Oakland’s Youngest Track Stars Make Junior Olympics Debut in 2 States
What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade
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"slug": "oaklands-youngest-track-stars-make-junior-olympics-debut-in-two-states",
"title": "Oakland’s Youngest Track Stars Make Junior Olympics Debut in 2 States",
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"content": "\u003cp>While some kids soak up the last days of \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/summerguide2023\">summer\u003c/a> vacation before another school year begins, five elementary school track-and-field athletes from Oakland are ready to lace up their sneakers to compete in the Junior Olympics in Iowa this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These 8-to-10-year-old competitors, along with a swift, 5-year-old teammate, are a part of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastoaklandgems.com/\">East Oakland Track Gems\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization that prepares students from various OUSD campuses for success in the sport — and offers mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EOTG was originally founded in the early aughts by Cal Athletics Hall of Fame track star, the late \u003ca href=\"https://pac-12.com/article/2021/07/15/cal-hall-famer-willie-white-passes-away\">Coach Willie White\u003c/a>. Coach White died in 2021 at 82 years old. But during his time as a mega-athlete in the 1950s, he received countless honors and awards through his more than 60-year career as a mentor in track and field. In 1981, the City of Berkeley dedicated July 11 as “Coach Willie White Day,” followed by the City of Oakland proclaiming June 7 as a day in his honor in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956923\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1597px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956923\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED.jpg\" alt='A man runs on a track with the word \"California\" written on his shirt.' width=\"1597\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED.jpg 1597w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-800x1002.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-1020x1277.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-1226x1536.jpg 1226w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1597px) 100vw, 1597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Athletics Hall of Fame track star Willie White. During his time as a mega-athlete in the 1950s, he received countless honors and awards through his more than 60-year career as a mentor in track and field. White was the original founder of the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Athletics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Picking up Coach White’s baton by keeping EOTG an active community organization, is Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson (who goes by Coach Soto), a longtime friend of White’s and current leader of the nonprofit. Coach Soto said about 25 kids ages 5 to 18 participated in the program during the school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, five students qualified for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatf.org/events/2023/2023-usatf-national-junior-olympic-track-field-cha\">USA Track and Field (USATF) Junior Olympics\u003c/a> in Eugene, Oregon, where they competed in three categories last weekend: the 4×100-meter sprint relay, long jump and shot put. Although EOTG athletes often qualify for the Junior Olympics, this is the first season the team made it to the finals and traveled for the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relay team is currently \u003ca href=\"https://live.athletictiming.net/meets/26447\">ranked No. 9 in the nation overall\u003c/a>. One 8-year-old, John Howard III, placed No. 8 in shot put, qualified for the finals and received the All-American medal. In his first year on the Gems, 9-year-old Kaden Remson said he achieved a personal record by throwing a round, 6-pound shot at a distance of 6 feet, 14 inches. His mother, Jasmine Remson-Omari, drove him to Oregon to compete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957030\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Four children wearing lots of medals pose for a photo with a man on an athletic field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Oakland Track Gems Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson with team members Kaden Remson, Elijah Soto-Sims, Kayden Thompson and John Howard III at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think that this whole entire season has been a confidence builder. And then, to get to that level, he stood a little bit taller, arms and shoulders a little bit back,” she said. “Everyone that stopped him was just telling him, dude, no matter where you place, no matter what you did, there’s thousands of kids that want to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coach Soto’s son, Elijah Soto-Sims, was the only athlete on the team who qualified in all three of the events he entered. William Blackwell III, an 8-year-old anchor leg with several gold medals in long jump and the 100-meter, zoomed by many tough competitors while in Oregon to help the relay team achieve its national ranking. (The anchor leg is the final position in a relay race and is generally reserved for the fastest runner on a team.) The Gems even have a 5-year-old in the mix with Kayden Thompson, who earned a whopping 19 medals over the entire season, all while keeping up with his older teammates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957031\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy flexes his bicep muscle while posing for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kayden Thompson, 5, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School in Oakland. Thompson earned 19 medals total during this season as the youngest member of the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a parent, I can be proud until I’m blue in the face. But I ask him, ‘Are you proud of you?’ Because that matters,” said Jocelyn Evans, Thompson’s mother, during Monday afternoon’s practice at Castlemont High School. “I just love to see them in their element. It’s just so organic. It makes me so proud because how many people can say their kids went to the Junior Olympics?”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jocelyn Evans, mother of 5-year-old Kayden Thompson\"]‘As a parent, I can be proud until I’m blue in the face. But I ask him, ‘Are you proud of you?’ Because that matters.’[/pullquote]With their Olympic debut in Eugene behind them, these Oakland students are now gearing up to compete in the second biggest competition of their lives so far: the \u003ca href=\"https://aausports.org/news.php?news_id=1982860\">Amateur Athletic Union\u003c/a> (AAU) Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, running from July 26 to Aug. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it,” said Coach Soto, holding back emotion. “Coach Willie White is a legendary coach. I’ve been working with him for over 15 years helping build the program. So to be in this position, where we’re at right now, I said, ‘Coach, we’re going to do it, Coach. We’re going to do it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rooted in Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>EOTG’s path to the Junior Olympics wasn’t easy. In fact, it wasn’t even paved. When training started, the team didn’t have a track to practice on, let alone access to a long jump pit. The Gems typically train in the evenings at Castlemont High School on MacArthur Boulevard, but at the time, the field was under construction. So Coach Soto rented space where he could at Bancroft Middle School to keep his athletes sharp until Castlemont’s track was ready to welcome the team back in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957024\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Four children run around a track.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right: John Howard III, Elijah Soto-Sims, Kayden Thompson and Kaden Remson run on the track at Castlemont High School during one of their last practices before the Junior Olympics in Iowa. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s just an amazing year,” Coach Soto said. “We had nine [students] qualify for Iowa, but we didn’t have the funding available to have everybody go. A lot of the funding came in after we had to register. But we had enough to take the relay team because they qualified, and then, the [10-year-old] long jumper, we were able to get him out there as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what OUSD can do to support EOTG in its future endeavors, Director of Communications, John Sasaki, told KQED that since the organization exists outside the district, it couldn’t directly dedicate funds to the team. But it can show support in other ways by connecting the team to local companies that often partner with the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anytime that we have a great organization that we work closely with and that helps our kids, we want to raise those up,” Sasaki said. “Because it does, without a doubt, take a village to raise our kids with all these wonderful organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957032\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957032\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy flexes his bicep muscles while posing for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elijah Soto-Sims, 7, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School in Oakland, on Monday, July 31, 2023. Soto-Sims runs track with the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once word spread through the community that nine EOTG athletes qualified for Iowa, but the team lacked funds to send everyone to compete — Oakland stepped up. Coach Soto started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-team-travel-to-the-junior-olympics?member=27879679&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_content=undefined&utm_location=undefined&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer&utm_term=undefined\">GoFundMe\u003c/a> campaign for his team, which as of this reporting, received over $7,600 out of its $20,000 goal from 130 donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The funds raised will go toward helping the team with travel, food and hotel expenses as they compete in Iowa. Before the Junior Olympics in Oregon, many of the students had never stepped foot outside of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local businesses such as Radius Recycling (formerly Schnitzer Steel), a company that operates in both East and West Oakland, heard about the Gems qualifying for the Junior Olympics and donated an additional $10,000 to support their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957026\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957026\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two children stretch leaning on the metal fence around a track.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Howard III (front) and Kaden Remson do a drill at track practice with their coach, Traivon Soto-Johnson at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tasion Kwamilele, director of educational partnerships and government and public affairs manager for Radius Recycling, told KQED she grew up attending various Oakland schools, from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary to the Oakland School for the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Recognizing the public safety issues that we’ve been having in our city, it’s the work that Coach Soto’s doing, it really is keeping a group of kids off the streets,” she said. “Beyond that, it’s also showing them the possibilities of what’s out there.”[aside postID=news_11942006 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/Mother-and-Son-1020x765.jpeg']Kwamilele said she knew Coach White and watched as Coach Soto continued his legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve known about Coach Soto just continuing to keep the team thriving and his promise to Coach White to keep the team going,” she said. “I’ve been so proud of him for keeping his promise. It’s kind of been a fairytale season for the team.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are like hidden gems’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The light tinging sounds of metal clinking together radiate from a distance as four kids and a group of parents stand on a pristine football field surrounded by a terracotta-colored running track. On a warm, Monday afternoon at Castlemont High’s newly renovated sports stadium, the Gems hold one of their final practices before they fly to Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are hurting my neck,” said 8-year-old John Howard III, who proudly wore every medal from the entire season on his little body. Another child busted out a quick cartwheel near the end field before Coach Soto called the boys to focus on warm-up exercises on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957033\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957033\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy poses for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Howard III, 8, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School. In Eugene, Oregon, Howard III placed No. 8 in shot put, qualified for the finals and received the All-American medal. