School Board Notes 12.12.06
Thanks, as always, to Nicole Freeling and GreatSchools.net for producing this invaluable notes and allowing us to publish them here. Don't forget, they can also be found here.
In an ambitious plan backed by the school board Tuesday night, SFUSD will aim to give very student in the district the opportunity to be a bilingual or multilingual graduate.
The board passed a unanimous resolution calling for the superintendent to draft a 21-member Blue Ribbon Task Force comprising parents, teachers, school planners, language experts, employee groups, business organizations and civic leaders to develop models for achieving this goal. The resolution also calls for the superintendent to use these findings to develop a plan for multilingual education, which will be presented to the board by Oct 1 of next year.
"This would not necessary be an all-immersion model," said Commissioner Dan Kelly, who authored the resolution along with Commissioners Norman Yee and Eric Mar. Immersion programs are expected to play a big part, however. The resolution builds on one passed earlier this year that called for expanding the district's popular two-way immersion programs and creating programs that could serve upper as well as lower grades.
The initiative approved Tuesday seeks not only to serve native English speakers, but also to help non-native speakers become English proficient while receiving a level of instruction equal to that of their English-speaking peers. The task force will work in concert with the district's Bilingual Community Council, which recently issued a report saying that English language learners are not being adequately served by the district's programs.
The move, board members said, could be an opportunity for the district to create a model for multilingual instruction with wide-ranging influence. "This is really cutting against the grain of an English-only wave that is going on in this country," Mar observed.
An obvious obstacle is funding such a large-scale effort at a time when the district faces dire budgetary constraints. "We're going to aggressively seek out external funding sources," Mar said. "We'll use every means at our disposal to find funds to pay for this program."
District Squeezed By Charter Schools Seeking Space
The district is scrambling to respond to an unusually large number of requests for facilities by new and existing charter schools, and may have to force many under-enrolled district schools to share their space, according to a board discussion Tuesday night.
Under Proposition 39, a voter initiative approved in 2000, the district is legally required to provide facilities to approved charters equivalent to those provided to students at traditional public schools. The charters in turn pay rent for the space.
This year, the district is facing requests from five existing schools representing about 1,700 students and four newly formed charters. The district has until April 1 to find a home for these schools.
They include:
Existing Schools
Sites mentioned as possible homes for the charters included DeAvila, which was closed a few years ago and is currently leased by City College; Treasure Island, which closed last year; and Newcomer's existing site if the city is unable to lease it, as hoped. Schools that could be adapted to co-house charters include Mission High School, Balboa High School, Denman Middle School and Everett Middle School, according to David Golden, facilities director. Board members also cited Malcolm X and Gloria R. Davis Academy as possible charter locations, if those schools are closed.
Exiting Board Members Offer Parting Thoughts
In their last meeting before new members are sworn in January, departing board members Dan Kelly, Sarah Lipson and Eddie Chin thanked their colleagues, the staff and the community, and offered thoughts about their respective tenures on the board.
"I'm very proud of our proud of the quality of our schools," said Lipson, who has served four years on the board. "I wish the media would focus more on that." Lipson said if she could give any advice to the new board members, "it would be ... agree to disagree respectfully. We had trouble with that a couple of years ago and it's taken us a long time to rebuild our credibility."
Eddie Chin, who has been on the board eight years, specifically thanked the interim superintendent, Gwen Chan, "for your exemplary leadership through the hardships and difficult times of the last year." He assured the public, "I'll still be around, doing public service if not holding public office."
The most senior member of the board, Dan Kelly, who has served for the last 15 years, praised San Francisco's role as a national leader in school policy, with such initiatives as small class size, restoring arts programs to elementary school, the weighted student formula, site-based budgeting, and even "our innovated consent decree, that highlighted student achievement as the real issue." Kelly said the credit lay not only with the board: "We're just the foam on the very big wave that is the progressive thought and positive influence of the people of San Francisco. We've been very fortunate to be the voice of this community to the nation and to push the rest of the nation to follow San Francisco values."
Lipson and Chin had not sought re-election; Kelly was unsuccessful in his bid for a fifth term. In January, newly elected commissioners Jane Kim, Hydra Mendoza and Kim Shree-Maufus will join the board.
2007-08 School Calendar Adopted
The calendar for the school year starting next fall is as follows:
Board Chooses Firm to Head Superintendent Search
After receiving proposals from five executive search firms and interviewing three, the board chose to hire the firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to lead its search for a new superintendent. The ad hoc committee charged with interviewing the firms had recommended two: California School Board Association which, according to Eric Mar, was seen as having a better sense of the board and of the district's diverse nature, and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, which is a national, more experienced firm and was seen as having a wider geographic reach.
- Board OKs Sweeping Language Initiative
- District Squeezed By Charter Schools Seeking Space
- Exiting Board Members Offer Parting Thoughts
- 2007-08 School Calendar Adopted
- Board Chooses Firm to Head Superintendent Search
In an ambitious plan backed by the school board Tuesday night, SFUSD will aim to give very student in the district the opportunity to be a bilingual or multilingual graduate.
The board passed a unanimous resolution calling for the superintendent to draft a 21-member Blue Ribbon Task Force comprising parents, teachers, school planners, language experts, employee groups, business organizations and civic leaders to develop models for achieving this goal. The resolution also calls for the superintendent to use these findings to develop a plan for multilingual education, which will be presented to the board by Oct 1 of next year.
