St. Martin de Porres Catholic School

St. Martin de Porres School is a Kindergarten – 8th grade regional Catholic school within the Diocese of Oakland, which serves the families of West and Northwest Oakland. In 1996, the five parishes of the West Oakland Deanery began St. Martin de Porres School, which continues the more than 138-year tradition of providing Catholic education in this most economically marginalized area of the city of Oakland. Currently, the school is located on two campuses – a K-5 campus at Sacred Heart Parish (41st and MLK) and a middle school campus at St. Patrick Parish (10th and Peralta).

St. Martin de Porres School serves the neighborhood families of downtown Oakland, West Oakland and Northwest Oakland. The students who attend St. Martin de Porres School generally live along the San Pablo Avenue corridor from the Port of Oakland on the West to the Southern border of Berkeley.

The school provides an excellent education to a very diverse group of families and students.While the focus of our educational mission is to provide an excellent education to low-income students from our surrounding neighborhood, we welcome students of all economic, social, religious and ethnic backgrounds.

More than 90% of our children qualify for free or reduced lunch under the Federal guidelines andmore than 90% of our students qualify for and receive financial aid.Approximately 50% of our students are Catholics, 48% Baptist and 2% non-churched or other.Over the last eight years, the student population at St. Martin de Porres has increased from 94 students (2003) to 140 (2004) to 165 students (2005) to 175 students (2006) and to 230 students (2011).

The test scores of our students have improved significantly and the school has been able to enhance its curriculum and co-curricular offerings to include music, computers, free after school academic and enrichment programs, environmental education, and a nutritious and free breakfast and lunch.

While St. Martin de Porres School was historically largely African American, the ethnic composition of the school has changed significantly over the past four years. Approximately 57% of our students are African American, 40% are Latino and 3% are Asian. Approximately 40% of our children speak a language other than English in their homes.

The school is blessed with the presence of several sisters from various religious congregations who both teach and administer the school.While the school does not have the charism of a specific religious congregation,the presence of the sisters influences the commitment to excellent Catholic education. Their collective experience, commitment and congregational support were significant in re-creating St. Martin de Porres as a quality Catholic school serving the children of Oakland.