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As parents stood on the field, faces beaming with pride, Coach Soto told KQED the Gems’ parents, along with the support of Oakland, gave the kids the push they needed to succeed going into their next competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland community is rooting for y’all right now,” Coach Soto said. “We are like hidden gems. There’s so much negativity about Oakland, you don’t get to see the positive. This was one of the positive things that I saw that we were doing because we’re not just about being competitive or being good at track and field. We’re about health. We’re trying to improve the health of the community through track and field.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957027\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957027\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man inspects the shoe of a child on a sports field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Oakland Track Gems Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson (right) helps Kayden Thompson (left) tie his shoes at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During practice, one Gem was already in-flight to Iowa with his family as he was scheduled to compete in events starting Tuesday. William Blackwell III, son of former wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers William Blackwell Jr., told KQED his son has surprised him and his wife, Aisha Blackwell since he was 9 months old. Still, seeing his boy run after new goals at full speed never gets old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s getting to show the world what he can actually do,” Blackwell Jr. said. “I’m going to always be there supporting him, training him, pushing him, encouraging him, strengthening him, loving him. Because sports only last for so long. But a father, for me, is a lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The East Oakland Track Gems, a nonprofit supporting OUSD students in track and field, qualified for the Junior Olympics — twice. One runner is only 5 years old.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While some kids soak up the last days of \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/summerguide2023\">summer\u003c/a> vacation before another school year begins, five elementary school track-and-field athletes from Oakland are ready to lace up their sneakers to compete in the Junior Olympics in Iowa this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These 8-to-10-year-old competitors, along with a swift, 5-year-old teammate, are a part of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastoaklandgems.com/\">East Oakland Track Gems\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization that prepares students from various OUSD campuses for success in the sport — and offers mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EOTG was originally founded in the early aughts by Cal Athletics Hall of Fame track star, the late \u003ca href=\"https://pac-12.com/article/2021/07/15/cal-hall-famer-willie-white-passes-away\">Coach Willie White\u003c/a>. Coach White died in 2021 at 82 years old. But during his time as a mega-athlete in the 1950s, he received countless honors and awards through his more than 60-year career as a mentor in track and field. In 1981, the City of Berkeley dedicated July 11 as “Coach Willie White Day,” followed by the City of Oakland proclaiming June 7 as a day in his honor in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956923\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1597px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956923\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED.jpg\" alt='A man runs on a track with the word \"California\" written on his shirt.' width=\"1597\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED.jpg 1597w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-800x1002.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-1020x1277.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230731-White-Willie-CA-KQED-1226x1536.jpg 1226w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1597px) 100vw, 1597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Athletics Hall of Fame track star Willie White. During his time as a mega-athlete in the 1950s, he received countless honors and awards through his more than 60-year career as a mentor in track and field. White was the original founder of the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cal Athletics)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Picking up Coach White’s baton by keeping EOTG an active community organization, is Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson (who goes by Coach Soto), a longtime friend of White’s and current leader of the nonprofit. Coach Soto said about 25 kids ages 5 to 18 participated in the program during the school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, five students qualified for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatf.org/events/2023/2023-usatf-national-junior-olympic-track-field-cha\">USA Track and Field (USATF) Junior Olympics\u003c/a> in Eugene, Oregon, where they competed in three categories last weekend: the 4×100-meter sprint relay, long jump and shot put. Although EOTG athletes often qualify for the Junior Olympics, this is the first season the team made it to the finals and traveled for the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relay team is currently \u003ca href=\"https://live.athletictiming.net/meets/26447\">ranked No. 9 in the nation overall\u003c/a>. One 8-year-old, John Howard III, placed No. 8 in shot put, qualified for the finals and received the All-American medal. In his first year on the Gems, 9-year-old Kaden Remson said he achieved a personal record by throwing a round, 6-pound shot at a distance of 6 feet, 14 inches. His mother, Jasmine Remson-Omari, drove him to Oregon to compete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957030\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Four