Our schools provide in-kind services to the city

San Francisco voters want to help our underfunded public schools. In 2004, they voted overwhelmingly to pass Prop. H, which allocated city money and other support to supplement the schools’ state funding.

But now city officials seem to be trying to give schools and students as little as they can get away with. Supervisors and other officials are pushing for providing as much of the voter-mandated support as possible via “in-kind services” — and stretching to extremes the definition of an in-kind service provided to schools. One city bean-counter, speaking at a December hearing, coldly defined sidewalk repair as an in-kind service to schools.

That’s not what the voters had in mind.

Sadly, supervisors seem to see limiting the Prop. H support as an opportunity to punish the school district for doing things they don’t like, such as closing schools and eliminating the popular JROTC program. They forget that when they punish “the schools,” in reality they’re wreaking vengeance on the children.

And there’s another key point. Our schools actually provide massive in-kind services to the city. If we want to play that game, it goes both ways.

In one school board discussion about using next year’s Prop. H funds, two needs on the table were increased translation services for immigrant parents and enhanced violence-prevention programs.

Yet translation services for immigrant adults and violence prevention are social and policing functions that should be the city’s responsibility, not the schools’, and shouldn’t come out of Prop. H money at all.

Here are a few of the many more in-kind services the schools gift to the city and the community, at the kids’ expense.

-- Diversity and desegregation efforts: The schools are expected to bear the burden of remedying societal racial and economic injustices, on a vast scale (with federal and state funding — but the onus is still on the schools).

-- School cafeterias: The feds fund school meals for low-income students, but the money falls far short of covering the cost of running cafeterias, especially with San Francisco’s high labor costs. Ideally, food sales to non-low-income students would balance the meal program budget. But actually, the school district subsidizes it. Yet feeding hungry low-income children is a community responsibility, not an educational expense.

-- Health care: This is not an educational expenditure. All health care provided at schools should rightfully be provided by the city; none should come from school budgets. With school nurses now a rarity, teachers and school secretaries routinely administer medication and treatment that should be provided by public health (and by health-care professionals, at that) and constitutes an in-kind service to the city.

City funding provides a Wellness Center at my son’s high school, which is great, but that’s not an in-kind service to the schools. That’s the city meeting a community need that is its rightful responsibility.

-- Gang prevention: My daughter’s middle school, like many schools, expends considerable resources and human effort on anti-gang strategies. That’s a social-service and policing function, not an education function — another in-kind service provided to the city.

There are many other societal problems for which the burden falls upon our schools — needs that go far beyond the sphere of education and are rightfully community responsibilities.

The supervisors need to understand that. And they need to recognize that it’s wrong to short the students by counting supposed in-kind services as Prop. H support – and to use that strategy to punish “the schools” (that is, the kids) for school board decisions. That’s not what the voters wanted.

Caroline Grannan is a San Francisco public school parent, volunteer and advocate who has children at Aptos Middle School and School of the Arts.

A Board of Supervisors’ committee discussion about Prop. H can be viewed here. Click on BOS Budget and Finance Committee 12/14/06, and it's the first item, about 24 minutes.

Wow, as if being a sub isn't hard enough

Substitute teacher faces 40 years for porn-infected PC

Junk Food Paradise

Many people already know that the San Francisco Unified School District has perhaps the most comprehensive Wellness Policy in the nation, and certainly one of the most venerable. While the federal Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 2004 mandated that every school district operating a federal meals program establish a Wellness Policy by the start of the 06-07 school year, the SFUSD’s policy was implemented in 2003, long before the child obesity crisis was on most people’s radar.

Sodas are still routinely sold in high schools around California, and even new state legislation taking effect in July will only limit them to 50% of available offerings in high schools, but sodas have been banned from all SFUSD cafeterias since 2003, and from school vending machines since January 2004. With a nutrition standard which allows less fat in snacks and entrees than new state legislation taking effect in July, SFUSD has long been out in front in assuring that food sold and served in school cafeterias is healthy for students and does not contribute to the skyrocketing rates of child obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease now afflicting the nation’s youth.

All SFUSD schools are supposed to comply with the Wellness Policy, which has been heavily promoted over the past 3 years. No food or beverages should be sold at any school during the school day, except in the cafeteria or vending machines. That means no bake sales, no classroom pizza sales, no student store snack sales, no club fundraising candy sales, at all during the school day, not even "for a good cause" or "just this once." There are also limits on what can be sold after school, when, and by whom. All of this has been publicized to Principals again and again.

If only they were listening. The best kept secret about the award winning SFUSD Wellness Policy is that few people besides the Director of Student Nutrition Services have bothered to follow it. The cafeterias have offered nothing but food that meets the Wellness Policy standards since August 2003, but many schools have remained a junk food lover’s paradise. There are bake sales at lunchtime at elementary schools, and vending machines stocked with chips and cookies at middle schools. At least one high school runs a junk food student store every day in competition with the cafeteria, and invites a catering truck to come sell at lunchtime right on the doorstep of the closed campus. Meanwhile, the school’s vending machines sell a variety of banned items, and students fundraise nonstop selling each other everything from caramel apples and chocolates to beef sticks and lollypops.

