ Chief

Published

7 years ago

March 16, 2017

As the Oakland Board of Education moves ahead with its search for a new superintendent of schools, members of the community are continuing to push for a more transparent hiring process.

Local groups are calling on the school board to open up the historically secretive selection of a new superintendent and to pick a new school leader who is from Oakland and committed to staying in the position for five or more years.

Recent Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) superintendents have stayed on the job for less than three years.

There has also been widespread agreement among speakers who have attended public engagement meetings that they want a superintendent who is not connected to a “corporate” school privatizing organization, such as the Broad Foundation, but who has a track record of listening to the community and prioritizes serving the majority of Oakland students, who are Black, Latino and often have special needs.

As of a few days ago, about 35 potential candidates had taken out applications papers, according to district officials. Applications had to be submitted by Wednesday of this week.

“We’re expecting to get a good group of candidates,” said School Board President James Harris in an interview with the Post last week. “We are aggressively seeking Latino candidates, who might otherwise not hear about the job. We’re getting a good influx of African American candidates. We’re look for some rock stars out there.”

He said the potential applicants include experienced superintendents from around the Bay Area and California.

According to Harris, over 1,000 people had completed an online survey on what qualities they want to see in a superintendent.

“It shows the level of interest that people have,” he said. “It’s more than ever before.”

One of the organizations that has been taking an active role in the superintendent selection process is State of Black Oakland (SOBO), whose education workgroup recently held community-based interviews with three superintendent candidates, attended by 70 people.

Noni Sessions

“We’re trying to short circuit the usual corporate selection process,” said Noni Session of SOBO. “They hire someone without knowledge of the community, and the person leaves in less than three years. This is a national problem.”

She also added, “this is not the way to get stable schools and a stable district.”

Sessions said SOBO is working “to get a local Black or Latino superintendent.”

Victor Martinez of the Latino Education Network (LEN) said his organization wants the search for a new superintendent to include qualified school administrators from throughout the Southwest.

“We don’t want that to be an artificial barrier to others who are qualified to apply and should not be discouraged,” he said. “We’re more likely to find a Latino if we look more broadly.”

“(Whether Latino or not), we need someone who has worked with the large Latino populations, like in Oakland, and has demonstrated success.”

According to a statement issued by LEN, Latinos make up the largest group of students in OUSD, but the school district has historically not met the needs the needs of Latino and English Learner Students, most of whom come from low-income families. Nor has the district hired a fair representation of Latino educators or other employees.

Victor Martinez

“The failure to hire Latinos and include Latinos in decisions and policy leaves Latinos disenfranchised and out of crucial educational benefits,” the statement said.

Pecolia Manigo, executive director of Parent Leadership Action Network, has been working hard to bring together organizations in Justice for Oakland Students Coalition.

The coalition has been circulating a petition to seek a district leader who “will bring a vision and system-wide plan for real results for African-American, Latino, and all high-need students, based on the priorities set by students and families; (and) will ensure budget equity by prioritizing direct funding to schools, not in high salaries in central office.”

The petition, which already has 3,200 signatures, is available here.

Pecolia Manigo

Participants in the coalition include Oakland Kids First, Black Organizing Project (BOP) and Parents United for Public Education.

“We are actively organizing to have a different type of OUSD superintendent search because we believe that OUSD needs a leader who will feel and take action to be accountable to students of color—the majority of OUSD students,” said Manigo.

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California Black Media

California Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler Back Local News Resolution

Last week, California U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both Democrats, announced their support for a resolution that recognizes the significance of local news. In the resolution dated April 23, Padilla and Butler joined Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i) and 10 other colleagues in designating April as “Preserving and Protecting Local News Month.”

Published

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May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler

By California Black Media

Last week, California U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both Democrats, announced their support for a resolution that recognizes the significance of local news.

In the resolution dated April 23, Padilla and Butler joined Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i) and 10 other colleagues in designating April as “Preserving and Protecting Local News Month.”

The resolution acknowledges that local news outlets are a public good essential to preserving America’s democracy.

“Millions of Americans count on the local news to help them understand what is happening in their neighborhoods and around the country. Yet local newsrooms have suffered from some of the harshest layoffs and budget cuts in recent years,” Butler said in a statement.

“It is critical that we recognize the role our local press plays in keeping people informed on the world around them,” she said.

The resolution comes at a crucial time in the media industry when employment decreased by 26% nationwide between 2008 and 2020, according to supporters of the bill. Employment in the newsroom came with great uncertainty as more than 30,000 jobs were lost in the last two decades.

Sen. Schatz said that local news helps increase civic engagement and strengthens democratic norms and practices. This resolution will help local journalists maintain healthy and vibrant communities through valuable storytelling.

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Activism

Calif. Anti-Sex Trafficking Advocates Discuss Competing Bills, Strategies

Advocates from across California are challenging state officials and community leaders to support legislation that provides resources and services for survivors and victims of human trafficking, as well as assistance as they transition back into civil society.  Some of those advocates are also calling for more effective state policy to curtail trafficking, a crime that has an outsized impact on Black children, particularly girls.

Published

3 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

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By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Some of those advocates are also calling for more effective state policy to curtail trafficking, a crime that has an outsized impact on Black children, particularly girls.

