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Over 700 students filed Williams Settlement complaint forms about school mold and other problems in their schools in this San Francisco Bay area.
STUDENTS REPORT UNSAFE SCHOOLS, LACK OF SUPPLIES (Oakland, CA)
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STUDENTS REPORT UNSAFE SCHOOLS, LACK OF SUPPLIES
04/26/06 6:20 PDT
Unsafe school facilities, non-credentialed teachers and a lack of textbooks were among the problems reported to an
Oakland community group after it spent a month gathering complaints from students at public schools in Oakland,
Richmond and Hayward with low Academic Performance Index scores.
Some 700 complaint forms, many addressing multiple complaints, were collected by the organization Asian Pacific
Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy & Leadership and were delivered to administrators at the Oakland, Richmond
and Hayward school district offices this afternoon, AYPAL spokeswoman Claire Tran said.
The conditions students have reported are supposed to be addressed with funding mandated by a bill that passed
after the state of California settled a class action lawsuit in 2004 about substandard school conditions, Williams et al
v. State of California et al.
Students, parents and teachers from AYPAL are arguing that improvements need to be made at their district schools
in accordance with the Williams ruling and have decried California's inability to provide basic educational needs,
noting that students are facing the prospect of being denied diplomas while not having the basic resources they need
to succeed at school, according to the organization.
"Legally, every student has the right to a textbook," Tran said.
Other complaints address facilities problems like rats, lead paint and mold, she said.
AYPAL noted the striking inequities between schools with predominantly white enrollment versus schools attended
by students of color, citing a study by the University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity
and UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
"The API index shows that schools in the poorest areas with the most youth of color have the most trouble passing
the exit exam," said Chio Tang, a senior at Fremont High School. These are "the same schools that don't have
enough textbooks, qualified teachers and safe facilities," Tang said.
The UC study found that between 90 and 100 percent of California students of color attend schools in districts that
spend an average of $6,634 per student compared with the state's majority white schools, which spend an average of
$7,268 per student. The average spent per student nationwide is $8,041 according to the study, as cited by AYPAL.
Oakland School District spokesman Alex Katz said the district ombudsman was aware of individual complaints about
schools in the district, many of them addressing problems with facilities, and would review individually any
complaints it received.
Receiving this number of complaints at once is unusual, he said.
But complaints about facilities and textbooks are also presented to school administrators routinely and the district is
constantly addressing them, he added.
"Every urban school district in the state" faces the problem of an inadequate supply of textbooks for students and in
October the district conducted a comprehensive review of all its textbook needs and "filled all the holes" it needed to
address an inadequate supply of textbooks, Katz said.
Months later, classrooms may once again have fewer textbooks than necessary, he acknowledged.
The district is aware that under Williams it has 30 working days to resolve complaints, according to Katz. He said he
assumes those complaints are being addressed within that time frame.
And complaints about things like cleaning issues can be resolved quickly, he said.
In the bigger picture, the district is proposing a bond measure for the June ballot that will provide more than $430
million to address facilities problems in the school district, Katz said.
If bond measure B passes, it will give the district the resources it needs to fix these problems, he said.
Tran said AYPAL doesn't have a position on the ballot measure. The group wants to make sure money for complaints
made under Williams get to the schools, she said.
"We really want to work together with them," she said.
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Oroville Mercury Register, Oroville, CA
Students shine light on city school problems (Oakland, CA)
OAKLAND — During Linda Bui's senior year at Fremont College Preparatory and Architecture Academy High School,
her Spanish teacher quit and the class was assigned a substitute who did not speak Spanish.
Bui often was unable to use her high school's restroom. Sometimes the toilets would not flush or the bathroom would
flood or a toilet seat would be broken, she recalled.
The settlement of a class-action lawsuit, Williams v. State of California, forced the state to set aside $800 million to fix
problems exactly like these.
