Community

West Oakland Kindergarten Teacher Arvella Hayden Set to Retire After 57 Years

Over the course of her career, Hayden has counted herself as lucky to have worked at such great schools. “The parents were very nice. I had nice principals, nice teachers, and everyone seemed just like one family.”

Published

5 years ago

May 20, 2021

Christy Price

Arvella Hayden

Courtesy of the Oakland Unified School District

When Arvella Hayden started working in Oakland Unified School District, it was an entirely different world. That year, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won the World Heavyweight Championship, Beatlemania was all the rage as the Beatles released “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the average cost of a house was $13,050, and gasoline cost 30 cents per gallon.

The year was 1964.

Hayden joined the OUSD family 57 years ago. Now, in 2021, she is retiring from her job as a kindergarten teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School. “I hate to leave the children,” she said, but she knows the time is right.

Hayden started her career at Arroyo Viejo Child Development Center, then moved on to teach at Lafayette Elementary, before transferring to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary. She spent almost 40 years at Lafayette.

She was educated at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, and said it was clear early on she was going to be a teacher. “My oldest sister was a teacher, and she taught for 40 years. She was my role model.”

“Just looking at her and seeing the love she gives the kids, she’s just special… just being a teacher this long, that’s a big gift,” said Dinah Castle, the school’s noon supervisor who has also worked in Hayden’s class for more than 30 years. “This keeps her going. She loves kids. She doesn’t have any kids, but these are her kids. She looks forward to getting up every morning and coming here.”

She adds that people were the secret to why she was able to do the job for so long. “Everybody, like I said, was easy to get along with and helping each other… The community, the teachers and everything. It’s my family.”

“It is an honor and a privilege to work with an educator who has seen many decades of change in how students learn and how the education system operates,” said Roma Groves-Waters, principal of King Elementary. “I am so appreciative to have worked with Arvella Hayden. She will be remembered as an icon for all teachers in America.”

Hayden has taught three generations of Oaklanders, saying she has had the grandchildren of some of her original students in her classes. “When I’m out in the community, I love to see and have them come and say, ‘Hi, Ms. Hayden. I remember you when you taught me.’ And that makes me feel real good.”

“We celebrate Arvella Hayden, a true living legend,” said Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. “I started in education in 1997, and at that point, Ms. Hayden had already been teaching for 33 years – which is itself a remarkable career in education. She has meant as much to the West Oakland community, and Oakland as a whole, as any single person in OUSD, and I cannot thank her enough for impacting the lives of so many students over the last half century plus.”

Arvella Hayden plans to spend her retirement traveling and spending time with her family.

Christy Price

Posts by Christy Price

Up Next

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley Announces She Will Not Seek Re-election

Don't Miss

Barrier to Entry No More: UC Ends Use of SAT, ACT in Admissions, Scholarships

Christy Price

Click to comment

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

2 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

2 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.