Community Members Selected To Advise District on Long-range Plan
Community Members Selected To Advise District on Long-range Plan
5.19.06
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent
Addressing a contentious round of school closings this year and an even more contentious school assignment system, several members of the Board of Education met as an ad hoc committee to discuss an initiative on student enrollment, recruitment and retention. A key piece of the initiative is the formation of a Community Advisory Council to advise the Board on this issue.
Earlier this month, the board had accepted applications for the CAC, an eight-member committee to include people with expertise in a number of specific fields. Before Thursday's meeting, Chief Development Officer Matthew Kelemen culled the applications, reviewed them and made a list of recommendations as to whom his office felt was most qualified. After reviewing the list, the Ad Hoc Committee – Norman Yee, Jill Wynns and Mark Sanchez – agreed unanimously to forward it to the board with a positive recommendation.
The recommendations for members to the CAC on Student Enrollment, Recruitment and Retention (CACSERR) are as follows:
The Committee also agreed to recommend waiving the San Francisco residency requirement for two of the suggested CAC members, Tony Irons and Marlene Ligsay, who live outside the city.
Close to 20 people submitted applications, according to Kelemen, but most were in one or two areas of expertise. The district had to recruit possible members for a number of areas, such as facilities design and demographic planning. It sought to recommend people representing diverse constituencies and also including City representatives.
A couple of attendees voiced concern that there were a few gaps in the areas the CAC represented. "Somebody's going to get blamed again when all the emotional parents show up," said SF PTA President Carl Barnes. He suggested the PTA put together community meetings and workshops to help gather wider public input.
The district also outlined a timeline for its activities relating to student enrollment, recruitment and retention. In June, district staff will complete an analysis of current conditions and an initial community engagement effort. In September, the district, with the advice of the CAC, will complete a draft of a long-range action plan. In December of 2006, just ahead of the Round 1 enrollment process for `07/08, the district will adopt an interim plan. During the rest of the school year, district staff, the CAC and the BOE will work to revise the draft, to come up with a finalized process by the end of the `06/07 school year.
Email comments to sfschoolnotes@greatschools.net
5.19.06
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent
Addressing a contentious round of school closings this year and an even more contentious school assignment system, several members of the Board of Education met as an ad hoc committee to discuss an initiative on student enrollment, recruitment and retention. A key piece of the initiative is the formation of a Community Advisory Council to advise the Board on this issue.
Earlier this month, the board had accepted applications for the CAC, an eight-member committee to include people with expertise in a number of specific fields. Before Thursday's meeting, Chief Development Officer Matthew Kelemen culled the applications, reviewed them and made a list of recommendations as to whom his office felt was most qualified. After reviewing the list, the Ad Hoc Committee – Norman Yee, Jill Wynns and Mark Sanchez – agreed unanimously to forward it to the board with a positive recommendation.
The recommendations for members to the CAC on Student Enrollment, Recruitment and Retention (CACSERR) are as follows:
- Two members with expertise in design and implementation of high quality educational materials and educational reform strategies:
Karling Aquilera-Fort, principal at Fairmont Elementary School, a school with a dual-language Spanish immersion program that has seen significant increase in student achievement. *Marlene Ligsay, a National Board Certified Teacher and Chair of the Mathematics Department at Philip and Sala Burton High School. - One member with expertise in outreach to diverse families:
Maria Fernandez-Gonzalez, who works for GreatSchools.net to represent parents in underperforming SFUSD schools and who did her doctoral work in how parents make choices about schools. - One member with expertise in community engagement strategies:
Mollie Matull, an SFUSD parent who has been an active parent leader in SFUSD's Child Development Program. - One member with expertise in demographic planning and analysis:
Dwayne Jones, the City's Director of Community Investment and Outcomes, who formerly directed the Mayor's Office of Community Development. Also runs the City's Communities of Opportunities initiative covering Bayview-Hunters Point and the Western Addition, two areas of key concern to the district. - One member with expertise in school facilities design and use:
Tony Irons, currently with the SF Public Utilities Commission, who formerly served as SFUSD's Chief Facilities Officer and helped developed the first phase of the Facilities Master Plan. - One member with expertise in school finance:
Ruth Grabowski, Coordinator of the Parent Advisory Council and a parent member of the School Site Council at San Francisco Community K-8 School. - One member representing the voice of youth:
Vienna Luu, a student at Lincoln High School.
The Committee also agreed to recommend waiving the San Francisco residency requirement for two of the suggested CAC members, Tony Irons and Marlene Ligsay, who live outside the city.
Close to 20 people submitted applications, according to Kelemen, but most were in one or two areas of expertise. The district had to recruit possible members for a number of areas, such as facilities design and demographic planning. It sought to recommend people representing diverse constituencies and also including City representatives.
A couple of attendees voiced concern that there were a few gaps in the areas the CAC represented. "Somebody's going to get blamed again when all the emotional parents show up," said SF PTA President Carl Barnes. He suggested the PTA put together community meetings and workshops to help gather wider public input.
The district also outlined a timeline for its activities relating to student enrollment, recruitment and retention. In June, district staff will complete an analysis of current conditions and an initial community engagement effort. In September, the district, with the advice of the CAC, will complete a draft of a long-range action plan. In December of 2006, just ahead of the Round 1 enrollment process for `07/08, the district will adopt an interim plan. During the rest of the school year, district staff, the CAC and the BOE will work to revise the draft, to come up with a finalized process by the end of the `06/07 school year.
Email comments to sfschoolnotes@greatschools.net
Labels: SFUSD Politics
1 Comments:
Interesting to see Ray Cortines pop up. He was very well-liked here, I gather (just before my time). However, I'm curious about the fact that he signed on as a board member for Edison Schools during the time when Edison was being widely hailed as the next "it's a miracle!" cure. Some of us had already become skeptics, but it took Cortines longer to get it. To his credit, he did speak out publicly about Edison's problems after he becamse disillusioned and quit the board.
It was a tinier but noticeable point that in the widespread press coverage Cortines got when he joined Edison -- it was really in the media spotlight at the time -- he kept describing himself as a former superintendent in NYC and LAUSD, but neglected to mention SFUSD. What are we, chopped liver? Actually, I wondered if that was because SFUSD was also in the media spotlight at the time as the rare challenger to Edison, and Cortines had decided -- or been asked -- not to identify himself with the heretics.
Anyway. This all left me with a few questions about his critical judgment.
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