All of that is about to change. Associate Superintendent Jeannie Pon has recognized that it is not in the best interests of our students for competitive sales to continue to drain money away from the school cafeterias. When this happens, there is less money to spend improving cafeteria food for the students, and those most affected are the poorest students, who can’t afford to buy the competitive foods, and who have no choice but to eat the school lunch or go hungry. Worse, some students are so acutely aware of the stigma attached to eating in the cafeteria (especially on a campus where junk food sales are rampant), that they will skip lunch altogether rather than risk being seen accepting a “free lunch.” It is well known that this stigma seems to be felt more strongly by African American and Latino students than by their Asian peers.

Associate Superintendent Pon has committed to enforcing the district’s Wellness Policy, and not a moment too soon. At one SFUSD high school making no effort whatsoever to follow the district’s Wellness Policy, the crowd of over 300 students eating lunch in the cafeteria one recent day contained just one African American student, even though about 10% of the school’s population is African American. There were plenty of AA students out by the catering truck, though – some buying lunch, but others just hanging out. Clearly, lunch from a truck is “cool”, lunch in a school cafeteria, “not cool.”

Sadly, the very students most affected by the stigma attached to eating school meals in a junk food paradise, are often the same students who are on the wrong side of the academic achievement gap, the ones whose test scores the district is desperately trying to help raise. Creating an environment in which these students feel social pressure to skip lunch and instead hang out on the sidewalk near the catering truck is probably not going to accomplish that goal.

Learn more about school food here.

Re: Board Adopts Prop. H Spending Plan

The following comments on Prop H spending plans was posted on SfSchools by Amy Ottinger. I share her concerns:

I am really disappointed that the BOE voted to spend a fraction of the amount the district was requesting for academic support. While it goes back to the issue of "not enough money"—schools exist for one main purpose—to educate our children. This district currently does not have systematic academic intervention and remediation models for struggling students. Student Success Teams do meet, but real intervention requires extra teachers at school sites who work with and monitor each struggling child's progress.

I have been a huge champion of special education issues, but want to point out that academic supports are a general education concern—particularly with the reauthorization of IDEA (2004)—there will be a lot of focus on "response to intervention" which is a gen. ed model.

In a district with a consistent and embarrassing achievement gap (African American, Latino, Pacific Islander, ELL, SPED), this decision puts us even further behind in tackling this problem. While $350,000.00 is "something" it sure isn't anywhere near the requested amount. I also want to point out that the BOE decided to spend almost as much on bureaucracy (policy and position) to track prop. h funding as it did on prop. h funding addressing academic intervention.

I have to say that I have been worried about the slow pace in hiring a new superintendent—worried that Gwen Chan may not be able to make the tough calls if it means firing or reassigning those under her when she rose from those ranks herself, wondering if she would have a new vision for our district instead of more of the same. But if this is the direction she is taking us—towards addressing the achievement gap with the most obvious and effective methods—then I am impressed!

Now, dear BOE members....please find the money to get real academic intervention and remediation in place!

Amy

Amy Ottinger is the parent of two children who attend Lakeshore Alternative Elementary School in the SFUSD and is a member of the district's Community Advisory Committee for Special Education.

PPS-SF : "Unido y Visibles" Event

Our own Rachel Norton penned this week's School Beat column promoting PPS-SF's Latino Parent Club's "Unido y Visibles" event which will be held next Saturday, February 3rd, at Cesar Chavez Elementary School:

The PPS Latino Parent Club was the brainchild of PPS Outreach Coordinator, Daisy Hernandez. Early on, Daisy noticed that Latino Parents were dropping their kids off at school and standing outside. She began to encourage them to come in. "This is your home," she would remind them. Last March, Daisy organized a celebration of Latino parents at James Lick Middle School, inviting them to make the school their home, have some coffee, enjoy good food and network with other parents. It was a huge success! The PPS Latino Parent Club has since grown to over 100 participants, representing over 26 schools. Parents now gather monthly to network together and receive training about parent involvement and serving on a school's English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC).

San Francisco School Board Notes: School Board Notes 1.23.07

School Board Notes 1.23.07
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• Board Adopts Prop. H Spending Plan
• Norman Yee Back at his Seat
• Board Denies Charter School Petition
• Wallenberg HS Wants Beloved Counselor Back
• Gloria R. Davis to Move to Marshall

Board Adopts Prop. H Spending Plan

At its regular meeting Tuesday night, the board approved a Proposition H spending plan that allocates significant funds for violence prevention and translation services, while slightly increasing the amount of money for academic support, a cause that had been championed by district staff.

The board spent more than two hours taking public testimony, discussing line items and tinkering with amounts before deciding on a figure its members could support. The biggest debate arose over how to spend the discretionary portion of the funds, which represent half the $20 million SFUSD will get in Prop. H funds this year. The Community Advisory Committee, along with members of the public and the Youth Council, had supported funding that was heavy in violence-prevention programs, peer resources and translation services. The superintendent's office had requested more of the funds go to academic support, specifically computer upgrades for students and teachers, a system for tracking individual student progress, and reading and math coaches to help teachers improve their instructional practice.

