The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Oakland and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Truancy, School Success, School District/City Cooperation

Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest.

Answer from Olugbemiga "Olu" Oluwole, Sr.:

Statistics show that of 40,000 students registered in Oakland Public Schools, 10% are truant on any given day. Truancy arises from so many underlying factors, e.g. traumatic experiences arising from abuse, dysfunctional home environment, low income, poverty, parental incarceration, low self esteem, lack of reading and writing skills, peer pressure, crime ridden neighborhoods and school grounds, etc. Lack of engaging curricular and activities in the schools have also turned the students off in large part. We have seen children between the ages of 10-17 on the streets prostituting, selling drugs, and committing crime. This is a travesty to our educational system and society.

I would advocate for:

• Review of the present funding system through Average Daily Attendance (ADA) to the use of simple financial cost analysis of operating each school, i.e. site based funding. This will ensure that all schools are sufficiently funded.
• Equitable distribution of resources to ensure that each school is adequately supplied with supplies, materials and maintenance staff.
• The training of principals, teachers and involved parents in parent-teacher home visits, and the encouragement of teacher, parent, and community involvement in our schools to foster confidence of support for the students.
• Establishment of health centers on campuses to include trauma assessment and wrap-around services for families.
• Site-based staff members to address truancy issues on each campus to work in conjunction with the on-campus health centers for the purpose of addressing the causes of truancy.
• Reinstatement of vocational, entrepreneurial, and internship education, such as wood shop, auto mechanics, culinary arts, home economics, electronics, metal shop, etc., and reinstatement of arts and crafts, music, physical education and ROTC to provide a balanced, optional, challenging curricula, for a more interesting learning experience thereby reducing truancy.
• After school programs for continued engagement of students' time in a more relaxed atmosphere to forestall idleness.
• Teacher quality and diversity that reflects the demographics on the school campuses, for better instructions and student understanding, coupled with adequate teaching resources, materials, and strong teacher/parent collaboration.
• Review of teacher salaries and logistic support for retention.
• Encouragement of collaboration between the city, businesses, faith-based and community-based organizations in developing the sense of ownership that shows the adoption of students in the Oakland Unified School District as the City of Oakland's children.
• Administrative accountability starting from the Board of Directors and on down to the line staff; and responsible fiscal accountability from all administrators.
• The beginning of all of the above processes to start from the Kindergarten level throughout 12th grade.

I believe all of the above will help to foster confidence in students, thereby helping to reduce truancy.

Answer from Jumoke Hinton Hodge:

Truancy in Oakland Unified School District hurts our school district monetarily. Truancy in Oakland Unified School District hurts our most precious resource in Oakland, our youth and families. Truancy is a symptom of many social issues we have in communities: destabilized families with high employment,poverty, parental incarceration,inadequate childcare,and environmental and health issues to name a few. Truancy is also a product of an ineffective school system: Lack of rigor academically, relevance of subject matter and relationships with teachers and school staff.

Greater partnerships with community based and/or city departments that provide health care, employment,support services must be in tune District 3 families needs. Are health care providers even aware of a students missing several days out of school due to health problems? How are families and schools communicating about why truancy is occurring with the student? There first needs to be a shift in attitude and culture about delivering services - understanding the whole child. Chronic health care problems impact student attendance. Because of that I support school based health clinics that can be instrumental in helping young people be healthy, stay in school and perform at a high standard.

Academic rigor and relevance is critical to ensure students participate. Students at an early age must be oriented towards a college going culture. In middle school they must be introduced to and engaged in a curriculum that will prepare them for a career or going to college. Schools that have incorporated real world experiences into the curriculum have seen student attendance increase. Schools that have set a high standard and expectation for learning have excellent attendance. We know why young people don't attend school. We know why some parents and adults aren't engaged.Because we know the answers and we have asked the question for years.I would propose that we DO something, we each take responsibility for impacting this change. It will require systems talking,educators raising the standard- every child can learn, it will require outreach to families, and it will even require listening to young people.

I would also advocate that each citizen of Oakland talk with a student who is at risk of dropping out and being chronically truant.Caring Adults in young people's lives makes a tremendous difference.

Prevent Truancy - Care for a Student!

Answer from Jumoke Hinton Hodge:

OUSD "Expect Success" Initiative is an appropriate strategy to align the mission of our schools to place students first and at the center of reform in Oakland.

Every Student.Every Classroom. Every Day.

This slogan suggest the rigor and attention that must be provided for All students. Expect Success is a strategy to address the administration and management of the District. Because of this strategy systems now exist that will address Community Accountability, Academic Instruction and Business/Customer Services within OUSD. The strategy is meant to create great efficiency and accountability internal to the district.

