Progress, Setbacks at EC High
- Livable El Cerrito
- Jun 4
- 8 min read
Updated: Jun 23
This post was updated on June 4 to correct a date.
As the school year winds down, plans are in the works for fixing a schoolwide power outage and approval of the block schedule which has been in place since 1996. Still in question are naming of a new principal, the future of the radio station and support for the theater program.
Getting to Yes on the Block Schedule
After a spring marked by the apparent reluctance of Interim Superintendent Kim Moses to approve flexible schedules for district high schools, teachers at El Cerrito High School are in agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for next school year. This will include the block schedule they requested, reliable sources said.
In March, the future of flexible schedules and electives at district high schools was called into question.
Moses proposed to save money by eliminating the flexible schedules and laying off some teachers. The move was protested by students, teachers, and parents. The United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) argued the district was underestimating its revenue and had no need to make the changes.
Recently agreements have been reached.
Francisco Ortiz, UTR president, said MOUs for flexible schedules at Kennedy and Richmond high schools have been signed. The MOU for El Cerrito High may be signed as early as today.
The El Cerrito High block schedule, in place since 1996, allows the school to offer four 90-minute classes each semester, or eight classes per year.
Teachers at El Cerrito did not know it, but a big stumbling block to agreement was misinformation.
This finally became apparent at a May 12 Town Hall meeting, said Mr. Decker, an English and theater teacher at El Cerrito High and a UTR representative. In that meeting, the interim superintendent stated that 15 teachers at the school were being paid 140% of their salary.
When teachers heard that statement, they knew it was not accurate.
“We were pretty vocal about it,” Decker said.
After that, Decker said, Moses double-checked the information she had received. Within a couple of days negotiations began on how to limit the amount of time teachers will work.
“I think it just goes to show the unnecessary tension and conflict that was caused by the whole process,” Decker said. “Advocacy mattered, because otherwise they never would have told us the problem and checked their assumptions.”
Moses did not respond to requests for an interview.
Electrical Repairs and Generators This Summer
El Cerrito High School experienced a schoolwide power outage on March 18, and by the end of the day on March 19 the district had leased two generators which have been providing power to the school.
On May 30, the district issued a statement about their evaluation of the problem and plans to fix it – this summer if possible.
The problem was identified as extensive damage to a section of the electrical switchboard which supplies power to the campus. The cause was water damage.
After identifying a preferred repair strategy, district staff went through a month-long review process with PG&E to make sure the approach met their requirements.
Parts to make repairs are not readily available, a district statement said.
“Plans call for necessary parts to be manufactured over the summer, with installation to occur, followed by a final inspection in the fall,” the statement said. “We will need to be in careful coordination with several agencies for inspection and utility shutdown, so the exact timeline is not solely in the district’s control.”
Generators will remain at the high school, but it was not clear how often they will operate. They “will be used to provide essential safety systems, including fire and intrusion alarms,” the statement said.
In a related development, the district announced June 2 that it plans to close El Cerrito and three other high schools during the summer because of construction and infrastructure work at these sites. (Also closed will be Kennedy, Richmond, and De Anza.)
El Cerrito High is slated to be closed from June 23 to Aug. 4.
An email about the closures said “extended generator use (at El Cerrito) during the summer is not fiscally sustainable.”
Rentals of the school’s theater and other facilities will be canceled. More information will follow, the district said.
Principal Job Was Reposted
The search for someone to replace Principal Malcolm Norrington will take a little longer.
A search committee conducted interviews and selected two qualified candidates prior to the school board meeting on May 14. However, both principal candidates took other jobs before a contract was approved.
The principal job has been reposted, according to a district email.
What’s the Future for Radio KECG?
Students – especially those involved in radio classes, radio club, and the district-owned radio station which has broadcast from the El Cerrito High School campus since 1978 – are concerned that the radio program won’t be supported in the future.
The station has been off the air for the last three months. Several students told Livable El Cerrito their questions about what happened were never answered despite attempts to get answers.
As a result, radio student Simha theorized that the district does not want to support the station and radio program. “Maybe they will let this class finish and phase the program out,” he said.
Asked about the district’s plan for the future of KECG, District Communications Director Raechelle Forrest wrote: “The District values the important role KECG plays in providing students with hands-on media experience and sharing educational programming with the wider community. Once El Cerrito High School returns to permanent power and all safety assessments are complete, we will resume radio station operations.”
Students Roland, Lorelei, Zach, and Isabela said it was unfair to have students sign up for radio class and not be able to use the station or any of its equipment. At the same time, Zach and Isabela were pleased that they were able to use other equipment to write and produce three episodes of a podcast called Local Legends, about famous people in the Bay Area.
Zach and Isabela signed up in March 2025 for radio class next year but are not confident about what will happen.