According to the FBI, a report covering a two-year period found Black children accounted for 57% of all juvenile arrests for prostitution. In addition, 40% of sex trafficking victims were Black and 60% of those victims had been enrolled in the foster care system.

“It is time to hold the perpetrators who take advantage of our children accountable,” said the Rev. Shane Harris, a San Diego-based activist, former foster youth and founder of the Peoples Association of Justice Advocates, (PAJA), a national civil rights organization and policy think tank.

“It is time to send a thorough message that if you seek to buy a child for sex, you will pay the highest criminal penalties in this state,” added Harris who was speaking at a rally at the State Capitol earlier this month. Harris was speaking in support of Senate Bill 1414, authored by Sen. Shannon Grove (D-Bakersfield), which calls for people who buy sex from minors to be punished with a felony. The punishment includes a two-year prison sentence and a $25,000 fine.

Harris said the PAJA is the only civil rights organization in the state that supports SB 1414.

Harris urged other Black-led groups who favor anti-trafficking legislation more focused on criminal justice reforms (as opposed to stiffer penalties), to “join the movement.”

Many of those civil rights groups fear that SB 1414 could lead to the incarceration of more Black youth.

Those sentiments were echoed in a panel discussion organized by Black women advocates on April 26 to examine the cause and effects of human trafficking in California’s Black communities. The virtual event was hosted by the Forgotten Children, Inc, a faith-based nonprofit that advocates for survivors and victims of human trafficking through anti-trafficking campaigns and initiatives.

Panelists shared the psychological impact of sexual exploitation on youth and children in the long term.

Author and educator Dr. Stephany Powell shared statistics and information revealing that African American women and girls are the most trafficked nationwide.

Powell, who serves as the senior advisor on law enforcement and policy at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said that national data indicates that sex trade survivors are disproportionately women of color. She stated that male survivors often go unnoticed because boys rarely report trafficked crimes.

Powell said that decriminalizing prostitution in California could increase human trafficking. She argued that Senate Bill 357, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), which was signed into law in 2022 and legalized loitering for prostitution, caused a surge in street-level prostitution.

Panelist and psychologist Dr. Gloria Morrow shared opposing views on decriminalizing prostitution. She said that decriminalizing prostitution could help survivors gain access to state resources and support.

Despite opposing views, Powell and Morrow agree that the Black community needs resources and educational programs to address human trafficking.

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Bay Area

Faces Around the Bay: Jim Brosnahan, Esq.

James J. Brosnahan, ESQ, an international trial lawyer and trial advocacy teacher, has remained unshaken in his fervent belief in the power of the law to right injustices. Brosnahan has fought to open the legal profession to those previously excluded and worked to provide lawyers to the millions who go without.

Published

3 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

By Barbara Fluhrer “Isn’t this what old men are supposed to do… sit on a bench in the park?”

By Barbara Fluhrer

James J. Brosnahan, ESQ, an international trial lawyer and trial advocacy teacher, has remained unshaken in his fervent belief in the power of the law to right injustices.

Brosnahan has fought to open the legal profession to those previously excluded and worked to provide lawyers to the millions who go without. He has argued for the administrators of justice to represent the whole community. He’s tried 150 cases to conclusion and is ranked among the top 30 trial lawyers in the U.S. (Legal 500 US). He’s been called “scrappy,” “a lion in the courtroom,” and “ultra- liberal.”

One of his earliest cases (1962) involved two Navajo children shot by a White man on a reservation in Arizona. “The legal system needed to work as well for Native Americans as for White people,” he said. “The defendant was found guilty of second-degree murder.”

In 1963, U.S. Attorney Cecil Poole hired him as U.S. Attorney from a list of 200 applicants.

He and Poole, as federal observers, led the Vietnam protesters as they marched. The purpose: to avoid violence.

“Poole taught me preventative law in a chaotic situation and became one of my strongest mentors,” remembers Brosnahan.

In 1964, Brosnahan served on the NAACP’s Housing Committee in S.F., when 70% of the city’s housing was not available to Blacks. They sued racial discriminators, fought for reform and opposed the displacement of minorities in the Western Addition. They won and they lost, but they became the racial conscience of San Francisco in the fight for fair housing.

In 1969, two Black community workers in Oakland were indicted for stealing federal money.

“My two clients were activists in Oakland. I believed there was an element of racism running through Washington’s decision to indict two Black men who worked every day to help the poor,” he said.

The case was eventually dismissed. In the early 70s, he responded to a subpoena and testified against Judge Rehnquists’ confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. He had witnessed Rehnquist obstructing voting at a polling place. Amid threats on his life, he was the chief defense lawyer for the American who joined the Taliban in 2002.

Brosnahan, his wife Carol and three children moved from S.F. to Berkeley in 1964, in part, to participate in the Berkeley school integration program. She is a retired Alameda County Superior Court judge.

Brosnahan, 90, checks in to his San Francisco firm, Morrison & Foerster often. He paints, reads, walks a mile a day, journals, and lectures, while writing another book: “Cultural History of Trials over the Centuries.”

His last book “Justice at Trial,” published in 2023, details his life and battles.

He reflects, “Over my career I have come to realize that one secret for enriching your own life is trying to help others. What better way to do that than to represent them in court.”