Oakland Academy Still Alive

On Tuesday September 6th, Oakland Academy Charter School (OACS) held a community meeting at the Oakland Community Center. Oakland, which was closed by the Board of Education (BOE) in May 2011, plans to resurrect itself as a charter school. After the school closed, a small board of members petitioned to the BOE for a waiver for the charter school application deadline, so it did not have to wait and prolong the process. The BOE, however, denied the waiver. Shortly following the BOE’s decision, The Supreme Court ruled that local school districts have the sole authority to grant or deny the existence of charter schools. Previously, schools that wanted a charter designation could appeal to state charter school commissions for approval.Since this time, though, Oakland has resolved to overcome all obstacles, including bureaucratic and financial ones. Tuesday night’s meeting was another step toward this goal, as residents showed their support for the charter, crowding the clubhouse hungry for hot dogs and good news about Oakland.

The meeting was half hot dog dinner, half workshop. President of Oakland’s board of directors Isaac Lassiter started the evening by first explaining the philosophy and vision of the school. Lassiter said that the school’s philosophy, technically called pedagogy, will be “constructivism.” In this philosophy, Lassiter said the educational process is comprised of “questioning, reflecting, (and) assimilating the knowledge learned by the students, not just having the students sit there and force information down their throat.” According to Lassiter, in constructivism, “The teacher becomes a question-asker, instead of an information-teller.” He said that Oakland will emphasize education within a “real-world” context, stressing the development of social and communication skills. Students will learn “project-based learning,” where they will learn to talk to each other, debate and discuss their subjects. Lassiter also emphasized student, parental, and community involvement. “Oakland Elementary School always had great student involvement; I think we can do better,” he said and added that he wanted to “increase the number of parent participation hours.”

Then, Lassiter had the attendees brainstorm in groups. He instructed them to write down what they liked about Oakland Elementary and what they would like to see improved for Oakland Charter. The exercise, a modeling of constructivism pedagogy, resulted in pragmatic concerns by the public, such as transportation, sports, and attendance targets.

After the crowd was full of hot dogs and data, Lassiter told FYN that he was “surprised and excited” at all the people who attended the meeting, an estimate of over 100 attendees. He said the idea behind the event was to give an update to the community on the progress of the charter. According to Lassiter, Oakland’s charter petition is almost complete and said he wanted to pass that on to the people. He also wanted to give the community an opportunity to give input. When asked about the public’s interest in the school, Lassiter said that the interest was natural due to the new school season, but noted that people are faced with the reality of the options to the public school system. He said the school does not have a specific deadline to submit the charter petition to the BOE, but expects a deadline will be given within the next few months. Oakland Academy Charter School is slated to open for the 2013-2014 school year.