A letter from a Tilden Alumni parent

Tilden Alumni Families know firsthand about Tilden's success rate. Children who started preschool at Tilden have gone on to success in mainstream classrooms throughout the district and throughout the Bay Area. One parent, Julie Wolters, wrote this letter about her son's experience:

Tilden School was an absolute life changing educational experience for my son. Tilden provided a central location with many services concentrated for my son and many other special needs children. My son was able to attend an autism preschool class, mainstream into a speech-delay class, mainstream into a Head Start preschool class, receive OT and speech, have integrated playgroups with some typically developing students at Tilden, have art, PE, and music classes with specially trained teachers, use the OT room, which at the time was beautifully equipped, and many other wonderful advantages.

Another precious thing about Tilden was the supportive school-wide culture, where my son and many others found acceptance and felt so much at home, where everyone in the school understood what their needs were and how to best communicate with them. My son was the star of a number of Tilden concerts and was celebrated for his language skills there, when he was less developed than his peers and didn’t receive that kind of recognition elsewhere.

My son has since successfully joined the mainstream in education, attending 1st grade in Danville, and I give Tilden School, with the excellent teachers and staff who worked with my son, full credit for this accomplishment.

I tell many people in the San Ramon school district about the fine, creative work that is being done for special needs children at Tilden School in Oakland. I think Tilden is a model for the rest of the nation in how to best educate young children with special needs. In fact, often times I don’t need to further explain about Tilden, because it has such a good reputation among many service providers, practitioners, and special ed teachers.

It is a complete shame and such a waste to trim Tilden out of the Oakland school district. Furthermore, I doubt OUSD will save money in the long run. I would have been perfectly willing to go to due process and demand a private school education for my son, at OUSD’s expense, if Tilden had not been such a fantastic experience for us. I urge you to reconsider this plan and, instead, why not send some of the children from the under-enrolled, poorly maintained, low-API schools, to Tilden? Why mess with one of the jewels of the OUSD system?

Sincerely,
Julie Wolters

Tilden in the News: The OakBook

The OakBook: Daily Oakland Dispatches is a local news blog that recently ran a story by Alex Gronke on Tilden's future and the pros and cons of converting to a charter school.

You can check it out here.

Join Us! Become a Friend of Tilden

If you haven't done so already, we hope you'll consider adding your voice to the many, many people who have spoken out in an effort to try to preserve the high quality services and warm, nurturing environment that Tilden provides.

You can tell the Oakland Unified School Board that you stand with the Tilden Parent Teacher Organization as a Friend of Tilden by submitting a letter of support.

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1) Download this letter. Save a copy and add your name and information to the bottom. Then email it back to christajdahlstrom@gmail.com.

2) Copy the text below into a new document, provide the relevant information and email it to the same address listed above.

Either way, feel free to add your own comments and stories about what Tilden means to you and why you want to see it continue.

Thanks for your support!

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I / our organization stands with the Parent Teacher Organization of Tilden School in NOT supporting the proposal to close Tilden and relocate its students until OUSD demonstrates that the new schools can provide the same or better instruction, services, and environment as Tilden.

Name of organization or individual:

Affiliation with Tilden:

Contact person (if an organization):

Address:

Your comments (optional):

Community members speak out

Many community members are starting to speak out about the the possible closure of Tilden. Here's one heartfelt letter we received this week from one such individual:

Oakland needs Tilden School. For decades, it has been a flagship school within Oakland Unified, always leading the way in setting up innovative programs serving students with an incredible array of learning needs. It is a unique and invaluable community resource.

Although the programs developed at Tilden can and should be replicated on a smaller scale at sites throughout Oakland Unified, Tilden itself should remain intact. Oakland needs a school where the community is willing to explore new ways to effectively educate students with varying learning styles, providing rich and rigorous educational programs tailored to the needs of individual students.

Tilden is that school.

There is nothing else like it in Oakland and likely nothing else like it anywhere in the country. The Oakland community needs to do all it can to keep Tilden afloat and allow it to navigate the challenging water of finding new and better ways to reach each and every student.

The stated reasons for closing Tilden (a minimally maintained forested rambling campus, too many special needs preschoolers, too many special education students, and not enough general education students) are problems that can be addressed. It is possible to fix the facility and balance the student population, allowing Tilden to continue its mission, while simultaneously developing programs modeled on Tilden programs at other campuses throughout OUSD.

If Oakland loses Tilden, it loses one of the best things that OUSD has ever provided for the community it serves.

Another Friend of Tilden

Upcoming Meetings

Here are some upcoming events regarding the relocation of Tilden for next year. Mark your calendars.

OUSD Teaching and Learning Subcommittee Meeting
Monday, March 2nd at 6:30 p.m.
1025 Second Ave. Oakland - Board Room

OUSD Facilities Subcommittee Meeting
Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:30 p.m.
1025 Second Ave. Oakland - Board Room

A note about Subcommittee Meetings: The subcommittees meet to discuss issues and then have to approve them to go to the board.

So, our voice at the subcommittees is very important. These subcommittees are a time for discussion and an opportunity for us to propose alternative solutions and also help us understand each board member's thought process and questions, which helps us have a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.

These sub-committees have to agree that this plan is appropriate to present to the Board before it even makes it on the agenda on March 11th.

OUSD School Board Meeting
Wednesday, March 11th at 5:00 p.m.
1025 Second Ave. Oakland - Board Room
This is a CRITICAL meeting where the school board will decide if Tilden will be closed next year. We hope to have a large turnout to show strong community support for keeping Tilden open.

Welcome to the Friends of Tilden School blog!

Welcome!

The Tilden Parent Teacher Organization and other supporters of Tilden School will be posting news, information and event details on this site on an ongoing basis.

Let's build a strong community of support for the children and teachers of Tilden!