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Agenda Item
C.-4 19-2225 7:30 PM - Public Hearing by the Board of Education of Roses In Concrete - Petition and Proposed Charter - Grades K-8 - July 1, 2020-June 30, 2025 (Renewal).
I stand by Roses in Concrete because of their drive and passion to build community for many students and families who need the utmost support. The instructors and staff work diligently to tend to each and every one of the student’s needs. Whether it be food insecurity, or lack of access to academic resources at home, Roses works with every family’s situation. Their approach to learning is one that combines mindful cultural enrichment and the arts. Students are able to grow and learn in an environment in which they can directly connect with staff through shared experiences. Many of the students and families have been underserved before, without Roses they would lose the support they rightfully deserve.
Roses in Concrete has a very community driven curriculum and staff. The most important factor in this school is the fact that the staff is reflective of the student composition. Staff knows how to work with the students and understand the many problems they come with. They have offered a food pantry and a community laundry room to help the low income families they serve. They really take in consideration who they are serving and how they can best fit their needs.
I support Roses because it’s home for me and my family. I support Roses because there’s nothing like this anywhere else and it’s exactly what Oakland. We need to support Roses because if I if I had this as a child things might look a little bit brighter.
I am a 4 year parent at Roses in Concrete. I am currently serving as Dean of students. The school has made a monumental difference in the life of my children. I am fortunate enough to be in an environment every day serving children who look like me and who share similar experiences as me. It’s been a blessing to be able to participate in our warrior scholars development as they overcome many current and future obstacles. I once was a rose that grew from concrete. It is no easy task. To know that they have a place to help them authentically germinate and blossom into productive and quality human beings gives me hope to the future of Oakland and the world beyond. We help our roses navigate through this complex society that awaits them. What a joy to walk in the 1st grade room and hear a teacher command a room full of black and brown students, speaking only in spanish, and having full engagement. We live by the words respect, love and protect. They deserve enrichment. They deserve Roses.
The moment I set foot on Roses campus, I knew it was special. The sense of community/family here is unmatched!
Seeing kids learn about themselves through culturally relevant curriculum is something that I have not seen at other schools. At roses we are creating an environment for our kids to thrive ! ❤️ We need this school.
Roses in Concrete Community School lives up to it's name as being a space who comes together for our youth, families, & community partners. When I first arrived at Roses three years ago, I was swept up & overwhelmed by the practices here. From the mindfulness circles, to our morning affirmations, & to how we all show up to be present for our youth & meet them where they are is truly humanizing work. The Roses family chooses to support our youth in different capacities to ensure their emotional & academic success. We believe in making sure we provide our youth with what they need, whether it is getting second chance breakfast, academic tutoring before and/or after school, or even just a simple check-in before walking in to any space. We recognize & see how much our youth carry with them, & we ourselves often wonder why we did not have a school where real educators have face like us. We are the Roses which grew to the concrete, and we will be here to nurture and care for our Roses now.
Roses in Concrete es un santuario para nuestros estudiantes. Con once años como educadora nuca antes había experimentado un ambiente tan familiar y de bienvenida desde el momento en que llegas a la escuela. El ambiente entre el personal de la escuela, los estudiantes y las familias se basa en la convivencia, el entusiasmo y la diversidad de la comunidad. El personal de Roses In Concrete ofrece a sus estudiantes educación de calidad, promueve y respeta los valores de las culturas de sus estudiantes y los prepara para enfrentar a nuestra sociedad con un pensamiento critico y de respeto. Roses in Concrete es la única escuela en la nación donde la mayoría de sus estudiantes son de descendencia afroamericana y latina y que actualmente son parte del la educación de doble inmersión. La diversidad entre el personal y los estudiantes construyen lazos que fortalecen y unen a nuestras comunidades.
Necesitamos mantener Roses In Concrete Community School abierta. ¡Por favor apóyenos!
This is my first year teaching Roses in Concrete, and I believe that this school growing and evolving example of what full service school looks like and my first bilingual school. The connections with the students and staff is a genuine bond which allows for trust and loyalty to be formed between the school, staff, and students. This is the same for the parents and families of school. Parents are able to come into classroom, have input on instruction and school culture, bring their family to the school for outside needs like laundry, bus passes, cab vouchers, food pantry, and even scholarships. Families feel welcomed and loved. I believe this environment allows for students to thrive academically, mentally, and emotionally. Not only does this school have open arms for all families, we extend the opportunity to all people of color to have an education spite of their background in attempt to eliminate inequities while serving the whole child. Keeping the school open is best!