As a parent organizer I have supported the development of the Office of Community Accountability and its efforts to create a viable infrastructure to engage parents, provide efficient services, and address student achievement. This office in particular must develop a sound communication and engagement strategy. They have positively developed a model that sees itself housed beyond central office. This office has a presence on school sites and it currently investing in parent leaders and advocates in some of the most distressed schools within our district. Over all my opinion is that this new structure must now be evaluated after three years of development and implementation.In general there still seems to be a lack of understanding about this initiative and the direct impact it has on students, families and school sites.Greater board leadership and support is needed for Expect Success.

I believe the investment by the private sector in this Initiative was valuable and now I expect the our public sectors, city, county and state would leverage this investment and invest in a healthy efficient academically and fiscally sound school system. This is especially critical as we move towards local governance - how will we govern is an important question.

No, to State Budget Cuts in Education!!!!

I believe "Expect Success" speaks directly to the spirit in which we must operate our school district on behalf of students and families.

Answer from Olugbemiga "Olu" Oluwole, Sr.:

The District's School Success program is a laudable and progressive initiative that sets a standard for success. Expecting success of every student, every classroom, every day is what should be expected and achieved in every school in the world! However, the underlying factors of students' low academic performance and achievement in some district schools, such as, lack of resources, dilapidated school environment, crime on and around school grounds, big class sizes, teacher/demographic disparity, and low parent involvement makes this initiative a daunting task.

I support the central office reform called Expect Success that includes options, Family and Community Office/Chief of Community Accountability, New School Development Group (Incubator), Tiered intervention, Curricular Flexibility and other alternatives such as hiring.

However, to really realize the expectations of the District's School Success program, the following initiatives of Expect Success has to be seriously maintained and adhered to as enumerated by the School District:

• Increased emphasis on personalized learning environments
• Increased access to professional development for all staff
• Increased student assessment and more review of data about student performance
• Increased parent control over where their children attend school
• Increased school site control over how resources are used
• Increased accountability for results and transparency with performance data
• Investment in technology to improve performance and efficiency

All of these efforts are very important for the success of Oakland schools, and with proper means of measuring the success of the initiative through quarterly assessments and audits of the schools, and continued training for professional development of staff directly involved with implementing Expect Success's strategies, it is of my opinion that initiative of Expect Success will truly be achieved.

Answer from Olugbemiga "Olu" Oluwole, Sr.:

Understanding the fact that children in any city's school district are also children of the City, even though school districts are under the state education system, should help to foster a strong collaboration between the School District and the City.

The impact of a poor educational system that results in truancy, low school attendance, high drop-out rates, teacher flight, high student delinquencies and crime rates, is a scourge on a city. As such, it is very necessary that there is a partnership whereby the city assists the school district in subsidized funding outside the state's funding, teacher recruitment and retention as being initiated by recent efforts of the City of Oakland by encouraging qualified teachers to teach in Oakland, after school programs and facilities, such as extension of library open hours, establishment of teen and recreational centers in all neighborhoods, and negotiation between the school district and the state and the unions. The city should develop the sense of ownership by realizing that the children of the school district are the City's future workforce, taxpayers, and leaders. There is a need for the City of Oakland to embrace all of its residents and provide necessary support to foster healing of deep seated divisions among its people.

It is also in the power of the City to help educate parents and the business sector to get involved in the education of the city's children.

Answer from Jumoke Hinton Hodge:

Communication. I believe there must be serious leaders on the School Board and City Council that will commit themselves to meeting regularly and establishing priorities that will reflect a shared mission and vision for Oakland students and citizens. OUSD must be able to articulate the pathway they are providing for OUSD students to become productive citizens and graduates of OUSD. Oakland as a city must be clear on opportunities, services and conditions that exist in every community to ensure young people will have safe passage in their k-12 academic career.

I would establish specific reporting to exist cross sectors for example: City department of Community Block Grant funding directed towards blighted communities, Office of Community and Economic Development, Planning and Development as well as Office of Children Youth and Families. The Oakland Police Department and OUSD share officers it is critical to identify a shared vision and collective strategy to support student achievement.

Currently the Youth Commission and the OUSD All City Council do not convene, I believe efforts to bring together these student leaders that represent the schools and public life in Oakland would be a tremendous step to empower youth voices. As a City and School District we should collectively raise young people up as our greatest asset within Oakland. Resources, wisdom, political and social will must be harnessed to ensure students are achieving and this city reflects healthy prosperous citizenship.

The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.