School Board Notes 11.14.06
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent
After heated public testimony and intense, sometimes angry debate, the board voted Tuesday to eliminate JROTC programs from the district. The program will be discontinued at the start of the 2008-09 school year. Until then, students can continue to enroll and receive class credit.
Commissioners Mark Sanchez, Dan Kelly, Sarah Lipson and Eric Mar voted to cut the program, while Commissioners Jill Wynns and Norman Yee voted against it. Commissioner Eddie Chin was absent from the meeting but sent a statement expressing opposition to the measure.
Some 1,600 students are currently enrolled in JROTC, which includes drum corps, flag corps, drill team and color guard. For now, the students in the program will be absorbed into the regular district curriculum during the day, including physical education classes for ninth- and 10th-graders and regular electives for 11th- and 12th-graders. The board said it will investigate other offerings to replace JROTC’s after-school activities.
Members of the public both in favor of and against the resolution thronged the meeting, while JROTC students staged a noisy demonstration outside. Many students who addressed the board gave emotional testimony about personal experience with the program. Several spoke of how it had kept them out of gangs and gave them motivation and self-esteem. They said it was the only after-school program available to them and that without it they’d be on the streets.
Superintendent Gwen Chan added her voice to the opposition. "While it’s not my wish to meddle in board policy, my heart is heavy with the possible decision to phase out JROTC," Chan said, adding that her years in the district had shown her the value of the program. Student delegates Diana Suen and Lea Elliott also opposed the measure, and said the Student Advisory Committee strongly supported JROTC.
Supporters of the measure offered equally impassioned testimony. One youngster told of a friend and another of a cousin who had been involved in JROTC, later enlisted in the military, and ended up in Iraq. Supporters said that JROTC was, if perhaps not an overt recruiting mechanism, a tool to create future soldiers and enlistees.
Yee proposed an amendment to make the elimination of JROTC contingent upon developing and implementing an alternative. The measure failed, however, with opponents expressing the concern that any efforts to launch a replacement program would be undermined by those who sought to keep JROTC.
During one particularly heated exchange, Commissioner Wynns accused the measure’s supporters of not really wanting to adopt a replacement program. She went on to propose an amendment that the district cut off all relationships with other groups that "discriminated," including those who gave scholarships specifically to students of color — the "logical extreme" Wynns said, of eliminating JROTC because of its relationship with the military, which discriminates against gays and lesbians.
Kelly called the amendment insulting, saying it "confuses discrimination with affirmative action." He also accused staff of dissembling about how students where assigned to JROTC. Kelly said he continued to receive reports that students who didn’t ask for JROTC were assigned to it and that counselors often placed troubled students in JROTC as an alternative to counseling.
Nancy Waymack, SFUSD’s director of policy and resource management, said the district did sometimes place students in JROTC if they stated "no preference" in selecting physical education programs (JROTC is considered an alternative to P.E.), but that students could ask to be switched out of the program.
Burton Fights To Keep Leadership Out
Families and teachers from Burton High School appealed to the district to halt a last-minute plan to move Leadership High School into the Burton’s bottom floor. Leadership, a charter school, is currently in a building that is seismically unsound and the district is required to find it alternate facilities.
Burton representatives said they had only learned at the beginning of this month of the plan, which calls for Leadership to move in to the school after Thanksgiving. This comes on the heels of a staff consolidation that led Burton to lose 10 teachers six weeks into the school year, after enrollment proved much lower than expected. The loss of those teachers caused some 800 students schedules to be changed.
Students said the move would cause further chaos, provoke fights between members of rival schools and interfere with preparing for final exams. Burton representatives also said the move would cause it to lose its computer lab and 20 classrooms, requiring many teachers to roam among available rooms. The classrooms are already overcrowded, according to students and faculty. English teacher Cari Bruzelius said she had close to 40 students in several of her classes. A P.E. teacher who asked not to be identified said she had 54 in most of her classes.
There are also several disparities between the schools that speakers said would be hard to reconcile. Burton, has 1,220 students, requires students to wear uniforms and has a closed campus. Leadership has 360 students with a much lower student-teacher ratio, does not require uniforms and has an open campus.
