The Peralta Community College District is the community college district serving northern

Alameda County, California Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alam ...

. The district operates four community colleges:

Berkeley City College Berkeley City College (BCC, formerly Vista Community College) is a public community college in Berkeley, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Peralta Community College District. Berkeley City College is accre ...

Laney College Laney College is a public community college in Oakland, California. Laney is the largest of the four colleges of the Peralta Community College District which serves northern Alameda County. Laney College is named after Joseph Clarence Laney. Th ...

and Merritt College in Oakland, and

College of Alameda College of Alameda is a public community college in Alameda, California. It is part of the Peralta Community College District and was opened in 1968. Since 1970 the college has held classes on a 62-acre campus at the intersection of Webster Stre ...

. From 1968 to 1988, non-contiguous

Plumas County Plumas County () is a county in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,790. The county seat is Quincy, and the only incorporated city is Portola. The largest community in the county is ...

was part of the district, and

Feather River College Feather River College (FRC) is a community college in Quincy, California. The school serves an annual full-time enrolled student body of approximately 1,500 students. History Feather River College was established in 1968 to support the need f ...

was operated by the district. Plumas County and Feather River College are now part of the Feather River Community College District. Although the district is accredited by the

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is an accrediting organization in the United States. It accredits private and public colleges that provide students two-year education programs and confer the associate deg ...

, it was placed on probation in early 2020 for severe financial problems.

History

Junior Colleges in Oakland Unified School District

The first colleges that are now part of PCCD have their roots in the Central Trade School (later the Joseph C. Laney Trade and Technical Institute), founded in 1927, and the Merritt School of Business founded in 1929. Both were operated by the

Oakland Unified School District Oakland Unified School District is a public education school district that operates a total of 80 elementary schools (TK–5), middle schools (6–8), and high schools (9–12). There are also 28 district-authorized charter schools in Oaklan ...

, then called the Oakland Board of Education. In 1953, the school district founded Oakland Junior College, with the Laney campus serving as the vocational training center and Merritt campus hosting the liberal arts and business programs. Oakland Junior College became Oakland City College in 1958.

Peralta Community College District

In 1963, the residents of

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

, Albany,

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, Emeryville, Oakland, and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

voted to form a single community college district. The district began operations under the Peralta name on July 1, 1964. The Peralta name was selected because all of the cities of the district, now a part of the greater Oakland metropolitan region, are located on the original Spanish land grant for Sgt.

Luís María Peralta Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

dating from August 1820. With the founding of PCCD, the campuses of Oakland City College were split into their own community colleges, Laney College and Merritt College. In 1965, a bond issue was passed which established a new

downtown Oakland Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...

campus building for Laney College (opened in 1970), a new campus for Merritt College (opened in 1971), and the founding of the College of Alameda. Berkeley City College was established in 1974 and operated under the name Vista Community College until 2006, when it began to operate from a permanent site.

was operated by the Peralta CCD from 1968 to 1988, when

was de-annexed from the district; it now operates as the flagship campus of its own district. The Peralta district is governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees elected by the public within the district boundaries. Two student members sit on the board, but only have "advisory votes." In June 2021, the contract for Interim Chancellor Jackson was extended through June 2022.

Governance

The Peralta Community College District is governed by an elected seven-member board of trustees. The board meets twice a month with meetings open to the public and broadcast live on local radio, television stations, Peralta Colleges Television (PCTV), and Peralta's YouTube Channel.

Chancellors

* John W. Dunn (1964 – 1971) * Clem Long (1971 – 1973) * Thomas Fryer (1973 – 1978) * Mav Tadlock (1978 – 1980) * David Godhold (1980 – 1987) * Armen Sarafian (1987 – 1988) * Robert Scanell (1989 – 1995) * A.J. Harrison (1995 – 1999) * Ronald J. Temple (1999 – 2004) * Elihu M. Harris (2004 – 2010) * Wise Allen (2010 – 2012) * Jose M. Ortiz (2012 – 2015) * Jowel C. Lagurerre (2015 – 2019) * Frances White (2019) * Regina Stanback Stroud (2019 – 2020) * Carla Walter (2020 – 2021) * Jannett Jackson (2021–present)

External links