Excelsior Middle School's shabby treatment

While most observers of the district have been focusing their attention on the enrollment process, there has been another story developing that deserves more attention. Excelsior Middle School, a small, young school serving a predominately minority community, will be moving from its Excelsior district location to be colocated with ISA on Potrero Hill. The move is part of a series of moves that are needed to accommodate City Arts and Technology Charter School, who will move into Excelsior's vacated facility.

Being pushed around to make room for a charter is problematic for many reasons, but it is an inevitable consequence of the way school districts are forced to accept charters and forced to provide facilities for them.

What is inexcusable is the lack of consultation and communication with the affected school communities. In this case the Excelsior families were completely shut out of the process and left in the dark. Only now, after the move was belatedly announced to the school staff and students, has the district finally made some effort to contact the families. Only now, after many activists have raised concerns about the process, has the district granted the affected families priority access to the enrollment process.

All of this is happening too late, and only after the district hand has been forced.

A rough sketch of the timeline of this story goes something like this:

• CAT, the charter school, has been negotiating with the district for a new facility. When I toured there in November they told prospective parents that they were close to finalizing the location and would have definitive word before the enrollment deadline in January.
• We chose not to enroll there, so I don't know when the school told their community about the results of the negotiations. Reportedly, CAT has known about the move for some time.
• On March 6th the district tells the Excelsior staff about the move.
• Round 1 enrollment lottery results are mailed out around March 8th, starting the Round 2 process.
• The students are told on March 12th, but no effort has been made to reach the parents.
• At this point the school officials note that they are trying to arrange a meeting with district staff and parents in the April timeframe.
• News of the move, and the utter failure of the district to involve or notify parents, travels through the activist networks, including PPS and SfSchools lists.
• Finally the district takes steps to contact families and give them access to the enrollment process.

School Beat does some excellent reporting on this story in Excelsior and Denman Middle School Families Deserve Equitable Treatment, concluding with this precient commentary:

We, as public school supporters, as engaged parents, and as fellow residents of this city, have to pull the emergency brake and make sure that SFUSD’s new administration shows that it isn’t business as usual in how they make decisions, especially hard decisions with as big an impact as school mergers, moves and closures. Fundamentally, it really is a question of equity.

The role of the charter school rules in foisting this move on the district and the affected school communities is another story that needs to be told. But the immediate concern has to be the interests of the affected schools and families. I'm glad to see the district and the EPC taking belated steps to correct their mistakes. We need to bear witness to this injustice so that it is not repeated in the future.