In the end, the board united behind a proposal by President Mark Sanchez. It called for adopting almost all of the CAC's recommendations but shaving $350,000 off various allocations and giving that money back to the superintendent's office for greater academic support. In its original recommendation to the board, the superintendent had asked for $3.1 million for academic support. She recently came back to the board with a compromise recommendation asking for $1.5 million.

Members of the community appealed to the board about the critical need for violence prevention, peer resources and translation services. Two students said they had been suicidal before they became involved with the peer resources program. They described the program as transformational in its ability to help them gain confidence and self-respect. Other students spoke about witnessing friends being killed or assaulted over minor disagreements, and urged the board to adopt the CAC's recommendations for violence prevention.

The board ultimately adopted the CAC's recommendations, with the following modifications:

• Allocating $550,000, rather than $600,00, for peer resources (-$50,000)
• Allocating $550,000, rather than $600,00, for translation services (-$50,000)
• Allocating $1.55 million, rather than $1.65 million, to middle and high schools for developing violence-prevention programs (-$100,000)
• Eliminating an allocation for a full-time security aide, to be shared between school sites (-$100,000)
• Eliminating an allocation for noon-time monitors (-$20,000)
• Reducing from $250,000 to $236,072 the allocation to establish an evaluating system and hire a coordinator to track and assess use of Prop. H funds (-$14,000)

A copy of the CAC and the superintendent's respective recommendations can be found at the district Web site.

Norman Yee Back at His Seat

Commissioner Norman Yee, who has been hospitalized since being hit by a car while crossing the street December 26, attended the meeting for a short while Tuesday. Yee wore a neck brace and walked with a cane, and could only stay for about an hour. But the commissioner appeared to be in good spirits, and participated actively in the Prop. H discussion. Although he did not say for the vote, he expressed his support for some form of compromise that would retain much of the CAC's recommendations while supporting teachers and administrators need for greater funds for academic support.

Board Denies Charter School Petitions

The board denied two charter school applications before it Tuesday evening, for Bay Area Technology School (Baytech – San Francisco) and Sputnik Math, Science and Language Academy.

BayTech had been proposed as a high school in Bayview/Hunters Point. The owner, Willow Corp., operates a similar school in Oakland. After reviewing the application, staff recommended it be denied for several reasons. Staff members did not feel the charter had adequate community support, and many of those who signed its petition for a charter were not San Francisco residents. The school would not have a local board, but rather be run by Willow's San Mateo-based office. Also, the district was concerned about the charter's plan to draw at least 50 percent of its students from SFUSD schools. Willow had stated a plan of going into local schools and attempting to recruit students, a move Commissioner Jill Wynns said would be "unprecedented and possibly illegal."

Supporters of the school said that it had a successful track record in Oakland of helping under-served students perform and excel. They also pointed to the fact that, with the closing of Gloria R. Davis, Bayview/Hunters Point residents have asked the district to consider locating a charter school in their neighborhood.

Sputnik Academy had been proposed as a K-3 school with a Russian-language focus, targeting English-language learners. After reviewing its application, staff recommended denying the charter because the owners had no track record and staff members were concerned about the ability of the school to meet the needs of English language learners. Its plan did not call for a way of assessing English proficiency, nor did it indicate the instructional support (such as an additional half-hour of classroom instruction per day) and special textbook materials needed for ELL students.

Supporters of the school said it offered them a valuable way to preserve their native language and Russian heritage. District officials noted that SFUSD is working begin a Russian two-way immersion program in the near future.

Wallenberg HS Wants Beloved Counselor Back

About three dozen parents and students at Raoul Wallenberg High School in the Western Addition asked for the return of a beloved counselor, Ernest Stanton, who had been moved to an administrative job at the district. Audience members, who waited long into the night to make their case to the board, held signs saying Mr. Stanton "enhances educational development," "strengthens efforts of staff," "practices individual assessment" and "monitors student achievement."

Gloria R. Davis to Move to Marshall

After waiting late into the night to hear the fate of their school, Gloria R. Davis students and teachers got good news. The district will most likely be able to keep the school as a separate academy within Thurgood Marshall, Superintendent Gwen Chan said. As long as 30 students from the school agree to transfer to Marshall, and "the numbers look good," Chan said, the district should be able to keep the students together, keep some of the teachers, and offer core curriculum as a separate Gloria R. Davis academy co-housed within Marshall. Students would also be able to take advantage of extracurricular activities, honor courses and enrichment activities available at Marshall. The fate of Gloria R. Davis has been uncertain since the board voted at its last meeting to close the school due to its inability to build enough enrollment to support a 9-12th grade program.

Grammar Girl's improbably success

Who cares about grammar these days? Who can be bothered teaching it? Who in their right mind actually enjoyed studying it?

Of course there are always a few grammar and spelling police ready to pounce on the most arcane offenses against their favorite hot-button grammar sins. SfSchools has their fair share. These well-intentioned enthusiasts generally make the rest of us hate grammar even more. Either that or it makes the old-school purists bemoan the sad decline in English language instruction.