The case alleged that millions of California students lack adequate textbooks and attend run-down, dilapidated
schools without enough qualified teachers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger settled the Williams lawsuit in August 2004.
But nearly two years after the groundbreaking deal, just slightly more than $2 million from the settlement fund has
been allocated to California schools to fix broken bathrooms, purchase textbooks and hire more qualified teachers.
Students saythe problems persist in their schools, and school district officials say it is difficult to access the money.
Nearly all the settlement dollars are earmarked for schools with poor academic records. Under that criteria, several
dozen Oakland campuses qualify for a piece of the pie.
But the Oakland school district only has received roughly $400,000 from the Williams settlement. About $200,000 of
the funds were spent to assess district facilities, and the rest was used for school repairs.
The district is waiting to hear if its application for an additional $1.2 million is approved.
According to a state official, the settlement money is distributed as quickly as requests are filed for the funds.
"We're the ones being affected by the injustices," said Bui, who graduated in 2005 and attends Laney College. If
schools do not have enough textbooks or if teachers are assigned to the wrong classes, students suffer, she added.
To show that schools are still in need of attention, two Oakland youth organizations, Asian and Pacific Islander Youth
Promoting Leadership and Advocacy and Youth Together, recently collected 796 Williams complaint forms from
students, parents and teachers in Oakland, Richmond, Hayward and Alameda and turned them in to the schools
named in the complaints.
Nearly 600 complaints came from Oakland schools.
The settlement created a complaint process in which students, parents, teachers and community members can point
out problems in schools. The idea was that once a leaky roof or missing textbooks were noted officially, the problems
could be fixed by principals, district officials or with lawsuit settlement money.
The complaints filed by the student groups point out problems with toilets and bathrooms and note a lack of qualified
teachers and such supplies as textbooks and lab equipment. One Oakland High School student wrote that there is
mold in the boys' swimming gym. Another student from the same school noted the roof over the school gym leaks.
By law, school districts must have complaint forms available in the district office and at every school.
Officials from the Oakland school district and Alameda County Office of Education say they too are concerned about
school conditions and want to tap settlement money to fix the problems.
"There was a sense that the money would be allocated at a faster pace," said Tim White, director of facilities for the
Oakland school district.
White reviews Williams complaints and if they are easy to fix, they are addressed quickly, he said. Bigger
complaints, like one he received about a dozen portable classrooms in poor condition at Skyline High School, take
more time to solve. To fix the problem at Skyline, the district spent a half-million dollars to renovate the classrooms,
he said.
Meanwhile, the State Allocation Board, which distributes the Williams settlement money, will consider another $10.1
million in requests during the next two months, said Bill Branch, a spokesman for the California Department of
General Services.
Branch said it is not difficult for districts to receive funding for emergency repairs, as long as they apply to the State
Allocation Board for reimbursement.
"It may be difficult for some school districts to have funds available to cover the cost of making the emergency
repairs and then (wait) for the application to be submitted and approved for reimbursement," he wrote in an e-mail.
Even if Oakland gets the additional money it is asking for, it will not be enough to adequately improve district
facilities, Oakland school officials say. In June, voters will be asked to approve a $435 million facilities bond measure
to finish the job.
"This will continue to bring the schools toward world-class status," State Administrator Randolph Ward said at a
fund-raising event for the bond, listed on the June 6 ballot as Measure B.
When schools are in good condition, "it creates a sense of pride. It creates a sense that this is a place of learning,"
he said.
County Superintendent Sheila Jordan said the process established to allocate the Williams settlement money poses
hurdles for districts.
"I think the districts are realistically cautious" about making repairs before the money comes in, she said. "On the
other hand, some of this stuff needs to get done because its egregious."
Despite the difficulties accessing the funds, Jordan thinks the Williams settlement has been positive for California
schools.
"From the facilities end, it has been a tremendous success," she said. "I do know that quite a bit has been fixed."
E-mail Grace Rauh at
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