Some Oakland students face a midyear upheaval - Inside Bay Area

Some Oakland students face a midyear upheaval - Inside Bay Area:

Some Oakland students face a midyear upheaval

By Katy Murphy
Oakland Tribune

Posted: 10/14/2011 05:54:45 PM PDT

Updated: 10/15/2011 04:34:13 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Kiara Burke, center, concentrates on her work in Breianna Davis' kindergarten... ( RAY CHAVEZ )

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By the eighth week of school, kindergartners have, for the most part, stopped crying for their mothers. Students have settled into a routine, knowing what their teachers expect of them.

But in some Oakland schools, those routines will soon be upended. Next week, a small group of teachers will be transferred to other schools, a cost-saving measure to help the district out of a $1.4 million budget hole. Their students -- and, in some cases, other children at the affected schools -- will be sent to different classrooms.

One of those teachers is Breianna Davis. She teaches kindergarten at Carl B. Munck Elementary, a high-performing and majority-African-American school in the Oakland hills. Her class of 22 -- which, two years ago, would have been larger than average -- is now considered too small. As the newest teacher at her school, Davis will be transferred elsewhere. Her students, mostly 4 and 5,

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Today, I wrote about the practice of moving teachers from school to school, weeks into the school year, to balance the budget. It’s happening to five Oakland teachers this year, including Breianna Davis, shown above with her kindergarten students at Carl B. Munck Elementary School. Next week, she’ll be at another school, and her 22 students will be divided among the remaining kindergarten and first-grade teachers at Munck.

Three other elementary schools will undergo a similar adjustment: Bella Vista (which is losing two teachers), Laurel and Community United. All but one are kindergarten teachers.

According to Brigitte Marshall, the district’s new director of HR, the original list of consolidations was at least three times as long. Troy Flint, the district spokesman,