Roses in Concrete Community School is amazing! The community feel is real. Children are learning who they are, where they come from and where they can go. There are restorative justice practices happening EVERYDAY. We circle as a community, during the student healing process, as a staff and with families. Students have a strong voice here and know that they are respected, loved and protected. Roses has a social justice approach with an emphasis on empathy. Healing engagement is reflection oriented and children have developed the skills to self-regulate many times. Roses understands that relationship building is the key to serving the whole child and having highly skilled adults to meet the various needs of the children. As a native son of Oakland and a product of Manzanita and Glenview Elementary schools, I can honestly say that Roses in Concrete is a great school which is meets the gold standard of the OUSD. Thank you for your consideration.
Apoyo a la Escuela Communitaria Roses in Concrete porque es una escuela bilingüe (español-inglés) donde los estudiantes y las familias forman una comunidad con diversidad cultural, es una escuela donde se fomenta el arte, donde los estudiantes aprenden a expresarse por medio de la danza, pintura, artes plasticas y la música. Es muy satisfactorio ver como los estudiantes que su lengua materna es el inglés, aprenden a leer, escribir y hablar en español. Se cultiva un jardín orgánico donde los estudiantes tienen la oportunidad de aprender diferentes maneras de comer más saludablemente, incorporando vegetales y frutas. Además aprenden nuevas recetas para preparar comidas y bebidas saludables. Los estudiantes tienen oportunidad de aprender de personalidades importantes que han hecho cambios en nuestra sociedad positivamente. Roses in Concrete es una escuela que ayuda a formar nuevos líderes.
I am a founding Kindergarten teacher at Roses. As a Xicana educator I take pride in teaching Ethnic Studies through a social justice lens in Kindergarten and have also taught both of my own children at Roses. I have returned for the fifth year because I see the potential of what Roses is becoming. I have worked on helping our school become unionized and have seen the positive effects. Our union contract was ratified in June in order to retain teachers and families, bring pay equity, and start a Shared Governance Council made up of teachers, IA’s, students, families, and board members. Our Council is well attended and gives our school community a new voice in decision-making. We have worked together to keep our decisions centered on student needs while balancing our budget. Our school’s mission is to be a model for empowering Black and Brown youth. With our new Shared Governance Council and union contract, we are creating the systems needed to thrive in our mission.
Roses In Concrete Community School provides a transformative, culturally relevant, socio-racial and linguistically diverse, healing engaged learning, dual-language, arts-integrated, steam and humanizing learning project that exist in the bay area. It is an audacious political and social project aimed at addressing educational equity providing opportunities for students and teachers. Teachers are committed to building authentic and caring relationships which we know is the single most transformative impact on the life and educational outcomes who experience adverse life circumstances. Our children are exceptional learners and teachers are committed to serving in a capacity that moves beyond standardization of learning, and test scores to create opportunities for students to see themselves and provide meaningful opportunities to active engage in changing the status quo. Our families are deeply invested in the future of learning community and made sacrifices.
Roses is the ONLY school in the county and country that has a dual emersion program that serves 50% African American students and 48% Latino students to learn to speak Spanish with the rest of our population white, Asian, and mixed races. We are a restorative justice school that empowers our students to understand the world around them. Our kiddos love Roses!
Closing Roses means closing a community for the students and the people who work there. We love each other and fully support each other. We truly want to make a difference and help build students who will build a better Oakland. Being here as an educator, has had a tremendous impact on me. Not only do I get to work with some of the most dedicated people in education but I get to work with kids who are inspiring and funny and make me want to come to work everyday.
After 15 years in serving the South Central Los Angeles Schools in LAUSD, I gave up my seniority to help create and open up something revolutionary and serve in Oakland. As a lead teacher, despite all the many constant challenges, we have done some amazing things for the community and students we serve that can't always be quantified by standard metrics. We continue to make strides of actualizing our goals, like our STEMM (Sciecne+Technology+Engineering+Math+Maker) program is in a position to take off with the grand opening of our Maker Space this month. Nowhere in the county, where 99% of the population are students of color with over 50% of African decent, is offering a full option Computer Science and STEMM curriculum that is community and culturally responsive and designed to build skills so students can problem solve and create solutions in their communities, as well as be competitive in future careers. This is one of many aspects that is truly unique here at Roses. Support us
There is no other school like Roses. When I first got here I was blown away by the social justice aspect taught in every class. I’ve also never seen this many educators of color in one school.This is really important for students to see educators that look like them and that is what Roses is. Arts is a huge part of the day and I’ve seen how important this is to kids, especially in Oakland. Being here is what inspired me to teach. Had I not come to Roses, teaching would not have been an option for me. Roses is a pipeline to inspiring Black and Brown educators to teach. Roses need to stay open because we are creating powerful things as a community here.
