Parè is filling out applications for college scholarships, and working on his end-of-year homework. Many students, like Karigaca and Chung, are spending their time studying for their AP tests and finishing up their final projects. Hopefully, we’ll see some more language today that we can all agree on.” “They are acknowledging what we’re bringing up,” said Rodriguez. Though they are mostly aligned on boosts to teachers’ salaries, they remain in a gridlock over a series of “common good” proposals, which are designed to improve the working and learning conditions of staff and students.

Tuesday’s strike followed days of negotiations between the teachers’ union and the Oakland Unified School District. “Right now, me and my friends are just trying to take it one step at a time, and doing what we can to still be together during our last year as seniors,” said 18-year-old Miles Parè, another senior at Skyline High. Despite indications from both sides that they were inching closer to a resolution, by Tuesday afternoon, there was no word on when the impasse might end and students would go back to class. But there’s no doubt that the prolonged work stoppage - heading into its fifth day Wednesday - has left 34,000 students in limbo. Karigaca and Chung, who are also active members of the Oakland-based non-profit Youth Together, want to support their teachers and feel the strike is worth it. Nailah Karigaca, a 17-year-old student at Skyline High School, studies for her AP exams at her friend’s house during the teachers’ strike on Tuesday, May 9 2023. Today, Chung was planning to work on her senior project on homelessness, which she would record herself presenting by the end of the week. Yesterday, Karigaca attended an AP biology study session on the shores of Lake Merritt, and aside from her teacher, she was the only one who showed up. Their freshman and sophomore years were almost entirely virtual - and now, weeks before graduation, their school was shuttered again. Like seniors across the country, Karigaca and Chung have had a rocky high school experience. “It feels kind of like the COVID years,” said Karigaca, age 17. Tuesday, the two were just waking up from a sleepover, and getting ready to have breakfast before studying for their upcoming AP exams. But Skyline High seniors Nailah Karigaca and Kereina Chung have settled into a different strike routine: at 11 a.m. teachers had packed the picket lines at schools across the city. Day four of the Oakland teachers’ strike began like the past three - by 7:30 a.m.

She persisted in science