Oakland City Hall Ceremony to Celebrate Attendance in Oakland Unified School District
It is a Tuesday morning and Oakland City Hall is mostly empty. The city council is no longer in session, and the building interior is a museum-level of pristine and quiet — until a flood of elementary school students and families arrive for the concluding ceremony of the Oakland Natives Give Back (ONGB) District Wide Attendance Challenge. Each year, students from each of the 82 schools in OUSD are invited to participate in the District Wide Attendance Challenge. At the conclusion of each challenge, Oakland Natives Give Back selects 20 Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) students with 95% attendance between October and November to receive a $500 award.
The winners for the 2016–2017 academic year attend the following schools: Bella Vista Elementary School, Bridges Academy at Melrose, Frick Middle School, Brookfield Elementary School, Global Family Elementary School, Horace Mann Elementary School, Howard Elementary School, Lafayette Elementary School, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, and Parker Elementary School.
This year’s ceremony took place in City Hall’s Hearing Room 4: the nearly 70 ceremony attendees included students, parents, grandparents, siblings, school staff members, and representatives of various Oakland political offices. ONGB director Dr. Nyeisha DeWitt presented each of the 20 student winners with a huge check as well as a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Certificate of Recognition from Assemblymember Rob Bonta, a City Council Proclamation from Councilmember Desley Brooks, a Certificate from Oakland City Councilmember Abel Guillen, and, of course, a $500 money order.
The District Wide Attendance Challenge empowers Oakland students by:
- Demonstrating the importance of perfect attendance by rewarding students for an accomplishment in that area.
- Helping raise awareness about the importance of daily attendance in OUSD schools, all of which receive information about the challenge.
- Setting a select group of students on a positive trajectory in their relationship with school by rewarding them for an academic achievement.
- Making sure that OUSD students develop a sense of civic engagement through familiarity with Oakland City Hall and contact with local sources of political power.
- Involving families and community members in committing to and celebrating student academic success.
For further information about Oakland Natives Give Back, (non-profit 501c3) visit: www.oaklandnatives.org