Roses in concrete has been such a great place for my son. They have always provided hey very neutering and loving environment. Roses in concrete staff has been such a great support to me and my son and my family for the last 4 years. Without the support of the staff I'm not sure where we would be as far as support and education for my son. We love our school we need our school, I need school!!
Roses in Concrete encompasses each student as a whole. From education, to culture and allowing our student to have a voice. As a new teacher to Roses, I have never been in a community that cares about each student from their academics to caring about their every day life. Supporting daily life does make a difference in each child lives here at Roses in Concrete. I have blossomed as an educator here at Roses in Concrete due to the all the extras that the staff does or gives to each and every student. The culture here is unique to other educational sites and it is a privilege to be employed at this wonderful community school. Keep the school open for the many children that would like to experience such a great community school where children can blossom with their education with being supported by this staff in every day life.
What a beautiful school. The presence of warm staff, high levels of class engagement and community involvement is what Oakland is all about. This school has worked tirelessly to help children and families. Some of these families have some of the highest of needs. Oakland needs more schools like this. Dedicated staff and parents. The culture supports healing through education and the arts. Anything of value has trouble in its infancy. The first trimester in the gestation period of a child is critical. This school has proven to be healthy. The next step will be to approve the Charter and allow greater advancement of a community in great need of the services that Roses provides.
We love OUR school, we love the teachers and Specially the Bilingual program!!❤️ As an immigrant family we need to embrace our lenguaje and culture and our kids are able to do it here as well learning about Black lives matter etc, please let our kids keep growing as a rose in the concrete ❤️ Thank you
P.D.: I have a 1 year old daughter that I would love to send to Kgarden in the future at Roses!!🙏🏽🙏🏽
I stand by Roses in Concrete because of their drive and passion to build community for many students and families who need the utmost support. The instructors and staff work diligently to tend to each and every one of the student’s needs. Whether it be food insecurity, or lack of access to academic resources at home, Roses works with every family’s situation. Their approach to learning is one that combines mindful cultural enrichment and the arts. Students are able to grow and learn in an environment in which they can directly connect with staff through shared experiences. Many of the students and families have been underserved before, without Roses they would lose the support they rightfully deserve.
Roses in Concrete has a very community driven curriculum and staff. The most important factor in this school is the fact that the staff is reflective of the student composition. Staff knows how to work with the students and understand the many problems they come with. They have offered a food pantry and a community laundry room to help the low income families they serve. They really take in consideration who they are serving and how they can best fit their needs.
I support Roses because it’s home for me and my family. I support Roses because there’s nothing like this anywhere else and it’s exactly what Oakland. We need to support Roses because if I if I had this as a child things might look a little bit brighter.
I am a 4 year parent at Roses in Concrete. I am currently serving as Dean of students. The school has made a monumental difference in the life of my children. I am fortunate enough to be in an environment every day serving children who look like me and who share similar experiences as me. It’s been a blessing to be able to participate in our warrior scholars development as they overcome many current and future obstacles. I once was a rose that grew from concrete. It is no easy task. To know that they have a place to help them authentically germinate and blossom into productive and quality human beings gives me hope to the future of Oakland and the world beyond. We help our roses navigate through this complex society that awaits them. What a joy to walk in the 1st grade room and hear a teacher command a room full of black and brown students, speaking only in spanish, and having full engagement. We live by the words respect, love and protect. They deserve enrichment. They deserve Roses.
The moment I set foot on Roses campus, I knew it was special. The sense of community/family here is unmatched!
Seeing kids learn about themselves through culturally relevant curriculum is something that I have not seen at other schools. At roses we are creating an environment for our kids to thrive ! ❤️ We need this school.
