Envision Schools scores a PR hit
Envision Schools has a new spin, promoting the fact that its new Metro/Marin School of Arts & Technology hybrid at the old Newcomer High School site is attracting Marin commuters to school in S.F.
Chron columnist Chuck Nevius bit in today's paper.
Envision's two San Francisco schools have been having trouble filling up, so this flattering story right during the season when eighth-graders are looking for high schools is a nice coup for them. It looks great for the funders, too.
Nevius has worked (if not lived) in San Francisco for decades, so it's surprising that he fell for Envision's claim that its current site is in the "inner city" and on the edge of the Western Addition. The site at Jackson and Fillmore is firmly in Pacific Heights, one of the nation's wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods.
He didn't have enough background to ask the other obvious question. Metropolitan Arts & Technology ("Metro") got its charter based on its commitment to serve low-income children of color in southeastern San Francisco. When it needed a site, SFUSD offered it the Gloria R. Davis campus in the Bayview. So why did it choose a site in Pacific Heights, far across town from the Bayview, instead?
Chron columnist Chuck Nevius bit in today's paper.
Envision's two San Francisco schools have been having trouble filling up, so this flattering story right during the season when eighth-graders are looking for high schools is a nice coup for them. It looks great for the funders, too.
Nevius has worked (if not lived) in San Francisco for decades, so it's surprising that he fell for Envision's claim that its current site is in the "inner city" and on the edge of the Western Addition. The site at Jackson and Fillmore is firmly in Pacific Heights, one of the nation's wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods.
He didn't have enough background to ask the other obvious question. Metropolitan Arts & Technology ("Metro") got its charter based on its commitment to serve low-income children of color in southeastern San Francisco. When it needed a site, SFUSD offered it the Gloria R. Davis campus in the Bayview. So why did it choose a site in Pacific Heights, far across town from the Bayview, instead?
Labels: Charters
17 Comments:
hello caroline, aka miraloma:
loved your comments on the nevius blog... same old recycled crud.
but.. at least one blogger from CFI was giving you a run for your money.
So Anonymous, I guess you are an Envision insider? So can you answer my question: If Metro is committed to educating low-income students of color from southeastern San Francisco, why did Envision turn down the Gloria R. Davis site in the Bayview and choose the Newcomer site in Pacific Heights, far across town from the Bayview?
Also, if the responses to my comments came from people involved in the Center for Inquiry, isn't it kind of unclear on the concept of "inquiry" to tell me to keep my questions to myself?
honestly, i have no idea WHY the envision staff chose newcomer, since they will have to move again next year. bummer.
and i don't necessarily want you to keep your questions to yourself; i just think you need a new loop.... your ranting is getting rather tiresome.
i guess i'm just sensitive, since i am a charter school parent from K- high school.... and the schools have been fabulous.
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wow.. THAT is really scary!
caroline..
i was happy to see someone FINALLY explain the short-term lease of newcomer vs. other sites in response on the nevius blog.
the kid had an excellent point! inner city low-income kids didn't WANT to be "ghettoized" .. so they chose the pac.heights site.
I haven't read the Nevius blog post yet, but -- so you're saying Envision Schools' strategy is to put schools serving low-income kids in high-end neighborhoods far from where the low-income kids live so the students won't be "ghettoized"? Can anyone from Envision who's reading this confirm that's the strategy? So you think there shouldn't be schools in low-income neighborhoods at all?
caroline, for pity's sake..
what the student at metro said was that the kids from bayview/hp did NOT want to go to school @ davis when an option of another site came up.
i wouldn't necessarily call that a "strategy"!!
as you are well aware .. facilities are the BIG issue for charter schools, so your assumption that envision has a planned course of putting low-income kids in high-income neighborhoods is ridiculous.
p.s. go back to the nevius blog.. since some of the students are trying to set you straight.
I never "assumed" that Envision had a planned course of putting low-income kids in high-income neighborhoods. That's how I interpreted this comment right here on this blog: "Inner city low-income kids didn't WANT to be "ghettoized" .. so they chose the pac.heights site."
That surprised me.
baloney...
so many of your previous comments, going back to june, have constantly badgered envision re: grand scheme to sneak into newcomer and not take the offer of davis, as if that was the PLAN...
I don't know what the plan was. I've heard word that Envision wanted to be near wealthy potential funders (this is unconfirmed). It seemed a bit askew, priority-wise, to prefer to be near the funders rather than the students they are supposed to serve.
But it could be that the choice was also to make it more attractive for the Marin kids to get there, on the basis that Envision knew for a while they'd be closing MSAT.
have another question. Why would MSAT credits not transfer to other Marin high schools, as Nevius indicated?
Also, it's amusing that Envision resents getting "badgered" by an unpaid volunteer blogger, when it wins such unquestioning positive coverage from the mainstream press.
The notion that Chuck Nevius would actually buy that Jackson and Fillmore is "inner-city," when that's conveniently the exact story that Envision wanted to tell, is pretty embarrassing to the Chron.
hogwash... "wealthy funders"??? envision doesn't get $ from the pacific heights residents... folks in pac.heights fund their own kid's tuition @ hamlin,town, and university @ $28,00 a year! of course it is unconfirmed, because that idea is bullpucky.
ENVISION doesn't resent your blogs. they don't spend time reading it.. I do!! i am not a spokes- person for envision.. just someone who supports the charter school options out there.
sorry, but it is not ENVISIONs fault that nevius is a dipwad and got his geography wrong... sheeeeesh.
the article wasn't well researched.. so don't blame metro.
not all credits easily transfer because envision uses integrated studies... so math is integrated for all 4 years of alegebra1/2 , geometry/statistics/ and calc.
which means that rather than isolated classes each year, the concepts are integrated into a 4 year learning cur. schools who don't have this model then will have the kids test out of the various math classes.
this has not been a problem.
science,language,history,foreign lang. are all fine and kids just transfer.....so that is not really a big issue. in fact i have found that other schools are now offering the IMP math program.
So I guess you weren't the Envision defender who posted on sfgate that Nevius' article was "just perfect."
Why will Metro Arts need to move again in another year? This would seem to be very disruptive to staff and students alike.
Metro has just a one-year lease for the SFUSD-owned Jackson/Fillmore site because the property needs $7-$8 million worth of work to meet legal standards for permanent occupancy by a public K-12 school.
My understanding is that that's all disability-access work under the Lopez settlement (vs. SFUSD). It's OK for temporary occupancy, though I don't know the exact criteria.
That's why SFUSD moved Newcomer High School and hoped (in the absence of need for more SFUSD high school sites) to find a tenant that would not require the Lopez work to be done.
That's also why the question of why Envision didn't accept the Gloria R. Davis site in the Bayview looms so large, because the Bayview site is legal for occupancy by a K-12 SFUSD school.
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