Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

This is news to me. In the 70s and 80s, Montera was a well-regarded school. Not any more. I think many of the school problems have to do with a lack of money and a too-easy society that let's kids go without any discipline or comment. New principal brings order to Montera Direct approach to difficult issues at Oakland school paying off, parents say By Katy Murphy, STAFF WRITER Article Last Updated: 12/23/2007 02:38:39 AM PST OAKLAND ON A COOL evening in early November, dozens of elementary school parents gathered at Montclair Elementary School to hear a sales pitch from the man who could soon be their children's middle school principal — if they liked what they saw. Russom Mesfun is the new principal of Montera Middle School, an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse school in the North Oakland hills. A native of Eritrea and a former assistant principal at Skyline High School, Mesfun returned to Oakland after a one-year stint as principal of Christa McAuliffe Middle Sch