Which makes it all the more improbable to find Grammar Girl at the top of the Most Popular Podcast charts on iTunes. Yes, she really does delve into the minutae of lay versus lie, or double quotes versus single quotes. And yes, she really has a huge audience, getting noticed on Digg and CNN. How does she do it? She keeps it short. She has a sense of humor about it. And she is the opposite of dogmatic about the topic. She notes that Clapton's grammar sucks in Lay Down, Sally yet still holds it up as a useful and beloved way of remembering the correct usage. Even the short, "sound bite" format of her podcast are in tune with the times and perfect for the podcast format.

The end result is a useful, enjoyable tool that will help this listener fill in some gaping holes in my education. Check it out. I'll see if I can get my kids hooked on her lessons too.

Anoter good podcast for students — also more popular than you might exepct — is the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. I've been getting their daily email for years. Their podcast is also a short dose of learning in a very tasty format.

WaPo: A Librarian's Lament

Hat tip to Boing Boing for pointing me to this op-ed piece written by a Washington area school librarian noting the changing nature of libraries and the fading interest in book reading among students: A Librarian's Lament: Books Are a Hard Sell:

I recently spoke with a junior who was stressed about her decreasing ability to focus on anything for longer than two minutes or so. I tried to inspire her by talking about the importance of reading as a way to train the brain. I told her that a good reader develops the same powers of concentration that an athlete or a Buddhist would employ in sport or meditation. 'A lot out there is conspiring to distract you,' I said.

She rolled her eyes. 'That's your opinion about books. It doesn't make it true.' To her, the idea that reading might benefit the mind was, well, lame.

As a blogger and internet addict enthusiast, I'm part of the problem. But I'm old enough to know that I am missing something by not reading more literature. Will the generations coming up never have that appreciation?

Rebutting Big Soda's favorite soundbites

Claim: All foods can be part of a balanced diet!

Response: Sure, as an occasional snack. But a daily lunch of junk food harms kids' health and their ability to learn.

Claim: Kids should have free choice and should learn to exercise personal responsibility!

Response: We don't expect young children to exercise personal responsibility by crossing the street alone. We hold their hands. And until they're grown up, we still guide and protect our kids.

Claim: Kids won't eat healthy food!

Response: "Healthy" doesn't have to mean exotic organic-vegan creations. Familiar foods like sandwiches, soup, pasta, salad, chow mein and baked chicken are both healthy and kid-friendly.

Claim: Kids will just go off campus to buy junk food!

Response: Maybe. But schools must not contribute to harming their health. While schools are educating students and their families about the junk-food-laden environment that helps create the nutrition crisis, they undermine their own message by being part of that environment. Schools need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Claim: Offering poor choices teaches kids to choose wisely!

Response: If that were true, obesity would decrease as junk food proliferated in schools. And we don't offer kids cigarettes, alcohol or pornography to teach them to make wise choices.

Claim: It's parents' responsibility to keep their kids from buying junk food at school!

Response: Parents are undermined when schools surround their kids with unhealthy snacks and sodas. And even if parents could control what their kids ate at school, not all parents are vigilant enough to be aware of the problem. Schools should not be encouraged to harm the health of children with less savvy parents.

Claim: 18-year-olds can serve in the military and vote, and some high-schoolers are 18, so they should have access to whatever foods they want!

Response: 18-year-olds CAN eat whatever foods they want — they just shouldn't be able to buy them at school. Schools need to emphasize protecting the youngest and most vulnerable students rather than accommodating the oldest and least vulnerable.

Claim: But schools need the money from selling junk foods.

Response: A recent editorial in a Tennessee newspaper asked: If selling junk food at school leads to even one new case of Type 2 diabetes in a student, is that price worth paying for what the money provides — whether it's new uniforms for the football team or the junior class trip?

Even if we did assume that schools would lose money if they don't sell junk food &mdash which is not what happened at Aptos Middle School — we have to keep our priorities straight. You can't put a price on children's health.

— Caroline

What's wrong with fundraising food sales at school?

The SFUSD Wellness Policy does not allow fundraising food sales on campus during the school day. This is a brief overview explaining why. For complete information, go to the website of the SFUSD Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee.

Here’s a summary of the rule, which has been in effect since the 2003-04 school year:

At all schools, K-12, teachers, staff, parents, and students may not sell any food or beverage at all during the school day. This includes bake sales, student stores, and classroom food sales. The only exceptions are for the four days per year when high school students are allowed to sell food, or through approved profit sharing arrangement with Student Nutrition Services (see www.sfusdfood.org for details)

Here are the reasons:

First, the SFUSD Wellness Policy’s “No Empty Calories” focus limits foods sold on campus during the day to approved nutritious items. That is because of our national obesity epidemic, which is devastating the health of today’s generation of youth, and a commitment to putting young people’s health ahead of money. State laws that take effect July 1, 2007, also put strict limits on junk food sales.

But even if only healthy foods are sold, there’s another important reason. The federally subsidized National School Lunch Program provides the "lunch-line" menus at all schools, offering free or reduced-priced lunch to low-income students. Other students pay full (though reasonable) price for those meals, or choose a la carte options from the Beanery. If more students buy those lunches, the income allows the quality of the cuisine to be improved for all students.

