Round Two of “Touchable Stories” Captures Richmond’s History Through Richmond Voices

By Anna McCarthy

Bob Ellison has lived in Richmond since 1930, and has a treasure trove of stories about the city that have finally found an outlet.

“Some of these stories, I’ve never told anyone before,” said Ellison. “Shannon was interested, so I said, well, this is a good way for me to show my ego off a little bit. I knew I was an old guy, but being an old guy I know something. I’m an asset. A resource.”

Ellison is one of many voices featured in Shannon Flattery’s newly renovated oral history project, Touchable Stories, which opens on Friday this week near the Port of Richmond. The stories featured in the exhibit, which is sponsored mainly by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, are all about Richmond. And they’re not just “Touchable.” They’re also audible and edible.

RYSE Makes Halloween Haven for Richmond Youth

By Nicholas Kusnetz

With a seemingly endless string of shootings plaguing Richmond in past weeks, youth organizers with RYSE were working hard Wednesday night to make sure all the blood was fake and all the screams were in delight. The organization’s youth center at 41st Street and Bissell Avenue was transformed into a Halloween haven, with scary rooms, pumpkin painting and a movie for the kids.

“We just wanted to do something for the community,” said Jay Siphanhtong, 18, who is part of the RYSE leadership team. “We wanted the kids to go somewhere that’s safe and fun.”

With plastic blood dripping down the walls and fake cobwebs covering doorways, kids passed through a series of rooms with frights and games. In one of the last rooms, a bowl of candy sat innocently on a table. Little did the children know that Greg Ollano, the 21-year-old co-chair of the leadership team, was hiding below.

Renewed Focus on English Proficiency at School Meeting

From left to right: Raul Morales, Harpreet Sandhu, Jorge Tovar and Jessica Tovar discuss parent teacher conferences at the opening meeting for the Multilingual District Advisory Committee

By Nicholas Kusnetz

Parents and teachers of English learners met Thursday night with the goal of doing more this year to help their children move quicker to English proficiency. At the opening meeting of the Multilingual District Advisory Committee, members discussed how to speed reclassification, when a student is no longer considered an English learner.

“Too many of our students are taking too long to meet our requirements,” said Susan Dunlap, district administrator with English language services, in an earlier interview.

As The College Cycle Begins, Richmond Youth Fall Through the Cracks

By Anna McCarthy

For anyone thinking about going to college, now is the time to begin looking seriously for funding. Or so says the Foundation Center-San Francisco spokesperson Scott Ullman, who recently presented a workshop on finding money for college at the Richmond Public Library.

But few students enrolled in the Richmond public high schools are even considering college, let alone worrying about how to pay for it.

Working Against Gang Violence at Richmond High

By Nicholas Kusnetz

On a Friday afternoon, Gonzalo Rucobo walks the halls of Richmond High School, talking with students and keeping an eye out for trouble.  Rucobo, whose work brings him to both schools and San Quentin, is a gang intervention worker and the Northern California regional manager for the Amer-I-Can Program, a life-skills and development curriculum.

Richmond High is essentially divided in half: members of the Norteño gang, despite their name, stay on the south side of the building, while Sureños stay on the north, and mixing back and forth usually means trouble. But things are improving thanks in part to the work of Rucobo and his team, who first came to the school last year, said Dr. Orlando Ramos, the school’s principal.

“Our suspensions, our violent incidents, they went down 30 percent last year,”  Ramos said. “It was absolutely amazing. It was great work.”

Kennedy High Student Shot on Way to School

By Nicholas Kusnetz

RICHMOND — Shots rang out once again in central Richmond Monday morning, hitting a 15-year-old John F. Kennedy High School student as he walked with a friend to school.

The boy, who has no criminal record, was hit in the foot by shots fired from a moving van near the corner of 25th Street and Virginia Avenue, according to Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department.

The victim, whose name was not released, was hospitalized in stable condition.

“He’s fortunate,” Gagan said. “They shot him point blank.”

New Coordinators Strengthen Health Services for Richmond Teens

By Anna McCarthy

Starting this fall, Richmond high school students no longer have to go far from school grounds to look for health services. That’s because last spring the West Contra Costa School District agreed to hire six new health coordinators who are working together to improve—and in some cases initiate—health centers in all of the public high schools.

“The district decided that since they don’t have a lot of money to make health clinics for every public high school in West Contra Costa County, they should start with hiring a coordinator for each one of the schools to strengthen the existing services offered by the school, and also bring in new services to the schools,” said Debbie Espinoza, health service coordinator at De Anza High School.

Richmond Steelers in the Contra Costa Times

I think you will need an account (you can set one up for free) to read the piece.

Moving Ahead Without Coach Fred

Bringing Richmond Into Art

By Anna McCarthy

Outside, gray skies threatened rain over the expansive parking lot and abandoned construction site hugging the faux-brick exterior of Richmond’s Art Center on Barrett Avenue. Inside the warmly lit interior of the galleries, the chic ambiance and sleek dress code at Saturday’s reception could have been a scene right out of an art opening in the heart of New York City.

Art lovers, young and old alike, came out of the Richmond woodwork for last Saturday’s reception. The event celebrated the Center’s new fall exhibit and featured three different showcases.

The South Gallery showed paintings, photography and ceramics from five artists chosen from last year’s Members Only show, and the Main Gallery featured work by California College of the Arts’ recent photography graduates and faculty. The showcases are proof that the Center attracts a variety of gifted artists who help to bring art into Richmond.

But the West Gallery exhibit, showcasing work from Richmond’s Neighborhood Public Art Project, demonstrated how the Center is bringing Richmond into art.

Topics of Interest – Education

Two major developments in September will affect the development of the West Contra Costa Unified School District over the next couple of years.

• The district reached an agreement with the United Teachers of Richmond on a pay-raise of 4 percent, a two-year deal that is retroactive to July 2006. However, the raise was short of the 7.9 percent sought by the union, and does not benefit all teachers equally, according to USD Board Member Audrey Miles.