Roses in Concrete Community School lives up to it's name as being a space who comes together for our youth, families, & community partners. When I first arrived at Roses three years ago, I was swept up & overwhelmed by the practices here. From the mindfulness circles, to our morning affirmations, & to how we all show up to be present for our youth & meet them where they are is truly humanizing work. The Roses family chooses to support our youth in different capacities to ensure their emotional & academic success. We believe in making sure we provide our youth with what they need, whether it is getting second chance breakfast, academic tutoring before and/or after school, or even just a simple check-in before walking in to any space. We recognize & see how much our youth carry with them, & we ourselves often wonder why we did not have a school where real educators have face like us. We are the Roses which grew to the concrete, and we will be here to nurture and care for our Roses now.
Roses in Concrete es un santuario para nuestros estudiantes. Con once años como educadora nuca antes había experimentado un ambiente tan familiar y de bienvenida desde el momento en que llegas a la escuela. El ambiente entre el personal de la escuela, los estudiantes y las familias se basa en la convivencia, el entusiasmo y la diversidad de la comunidad. El personal de Roses In Concrete ofrece a sus estudiantes educación de calidad, promueve y respeta los valores de las culturas de sus estudiantes y los prepara para enfrentar a nuestra sociedad con un pensamiento critico y de respeto. Roses in Concrete es la única escuela en la nación donde la mayoría de sus estudiantes son de descendencia afroamericana y latina y que actualmente son parte del la educación de doble inmersión. La diversidad entre el personal y los estudiantes construyen lazos que fortalecen y unen a nuestras comunidades.
Necesitamos mantener Roses In Concrete Community School abierta. ¡Por favor apóyenos!
This is my first year teaching Roses in Concrete, and I believe that this school growing and evolving example of what full service school looks like and my first bilingual school. The connections with the students and staff is a genuine bond which allows for trust and loyalty to be formed between the school, staff, and students. This is the same for the parents and families of school. Parents are able to come into classroom, have input on instruction and school culture, bring their family to the school for outside needs like laundry, bus passes, cab vouchers, food pantry, and even scholarships. Families feel welcomed and loved. I believe this environment allows for students to thrive academically, mentally, and emotionally. Not only does this school have open arms for all families, we extend the opportunity to all people of color to have an education spite of their background in attempt to eliminate inequities while serving the whole child. Keeping the school open is best!
Roses in Concrete Community School is amazing! The community feel is real. Children are learning who they are, where they come from and where they can go. There are restorative justice practices happening EVERYDAY. We circle as a community, during the student healing process, as a staff and with families. Students have a strong voice here and know that they are respected, loved and protected. Roses has a social justice approach with an emphasis on empathy. Healing engagement is reflection oriented and children have developed the skills to self-regulate many times. Roses understands that relationship building is the key to serving the whole child and having highly skilled adults to meet the various needs of the children. As a native son of Oakland and a product of Manzanita and Glenview Elementary schools, I can honestly say that Roses in Concrete is a great school which is meets the gold standard of the OUSD. Thank you for your consideration.
Apoyo a la Escuela Communitaria Roses in Concrete porque es una escuela bilingüe (español-inglés) donde los estudiantes y las familias forman una comunidad con diversidad cultural, es una escuela donde se fomenta el arte, donde los estudiantes aprenden a expresarse por medio de la danza, pintura, artes plasticas y la música. Es muy satisfactorio ver como los estudiantes que su lengua materna es el inglés, aprenden a leer, escribir y hablar en español. Se cultiva un jardín orgánico donde los estudiantes tienen la oportunidad de aprender diferentes maneras de comer más saludablemente, incorporando vegetales y frutas. Además aprenden nuevas recetas para preparar comidas y bebidas saludables. Los estudiantes tienen oportunidad de aprender de personalidades importantes que han hecho cambios en nuestra sociedad positivamente. Roses in Concrete es una escuela que ayuda a formar nuevos líderes.
I am a founding Kindergarten teacher at Roses. As a Xicana educator I take pride in teaching Ethnic Studies through a social justice lens in Kindergarten and have also taught both of my own children at Roses. I have returned for the fifth year because I see the potential of what Roses is becoming. I have worked on helping our school become unionized and have seen the positive effects. Our union contract was ratified in June in order to retain teachers and families, bring pay equity, and start a Shared Governance Council made up of teachers, IA’s, students, families, and board members. Our Council is well attended and gives our school community a new voice in decision-making. We have worked together to keep our decisions centered on student needs while balancing our budget. Our school’s mission is to be a model for empowering Black and Brown youth. With our new Shared Governance Council and union contract, we are creating the systems needed to thrive in our mission.
