Oasis High School Graduates in the Press!

Oasis High School graduates were featured on the front page of this week's Oakland Post! The article is posted... for this week only... here . (They don't archive articles, so you have to be quick to see it.) The text is copied below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oasis High Fertile Ground for Students
By Zusha Elinson - Post Staff Writer

High School is not always geared for students that have to work, nor is it geared for students that can’t make it anywhere else.
But last week four seniors who met those conditions became the first graduating class at Oasis High School, a new charter school in Oakland’s Fruitvale District.

“I was always capable of doing well in school, but I didn’t put any work into it because I never felt like I was part of the community” said Antonio “Tone” Torres, an Oasis grad who attended Skyline High School before transferring this year.

Being part of the community is required at Oasis. High School is not always geared for students that have to work, nor is it geared for students that can’t make it anywhere else.
But last week four seniors who met those conditions became the first graduating class at Oasis High School, a new charter school in Oakland’s Fruitvale District.

“I was always capable of doing well in school, but I didn’t put any work into it because I never felt like I was part of the community” said Antonio “Tone” Torres, an Oasis grad who attended Skyline High School before transferring this year.

Being part of the community is required at Oasis.

When this reporter arrived at the school, the four seniors were meeting with School Director Dennis Guikema to put the final touches on a graduation ceremony they planned by themselves.

“Our mission is to provide an educational setting where kids who may not have done well in a traditional school can flourish,” said Guikema, 35, who worked in Oakland public schools for over a decade before signing on as the director of Oasis a year ago when the school opened.

The school has 70 students, covering grades 9-12. It offers all the usual high school courses, but with smaller classes (about 20 students per class) and a steady involvement in the community-internships for students, and homework assignments that include interviewing local community leaders and historians.

It was the small class size and flexibility that brought Shanika Stuart-Riascos to Oasis.

Working at a copy store with her shift starting in the early afternoon, finishing high-school wasn’t always such a sure thing for Stuart Riascos.

Now she is headed to community college to study Sociology next year.
“I’ve been taking a sociology course at Laney, since Dennis helped me get enrolled there,” she said.

Three out of the four seniors enrolled in community college courses this year and all four are planning on going to college next year.

Torres, currently taking an auto class at community college, wants to attend Wyoming Tech-one of the most prestigious automotive schools in the country.

Javier Aguinaga, who struggled at Oakland’s Life Academy before coming to Oasis, is enrolled in an auto class and wants to attend Wyoming Tech or a local community college for auto mechanics.

Marcus Easley, who attended the now-defunct School of Social Justice, will be attending Fresno City College to study Communications.

“We set ourselves up for a challenge by working with kids who haven’t made it in other settings,” said Guikema.
Other teachers agree and the mild uproar that erupted when Oasis math teacher Ronn Willie stepped out of the classroom to speak with this reporter confirmed that.

“A lot of the issues that these kids have, come up during class,” said Willie. “But, we are able to take the issues on in this smaller setting.”

Willie said he likes the setting where teachers can focus on community issues and individualized instruction, but, he said, it takes more time.
The teachers meet for nearly an hour after every school day to discuss the students.

Though the teachers are not union members, the pay scale is the same as the public schools and according to Willie, who described himself as pro-union, the school is small enough that any issues can be solved without a union.

Each of the graduating seniors spoke at Thursday’s graduation.

When they left the stage, singer Goapele’s “Closer to My Dreams” played over the loudspeaker, a song that the four graduates had picked because, as they all confirmed, they are closer to their dreams.