Roland and Lorelei used their journalistic skills to try to get more information. “I went to the Town Hall (on May 12 at El Cerrito High School) and the whole time they were just deflecting,” Roland said.
Unanswered Questions
One unanswered question is whether the station needed to stay off the air for the rest of the school year after the power outage. Another is why the district did not immediately acknowledge that the station was already off the air when the power outage occurred.
Forrest said she was responsible for the decision to take the station off the air after the outage until “permanent power was restored.” She said she was advised this was necessary to keep studio equipment safe.
Radio teacher Jeanne Marie Acceturo agreed powering off was necessary in the first days after power went out but said it was not necessary to prevent the station from going back on the air once the school was successfully operating on generators.
“Initially power was cycling on and off so I unplugged everything,” Acceturo said. “I asked the station engineer to confirm if it was safe to use the equipment and he said yes, as long as we unplugged it at the end of the day.”
When power stabilized, Chief Station Engineer Ernest Herrera recommended buying a surge protector for each studio so KECG could resume operations. Each studio already has an Uninterrupted Power Source.
But WCCUSD Communications Director Raechelle Forrest ordered that the station and all radio studio equipment stay turned off until the school was no longer on generator power.
Acceturo disagreed. She thought this would unnecessarily deprive students of their chance to complete the full radio curriculum.
However, Forrest maintained her position. Surge protecters were not installed and students have not used studio equipment or gone live on KECG.
Corey Mason, the previous long-time radio teacher and station manager at the high school, said he has no doubt the station can operate on power from generators.
“Virtually any electrical installation can be safely operated via generated power – movie sets, concerts, or Teslas,” Mason said. “Ernest (Herrera) has the right idea – power conditioning and surge protectors.”
Reached by phone on June 2, Station Engineer Herrera said that “conversations are now going on” about installing surge protectors so the station can operate.
“I’m doing the best I can to let everyone understand if we can get those surge protectors installed then I believe everything will be just fine,” Herrera said. “But I can only do it if I’m directed to do it.”
Forrest wrote in a May 30 statement: “Due to the school’s current reliance on generator power, the district has paused all use of radio station equipment out of an abundance of caution. Our IT team and station manager have expressed uncertainty regarding the safety of high-power broadcasting equipment on temporary generators.”
An Excuse to Cut?
On several occasions this spring, Forrest stated that the power outage was the reason for KECG being off the air.
However, the station went off the air on Feb. 27 after the radio station teacher’s time cards stopped being approved. Acceturo said she informed Forrest on that date.
Paying someone to teach radio and also manage the radio station has been a struggle dating back many years, previous radio teacher Corey Mason said.
In the last three years, Acceturo has taken care of all the necessary work. The radio teacher job is a 67% position, and a minimum of 5 hours a week are needed to keep the station on the air, Acceturo said.
However, after Superintendent Chris Hurst retired and Moses took over early this year, Acceturo said her time cards for hours managing the station were no longer approved. According to Acceturo, Forrest asked her on March 20 to file documents with the FCC informing them that KECG was silent. At that time, radio studio equipment could still be used but not for live broadcasting.
Around March 15, a layoff notice was sent to Acceturo. She did not learn of it immediately because the notice was mistakenly sent to another teacher’s address. Acceturo said she then spent time appealing the notice.
Weeks later the layoff notice was rescinded.
However, the notice was still in effect on March 26 when Moses sent a letter to the community reassuring people that the block schedule would be approved and that “there has been no reduction to ECHS instructional staff.”
Isaac Satzman, a 2024 El Cerrito High School graduate and now a student at UC San Diego, said it was a rare privilege to learn from Acceturo, broadcast live from KECG, make connections with people from KQED, and bond with fellow students over music.
Satzman said only about 120 high schools in the nation have a fully operating radio station. He hopes the district will support the radio station with needed funding.
Theater Program’s Future
Decker also said he’s concerned about support for the theater program.
Last month theater students put on four performances of Arsenic and Old Lace in the school theater. About 500 people attended. Theater students acted the roles, and Theater Tech students worked to build and paint the sets, create posters, make costumes and do make-up.
“Arsenic ruled,” Decker said. “It was really cool. Just this semester we finally convinced our administration to run Theater Tech. It was filled to bursting with 35 students,” Decker said.
However, the draft master schedule for next year could make it hard to repeat that success, Decker said.
The Theater Tech class was been dropped from the draft schedule. One introductory and one advanced theater class have been included but that’s probably not enough to keep the program thriving, he said.
Decker would like to see more theater classes offered next year.
“For the fifth year in a row I’m having to fight for a program that’s been growing,” Decker said.
Decker said he’s not just advocating for his own program, but for continued investment in existing programs that students value.
“We have a good school and we’re making progress.” Decker added.
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