Roses In Concrete Community School provides a transformative, culturally relevant, socio-racial and linguistically diverse, healing engaged learning, dual-language, arts-integrated, steam and humanizing learning project that exist in the bay area. It is an audacious political and social project aimed at addressing educational equity providing opportunities for students and teachers. Teachers are committed to building authentic and caring relationships which we know is the single most transformative impact on the life and educational outcomes who experience adverse life circumstances. Our children are exceptional learners and teachers are committed to serving in a capacity that moves beyond standardization of learning, and test scores to create opportunities for students to see themselves and provide meaningful opportunities to active engage in changing the status quo. Our families are deeply invested in the future of learning community and made sacrifices.
Roses is the ONLY school in the county and country that has a dual emersion program that serves 50% African American students and 48% Latino students to learn to speak Spanish with the rest of our population white, Asian, and mixed races. We are a restorative justice school that empowers our students to understand the world around them. Our kiddos love Roses!
Closing Roses means closing a community for the students and the people who work there. We love each other and fully support each other. We truly want to make a difference and help build students who will build a better Oakland. Being here as an educator, has had a tremendous impact on me. Not only do I get to work with some of the most dedicated people in education but I get to work with kids who are inspiring and funny and make me want to come to work everyday.
After 15 years in serving the South Central Los Angeles Schools in LAUSD, I gave up my seniority to help create and open up something revolutionary and serve in Oakland. As a lead teacher, despite all the many constant challenges, we have done some amazing things for the community and students we serve that can't always be quantified by standard metrics. We continue to make strides of actualizing our goals, like our STEMM (Sciecne+Technology+Engineering+Math+Maker) program is in a position to take off with the grand opening of our Maker Space this month. Nowhere in the county, where 99% of the population are students of color with over 50% of African decent, is offering a full option Computer Science and STEMM curriculum that is community and culturally responsive and designed to build skills so students can problem solve and create solutions in their communities, as well as be competitive in future careers. This is one of many aspects that is truly unique here at Roses. Support us
There is no other school like Roses. When I first got here I was blown away by the social justice aspect taught in every class. I’ve also never seen this many educators of color in one school.This is really important for students to see educators that look like them and that is what Roses is. Arts is a huge part of the day and I’ve seen how important this is to kids, especially in Oakland. Being here is what inspired me to teach. Had I not come to Roses, teaching would not have been an option for me. Roses is a pipeline to inspiring Black and Brown educators to teach. Roses need to stay open because we are creating powerful things as a community here.
Roses in concrete has been such a great place for my son. They have always provided hey very neutering and loving environment. Roses in concrete staff has been such a great support to me and my son and my family for the last 4 years. Without the support of the staff I'm not sure where we would be as far as support and education for my son. We love our school we need our school, I need school!!
Roses in Concrete encompasses each student as a whole. From education, to culture and allowing our student to have a voice. As a new teacher to Roses, I have never been in a community that cares about each student from their academics to caring about their every day life. Supporting daily life does make a difference in each child lives here at Roses in Concrete. I have blossomed as an educator here at Roses in Concrete due to the all the extras that the staff does or gives to each and every student. The culture here is unique to other educational sites and it is a privilege to be employed at this wonderful community school. Keep the school open for the many children that would like to experience such a great community school where children can blossom with their education with being supported by this staff in every day life.
What a beautiful school. The presence of warm staff, high levels of class engagement and community involvement is what Oakland is all about. This school has worked tirelessly to help children and families. Some of these families have some of the highest of needs. Oakland needs more schools like this. Dedicated staff and parents. The culture supports healing through education and the arts. Anything of value has trouble in its infancy. The first trimester in the gestation period of a child is critical. This school has proven to be healthy. The next step will be to approve the Charter and allow greater advancement of a community in great need of the services that Roses provides.
We love OUR school, we love the teachers and Specially the Bilingual program!!❤️ As an immigrant family we need to embrace our lenguaje and culture and our kids are able to do it here as well learning about Black lives matter etc, please let our kids keep growing as a rose in the concrete ❤️ Thank you
P.D.: I have a 1 year old daughter that I would love to send to Kgarden in the future at Roses!!🙏🏽🙏🏽