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American Indian Public Charter School

1996 establishments in CaliforniaCharter middle schools in CaliforniaEducation reformEducational institutions established in 1996Native American schools in California
Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area

American Indian Public Charter School or AIPCS is an Oakland, California charter middle school with predominantly low-income, minority students. It opened in 1996 and struggled over the next few years until a turnaround after 2000 brought up enrollment numbers and test scores. By 2005, the AIPCS students achieved test scores superior those of most public schools in the state. Its principal, Ben Chavis (Lumbee), a Native American educator, believed that minority students were best served by high expectations for strong attendance and discipline, as well as regular homework and summer school. Chavis was criticized for some of his methods. In 2007, AICPS became the first public school in Oakland to win the National Blue Ribbon Award. The AICPS attracted an increasingly diverse student body as enrollment increased, with higher proportions of African American, Asian and Latino students than Native Americans. By 2015, its students were overwhelmingly Asian.The American Indian Model Schools charter system developed from the AIPCS in order to expand the offerings to students. Since 2007, under new management, it has operated three schools in the city, two middle schools (one had grades K-4 added in 2012), and a high school, American Indian Public High School. The charter for the AIMS schools was threatened in 2012 because of discoveries of financial mismanagement and concerns about leadership. Although the Oakland School District voted to revoke the charter, the school system gained a preliminary injunction that allowed it to operate the three schools. With new leaders, it gained a 5-year renewal of its charter in 2013. Other irregularities were reported in 2012 as the result of a state "extraordinary audit" of the second middle school, AIPCS II. There were allegations of additional mismanagement and fraud. In March 2017 former principal Ben Chavis was indicted by the federal government on six felony counts for money laundering and mail fraud based on his financial activities with the AIMS schools. He will be tried in federal district court in San Francisco.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article American Indian Public Charter School (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

American Indian Public Charter School
Magee Avenue, Oakland

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N 37.79367 ° E -122.19939 °
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Magee Avenue 3639
94613 Oakland
California, United States
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Redwood Heights, Oakland, California
Redwood Heights, Oakland, California

Redwood Heights is a mostly middle-class and highly diverse residential neighborhood in the hills of East Oakland, California. It is centered on Redwood Road, which was once a logging road. Currently, Redwood Road is the designation for 35th Avenue starting about a mile north of MacArthur Boulevard between Victor Avenue and the Warren Freeway (State Route 13). It includes Redwood Heights Elementary School Of the 2 Redwood trees on the school premises. One was planted in 1963 in remembrance of John F Kennedy. And a recreation center that doubles as an after-school daycare. It lies at an elevation of 476 feet (145 m). The homes in Redwood Heights date mainly from the 1920s-1950s and vary greatly in style, from craftsman, to "storybook," to ranch; the first development in the area was Avenue Terrace. There is a large rock/stone "obelisk" on the corner of 35th Ave and Victor that says "Avenue Terrace" and may have once been a marker for the development. There is also an Avenue Terrace park, which is located elsewhere in the neighborhood. Redwood Heights has the important distinction of being one of Oakland's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods with a mostly middle class population. The 2010 Census reflects the primary zip code for the neighborhood as having about 23,200 residents, with caucasians making up about 29.9% of the population, African Americans 26.2%, Asians 22%, and Latinos 16.1%, with other races forming the remaining 5.8%.