Oakland charter not for the faint of heart

Interesting doings at the latest "It's a miracle!" charter phenom, Oakland Charter Academy. First, an ad on Craiglist for a teacher at the school. (Is it legal to stipulate "no liberal progressives?" But charter schools are freed from burdensome bureaucratic regulations, so who cares? Legal schmegal.)

Then an excerpt from a feature in the East Bay Express about this interesting institution.

Craigslist
Teacher -Oakland Charter School
Reply to: see below
Date: 2006-12-14, 4:44PM PST

The Chess school consortium is seeking a resource teacher to work in Oakland, CA. Interested applicants need to have (or willing to enroll in) a multi-subject credential. Single subject credentials may also be approved upon review. Applicants with a English, math or science background are encouraged to apply. Applicants must pass the CBEST and CSET test.

Multi-cultural specialist, self-esteem experts, liberal progressives or their "klan" relatives need not apply. We want to educate minority students with high academic skills and not brainwash them with non-sense or rhetoric. Do you understand our philosophy?

Starting salary is $43,500.00 with full benefits.

Submit resume and cover letter with transcripts (official or unofficial) via fax (510) 433-0718, ATTN Dr. Goldman) or email, marshaamador@.... We are hiring immediately!

From the East Bay Express article: This section describes the school's — um — forceful principal, Jorge Lopez, and his first weeks at the Oakland Charter Academy, when he was supposed to be working with his departing predecessor, Francisco Gutierrez, during a transition period.

Once aboard, Lopez quickly set about making Gutierrez's life miserable, insulting and demeaning him repeatedly and making a mockery of his staff meetings. Within a couple of weeks, Gutierrez was gone, vowing, he says, to "never, ever, ever again" agree to such a power-sharing arrangement. Next to go was the school's secretary, whom Lopez caught sympathizing with parents upset over the last-minute addition of a mandatory summer school for incoming sixth graders.

Then, at the school board meeting in late June, Lopez employed a tactic he had learned from a book recommended by Chavis. The book: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a copy of which Lopez still keeps in his office. The tactic: to obscure his primary objectives. [Note from Caroline: This mirrors the strategy of the entire charter movement -- obscuring the primary objectives.]

At the meeting, Lopez cited a looming fiscal crisis due to sloppy bookkeeping, and called for a 15 percent reduction in the school's budget. To cut costs, he proposed reducing teaching staff by switching to "self-contained" classrooms, where students stay in the same room with one teacher throughout the day. The board went along, unwittingly paving the way for Lopez to end the school's long tradition of teaching Spanish. In addition, since only one teacher had the necessary credentials to teach a self-contained class, Lopez was able to force the others out. Within weeks, the new principal had curtailed parent involvement and gotten rid of volunteering and planning committees, which were school fixtures. It was no less than a coup d'état. "It became no longer a community-oriented school," says Estella Navarro, an OCA cofounder, parent, and board member bitterly opposed to Lopez' changes. "It became his school."

And Nestwife will appreciate this point:

Even if the school had a cafeteria, Lopez says, he would not offer the free or reduced-price lunches for which 87 percent of his students qualify based on family income. "There's a misperception that there isn't enough food," he says. "That's bullshit. The biggest problem is obesity."

It's a miracle!

— Caroline