Antioch, West Contra Costa School Districts Receive Grants To Address Inequities
Bay City News Service
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Two East Bay school districts will each receive $20,000 grants to address education inequalities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond said Thursday.
The Antioch Unified School District will use its grant to create teams of educators that will visit the homes of students and families that are not showing high engagement and class attendance and provide them with support.
The other district receiving a grant, the West Contra Costa Unified School District, will use the funding to hire a full-time mentor through the federal government s Peacemaker program, which encourages students to manage conflicts through negotiation and mediation rather than violence.
By Kathy Chouteau
In February, local nonprofit The Practice Space partnered with the El Cerrito High School Speech and Debate Team to host the Berman Speech Invitational, an online speech and debate tournament featuring middle and high school students from 20 schools throughout the Bay Area the majority of which were from the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD).
About 70 to 80 students ranging from ages 12 to 18 participated, along with 30 to 40 judges, according to AnnMarie Baines, PhD., executive director of The Practice Space who served as the invitational’s tournament director. WCCUSD participants originated from schools including El Cerrito High School, Kennedy High School, Pinole High School and Korematsu Middle School. Schools outside of the local district included Analy High School in Sebastopol, American Canyon High School and a few others.
By Kathy Chouteau
Did you know Tupac Shakur recorded music at Richmond’s Starlight Recording Studio early in his career? Or how about that Henry J. Kaiser offered healthcare to his workers on the Richmond Home Front during WWII before it was a thing? These revelations and more about Richmond’s history can be seen in a captivating new educational film series recently launched by the Richmond Museum of History and Culture.
Produced by Doug Harris and funded through the Economic and Community Investment Agreement (ECIA) grant between Chevron Richmond and the City, the museum’s five films pack a ton of hyper-local history into a very short timeframe on average, five minutes each. The films, which include commentary from local historians, include the following topics: Rancho San Pablo, the Spanish Flu in Richmond, the SS Red Oak Victory (WWII in Richmond), the Richmond Black Panthers and Starlight Recording Studio.
The Richmond Promise Scholarship application deadline is March 14, 2021.
By applying for a Richmond Promise Scholarship, students can receive $1,500 renewable for up to four years toward a two-year or four-year college and/or a Career Technical Education Certificate at any U.S. not-for-profit institution. As an added bonus, students can petition for an additional two years of funding.
To be eligible for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, students must: reside in the City of Richmond or North Richmond (i.e. have a Richmond home address); have graduated from an eligible high school within the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSSD) boundaries or received a GED/high school equivalency this academic year or the previous one and be under the age of 24; and have attended an eligible high school at least 9
“I hope that all teachers will take advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said Bacigalupi.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state is releasing 75,000 vaccines every week strictly for teachers and other education workers.
In Oakland, the Coliseum site is dedicating the next two days to vaccinate anyone who works in a school building.
NBC Bay Area reached out to the Oakland Unified School District to find out if they’re keeping track of how many teachers are getting vaccinated, and a district spokesperson says they are not tracing that information and they are not requiring teachers to get vaccinated.