"This would not necessary be an all-immersion model," said Commissioner Dan Kelly, who authored the resolution along with Commissioners Norman Yee and Eric Mar. Immersion programs are expected to play a big part, however. The resolution builds on one passed earlier this year that called for expanding the district's popular two-way immersion programs and creating programs that could serve upper as well as lower grades.
The initiative approved Tuesday seeks not only to serve native English speakers, but also to help non-native speakers become English proficient while receiving a level of instruction equal to that of their English-speaking peers. The task force will work in concert with the district's Bilingual Community Council, which recently issued a report saying that English language learners are not being adequately served by the district's programs.
The move, board members said, could be an opportunity for the district to create a model for multilingual instruction with wide-ranging influence. "This is really cutting against the grain of an English-only wave that is going on in this country," Mar observed.
An obvious obstacle is funding such a large-scale effort at a time when the district faces dire budgetary constraints. "We're going to aggressively seek out external funding sources," Mar said. "We'll use every means at our disposal to find funds to pay for this program."
District Squeezed By Charter Schools Seeking Space
The district is scrambling to respond to an unusually large number of requests for facilities by new and existing charter schools, and may have to force many under-enrolled district schools to share their space, according to a board discussion Tuesday night.
Under Proposition 39, a voter initiative approved in 2000, the district is legally required to provide facilities to approved charters equivalent to those provided to students at traditional public schools. The charters in turn pay rent for the space.
This year, the district is facing requests from five existing schools representing about 1,700 students and four newly formed charters. The district has until April 1 to find a home for these schools.
They include:
Existing Schools
- City Arts and Tech High School (391 students)
- Metropolitan Arts and Tech High School (303 students)
- Kipp Bayview Academy, a fifth- to eighth-grade school (265 students)
- Edison Elementary School (401 students)
- Leadership High School (360 students)
- Bayview Essential School of Music, Art and Social Justice
- Bay Area Technology Charter School
- Sputnik Math, Science and Language Academy
- Aim High Community School
Sites mentioned as possible homes for the charters included DeAvila, which was closed a few years ago and is currently leased by City College; Treasure Island, which closed last year; and Newcomer's existing site if the city is unable to lease it, as hoped. Schools that could be adapted to co-house charters include Mission High School, Balboa High School, Denman Middle School and Everett Middle School, according to David Golden, facilities director. Board members also cited Malcolm X and Gloria R. Davis Academy as possible charter locations, if those schools are closed.
Exiting Board Members Offer Parting Thoughts
In their last meeting before new members are sworn in January, departing board members Dan Kelly, Sarah Lipson and Eddie Chin thanked their colleagues, the staff and the community, and offered thoughts about their respective tenures on the board.
"I'm very proud of our proud of the quality of our schools," said Lipson, who has served four years on the board. "I wish the media would focus more on that." Lipson said if she could give any advice to the new board members, "it would be ... agree to disagree respectfully. We had trouble with that a couple of years ago and it's taken us a long time to rebuild our credibility."
Eddie Chin, who has been on the board eight years, specifically thanked the interim superintendent, Gwen Chan, "for your exemplary leadership through the hardships and difficult times of the last year." He assured the public, "I'll still be around, doing public service if not holding public office."
The most senior member of the board, Dan Kelly, who has served for the last 15 years, praised San Francisco's role as a national leader in school policy, with such initiatives as small class size, restoring arts programs to elementary school, the weighted student formula, site-based budgeting, and even "our innovated consent decree, that highlighted student achievement as the real issue." Kelly said the credit lay not only with the board: "We're just the foam on the very big wave that is the progressive thought and positive influence of the people of San Francisco. We've been very fortunate to be the voice of this community to the nation and to push the rest of the nation to follow San Francisco values."
Lipson and Chin had not sought re-election; Kelly was unsuccessful in his bid for a fifth term. In January, newly elected commissioners Jane Kim, Hydra Mendoza and Kim Shree-Maufus will join the board.
2007-08 School Calendar Adopted
The calendar for the school year starting next fall is as follows:
- Aug. 27: First day of instruction
- Sept. 3: Labor Day (School closed)
- Oct. 8: Columbus/Indigenous People's Day/Dia de la Raza (School closed)
- Nov. 12: Veterans Day (School closed)
- Nov. 21 — 23: Thanksgiving recess
- Dec. 17 — Jan. 01: Winter break
- Jan. 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (School closed)
- Jan. 24 Last day of fall semester
- Jan. 25: Semester break
- Feb. 7: Lunar New Year (School closed)
- Feb. 8: Professional development day (School closed)
- Feb. 18: Presidents Day (School closed)
- March 24 — 28: Spring break
- Mar. 31: Cesar Chavez Day (School closed)
- May 26: Memorial Day (School closed)
- June 13: Spring semester ends, last day of school
Board Chooses Firm to Head Superintendent Search
After receiving proposals from five executive search firms and interviewing three, the board chose to hire the firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to lead its search for a new superintendent. The ad hoc committee charged with interviewing the firms had recommended two: California School Board Association which, according to Eric Mar, was seen as having a better sense of the board and of the district's diverse nature, and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, which is a national, more experienced firm and was seen as having a wider geographic reach.
Labels: Charters, GreatSchools.net, School Board Notes, SFUSD Politics
1 Comments:
Once again, schools that serve underpriviledged students are being tagged as space for charter schools.
What is being done to the students and staff at Burton H.S. is ridiculous--students being kicked out of their classrooms, teachers being given no time to pack their classrooms and expected to start back up on 1/2/07 without any chance to prepare their new rooms...
Where's the equity?
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