I have known Greg Hodge for many years. I met him when I was administering Juvenile Court and he was with the Urban Strategies Council. He always impressed me as one extremely interested in children and their minds. He also impressed me as one who was an able, hands-on type of person. Each year he would work closely with the court in the Young Black Males Conferences and in various focus groups the court summoned for discussion of issues that affected our courts and our young people. He has ideas and he was willing to work his ideas or those of others with whom he agrees

We sat down in Gibbs's office and discussed his ideas on the Oakland Unified and what he would do to improve the District, were he elected.
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G: Thank you for coming for this interview, Greg.

G.H.: Thank you for inviting me, Frank.
G:You are a candidate for the school Board in District 3. What are the boundaries and demographics of District 3?

G.H.: District 3 is West Oakland. It runs from the Port to the old train station, up to 34th Ave., over to Mac Arthur Blvd.; it has Adams Point and is bound by the Lake. West Oakland is 50% Black in the West part of this District; some of the more affluent citizens of the District live in Adams Point, and some of the poorest live in West Oakland. Adams Point is more densely populated than West Oakland, but West Oakland has greater land mass than Adams Point.

District 3 is a microcosm of the City--it is a well integrated district, with Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians.

G:Who is your opposition in this District 3 race?

G.H.: I am running against Arathalia Raye; she is an African American woman who has been in West Oakland for years. The two of us have many of the same ideas, but the difference will be in our personalities, experiences, and our ability to articulate and debate our ideas and other issues that arise. She is a grandmother who is a member of ACORN, a national organization that actually ran her campaign. I like her personally; we get along, and she's a nice person.

The interesting thing about this race was that there were heavy endorsements and money in this race. Gilda Gonzalez, the Mayor's endorsed candidate and a member of his staff, had over $100,000 put into her campaign through the Mayor's campaign chest and other sources, and she lost. She was new to West Oakland. This sends a message to City Hall that they can't buy elections, and new comers can not move in and claim downtown support and win.

G: Why do you want to be on the School Board?

G.H.: I want to be on the Board because I believe every child deserves a good education. We have been under-investing in public education, and the 2,000 or so children in my District, many of whom are African American and Hispanic and many coming from disadvantaged situations, economically, need a real chance in life is to get a good education. They are not going to inherit money or businesses from their parents, so they deserve a chance to be educated. An education is the only hope they will have. I have four children in public education, but as a parent and an educated person, I'm going to make sure my children do OK, but many of the children in my District are not so situated.

Many don't have someone looking out for their interests; we have had advocates for the community, for teachers, for the unions, and for self interests of the School Board; we need advocates for the children.

G: What are some of the things you and Gonzalez differed on?

G.H.: I think that it is important to create schools that are smaller and of quality as an approach to teaching children. Her approach would be to create charter schools--the Performing Arts school, the Military Academy, etc. Most people know that these two schools won't make that much difference. They will probably get the cream of the crop with these schools, children who would have done OK anyway. Part of what the Mayor has missed is that we need a system-wide change that will affect all the children.

I applaud Dennis Chaconas's standardizing of the reading curriculum for all of the schools. In the past, every school could decide on their own curriculum. That posed a problem for students transferring from one school to the next. Poor people move about quite a bit.

G: Do you favor Charter Schools?

G.H.:I have been supportive of certain types of charter schools. There are two types--privatized education, the Edison model--they come in and takeover the buildings and the dollars that would go to the children were they in the public schools and run the schools privately; the other type of Charter School is a community run, community governed and it has good parental support. This second type of Charter School I support.

G: Couldn't Charter Schools harm the financial health of the District, since they take money from the District?

G.H.: I think in a long run it does, but in a short term what you are doing is applying an emergency response to 50-100 students who are not learning well. But overall, you need to change the system that has this problem. So Charter Schools are only a short-term fix. The problems of the District that requires a Charter School have to be fixed. In New York, there is something called the New Small Autonomous Schools. They are somewhat like the academies we have, except they look at elementary and lower grades with a small classroom setting inside the larger context of the school.

G: How are Charter Schools different from vouchers?

G.H.: Vouchers allow any parent to take the money a district was to pay for that child and go shopping for an individual private school or any other school. The voucher program could pull public school dollars out of public schools completely. Charter Schools are essentially public schools with public school oversight. If a school is not performing, that school's charter can be revoked.

There is a risk with Charter Schools that they will take the cream of the crop; that is why they have to be monitored closely.

G: What other issues do you want to address as a school Board Member?

G.H.: There are three: There should be much more attention than we have given to the quality, training, and qualifications of our teachers. Teachers are the most important aspect of education, except for, maybe, parental involvement. If we can attract and retain good teachers that is important. Oakland attracts many good teachers, but after the first year or two, they don't feel that they are getting support from the central office and they leave.

Also, we need to create more mentoring relationships between experienced and young teachers. There should be a teachers academy so that our young teachers can get good training and stay in the District.

G: Can a District decide to pay teachers a reasonable sum, say $50,000 or 60,000 if they want to?

G.H.: Yes, they can. The District is in control of its own budget. In Oakland, the District is losing many of its good teachers to surrounding Districts that are paying more money. After a few years our teachers go elsewhere because of more money that is being paid elsewhere.

The next issue I want to deal with is more site-based management. Give more control of the facility to those who work there. If something breaks, the principal has to go to the District to have the repairs done. They don't have control over this aspect of their budget and their facility. This centralized control is time-intensive and slow. Many of the school remain in disrepair too long while the red tape moves this action slowly.

Also, too many teachers are spending, on an average $1,500-2,000 of their money for basic school supplies and needs of students. Teachers need the tools supplied by the District to do their job.

Not only is there not enough on-site management by staff, but parents have no say in the policies that are in place at the various schools.

The third issue is the safety; going to school, in-school safety, and after school safety--what happens during after-school hour? I have been a big supporter of after-school programs of all sorts. Most of our children have about 30% unsupervised time after school. That's a lot of time to be unsupervised.

The resources for after-school programs are in three categories: 1.) the District's After-school program; 2.) Foundations and government funds. In Oakland Measure K dollars amount to $5.6 million, and most of that goes to after school programs.

G: If you are elected, how would you implement your goals, and what would be the consequences to our schools?

G.H.: The Oakland schools would be desirable learning places where young people would be excited to go, teachers would feel engaged and excited about their jobs, and those who are not doing a good job would be asked to move on. And, of course, test scores will go up, and there will be a sense of hope and opportunity our children would have.

G: How do you , as a Board member get the Board to implement your will once you are on the Board?

G.H.: Anyone on the school Board must have a constituency--people in the community who you can get out to Board meetings and who will engage themselves at the school site level to help you do the work. That must be a constituency of parents and students who would actually work with you. I will be hosting District-wide meetings once a month or some other regularity.

Second, whatever ideas that are advanced must be well thought out and focused. And you must be willing to work with the Mayor or anyone else who has good ideas.

G: Thank you for this interview, and good Luck.

G.H.: Thank you for inviting me. []

Frank A. Jones interviewer

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