Piedmont High Launches Summer Service Academy

At a time when school funding seems to be constantly imperiled, Piedmont is finding ways to go beyond saving programs to creating innovative ones.

To wit: AISCE, the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies and Community Engagement.

This summer, a pilot program will allow Piedmont High students to stretch their service wings, working with Oakland kids in poor neighborhoods to learn about conflict resolution and self-empowerment through arts projects, sustainable gardening and soccer for special needs kids at a Berkeley field.

“We are using art and community projects to bridge the socio-economic divide,” explained Piedmont High teacher Ken Brown, whose students will kick the soccer ball around on the pitch with special needs students. The high schoolers will learn about new technologies and career possibilities in working with special needs children.

Collectively, the Piedmont High students will work with children, aged 5 through 13, at the new West Oakland Youth Center. The program is supported by the Associated Parents Clubs of Piedmont, which was concerned about dwindling summer offerings at Piedmont High because of budget cuts.

When APCP President Mary Ireland pitched her idea of a summer service program, Superintendent Connie Hubbard “sat up at her desk and said, ‘I think this is cool!’”

Hubbard directed Ireland to the new West Oakland Youth Center, now in its second year, in a former school building at 1011 Union St. that also houses school security officers of the Oakland Unified School District.

Ireland also found a good reception from the Oakland school district’s police chief, Pete Sarna, who saw how the program could dovetail with a summer recreation program the security officers have launched. The combined programs will make use of a portable classroom, computers, library, a play structure and gardens, Ireland said.

AISCE will have three 3-week sessions during the summer: June 20-July 9; July 11-30; and Aug. 1-19.

For the 90 or so students who sign up for one or all three sessions, there will be small, college-style seminars in the morning with readings and reflections from Brown and his colleagues Rosie Reid, Aaron Sears and Gillian Bailey. Afternoons will proceed to working with younger children at the youth center (including art projects), at urban farms and on sports fields.

Piedmont High chef Aaron Sears and students will dig into nearby sustainable gardens at urban farms. When they aren’t getting their hands dirty, they’ll be studying the art of growing healthy food. Their service hours will be spent at the West Oakland center, growing and preparing meals and teaching youngsters about nutrition.

For those who sign up for the arts program at the youth center, there will be mural making and other art projects, such as a video of the summer program process. This group will also pitch in on setting up a library and computer lab for the new center.

High school students will be driven to program sites and will provide their own lunches. Any student entering ninth through 12th grade can sign up. Students will receive credit for up to 25 hours of community service for participating. Students can contact Ken Brown for information about financial assistance.

An orientation meeting is scheduled for lunchtime April 20 in a Piedmont High classroom.

“This is a great opportunity for teachers,” said Ireland. “They have had a tough year. They’ve taken hits on their pay and benefits. Now they can be working and developing new and innovative programs.”

Public schools should take note of the success private schools have from stressing community service, Ireland said. She hopes the AISCE pilot will become a popular learning experience at Piedmont High.

“This program is about volunteering and working with a teacher to explore and understand, and to learn leadership, understanding about differences, responsibility,” said Ireland.

“Kids don’t want to sit in the same classroom they’ve been in all year. But with community service, this is a way Piedmont can expand. Given that we live in this incredibly interesting, diverse community, an amazing urban place, Piedmont sometimes forgets it is in the middle. You don’t have to go to Guatemala to have a meaningful impact in the world.”