Two Mack students win in Northern California journalism contest

Pamela Tapia won several awards in 2011 for environmental and feature stories. Here she is pictured accepting an award from Betty Packard at last year’s Northern California Press Women Association awards’ ceremony.

Now a community college freshman, Tapia again won 2nd prize in 2012 in environmental reporting for a story on cleaning up West Oakland. The story first appeared in macksmack and was published in the June 2011 issue of  Oaktown Teen Times.

Stephen Vance, a senior at McClymonds and a summer intern at the Rose Foundation in 2011, won honorable mention for a story he wrote about the Greening of West Oakland.  The story first appeared in macksmack and was published in Oaktown Teen Times in December 2011.

 

 

The Greening of West Oakland

photo by Quailyn Scott, Skyline High School

By Stephen Vance

Greening West Oakland. Less cement, more parks and even ponds stocked with fish. More foot traffic and public transportation. And most of all, mixed income housing and retail. Those elements were part of a blueprint for West Oakland that 13 Oakland students created during their summer internship at The Rose Foundation.

“This was the first time students from McClymonds, Mandela, Oakland Tech, Oakland High, Street Academy and Skyline came up with their own vision of a healthy, sustainable community,” said Jill Ratner, president of The Rose Foundation.

“After all their work identifying the sources of pollution in the neighborhood and testimony about diesel fumes, they were able to present a truly beautiful blueprint for what they really want in their community,” Ratner added.

The blueprint was developed in response to Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) – a planning process, which will guide use planning for the next 25 years. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions per person as required by California law SB 375 (SB 375 was adopted by the CA legislature in 2008 and aims to reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions  to 1990 levels by 2020 — and by 80 percent by 2050).

Two local agencies — Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments — are preparing  workshops in January, and will  release a scenario  for public comment in March or April.

The summer project also coincided with a pilot project by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean lead pollution at several West Oakland locations. For the first time, the EPA used a less invasive and less costly technology that uses fish bones to chemically bond with the lead, making it harmless to people.

The idea was to go beyond identifying toxic elements, health issues like asthma, and pollutants, which students at McClymonds tackled as part of the school’s Law & Government Academy’s focus on environmental justice. McClymonds students, who testified before the EPA and state and local boards, won an award for their community service last year.

“The summer was devoted to making West Oakland sustainable and empowering the voice of the youth,” said Ratner.

“Working on sustainability taught me to rethink urban planning and how that affects the community, ” said  Taneka O’Guin , a senior at Oakland Tech.

 In order to create a blueprint, students visited the self-reliant house at Merritt College and heard from a number of experts on sustainability and environmental technology. One of the speakers, Dr. Paloma Pazel emphasized the “six wins” necessary to make a sustainable community: better health; end of gentrification and displacement; affordable housing; reliable transportation; economic opportunity and community activism.

Over the summer, students learned how to make informed, responsible, and healthy decisions when it comes to the vision of sustainability in their community. They put their dreams and vision to work.

Mack will close its law academy: end of an era

by Sarai Cornejo and Pamela Tapia

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(with reporting from The Oaktown Teen Times and The Oakland Tribune)

There will be no law academy at McClymonds next year.

The news came last week in a form letter from principal Kevin Taylor to Ina Bendich, who has been director of the Law Academy for 10 years.

“I knew that enrollment was down and that the academy would likely be closed.  With approximately 230 students, and two academies that both require 90 students to remain solvent, it seemed inevitable that one would be forced out.  I hoped that the tradition of political action  in West Oakland would keep us open.”

A total of 45 students are currently enrolled in the law academy, which focuses on legal issues and environmental justice. It sponsors this blog, a debate team, mock trial, an annual Yosemite trip, summer internships, restorative justice, youth court and a partnership with the Rose Foundation, which has trained students to advocate for cleaner air in West Oakland.

“It taught me a lot about the law and the constitution,” said Asia Hill, 16, a junior.  ”It means missing out on a lot of opportunities next year.”

It is unclear what will happen at McClymonds next year and whether the other academy, International Trade and Transportation, will survive.

The closure is part of a trend: small school or academies, which offer fewer AP classes because they are specialized, have lost financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which began funding them in 2004)  and many are closing due to dwindling enrollment and lack of state funding.

At its peak, McClymonds had close to 800 students, while it now has under 300.

In 2008, McClymonds had the highest scores on the  California High School Exit Exam in the entire district. It was also ranked number 1 in the East Bay and Northern California as the high school with most football players attending Division 1 universities.

Three small schools at Fremont and three small schools at Castlemont High Schools will  be “consolidated  in the fall of 2012.”

The Oaktown Teen Times reported that Castlemont received an extra $700,000 to “just stay afloat.”

“The law academy has led the community  in fighting air pollution,” says Jill Ratner, director  of the Rose Foundation. Together with environmental groups, students at the Law Academy discovered a nearby polluter and began monitoring the air for toxins.  In its partnership with the Rose Foundation, the law academy also sent students to summer internships to learn more about environmental justice and advocacy.

“The students’ work over the past years earned them national recognition and most recently, they were honored by the Environmental Protection Agency.  We have a lot to be proud of.  It’s been a great ride,”  commented Ms. Bendich.

Other teachers and administrators also received “consolidation” notices, said vice principal Karen Todd.

“If they’re going to treat you like this, Bendich,  you deserve better” said Lateefah Edmonds, an 18-year-old senior at Mack ,who has known Ms. Bendich since her freshman year.