children wearing lots of medals pose for a photo with a man on an athletic field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67462_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-36-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Oakland Track Gems Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson with team members Kaden Remson, Elijah Soto-Sims, Kayden Thompson and John Howard III at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think that this whole entire season has been a confidence builder. And then, to get to that level, he stood a little bit taller, arms and shoulders a little bit back,” she said. “Everyone that stopped him was just telling him, dude, no matter where you place, no matter what you did, there’s thousands of kids that want to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coach Soto’s son, Elijah Soto-Sims, was the only athlete on the team who qualified in all three of the events he entered. William Blackwell III, an 8-year-old anchor leg with several gold medals in long jump and the 100-meter, zoomed by many tough competitors while in Oregon to help the relay team achieve its national ranking. (The anchor leg is the final position in a relay race and is generally reserved for the fastest runner on a team.) The Gems even have a 5-year-old in the mix with Kayden Thompson, who earned a whopping 19 medals over the entire season, all while keeping up with his older teammates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957031\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy flexes his bicep muscle while posing for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67463_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-37-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kayden Thompson, 5, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School in Oakland. Thompson earned 19 medals total during this season as the youngest member of the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a parent, I can be proud until I’m blue in the face. But I ask him, ‘Are you proud of you?’ Because that matters,” said Jocelyn Evans, Thompson’s mother, during Monday afternoon’s practice at Castlemont High School. “I just love to see them in their element. It’s just so organic. It makes me so proud because how many people can say their kids went to the Junior Olympics?”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘As a parent, I can be proud until I’m blue in the face. But I ask him, ‘Are you proud of you?’ Because that matters.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>With their Olympic debut in Eugene behind them, these Oakland students are now gearing up to compete in the second biggest competition of their lives so far: the \u003ca href=\"https://aausports.org/news.php?news_id=1982860\">Amateur Athletic Union\u003c/a> (AAU) Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, running from July 26 to Aug. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it,” said Coach Soto, holding back emotion. “Coach Willie White is a legendary coach. I’ve been working with him for over 15 years helping build the program. So to be in this position, where we’re at right now, I said, ‘Coach, we’re going to do it, Coach. We’re going to do it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rooted in Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>EOTG’s path to the Junior Olympics wasn’t easy. In fact, it wasn’t even paved. When training started, the team didn’t have a track to practice on, let alone access to a long jump pit. The Gems typically train in the evenings at Castlemont High School on MacArthur Boulevard, but at the time, the field was under construction. So Coach Soto rented space where he could at Bancroft Middle School to keep his athletes sharp until Castlemont’s track was ready to welcome the team back in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957024\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Four children run around a track.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67429_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-05-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right: John Howard III, Elijah Soto-Sims, Kayden Thompson and Kaden Remson run on the track at Castlemont High School during one of their last practices before the Junior Olympics in Iowa. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s just an amazing year,” Coach Soto said. “We had nine [students] qualify for Iowa, but we didn’t have the funding available to have everybody go. A lot of the funding came in after we had to register. But we had enough to take the relay team because they qualified, and then, the [10-year-old] long jumper, we were able to get him out there as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what OUSD can do to support EOTG in its future endeavors, Director of Communications, John Sasaki, told KQED that since the organization exists outside the district, it couldn’t directly dedicate funds to the team. But it can show support in other ways by connecting the team to local companies that often partner with the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anytime that we have a great organization that we work closely with and that helps our kids, we want to raise those up,” Sasaki said. “Because it does, without a doubt, take a village to raise our kids with all these wonderful organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957032\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957032\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy flexes his bicep muscles while posing for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67465_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-39-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elijah Soto-Sims, 7, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School in Oakland, on Monday, July 31, 2023. Soto-Sims runs track with the East Oakland Track Gems. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once word spread through the community that nine EOTG athletes qualified for Iowa, but the team lacked funds to send everyone to compete — Oakland stepped up. Coach Soto started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-team-travel-to-the-junior-olympics?member=27879679&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_content=undefined&utm_location=undefined&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer&utm_term=undefined\">GoFundMe\u003c/a> campaign for his team, which as of this reporting, received over $7,600 out of its $20,000 goal from 130 donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The funds raised will go toward helping the team with travel, food and hotel expenses as they compete in Iowa. Before the Junior Olympics in Oregon, many of the students had never stepped foot outside of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local businesses such as Radius Recycling (formerly Schnitzer Steel), a company that operates in both East and West Oakland, heard about the Gems qualifying for the Junior Olympics and donated an additional $10,000 to support their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957026\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957026\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two children stretch leaning on the metal fence around a track.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67440_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-14-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Howard III (front) and Kaden Remson do a drill at track practice with their coach, Traivon Soto-Johnson at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tasion Kwamilele, director of educational partnerships and government and public affairs manager for Radius Recycling, told KQED she grew up attending various Oakland schools, from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary to the Oakland School for the Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Recognizing the public safety issues that we’ve been having in our city, it’s the work that Coach Soto’s doing, it really is keeping a group of kids off the streets,” she said. “Beyond that, it’s also showing them the possibilities of what’s out there.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kwamilele said she knew Coach White and watched as Coach Soto continued his legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve known about Coach Soto just continuing to keep the team thriving and his promise to Coach White to keep the team going,” she said. “I’ve been so proud of him for keeping his promise. It’s kind of been a fairytale season for the team.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are like hidden gems’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The light tinging sounds of metal clinking together radiate from a distance as four kids and a group of parents stand on a pristine football field surrounded by a terracotta-colored running track. On a warm, Monday afternoon at Castlemont High’s newly renovated sports stadium, the Gems hold one of their final practices before they fly to Iowa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are hurting my neck,” said 8-year-old John Howard III, who proudly wore every medal from the entire season on his little body. Another child busted out a quick cartwheel near the end field before Coach Soto called the boys to focus on warm-up exercises on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957033\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957033\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A boy poses for a photo with over ten medals hanging from around his neck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67467_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-41-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Howard III, 8, poses for a portrait with his track medals at Castlemont High School. In Eugene, Oregon, Howard III placed No. 8 in shot put, qualified for the finals and received the All-American medal. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As parents stood on the field, faces beaming with pride, Coach Soto told KQED the Gems’ parents, along with the support of Oakland, gave the kids the push they needed to succeed going into their next competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Oakland community is rooting for y’all right now,” Coach Soto said. “We are like hidden gems. There’s so much negativity about Oakland, you don’t get to see the positive. This was one of the positive things that I saw that we were doing because we’re not just about being competitive or being good at track and field. We’re about health. We’re trying to improve the health of the community through track and field.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957027\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957027\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man inspects the shoe of a child on a sports field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67447_20230731-EastOaklandTrackGems-21-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Oakland Track Gems Coach Traivon Soto-Johnson (right) helps Kayden Thompson (left) tie his shoes at Castlemont High School. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During practice, one Gem was already in-flight to Iowa with his family as he was scheduled to compete in events starting Tuesday. William Blackwell III, son of former wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers William Blackwell Jr., told KQED his son has surprised him and his wife, Aisha Blackwell since he was 9 months old. Still, seeing his boy run after new goals at full speed never gets old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s getting to show the world what he can actually do,” Blackwell Jr. said. “I’m going to always be there supporting him, training him, pushing him, encouraging him, strengthening him, loving him. Because sports only last for so long. But a father, for me, is a lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "whats-a-black-school-worth-in-oakland-grass-valley-elementary-community-braces-for-2nd-closure-in-a-decade",
"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade",
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"headTitle": "What’s a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Francis Pearman, education professor, Stanford University\"]‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>[aside postID=\"news_11904278,news_11906636,news_11911675\" label=\"Related Posts\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Teachers and parents grapple with OUSD's decision to close Grass Valley Elementary and the disproportionate impact it will have on Black students.",
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"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"label": "Reparations in California ",
"link1": "https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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