"Competitive food" sales at lunchtime drain money from the lunch-line and Beanery operations, which then reduces the quality of those meals and drives more students to the competitive operations in a downward spiral. When the lunch-line menus drop in quality because kids choose competitive foods instead, those who suffer are the most vulnerable kids – the younger children (since elementary schools don't have competitive sales) and the lowest-income kids, who can't afford the other foods being sold.

So, more kids eating the school lunches mean the school lunches get better. More kids eating the school lunches also enables more cafeteria staff to be hired, speeding up the lines.

Here are some facts about young people’s health:

• Studies and anecdotal reports link better nutrition to improved achievement and behavior in school.
• Childhood obesity has tripled since 1970.
• Rates of asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and other disorders in children and teens have skyrocketed correspondingly.
• Health professionals expect the current generation of young people to be the first in modern history to live shorter life spans than their parents' generation, entirely due to obesity and related maladies.
• Obesity and related health crises are far more severe among African-American, Latino and economically disadvantaged children and teens.

SFUSD Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee
January 2007

The photo, taken Jan. 17, 2007, shows the Galileo High School student store selling junk food at lunch, in violation of the SFUSD Wellness Policy.

SFUSD Round 1 Enrollment Comes To An End

Today is the deadline for submitting your child's round 1 enrollment application for the 2007-2008 school year. We have not talked that much about the enrollment season here because, frankly, the whole process seems to be running very smoothly. The process has been relatively unchanged in recent years, which allows more knowledge about the process to build in the community. The staff at EPC is, from all reports that I hear, doing an excellent job of assisting applicants. And most of all, the volunteers at SF Parents for Public Schools have been doing a great job assembling resources, conducting meetings, and providing help to those families making applications.

Through the grapevine I hear that PPS is conducting some follow up research on the enrollment process. The following was sent to PPS members. I assume the meeting is for members only&mdashbut if you want to attend then go ahead and join:

Student Assignment Feedback -- a few more meetings
Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:30 pm (PST)

Dear Members:

January is the last opportunity you will have to give feedback about the student assignment process and share what is meaningful for you when choosing schools. Everyone's input is important!

Please join us for a conversation about schools in San Francisco. We have scheduled several community engagement meetings over the next two weeks, mostly at private residences, so we're not posting the times and locations. However, if you are interested in participating, please contact us at info@.... We have meetings scheduled on most days and many evenings, and we can probably find one that is convenient for you.

Or, join us at Parents for Public Schools on Tuesday, January 30 from 10-11:30 am (in English) at the PPS-SF Office -- 9 Silliman St, # 6 (@ San Bruno). Please let us know you are coming and tells us if you need childcare.

These input conversations are meaningful and enlightening. Make sure your voice is heard!

To learn more about this process or to download a flyer in English, Spanish and Chinese, go to http://www.ppssf.org/html/student_assignment.html

_______ _______
Program Manager
Parents for Public Schools
9 Silliman Street, Suite 6
San Francisco, CA 94134
415-468-7077 www.ppssf.org

Congratulations to everyone who has participated in Round 1. It may seem like a torturous ordeal, but the burden of shopping for your child's school is a small price to pay for having a variety of interesing options to choose from. Good luck!

Can we afford new small schools?

An organization that promotes small schools as the solution to the achievement gap, the Coalition for Essential Schools (CES, variously described as based in Oakland, Providence and Chicago), is trying to open a charter high school in the Bayview. They are connected with an attempt to establish a "small schools policy" in SFUSD, presumably calling for more. I'm posting a series of commentaries on this issue by me and CES supporters.

Posted on the sfschools listserve by me, Jan. 17, 2007:

I have to comment more on the Small Schools Task Force presentation at last night's BOE Committee of the Whole meeting. It's just too weird not to discuss further, if this is going to have major impact on SFUSD policy.

Again, a disclaimer: My own son attends a small high school. We definitely appreciate the advantages. I certainly feel that small schools are an ideal setting for some kids.

But. Last night's presentation set off the BS detectors, and I think that needs to be aired.

The gist of the Task Force's presentation was: There's an achievement gap and it would be nice if we could close it with small schools — plus some vague "studies show..." claims.

The central claim — that small schools will reduce or eliminate the achievement gap — wasn't backed up with sound, relevant statistics or other facts. So there was a lot of puffy sales talk. The title of the presentation was "Closing the Achievement Gap with Small Schools by Design," but it didn't — apparently couldn't — actually state that Small Schools by Design ARE closing the achievement gap. Apparently, they're not.

The elephant in the room when you have this discussion in SFUSD is that, as discussed, almost all of our highest-performing, most popular and oversubscribed middle and high school are our largest schools. So the entire presentation tiptoed around that elephant. Meanwhile, the achievement records for SFUSD's existing small schools do not overall show them closing the achievement gap — meaning raising
African-American and Latino test scores — either. So the Task Force also couldn't make that claim. That didn't leave them with very much to say except to explain how the task force operated and produced its report.

