Street Academy: “40 Years of Empowering Students for Social Justice”

Jun 7, 2013

Posted in Education/Schools/Youth

By Post Staff

The Oakland Street Academy is celebrating “40 years of empowering students for social justice,” as a small, public alternative school that has graduated generations of local students.

Many graduates, families and former staff members participated in an anniversary event last Thursday evening to express their

gratitude for the work the school has done and present awards to four women – staff and community leaders – whose efforts have shaped the school.

Honorees were: Carole Watson, president of the Street Academy Foundation Board, former president of the Bay Area Urban League and former Chief Community Investment Officer of the United Way of the Bay Area; Corrina Gould, a graduate in the class of 1984, parent of two daughters who attended the school, foundation board member and coordinator at the American Indian Child Resource Center; Patricia Williams-Myrick, the Street Academy´s executive director, who has been at the school since 1974; and Elizabeth “Betsy” Schultz, who has taught at the school since 1973.

Those reconized by the Street Academy were (L to R): Carole Watson, Corrina Gould, Pat Williams-Myrick and Betsy Schultz.

Speakers at the celebration included former Monica Vaughn, former Street Academy teacher who is coordinator of Alternative Education for the Oakland Unified School District; City Councilmember Noel Gallo; Dr. Robert Blackburn, a former OUSD superintendent who came to Oakland from Philadelphia with the late Dr. Marcus Foster.