Why Days of Peace Matter

Next Saturday, October 24, Project Peace is kicking off the school year with a Day of Peace. We'll have volunteers working from 9 AM - 12 PM at two local public schools: Oakland's Claremont Middle School, and Berkeley's Leconte Elementary School. If you've been to a Day of Peace over the past year, Claremont will be familiar to you; for over two years, we have been helping in various ways to improve their physical space. Leconte Elementary is a new site, and we're excited by the possibility of developing a similar long-term relationship with them.

What might come as a surprise to you, since both of these schools are located in attractive and seemingly affluent neighborhoods, is the extent of their needs. Both Leconte and Claremont are classified as "Program Improvement Schools," based on their failure to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP, a federal measure that requires schools to meet test score goals). 60% of Leconte students and 67.5% of Claremont students are classified as low-income by the state; due to the school assignment systems in Berkeley and Oakland, many of the students who attend these schools do not actually reside in the bucolic neighborhoods that surround them. The current state budget crisis has and will continue to impact these schools with severe funding cuts.

This is why it's important for us to continue to support our neighborhood schools like Leconte and Claremont. Showing up for 3 hours on a Saturday morning to weed school gardens, paint classrooms, and help set up for school fundraisers may not seem groundshaking, but it sends a message to over 700 students and their administrators that the community cares about them. It helps create school buildings and grounds that are clean and safe environments for learning. And it's the first step towards creating relationships with these schools -- relationships of respect, trust, and mutual problem-solving that will grow over time to include additional types of service.

So, please come to the Day of Peace on Saturday, October 24. And please RSVP here.