Berkeley Unified School District Explained

Berkeley Unified School District
Logo Alt:The words "Berkeley Public Schools" rendered in a red, modern serif typeface
Address:2020 Bonar Street
Zipcode:94702
Country:U.S.
Superintendent:Enikia Ford-Morthel
Deputy Superintendent:-->
Accreditation:-->
Schools:20
Students:9,800

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is the public school district for the city of Berkeley, California, United States. The district is managed by the Superintendent of Schools, and governed by the Berkeley Board of Education, whose members are elected by voters. Its administrative offices are located in the old West Campus main building at 2020 Bonar Street, on the corner of Bonar and University Avenue.

History

The Berkeley Unified School District was formed in 1936 by the merger of the city's elementary and high school districts.[1]

District administrative offices were originally (in the late 19th century) at or near the Kellogg School (above Shattuck Avenue between Center Street and Allston Way).

In 1927, a two-story administration building was completed at 2325 Milvia Street (at the corner of Durant Avenue, across from the grounds of Berkeley High School). Designated a seismic hazard after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, it was put to non-school purposes beginning in 1940[2] and was razed in 1946, the site becoming tennis courts for the high school.[3]

In January 1940, administrative offices were moved to 1414 Walnut Street, the original Garfield Jr. High, later University Elementary and the temporary site, after the 1923 fire, of Hillside Elementary.

In 1943, Ruth Acty was hired to teach kindergarten at Longfellow school and became the district's first African American teacher.[4]

In 1979, the district offices moved to the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Way, and in 2012 to 2020 Bonar Street (originally Luther Burbank Junior High School, then Berkeley High School West Campus, and finally the Berkeley Adult School).[5]

Integration policy

During and following World War II, the African American population of Berkeley, as in the entire region, increased substantially. However, the practice of racial covenants in property title deeds, together with informal discrimination ("de facto"), had resulted in the black population being concentrated in certain sections of the city, primarily in the southwestern portions. Consequently, public schools serving those areas had a disproportionately high number of blacks while virtually no blacks attended the schools in other mostly white sections of the city. The only exception to this was Berkeley High School as it was, and remains, the only high school for the entire district.

Heightened local interest in the concerns and efforts of the civil rights movement, shared by many in the community, eventually led to the district adopting a school integration plan starting in the mid-1960s. The plan included the use of bussing to effect an integration of all the public schools in Berkeley. The first schools to be integrated under this plan were the junior high schools, Garfield and Willard, starting in the Fall of 1966. A third junior high school, Burbank, was closed, demolished and rebuilt (by 1968) as the high school's "West Campus", serving all the district's 9th-grade students.

Two years later, in the Fall of 1968, the elementary schools were integrated, utilizing the district's own expanded bus fleet.

Berkeley's integration plan, substantially modified, remains in place today. The Berkeley school district has evolved from a race-based to a geography-based integration plan.[6]

Governance

The school district is governed by the Berkeley Board of Education. It consists of five voting members (elected by the city's voters to four-year terms) and two non-voting student directors (elected by the district's high school students).[7]

Schools

Early Childhood Education

Elementary schools

Middle schools

High schools

Adult schools

Former Schools

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. The City of Berkeley, Mary Johnson, 1942, p.56 (typewritten mss in Berkeley Public Library History Room)
  2. Web site: Berkeley Daily Gazette - Google News Archive Search. news.google.com.
  3. Web site: CatalogIt HUB. CatalogIt.
  4. News: Pimsleur . J.L. . Ruth Acty . San Francisco Chronicle . October 9, 1998.
  5. Web site: West Campus Project (2020 Bonar Street) | Berkeley Unified School District. August 3, 2011.
  6. News: Orenstein . Natalie . A radical decision, an unfinished legacy . 24 January 2021 . Berkeleyside . 16 October 2018.
  7. Web site: School Board Members . Berkeley Unified School District . June 21, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161211102130/http://www.berkeleyschools.net/school-board/school-board-members/ . December 11, 2016 . dead .
  8. Web site: Berkeley Public Schools . 18 October 2022.
  9. Web site: Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association - McKINLEY SCHOOL. One of my favorite Berkeley buildings was the McKinley School on Dwight Way near Telegraph. I liked it because, with its columned portico, wood siding and two towers, it strongly evoked an earlier era. McKinley always bore a kinship, in my mind, to Emerson School (1906). Both were rectangular, wooden buildings with Classical details, and both were painted the same cream color. I remember reading in an editorial in the Berkeley Gazette in 1965 at the time Emerson was to be demolished, that it belonged to the "egg carton style of school architecture." Facetious, but an apt description! McKinley School was built in 1896. At that time, the only school in the southeast section of Berkeley was Le Conte, and additional classroom space was sorely needed. The School Board had purchased the lot on Dwight Way in 1891, but did not approve the construction of a new school until 1895. The architectural firm of Cunningham Bros. was engaged, construction began in late 1896, and an imposing and somewhat fanciful building with towers topped by belvederes soon rose on Dwight Way. The name it was given was the Dwight Way School, and it was designed to accommodate grades one through eight, with library, auditorium, and recreation rooms. After President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, the name of the school was changed to McKinley. The president was honored in like manner throughout the country, but in Berkeley the naming had special significance as McKinley had visited the college town during his presidency. On April 20, 1902 at the naming ceremony, a bronze bust of McKinley by sculptor Robert L. Aitken was unveiled with "appropriate ceremony," and an English elm was planted on each side of the walk leading to the entrance. It was stated that the naming of Berkeley's model grammar school was the highest compliment that the citizens of Berkeley could bestow, and that although "new buildings will someday replace these, this statue of bronze will remain here in its place in the ages to come." A bronze plaque known as the Shaw Tablet was installed at the school at the same time to honor Capt. Shaw and his Civil War regiment. At the dedication, Superintendent S.D. Waterman explained its significance: "This tablet is intended to help perpetuate the memory of the heroism and valor of a colored regiment and to keep before the people of this country the fact that more than 36,000 Negro soldiers gave up their lives in defense of the union." At that time, McKinley was indeed Berkeley's "model grammar school." Several innovative programs were begun there. The one-teacher system, usual in an elementary school, was changed to departmentalized classes; special beginning classes were provided for non-English speaking Asian students; and in 1909, McKinley was reorganized as one of Berkeley's first two junior high schools. By 1900, the original building had become overcrowded. A new four-classroom building for primary grades was built on the north half of the property, facing Haste Street. It was designed by San Francisco architect Maxwell Bugbee. The school kept growing: in 1906, local designer-builder A.H. Broad built a larger primary-grades classroom building on a newly purchased lot on the north side of Haste. The shingled "Haste Street Building" still stands and is a City Landmark. Since sometime in the 1930s, McKinley School became Berkeley's continuation high school. The University bought the property and leased it to the School District. Maintenance declined. Handsome and imposing in its youth, the building continued even during its last days to project a sense of its past glory despite years of neglect and the removal of much of its ornamentation. The building was demolished in 1970, and the McKinley bust and the Shaw Tablet were removed and have vanished. In 1974, the site became one of several new parks planned for the City. Designed by Alex Forrester, the park was named for YMCA and University counselor William H. Davis. As a tangible link with the old McKinley School, the concrete steps and the two English elms were retained by the planner. Today, there is a new building on the site, and all trace of the past has been removed. Photo by O.V. Lange from a view book of Berkeley published in 1898. (colorized) Commentary by Anthony Bruce. | Facebook. www.facebook.com.

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