Students marched in support of Black Lives Matter from San Pablo Park to Berkeley High School on June 9, 2020. Credit: Jerome Paulos
Berkeley leaders and community members joined the nation in responding to the guilty verdict handed down Tuesday afternoon for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on and killed George Floyd in May 2020 and reinvigorated scrutiny toward police brutality throughout the United States.
A jury in Minneapolis found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes as bystanders captured the scene on video and pleaded with Chauvin to spare Floyd’s life. Chauvin remained on Floyd’s neck for 3 minutes after Floyd took his last breath.
Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, board members gave updates on the current hybrid instruction model and expressed a commitment to returning to normal in-person education in the fall at a meeting Wednesday evening.
The meeting came 17 days after prekindergarten through second-grade students returned to in-person learning, and three days after students in grades three through nine returned. 10th through 12th-grade students will have the option to return to limited in-person instruction April 19, according to BUSD superintendent Brent Stephens.
Presenting on remote instruction, Michelle Sinclair, the newly appointed online instruction coordinator, noted that 751 students and 35 teachers are currently pursuing the remote option, leading to the creation of what Stephens said amounts to “Berkeley’s largest elementary school.”
Middle school students in Berkeley school district return to campus
Sunny Shen/File
With middle school students in Berkeley Unified School District returning to in-person instruction this week, daily health screenings, masks and social distancing will now be required. The school weeks consist of two days in person.
Last Updated 4 hours Ago
This week, middle school students in Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, are back in the classroom two afternoons out of the week for the first time since March 12, 2020.
This change comes as BUSD allowed grades three through five as well as high school freshmen to return to in-person instruction Monday. On April 26, Berkeley High School students grades 10 through 12 will be invited to come back to campus as well.
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Jocelyn Foreman was full of nervous energy and dread.
It was a crisp morning in early March. She arrived at the Pleasant Hill Community Center to find a handful of men and women in a semicircle outside the sandstone-colored building, clutching folders and holding cell phones.
They were there for a foreclosure auction, poised to bid on the house that Foreman rents: a single-story, 1,500-square-foot tract home in Pinole. It’s a simple home, set back from the street, with a steep sloping backyard, worn carpets and a roof that leaks when it rains.
A man with a clipboard started the bidding at $175,000. A woman in a maroon sweatshirt and another man offered competing bids. First $176,000. Then $177,000. Then $180,000.