The lead presenter was a teacher at San Francisco Community who called on Task Force members to speak. The first one she called was United Educators of San Francisco VP Linda Plack, who voiced surprise at being called first — and it became clear why, because Linda's presentation was very lukewarm toward the notion. Some quotes: "School reform takes many guises ... one size does not fit all... major questions remain in several areas ... other approaches are alive and thriving even if they do without the same floodlight of attention (as small schools)."

Other presenters pointedly seemed to avoid any discussion of small schools' actual achievement. One committed parent volunteer who I believe is a mathematician stuck determinedly to the warm-n-fuzzy and stayed away from facts and numbers.

I and others have complained in the past that the Small Schools by Design advocates bash other schools in promoting their cause. That did not happen last night, to their credit.

The only one who was still in full "it's a miracle!" mode was Greg Peters, principal of struggling Leadership Charter High School, who declared confidently (direct quote): "Small schools save the lives of students and save their educational careers." He claimed, without having to back himself up, that small schools would bring back students to the district and stem the enrollment drop. That's not very
supportable, especially because the small schools are supposed to be targeting low-income AA and L students, who are not the demographic generally leaving the district (for privates and the burbs). He said that the true small school is not just small but "focused on equity" I assume this means that only Official Small Schools (TM) count.

I got the impression that other speakers were distancing themselves from Peters' magical thinking and were a bit sheepish about the inability to back up the "it's a miracle!" with any facts.

The summary of the Task Force report did cite three studies/examples. They're mixed.

The "Wasley" report. It's also known as the Bank Street study.
Problems with it are that it was done in a very different district (Chicago Public Schools) with a very different demographic makeup. In Chicago, low-income African-Americans apparently have been concentrated in really huge schools. But that's not the case in SFUSD. The study was done 9 years ago and reported 7 years go, so it's old, and it uses a very small sampling. It's also very pro-charter — and most significantly it's not impartial, since it was commissioned and paid for by advocates of small schools and charters.

The Boston Pilot Schools. This is the only one that looks relevant and comprehensible. But the project has been around for 12 years now, and according to this news report, it hasn't helped to eliminate the achievement gap in Boston.

A "Howley" report. OK, I'm not equipped with the full Task Force report, so I admittedly can't cite what it actually said about Howley. There's a pair of researchers, Aimee and Craig Howley at Ohio University, whose main characteristic appears to be the inability to write a comprehensible sentence. It may be that they've found the entire solution to the achievement gap, but we don't know it because nobody can understand them. Sample:

"This paper provides a basis for making sense of the apparent divergence in policies governing schooling structures in rural and urban places. Its interpretation examines the way educational reformers work to valorize a
multidimensional set of practices constituting "small school reform." "

(I keep meaning to go look up "valorize." Maybe that's the key to it all. Valorize our schools and eliminate the achievement gap!)

So what's the problem with all this? Creating Small Learning Communities in existing schools seems like a worthy project. Several schools, including Balboa, are up and running with this now. School of the Arts de facto works that way because of the separate artistic disciplines. But setting up new small schools would be inherently disruptive — do we close other schools to do it? — and they do cost more to operate. That's not a project we can afford to embark on based on hype and warm
fuzziness.

It was a bit disconcerting that BOE member Jill Wynns was told to stifle it when she
started asking a lot of questions about the report. Well, we also can't afford to
embark on this project without asking a lot of questions.

Meanwhile, there's some kind of snag on which I'm currently unclear in the Coalition for Essential Schools' plan to open their Bayview charter school next fall. They have been describing it as a done deal; their website lists the school as already in existence. It sounds like the snag may be over union work rules. So they're mounting a nationwide campaign to get their supporters to pepper the SFUSD BOE with e-mails.

Here's a commentary from CES on a national listserve:

We appreciate everyone's support for San Francisco's Small School Policy and CES's effort to open a small school there that will meet the needs of that City's underserved southeast neighborhoods. This policy has been five years in the making and thanks to the dogged determination of School Board members Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez, now backed up by a new majority on the School Board, it appears this
policy is on its way to approval. The proposed policy represents some real advances in this work and is the product of a broad collaboration of stakeholders including faculty, parents, unions and foundations and excellent support from the Superintendent's senior staff.

It is not a done deal, however, and your emails can help. There are some strong sources of resistance that want to preserve the status quo. These forces like to point out that San Francisco has the highest scoring urban high schools on the California State tests, but they are far less willing to acknowledge that these same test results show San Francisco has by the far the largest achievement gap of any
urban district in California. This situation is the result of San Francisco's efforts, more successful than most urban districts, to keep middle class students from fleeing. And yet, there are those that don't want to upset this powerful constituency by redirecting resources in the name of equity, to create small schools that meet the needs of underserved populations.

CES has been working for 20 months, with students, parents and community leaders from one such San Francisco neighborhood to create a new school. These stakeholders aren't willing to wait much longer for the District to do something for their long neglected
neighborhood. CES is determined to support their efforts to see this school opened in the fall, one way or another. These folks from the Bayview community are driven by the urgent needs of their children and intend to advocate solely for these children. They'll leave it to others to worry about other powerful and ably represented
constituencies. We are, however, confident that the new leadership on San Francisco's Board of Education is ready to move and find creative ways to address the needs of these families and the many others like them in San Francisco.

