Martin Luther King Middle School (Berkeley)
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The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is the public
school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...
for the city of
Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States. The district is managed by the Superintendent of Schools, and governed by the Berkeley Board of Education, whose members are elected by voters. Its administrative offices are located in the old West Campus main building at 2020 Bonar Street, on the corner of Bonar and University Avenue.


History

The Berkeley Unified School District was formed in 1936 by the merger of the city's elementary and high school districts. District administrative offices were originally (in the late 19th century) at or near the Kellogg School (above
Shattuck Avenue Shattuck Avenue is a major city street running north–south through Berkeley and Oakland, California. At its southern end, the street branches from Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Temescal district, then ends at Indian Rock Park in the Ber ...
between Center Street and Allston Way). In 1927, a two-story administration building was completed at 2325 Milvia Street (at the corner of Durant Avenue, across from the grounds of Berkeley High School). Designated a seismic hazard after the
1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and ...
, it was put to non-school purposes beginning in 1940 and was razed in 1946, the site becoming tennis courts for the high school. In January 1940, administrative offices were moved to 1414 Walnut Street, the original Garfield Jr. High, later University Elementary and the temporary site, after the 1923 fire, of Hillside Elementary. In 1943, Ruth Acty was hired to teach kindergarten at Longfellow school and became the district's first African American teacher. In 1979, the district offices moved to the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Way, and in 2012 to 2020 Bonar Street (originally Luther Burbank Junior High School, then Berkeley High School West Campus, and finally the Berkeley Adult School).


Integration policy

During and following
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the African American population of Berkeley, as in the entire region, increased substantially. However, the practice of racial covenants in property title deeds, together with informal discrimination ("de facto"), had resulted in the black population being concentrated in certain sections of the city, primarily in the southwestern portions. Consequently, public schools serving those areas had a disproportionately high number of blacks while virtually no blacks attended the schools in other mostly white sections of the city. The only exception to this was Berkeley High School as it was, and remains, the only high school for the entire district. Heightened local interest in the concerns and efforts of the civil rights movement, shared by many in the community, eventually led to the district adopting a school integration plan starting in the mid-1960s. The plan included the use of bussing to effect an integration of all the public schools in Berkeley. The first schools to be integrated under this plan were the junior high schools, Garfield and Willard, starting in the Fall of 1966. A third junior high school, Burbank, was closed, demolished and rebuilt (by 1968) as the high school's "West Campus", serving all the district's 9th-grade students. Two years later, in the Fall of 1968, the elementary schools were integrated, utilizing the district's own expanded bus fleet. Berkeley's integration plan, substantially modified, remains in place today. The Berkeley school district has evolved from a race-based to a geography-based integration plan.


Governance

The school district is governed by the Berkeley Board of Education. It consists of five voting members (elected by the city's voters to four-year terms) and two non-voting student directors (elected by the district's high school students). The current five voting members are Ana Vasudeo, Ka'Dijah Brown, Jennifer Shanoski, Mike Chang, and Jen Corn. In the 2024 election, Laura Babitt lost reelection and was replaced by Corn. Vasudeo was reelected. The current superintendent is Enikia Ford Morthel.


Schools


Early Childhood Education

* Franklin Preschool * Hopkins Preschool * King Child Development Center


Elementary schools

* Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School at Whittier (formerly Whittier Elementary) * Cragmont Elementary School * Emerson Elementary School * Ruth Acty Elementary School (formerly Jefferson Elementary) *
John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
Elementary School * Sylvia Mendez Elementary School (formerly Le Conte Elementary School) *
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
Arts & Academics Magnet Elementary School (formerly Lincoln Elementary) * Oxford Elementary School, the smallest school in the BUSD with 262 students in 2024 *
Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, in defiance of Jim Crow laws, which sparke ...
Environmental Science Magnet Elementary School (formerly Columbus Intermediate School) * Thousand Oaks Elementary School * Washington Elementary School


Middle schools

* Longfellow Magnet Middle School *
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
Middle School (formerly Garfield Junior High School), site of the
Edible Schoolyard The Edible Schoolyard (ESY) is a garden and kitchen program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, a public middle school in Berkeley, California. It was established in 1995 by chef and author Alice Waters. It is supported by the Edible Sc ...
project * Willard Middle School


High schools

* Berkeley High School, the largest school in the BUSD with 3000 students enrolled each year. * Berkeley Technology Academy (Continuation High School)


Adult schools

*
Berkeley Adult School The Berkeley Adult School (BAS) is administered by the Berkeley Unified School District. The school is located at 1701 San Pablo Avenue, between Virginia and Francisco Streets in Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shor ...


Former Schools

* Burbank Jr. High School (closed 1966; original structure demolished and replaced; reopened as West Campus-Berkeley High School) * East Campus, Berkeley High School (first located at renamed McKinley Continuation School, relocated to temporary buildings at former Savo Island federal housing site (Derby at Grove) in 1971; closed after Spring 2001, replaced by Berkeley Alternative High School) * Edison Junior High School (located on Oregon Street and Russell at King Street; became the Instructional Materials Center for the district, remodeled after a major fire in August, 1970) * Franklin Elementary School (closed 2002; re-opened as Berkeley Adult School; originally was the site of the oldest school in Berkeley, the Ocean View School, established in 1856, renamed the San Pablo Avenue School in 1879, later renamed Franklin) * Grizzly Peak Primary School (formerly Little Hillside Primary School) (closed 1981) *
Hillside Elementary School Hillside Elementary School is a 50,302 ft2 former public elementary school in the hills of Berkeley, California, at 1581 Le Roy Avenue, bordered by Le Roy Avenue, Buena Vista Way, and La Loma Avenue. It is registered as a List of ...
(closed 1983) * Kellogg Primary School (1880–1910, Berkeley's second public school, located at Center and Oxford; Berkeley High School was located on the grounds from 1880 to 1900; after Kellogg closed, its buildings were rented to the
California College of Arts and Crafts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a Private university, private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened ...
from 1911 to 1921; subsequently razed) * Lorin School * McKinley Continuation School, constructed in 1896 as the Dwight Way School for grades 1 through 8. Renamed McKinley School in 1902 for the assassinated president. McKinley became a junior high school in 1909. In the 1930s, it became a continuation high school. The property was bought by the University of California and leased back to the school district. It was renamed as the East Campus of Berkeley High in late 1960s; building razed, site became part of the Rochdale Apartments student housing cooperative) * Rose Street School * Tilden Primary School (formerly Cragmont Primary School; closed 1981) * University Elementary School (opened in 1922–23 at 1414 Walnut Street in a building originally housing Garfield Junior High, and in later years, the site of the Berkeley Unified School District's headquarters building now located at the former West Campus) * West Campus, Berkeley High School (closed 1986; became the site of the
Berkeley Adult School The Berkeley Adult School (BAS) is administered by the Berkeley Unified School District. The school is located at 1701 San Pablo Avenue, between Virginia and Francisco Streets in Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shor ...
until 2004; since 2012, the site of the administrative offices of the district)


See also

*
List of school districts in Alameda County, California This is a list of school districts in California. California school districts are of several varieties, usually a Unified district, which includes all of the Elementary and High Schools in the same geographic area; Elementary school districts ...


References


External links


Berkeley Unified School District webpage
{{Authority control Education in Berkeley, California School districts in Alameda County, California 1936 establishments in California