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Oakland School District Superintendent Tony Smith speaks during an Oakland Unified School...
OAKLAND -- Ask students at McClymonds High School about their teachers and you'll likely hear this: They work hard, but they don't stay long.
"Since I've been here, we've never had steady teachers," said Da'Jon Ford, a junior at the West Oakland high school.
Teacher turnover is one of the greatest obstacles facing the city's struggling high schools, particularly those in the poor and working-class flatland neighborhoods of East and West Oakland. Many of the openings are filled with rookies who make a two-year commitment, or with teachers displaced from other positions in the district. Two years ago, all but a handful of the McClymonds teachers left, along with the former principal.
Supporters and critics of a controversial staffing plan at Oakland's Fremont, Castlemont and McClymonds high schools differ sharply on whether it will