It shows some chutzpah for CES to claim to be oppressed by powerful forces, since it has funding from the Gates Foundation and, in its effort to open a charter, the full weight of the Bush Administration, the California Department of Education and the right-wing think tanks behind it. It's not clear what forces could be described as "powerful" in contrast to those players. (If only I had the technology to break through this post with a lightning bolt and a mighty voice booming "Tremble, charter supporters!")

— Caroline

School Board Notes 1.16.07

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent
Originally published here

• Committee Considers Prop. H Plan
• Task Force Presents Small Schools Policy
• District Launches Parcel Tax Initiative
• Meetings to Start an Hour Earlier

Committee Considers Prop. H Plan

School board members on Tuesday night considered a plan submitted by the Community Advisory Committee on how to spend the $20 million the district will receive this year in Prop. H funds. The board, meeting as the Committee of the Whole, also considered a plan outlined by the superintendent’s office on how the money could be spent.

The board will vote to adopt a Prop H spending plan at its next meeting, January 23. Copies of the CAC’s proposal can be obtained on the Web .

The CAC reviewed the superintendent’s proposal in developing its spending plan and included most of staff’s recommendations and requests. However, there were several areas where the two differed significantly. The CAC recommended some allocations not included in the superintendent's proposal, including:

• $1.65 million for violence prevention, with site allocations of $50,000 for each middle and high school. The site council would work in conjunction with the students to determine how to allocate the funds, and would solicit proposals from community-based organizations such as YouthSpeaks, a youth newspaper, and United Playaz, a performing arts program. The CAC also recommended expanding the peer resources programs at secondary schools to include six additional schools. The superintendent’s request did not include funds for violence prevention, and sought only to maintain the existing peer resources programs already established through Prop. H.
• $600,000 for translation services, which would allow for expanding the hiring of interpreters, translation of school and district notices, and translation to other languages, including Russian and Samoan, from only Spanish and Chinese. The superintendent’s proposal recommended $125,000 for the purpose of expanding translation.
• $770,000 to support adding wellness centers, which provide nursing care, counseling and peer resources, at four additional high schools so that every high school in the district would have one. The superintendent’s proposal sought three wellness centers for $577,500 and would leave one school, Washington High School, without one.

The CAC spending plan also left out some funds in the superintendent’s proposal, including:

• A computer replacement program requested by the superintendent that would have provided updated computers for teachers, classrooms and computer labs at the high school level.
• A request for a district-wide assessment system to gauge student progress.
• Half the $1.4 million the superintendent had requested to acquire 10 math and language arts coaches to support teachers in improving instructional practice.

Superintendent Gwen Chan expressed concern that the CAC had rejected significant allocations for academic support and placed them instead in violence prevention and peer resources programs. In particular, district staff emphasized the need for math and language coaches, computer replacement and a district-wide assessment program. The district has recently failed to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind law because of the achievement gap between the minority students and the district as a whole. A staff representative said coaching has been effective in helping teachers better serve under-performing students.

The staff also said that the high school computers are outdated and can’t support programs the schools would like to offer students.

Committee members, for their part, said that in public meetings, that they had heard over and over again the need for violence prevention and peer resources.

“If there was anything we heard over and above anything else it was the value of peer resources to the youth,” said Prop. H CAC member Sandra Fewer, who works with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth.

Community meetings also elicited strong testimony about the need for increased translation services for non English-speaking parents. A large contingent of foreign parents appeared at the meeting to appeal — in languages including Chinese, Spanish and Samoan — for services that would enable them to better communicate with teachers and the district. Parents told of the many complications that arose from not being able to read letters sent from the school, as well as the frustration of not being able to actively participate in their children’s academic progress. One parent said she almost missed an opportunity to enroll her daughter in a gifted program because she couldn’t read the letter informing her that her daughter qualified. Another parent at Tenderloin Community School spoke of how panic at the largely ELL school after a student died suddenly as a result of a viral infection. Parents couldn’t read the letters sent home and didn’t know whether a critical risk had been posed their children.

Such testimony had prompted the CAC to support the recommendation of $600,000, a figure put forth by immigrant advocacy groups. District staff said its lower $125,000 figure came from assessments in consultation with its translation staff about how much it would cost to increase translation services. The district currently spends $375,000 on Spanish and Chinese translation services.

Task Force Presents Small Schools Policy

The Small Schools Task Force made a presentation pitching the value of small schools and presenting a draft policy for how the district could support and develop small schools by design. The small schools initiative seeks to boost student achievement through smaller student populations, more personalized instruction and, in some cases, unique curriculum approaches. It is largely aimed at closing the achievement gap between the district as a whole and English language learners and students of color. It also seeks to create high-quality schools that will help retain and attract students to the district, whose enrollment has been declining.

The task force was chartered by the district last June to develop a policy framework for supporting small schools; it comprises SFUSD staff working at existing small schools, as well as parents, students, district staff, union representatives and community-based organizations. The group’s draft policy lays out how the district would define small schools, how schools could become eligible to join the initiative, as well as how they would be funded, staffed, assessed and held accountable. It also outlines the district’s role in supporting the schools.

