St. Martin de Porres School is a Kindergarten Ð 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 Ð 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 and
more than 90% of our students qualify and receive
financial aid. Approximately 50%
of our students are Catholics, 48% Baptist and 2% non-churched or other. Over the last three 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).
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.