Early clouds gave way to sunshine Monday morning as school doors opened and the Oakland Unified School District welcomed students for the first day of school.
Across the city, familiar scenes played out: Students excitedly greeted their new teachers and hugged their old ones, some walked hand in hand with their younger siblings just starting kindergarten, others told their mothers to stay in the car. At Reach Academy, on the corner of Bancroft and 98th Avenue, a mother comforted her 2-year-old, who was distraught because she wouldn’t be going to school with her older siblings.
This year, OUSD is introducing an all-electric bus fleet for students with disabilities, offering art classes at every elementary school, and brand new playgrounds at several East Oakland schools. Oakland students had a lot on their plate as the 2024-2025 school year began. We took a tour with Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell — who is in her eighth year leading her home school district — and asked the kids their thoughts on Oakland, their neighborhoods, and their schools.
What do you like most about your school?
Tod: What I like most about my school is that no one changes. The people I know still go here.
Brooklyn: What I like most about my school are all my teachers.
What do you love about living in Oakland?
Death: My family lives in Oakland
Brooklyn: My whole family is in Oakland.
If you were mayor of Oakland for a day, what would you do?
Death: I would get on a plane to the Bahamas.
Brooklyn: I would fly to LA on a private jet.
Penelope Baez, first grader at Manzanita SEED Elementary
What are you most looking forward to at school this year?
Penelope: My teachers. They’ll be really good.
What are your favorite things to do in Oakland?
Penelope: Gondola ride at Oakland Zoo.
If you were mayor of Oakland for a day, what would you do?
Penelope: Tell everyone to buy me toys.
Mikey Williams, fifth grader at East Oakland Pride Elementary
What do you like most about your school?
Mikey: The opportunity to learn all kinds of things.
What do you like most about living in Oakland?
Micing: Going to school and playing around outside.
If you were mayor for a day, what would you do?
Mikey: No violence. There wouldn’t be any violence or anything.
Jarea Porter and Cassius Clay, sixth graders at Bret Harte Middle School
What are you most looking forward to as you enter sixth grade this year?
Cassius: Sports and Activities
What do you like most about Bret Harte so far?
Cassius: Find more friends
Jarea: The art around the school.
What are your favorite things to do in Oakland?
Cassius: I have football training at BayTech.
Jarea: Seeing the trees and nature.
If you could change one thing about your neighborhood, what would you change?
Cassius: The violence.
Jarea: I would change the violence and organize more youth activities.
If you were mayor of Oakland for a day, what would you do?
Cassius: I would put an end to the violence and make people put down their weapons.
Jarea: Invest more in young people, because a lot is happening there right now. I would stop vaping and smoking. We could organize more activities so that they don’t have to smoke. And also more therapists and things like that.
Ninh-An Kimmons, eighth-grader at Bret Harte Middle School
What do you like most about Bret Harte Middle School?
Ninh-An: I really like all the murals around the school, but I also like the community that the school creates and the way they represent that community.
How is the food in the cafeteria?
Ninh-An: It’s not so good.
If you could change one thing about your Oakland neighborhood, what would it be?
Ninh-An: I don’t think I would change anything about my neighborhood. I really like where I live.
What is it like to be a young person in Oakland right now?
Ninh-An: It’s a really great experience. I’m really grateful to have grown up here. As someone who often visits other places (I have cousins who live in many other places), I’m proud to have grown up here. I like the community and being surrounded by people who look and talk like me.
If you were mayor of Oakland for a day, what would you do?
Ninh-An: I really like art, so I would put more murals in places that look kind of bad.
