Firefighters rescue 4 people after 2-alarm fire in historic Cal office building
Witnesses described smoke billowing from the building and people hanging out of windows on the second floor.
Ally Markovich
Ally Markovich, who covers the school beat for Berkeleyside, is a former high school English teacher. Her work has appeared in The Oaklandside, The New York Times, Huffington Post and Washington Post, among other publications. You can spot her running on the trails in Tilden Park.
Articles by Ally Markovich
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Berkeley City College has cut 150 course sections, 27 faculty spots in past two years
Students and faculty are rallying against class cuts at a time when enrollment has fallen steeply but state funding still flows at pre-pandemic levels.
3 Berkeley High custodians sue over sexual harassment, gender discrimination
This is the second lawsuit since 2019 to describe a culture of sexual harassment and unequal treatment in Berkeley High’s custodial department.
Member of campus community made threats prompting lockdown, UC says
Police located the person and said the individual is not a continued threat to the campus.
Berkeley High student dies downtown
In a letter to the school community, Principal Juan Raygoza said he was “heartbroken.” All-day counseling will be available to students.
Questions of COVID safety still occupy Berkeley parents
Parents shared thoughts on vaccination and testing as the school board decided whether to lobby the state legislature over two bills.
The Berkeley archivist on a mission to save Ukrainian digital history
Quinn Dombrowski co-founded an emergency data rescue organization. Now, the tech wiz is teaching kids to archive Ukrainian cultural websites.
Plan to end Berkeley’s K-5 distance learning option gets pushback from parents
Families with medically vulnerable students or relatives are fighting to save the Virtual Academy program, launched last fall.
New club at Longfellow builds solidarity among Black girls
Led by Tanisha Walton and UC Berkeley student Skylynn Hayes, Black Girls United is in its first year. The duo hope to expand to more schools.
How Berkeley Unified spent its $24M in COVID-19 funds
Berkeleyside analyzed district data to break down how state and federal COVID-19 relief money was spent.
Berkeley goes wild for wisteria
The annual purple blooms are back, leaving Berkeleyans feeling woozy for wisteria.
District settles sexual assault lawsuit that sparked Berkeley High walkout
A former student had sued the Berkeley school district for negligence after she said she was assaulted in a classroom three years ago.
A Berkeley architect is obsessively tracking the East Bay’s backyard water towers
Aaron Goldstein has been peering over fences to admire the area’s remaining windmill-topped water towers, vestiges of an era before municipal water. Now he’s writing a book.
$50M school district building approved in Downtown Berkeley
It’s part staff parking garage and part replacement for a South Berkeley operations building that closed in December after the district determined it was structurally and environmentally unsafe.
Berkeley school board considering move away from at-large elections
A private legal memo — inadvertently posted on a school board meeting agenda — advised the board on the legal risks of keeping its at-large election system.
Mask on or mask off? How Berkeley kids are navigating California’s new rules
One week into the rule change, Berkeley kids have mostly opted to keep masks on indoors.
