Berkeley Public Schools vs. Oakland Public Schools
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Berkeley Public Schools vs. Oakland Public Schools
April 2011
My family just moved to Berkeley and we have Oakland services so our choice of
school districts. I am wondering which is better for elementary school. My
daughter is entering K and has been assigned Kaiser in Oakland. We await the
Berkeley June lottery. John Muir and Emerson are both very close by. Assuming
she can get one of those, which is better - Oakland or Berkeley elementary? Is
this apples and oranges?
Full disclosure - I am a Berkeley School Board Director. I will leave
more subjective discussions of this topic to others BUT will say that
Berkeley public schools are generously supported by citywide parcel
taxes that have greatly assisted the School District in maintaining a
lot of programs, such as small class sizes, music and art, enrichment
classes, sports, and academic support that other school districts, such
as Oakland are no longer able to support. While upcoming State budget
cuts will undoubtly impact Berkeley, they are likely to be devastating
to Oakland as Oakland has already had to reduce programs and even close
schools to meet PAST budget deficits (Berkeley has been able to balance
the District budget with minimal impact to classroom learning as yet).
Also since Berkeley has a school assignment program designed to balance
schools socio-economically, there is far less disparity among school
populations and resources between schools than in Oakland.
Karen Hemphill
It is a difficult question to answer (Which is better: Emerson (BUSD),
John Muir (BUSD) or Chabot (OUSD). Ideally you'd find a family with
exactly your family's needs and interests, that had a child or children
that attended all three schools. But, there are, perhaps, too many
variables: Each child's own needs and strengths, each family's
interests and concerns, and the fact that the exact community that was
at a school in the past will not be there next year. The combined
community of families, students, principal and teachers changes every
year to some degree. Given that, I encourage you to not seek which is
''best'', but discuss the attributes of a given school community with
families that have been there for more than a year. Also ask them
about their school district, and how they feel the individual school
will do in the face of budget cuts at the state and district levels.
Do they see continued community support for the schools? How is
District leadership? Will the PTA and others be able to continue
picking up the slack in funding? Is there a broad-based diverse and
active PTA? Are parents and other community members involved in the
classroom? And then consider what your daily routine will be like
getting your student to and from school. Is there an after school
program on site? How is the parking (if you need to drive).
Anon
Personally, I think that Berkeley schools are great. Thanks to higher
property taxes in Berkeley, Berkeley public schools are better funded,
so they have lower teacher-student ratios (20-1, plus teacher's aides)
and more money for all the extras (libraries, music, gardening,
cooking, PE, theater, etc etc). You'd be in the Berkeley SE zone which
has three fantastic schools and one good school (with a fantastic
principal so it's probably on its way to becoming a great school). Good
luck with whatever you decide.
BUSD fan
If I were you, I'd go with Kaiser. In Oakland, most kids get to go
to their neighborhood school, which means kids can walk to school together,
have playdates after school with kids in the neighborhood, and hang
out at their school's playground outside of school hours. In Berkeley,
there are no neighborhood schools except for the very lucky or the
very persistent.
I live in the Southeast Zone just down the street from John Muir, a
one minute walk from our house. Emerson is 15 minutes away on foot.
We were assigned to Le Conte, which is a 35
minute walk from our house. We never met any kids at Le Conte that
were from our side of town. Every playdate we had, we were driving to the other side of town or to Oakland.
This might not be a big deal for you, but for us, it was a pretty
big disruption.
I don't know any families in Elmwood or
Claremont who were assigned to the schools in Elmwood or Claremont.
Many of the families ended up not staying with public school.
It sounds like you live in this area, so the odds are that your kid
will NOT be assigned to the two schools you mentioned. But you can always
wait to see what you get in the lottery. OTOH Kaiser has an excellent
reputation, and there are so many benefits to being in a neighborhood
school, that I would go with Kaiser.
this page was last updated: Aug 21, 2011
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