Mandela High School Law & Public Service Academy

In May 2000 the Oakland Unified School Board unanimously adopted the New Small Autonomous Schools (NSAS) policy. BayCES (the Bay Area Collaborative for Equitable Schools, a nationwide school reform group that helps start small schools) received a $15.7 million grant from the Gates Foundation to support the Oakland small schools work. The school district also has a grant to fund Small Learning Communities (SLCs), small groups of students with common teachers within the large school.

Fremont High was broken up into a group of new small autonomous interconnected schools (NSAIS) sharing the Fremont campus. A group of teachers and parents submitted a proposal to form Mandela High School as one of those schools. The design team and two other teams received approval for their proposals. All three teams were asked to develop and carry out a pilot plan for the 2002-2003 school year. In 2003-2004 Mandela High officially opened and is currently one of four schools on the Fremont Federation of Small Schools' campus. At the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, Mandela will be consolidated along with its sister schools, Media Academy and College Preparatory Architecture Academy, to the original Fremont High School campus. Mandela will continue to operate within Fremont High School as Mandela Law and Public Service Academy.