Roses in Concrete Community School

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Mission

The Roses in Concrete Community School (“RiC”) will be a K-8 school in East Oakland founded on the belief that schools should emphasize knowledge of self, character, and intellectual growth to prepare students to fundamentally impact the global society while learning to live, learn, work and thrive in their own communities.

 

Our primary goal is to develop youth committed to lives characterized by self-discipline, integrity, love and hope in the pursuit of justice and equity for all communities.  We encourage our students, who are broadly invested in academic, artistic, athletic, and extracurricular pursuits, to demonstrate the spirit of the Warrior-Scholar.  As Warrior-Scholars, our students will cultivate the courage to stand as warriors on the side of justice while having the scholarly faculties to decipher where justice resides in a complex society.

 

Leadership Values for Roses in Concrete Team

Roses in Concrete’s core values are Resources, Relationships, Relevance, Rigor, and Responsibility. Every member of the RiC team is expected to effectively collaborate in order to ensure these values come alive in our school every day.  As such, this document refers to everyone on this team as a leader – someone who is fully responsible and accountable for enacting our vision.  As a leader on a team of exceptional educators and activists, each member of this team must manifest a communication and leadership style that is grounded in the RiC vision and values.

 

The founding team of RiC must be ideologically, pedagogically, and culturally grounded in ethical principles of humanization, humility, and critical social resistance.  This vision should include clarity on the historical and current conditions that exist within the community and a certainty as to the human possibilities existing within every child and family.  Equally crucial is the ability to maintain an environment of collaboration and camaraderie in the spirit of modeling the importance of solidarity as the core of a successful communal culture.  

 

Lastly, it is critical that RiC leaders are preoccupied with the education and safety of our children, a family’s most precious gift and our community’s hope for a better future. This preoccupation necessitates an emphasis on impact with a keen eye focused on the day-to-day enactment of courage and respect. Such a leader does not require perfection or fame; but rather, hope, heart, soul, and commitment.

 

Core Values

·       Resources:  We will ensure students’ basic needs are met (i.e., food, clothing, shelter, and safety) through invested relationships with families, students, and our community.

·       Relationships:  We will ensure students feel included, cared for, and can identify at least one adult on campus they can go to for immediate support.

·       Relevancy: We will ensure students understand and articulate their own value and cultural history.

·       Rigor:  We will ensure students receive highly challenging academic, athletic, artistic, and social environments coupled with high levels of support so they are comfortable, confident, and effective in any environment.

·       Responsibility:  We will ensure students reflect the spirit of the Warrior-Scholar.

 

We believe that the point of education is not to escape poverty.  The point of education is to end poverty.  We will do this by cultivating new generations of Warrior-Scholars who understand the importance of developing careers and returning to vulnerable communities like East Oakland, to invest and serve as community leaders.