NEW VIDEO: The people power behind GO Public Schools
Do you know who GO Public Schools Oakland is? Who, and how many people are in our network? Who are our team members? At GO, we know that our identities and our experiences shape our values. So as we end the decade and look forward to 2020, we did some analysis to better understand our community. We wanted to share what we learned, address potential misconceptions, and tell our story.
Our Work
Today we released a 90-second video about who we are, what we work on, and why. Check it out here:
Our Network
GO’s network includes parents, educators, families, elected officials, and policy-makers. Via email and social media, we regularly engage with over 10,000 Oaklanders who care about education in our city.
Geographically, we represent all seven of Oakland’s board districts, with the largest share living in District 5 (Fruitvale and Glenview neighborhoods).
While many people dig their heels in over ideological battles between district and charter public schools, we believe we should focus our time on coming together to focus on how to make all of our schools better for our students. 75% of our network identify as being connected to district-run schools in some way, while 25% are connected with charter public schools – a balance that generally reflects Oakland’s student enrollment.
Our Staff
The diversity of our larger GO community is also reflected in the staff members on our GO Oakland team. I’m proud of the small but mighty team of seven that we’ve built, and every one of us is a product of public schools. Three of us are former public school teachers, two of us are parents of Oakland public school students, five of my team members identify as people of color, and four are bilingual. The diverse backgrounds of our team members both strengthen and challenge us daily to have necessary conversations about equity and inclusion in our organization and work. We all share a deep commitment to ensuring that Oakland kids are receiving the best quality education possible.
GO draws on the diverse backgrounds of our team and network to bring together parents, educators, and policy-makers to the same table to keep community interests at the heart of the decision-making process. We’re looking forward to continuing this important work in 2020 and beyond.
P.S. We’d love your help sharing the video we just launched today on your social media channels! It’s here on Facebook and here on Twitter.
