Beginnings & Endings with Community School for Creative Education

At the end of June, ArtEsteem’s long-time school site Community School for Creative Education (CSCE) closed. CSCE was a charter school located in East Oakland, founded in 2011 by Dr. Ida Oberman and partnered with ArtEsteem as a lead agency for over half its running.

Dr. Oberman aimed to break away from the private sector and bridge the path to make Waldorf education—an experiential approach to education which integrates the arts in all academic disciplines and focuses on the educational development of the whole child: physical, social, emotional wellbeing and beyond—available to every child regardless of their socioeconomic status, founding the first intercultural public Waldorf School in the US.

As lead agency, ArtEsteem provided events like cultural arts assemblies, Literacy Nights, and Family Art Nights, and began the school’s Extended Day after school program. This relationship expanded through school beautification projects and further academic aid such as the Global Scholars program and adding Drop Everything And Read time to school days.

ArtEsteem is now shifting our efforts to support the transitioning students through our new “Student Success Team Program.” We have provided transportation support and supply essentials such as backpacks and uniforms. Our staff have met one-on-one with families to customize transition plans, visited the new placement schools with families, and worked with school site leadership, all to ensure that students feel grounded and uplifted throughout their school transition process and have access to resources spanning from after school programming to social-emotional support to direct family assistance.

Our long-lasting partnership will be sorely missed, and in light of CSCE’s closure, we interviewed three ArtEsteem staff who served crucial roles at CSCE, maintaining and nourishing our deep connections with CSCE’s students, families, and staff.

We first had the honor of interviewing Ms. Sharifah, CSCE’s Extended Day Liaison and an ArtEsteem supporter since our founding. She could not overstate how much of a loss this connection was: “With the school closing my heart has really been aching.”

Ms. Sharifah was a part of the shared community between ArtEsteem and CSCE from the beginning. She explained that, “when the school first began we were a major partner… Ms. Aeeshah asked me to go over to the building to volunteer. I went over there and met the staff and we all just kind of clicked… we already had so many similarities and connections.” She continued about how the community was tight-knit from the very beginning: from sharing meals to family support, everyone felt deeply connected. Ms. Sharifah was a pillar of this special bond. “All the families, all the parents, all the kids, I could say that they loved me because they knew that I genuinely loved them and respected them, and I really tried to reach out when I saw a need… Anything.”

Ms. Sharifah also emphasized an important time of unity in the community: the COVID pandemic. She explained how crucial that community was, and that when everything else felt like it had collapsed, people continued to uplift and support each other within CSCE. “During COVID, we all still had to function, and the way that it went was awesome. We all came together to make sure that students were okay. And after coming back still being this tight knit group.”

After everything, it's clear she's not going anywhere, and neither is the robust group of educators, families, staff, and students that brought the relationship between ArtEsteem and CSCE to life. “I have all kinds of pictures from the kids,” Ms. Sharifah says, “ I have a little toy on my purse that one of them gave me. I still get phone calls from moms telling me what’s going on with their kids. It’s been a real blessing. I want to say that I’m thankful that I was able to spend time with those families, and that I still spend time with these families.”

Next we spoke with Ivan, who joined the ArtEsteem team in 2018 through Earn 2 Learn, our former workforce development program. He was placed at CSCE as a Program Assistant, and blossomed to become a familiar, comforting face—from his station at the front desk, Ivan was a greeter, guide, and all around vital support for the community at CSCE. “I tried to help out wherever I could, and create good memories for the kids,” Ivan says, recalling fondly how, “[the students] would observe me drawing and try to learn my techniques. They would try to sneak and sit with me and draw.”

ArtEsteem Associate Director Phyllis noted that multiple CSCE administrators were adamant about securing Ivan at their site when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Staff who trust in themselves and the collaboration between school site administration and ArtEsteem leadership bring a sense of safety to students, bolstering their academic and social-emotional development, and as Ivan mentioned, “My relationship with administration is strong, they treat me as one of their own.”

JD was first the Digital Media Instructor at CSCE, and later was promoted to Site Coordinator, becoming an integral member of the community built between ArtEsteem and CSCE. He played a key role in supporting students, families, and staff alike.

From talking to JD for only a few minutes, it’s clear that the community built at CSCE was beloved to all involved. “We’re a partner with CSCE, and it’s the only school we’re a partner with to that degree… Because it’s so community based, we’re very tight knit over there. We know the families and we offer help on any level we can. However we can support, we do.”

He explained how his work connected with both students and families through events like Family Art Nights where parents were able to connect with their kids’ learning environments and the larger school community. “We always had a great turnout. Parents always came and supported those events,” JD explained. He also believes that the Extended Day Program was meaningful because it brought an array of artistic learnings to students while giving families more flexibility when balancing work and life. “It wasn’t a babysitting sort of thing, it was like we actually had an art curriculum that we had to follow even in the after school program.”

When asked about his favorite memories of working with CSCE, he had a difficult time prioritizing one memory over the other, instead revealing: “I tell people all the time, every time I went to CSCE, I left happier than when I arrived… and I don’t have biological kids, but when people ask me if I have kids, I say, ‘Yeah, about 200 of them.’ They’ve had an incredible impact on me.”