School Board Notes 4.25.06

School Board Notes
4.25.06
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• High Schools Protest Planned Relocations
• Board Rebuffs Offer of Funds to Save John Swett
• Board Passes Revised Prop H Plan

High Schools Protest Planned Relocations

Board chambers were standing room only with dozens more people waiting to get in, as an angry public gathered to inveigh against a number of planned mergers and relocations. Decisions to move Leadership High School into spare space in Balboa High, and to relocate Newcomer to Mission High instead of Edison were made in closed session without public testimony, and many members of affected school communities said news had come as a shock.

"Find Leadership a home. Leave Balboa alone," about a hundred teachers, students and families from the {neighborhood} high school chanted as they waited to speak to the board. Speakers complained that sharing space with Leadership would spark turf battles and hostility, dilute resources like athletic fields and ball courts that would have to be shared between the schools and would upset the delicate balance in a school that has seen growing success in the last five years.

Newcomer and Mission students and staff protested a similar plan for their schools, in which the two would run as separate institutions within the walls of Mission High.

In January, the Board voted to move Newcomer from its current Pacific Heights location, for which it has secured a lucrative long-term lease by City College, to the site of Edison charter school in the Mission, with the plan to find an alternate home for Edison. Edison quickly sued, and the board decided in a recent closed session meeting to find a new home for Newcomer rather than face a legal battle.

Newcomer teacher Joleen Jessen said she and her colleagues were completely taken aback when they were called together recently for what was presumed to be a regular staff meeting. "The people from the district told us we were going to be moved to Mission. They kept saying, `It's a done deal.'"

"Students need lunch and bathrooms, and right now, according to this plan, we don't have any," Jessen said. Meanwhile, according to her colleague Cynthia Cen, Newcomer must vacate its current spot by July 8 and summer school starts just two weeks later.

Mission representatives said their students would be crowded into classrooms of more students, threatening the small school redesign it has been building for the last five years.

Commissioner Mark Sanchez said the decisions are not set in stone and considerations, such as those put forth in public testimony, could prompt the board to float alternate proposals for Newcomer and/or Leadership. Otherwise, the current relocation plans will proceed.

Board Rebuffs Offer of Funds to Save John Swett

The Board turned down an offer of $660,000 in city funds to keep John Swett Elementary open. It decided in January by a 4-to-3 vote to merge the Western Addition arts alternative school with neighboring elementary school John Muir. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9 to 1 to approve the funds, to correct what several of its members saw as a policy mistake. The money represents twice that the district is estimated to save a year by closing the school.

"We don't want to come over from City Hall and mess with your decisions, but we suffer the consequences," said District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who had brought forth the proposal. "A mistake was made. Let's correct that mistake." Scores of parents and community members urged the board, "Take the money!"

Critics of the merger say John Swett, which has a largely African-American and poor student body, was unfairly singled out while other schools, including a very similar arts school, were spared. They also say that, rather than combining the best of both programs as the district had promised, the curriculum for the merged school includes almost none of the arts-based programs that were the hallmark of Swett. Only 93 of the school's more than 200 families have chosen to go to Muir, according to a Swett School Site Counselor. With the merger, Swett students may also lose resources provided by state and community groups, such as a 15-year partnership with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that had proven a source of both funds and volunteers.

"I don't think it's appropriate to let the Board of Supervisors set policy for us," said Commissioner Sarah Lipson, who had, in fact, opposed the decision to close John Swett. Several of her colleagues expressed similar concerns, although several agreed the lack of arts programming was a problem.

"I know this merger is having difficulty, but I don't accept that we can't strengthen the arts programs at Muir," Commissioner Dan Kelly said. "Maybe we could seek to negotiate with the Board of Supervisors to receive the money to enrich the arts programs at the merged school."

Sanchez called the decision to refuse the City's offer as "a stunning defeat for this community that is going to be felt for years to come."

Originally proposed as a site for administrative buildings, the Swett site is now planned as the home of a merger of three county community programs: Real Alternatives, Phoenix, and Community Scholars for Success. Several speakers appeared to say the merger would allow these programs to expand their services and better serve their students. Others, however, roundly criticized the move, saying it would make for a powder keg of gang warfare.

Board Passes Revised Prop H Plan

The Board passed a revised spending plan for Prop H which would take $2.2 million planned for middle and high schools, and use it to pay for teacher salary increases agreed to under a recent agreement with the teachers union. A district staff plan proposed using funds from next year, which will be significantly higher than this year, to bring a moare equal share of the resources to middle and high schools, which have thus far received much less of the money than elementary schools.

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