The district had tried to move Leadership into Balboa High School earlier this year but dropped the plan in response to public outcry.
District Puts Off Proposal to Consider Race
The district had been scheduled to introduce for first reading a measure that would make significant changes to the student-assignment process but decided to "indefinitely postpone" the issue when it became clear the meeting was proceeding late into the night.
The measure, authored by Norman Yee and Sarah Lipson, will likely be introduced at a meeting in the near future. If accepted, it would then be forwarded for review to all of the committees of the Board of Education, before going back to the board for a final vote.
The measure proposes several major revisions to the way students are currently assigned to schools. These include:
Officer Cites Incidents of Weapons Possession, Other Crimes
Lt. Colleen Fatooh, the San Francisco Police Department’s liaison with the school district, detailed recent arrests that have been made on school campuses and where they occurred. The instances included assault with a deadly weapon, gun possession, discharge of a firearm, battery, grand theft, robbery and, in one instance, kidnapping.
Among the most serious incidents were:
GreatSchools.net Correspondent
- District to Eliminate JROTC
- Burton Fights To Keep Leadership Out
- District Puts Off Proposal to Consider Race
- Officer Cites Incidents of Weapons Possession, Other Crimes
After heated public testimony and intense, sometimes angry debate, the board voted Tuesday to eliminate JROTC programs from the district. The program will be discontinued at the start of the 2008-09 school year. Until then, students can continue to enroll and receive class credit.
Commissioners Mark Sanchez, Dan Kelly, Sarah Lipson and Eric Mar voted to cut the program, while Commissioners Jill Wynns and Norman Yee voted against it. Commissioner Eddie Chin was absent from the meeting but sent a statement expressing opposition to the measure.
Some 1,600 students are currently enrolled in JROTC, which includes drum corps, flag corps, drill team and color guard. For now, the students in the program will be absorbed into the regular district curriculum during the day, including physical education classes for ninth- and 10th-graders and regular electives for 11th- and 12th-graders. The board said it will investigate other offerings to replace JROTC’s after-school activities.
Members of the public both in favor of and against the resolution thronged the meeting, while JROTC students staged a noisy demonstration outside. Many students who addressed the board gave emotional testimony about personal experience with the program. Several spoke of how it had kept them out of gangs and gave them motivation and self-esteem. They said it was the only after-school program available to them and that without it they’d be on the streets.
Superintendent Gwen Chan added her voice to the opposition. "While it’s not my wish to meddle in board policy, my heart is heavy with the possible decision to phase out JROTC," Chan said, adding that her years in the district had shown her the value of the program. Student delegates Diana Suen and Lea Elliott also opposed the measure, and said the Student Advisory Committee strongly supported JROTC.
Supporters of the measure offered equally impassioned testimony. One youngster told of a friend and another of a cousin who had been involved in JROTC, later enlisted in the military, and ended up in Iraq. Supporters said that JROTC was, if perhaps not an overt recruiting mechanism, a tool to create future soldiers and enlistees.
Yee proposed an amendment to make the elimination of JROTC contingent upon developing and implementing an alternative. The measure failed, however, with opponents expressing the concern that any efforts to launch a replacement program would be undermined by those who sought to keep JROTC.
During one particularly heated exchange, Commissioner Wynns accused the measure’s supporters of not really wanting to adopt a replacement program. She went on to propose an amendment that the district cut off all relationships with other groups that "discriminated," including those who gave scholarships specifically to students of color — the "logical extreme" Wynns said, of eliminating JROTC because of its relationship with the military, which discriminates against gays and lesbians.
Kelly called the amendment insulting, saying it "confuses discrimination with affirmative action." He also accused staff of dissembling about how students where assigned to JROTC. Kelly said he continued to receive reports that students who didn’t ask for JROTC were assigned to it and that counselors often placed troubled students in JROTC as an alternative to counseling.
Nancy Waymack, SFUSD’s director of policy and resource management, said the district did sometimes place students in JROTC if they stated "no preference" in selecting physical education programs (JROTC is considered an alternative to P.E.), but that students could ask to be switched out of the program.
Burton Fights To Keep Leadership Out
Families and teachers from Burton High School appealed to the district to halt a last-minute plan to move Leadership High School into the Burton’s bottom floor. Leadership, a charter school, is currently in a building that is seismically unsound and the district is required to find it alternate facilities.
Burton representatives said they had only learned at the beginning of this month of the plan, which calls for Leadership to move in to the school after Thanksgiving. This comes on the heels of a staff consolidation that led Burton to lose 10 teachers six weeks into the school year, after enrollment proved much lower than expected. The loss of those teachers caused some 800 students schedules to be changed.
Students said the move would cause further chaos, provoke fights between members of rival schools and interfere with preparing for final exams. Burton representatives also said the move would cause it to lose its computer lab and 20 classrooms, requiring many teachers to roam among available rooms. The classrooms are already overcrowded, according to students and faculty. English teacher Cari Bruzelius said she had close to 40 students in several of her classes. A P.E. teacher who asked not to be identified said she had 54 in most of her classes.
There are also several disparities between the schools that speakers said would be hard to reconcile. Burton, has 1,220 students, requires students to wear uniforms and has a closed campus. Leadership has 360 students with a much lower student-teacher ratio, does not require uniforms and has an open campus.
The district had tried to move Leadership into Balboa High School earlier this year but dropped the plan in response to public outcry.
District Puts Off Proposal to Consider Race
The district had been scheduled to introduce for first reading a measure that would make significant changes to the student-assignment process but decided to "indefinitely postpone" the issue when it became clear the meeting was proceeding late into the night.
The measure, authored by Norman Yee and Sarah Lipson, will likely be introduced at a meeting in the near future. If accepted, it would then be forwarded for review to all of the committees of the Board of Education, before going back to the board for a final vote.
The measure proposes several major revisions to the way students are currently assigned to schools. These include:
- Recommending changes to the admissions processes for Lowell and School of the Arts high schools, starting with the 2008-09 school year, to increase the diversity of students at these schools and ensure "equitable opportunities for students with diverse backgrounds."
- Pre-assigning students living in extreme poverty (measured by whether they live in public housing) after younger siblings and students with program need, starting in 2008-09.
- Adding race and ethnicity as a factor in the student assignment lottery, to be used in a "narrowly tailored manner" to help desegregate the schools.
Officer Cites Incidents of Weapons Possession, Other Crimes
Lt. Colleen Fatooh, the San Francisco Police Department’s liaison with the school district, detailed recent arrests that have been made on school campuses and where they occurred. The instances included assault with a deadly weapon, gun possession, discharge of a firearm, battery, grand theft, robbery and, in one instance, kidnapping.
Among the most serious incidents were:
- Visitacion Valley Middle School: assault with a deadly weapon
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School: assault with a deadly weapon (firearm)
- James Lick Middle School: discharging a firearm
- Washington High School: Five assaults with a deadly weapon, one strong-arm robbery
- Balboa High School: possession of a dangerous weapon
- Lincoln High School: assault with a deadly weapon (firearm)
- Mission High School: robbery/kidnapping
- O’Connell High School: assault with a deadly weapon
Labels: GreatSchools.net, School Board Notes, SFUSD Politics
2 Comments:
A correction on School Board Notes: The assignment plan resolution was not deferred because of the late hour. It was removed from the agenda.
I am a JROTC alumni from San Francisco, and all I can say is that those Board Members don't know what they're talking about when it comes to JROTC.
I've never heard of any of them actually going to the high schools and talking to the students. All their arguments are about the military branding our kids, or that the "don't ask don't tell" policy trickles down to JROTC as well... Let me ask them this, the military is a significant part of our history. Neglecting the need of a military is just extreme-liberalism, that I'm starting to feel disgusted about. And for all the LGBT issues, ask the students!! There were and are openly gay students in the program... can you imagine a guy saying that he's gay on the football or wrestling team?? They'll get more abuse than ANYONE in JROTC...
I wanted to settle back to San Francisco, and have my kids go to public schools there, but now that there's no JROTC, I'm thinking twice about it...
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