The policy was drafted by the task force in collaboration with district staff. Copies can be obtained by contacting district representative Mary Richards at (415) 355-7323. The policy will be presented to the full board for first reading at it next meeting, Jan. 23. It will then be forwarded to at least two committees. Board members would then revise the draft or give it back to the task force or district staff to revise before it comes before making a final vote.

District Launches Parcel Tax Initiative

The district is drawing up plans for a parcel tax that would raise money to increase pay for educators and other staff.

The tax would seek to raise funds to achieve the following:

• Raise the salary schedule to be a more competitive district.
• Provide financial incentives to attract teachers to hard-to-staff subjects and schools.
• Provide greater and more consistent professional development.
• Provide increased support through classroom aides and teaching materials.

No timeline has been developed yet for the tax. Board President Mark Sanchez said: “The need is so immediate, I would want this to go forward in November.” Timing, however, would also be based in part on the period needed to build public support, board members said. One next step will be polling to gauge public opinion on the measure.

Meetings to Start an Hour Earlier

The committee decided to move the start time for general meetings (held the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month) from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. starting with the February 12 meeting. The change was made so that the meetings, which often stretch until close to midnight, could end earlier. The committee also agreed to hold its closed session meetings the Thursdays before the general meetings. Closed session meetings are currently held before the general meetings, and often delay the start of the meeting.

BOE webast from 1.9.2007

The webcast for the 1/9 BOE meeting has been available for a while on the SFGTV BOE webcast site. It still takes them a few days to publish the webasts, so last night's meeting is not yet available.

How to get free money

It is really pretty shocking that even the lamest charter school proposals — like the aforementioned Willow Education and Sputnik — seem to automatically get a $450,000 war chest from the California Department of Education. I asked around about this and was told by someone at the CDOE that they get to spend $45,000 just on the sales pitch to school districts, almost no questions asked. The rest is just startup seed money.

With a little research I could find out how much the CDOE has budgeted for seed money for these scams — as usual coming out of our kids' education resources — but I almost don't want to know.

And of course that's on top of the private money. The proposal from the Coalition for Essential Schools to start yet another charter HS in the Bayview has Gates Foundation funding. That proposal was withdrawn from last night's agenda, apparently to be discussed later; I have no idea why.

— Caroline

Fun at the BOE meeting

I'm writing the addendum to Kim's report on tonight's (1/16) BOE meeting before Kim files it, because I was only taking notes on certain parts.

I went to the meeting to make an anti-charter speech (pasted below, except that I had to edit it to one minute for the actual speech). The public comment period was during the presentation by Oakland's Willow Education, which operates a segregated, low-performing charter school in Oakland and has $450,000 in state startup funds to bestow a segregated, low-performing school upon SFUSD too, whether we like it or not — wow, thanks so much for thinking of us!

So the folks from Willow Education jeered and heckled me throughout my one-minute speech, which I think probably hurt them more than it hurt me.

I learned after I posted this that the hecklers were from the Sputnik charter -- another proposal that presented later -- not Willow.

Dennis Kelly also spoke against the charter (without getting jeered and heckled — either it was because the Willow Education dudes had admonished their followers, or it's my gender or I was having a bad-hair day or something. (Mark Sanchez admonished them too).

Really, I've been jeered by Edison Schools hecklers, and the Edison Schools folks are sleazier hustlers than the Willow Education folks, though the Willow people are trying to catch up.

The board seemed a bit perplexed by all this. The SFUSD charter staffer had just given the most cheerleading sales job you've ever heard for the charter. (I think she's missing her skepticism gene.) Jill Wynns pointed out that this was the first charter pitch the SFUSD BOE has ever heard that didn't have a single member of the San Francisco community speaking for it.

Prior to that — I'm not taking a stand opposing small schools or anything (my own child attends a small high school), but I have to say that the Small Schools Task Force gave a pretty weird presentation. They're in kind of an awkward position because it's undeniable that the highest-scoring and most in-demand schools in SFUSD are the biggest schools. They pretty much tiptoed around that.

They did a presentation citing the success of a school project in Boston. Afterward, Jill Wynns pointed out that the school project in Boston does not involve small schools (I think she said it involves site-based budgeting). One member of the Small Schools Task Force, Greg Peters (who I think is principal of Leadership HS, though he didn't mention that when he introduced himself), did say small schools save lives. Hard to document that with statistics, though. Other members of the task force pointedly took the opposite tack and said there's no one miracle reform and that small schools work for some kids.

Jill Wynns peppered them with questions until Mark Sanchez told her (in essence) to sit down and shut up, which kind of evoked the good old Bill Rojas days — Jill always did ask too many questions, and Rojas was always stifling her.

I hadn't been to a BOE meeting in a while, due to the demands of kid schedules and homework supervision needs. I'd forgotten how much fun they can be.

Here's the unedited two-minute version of my charter speech:

I’m Caroline Grannan, a parent at Aptos Middle School and School of the Arts, and a charter skeptic.

I’m speaking as an unpaid parent volunteer to remind you that charter schools are a damaging, divisive factor helping force our district to close schools. Three charter proposals are now before you, and another is about to be forced upon us by the state. Each of them threatens the well-being and even the survival of our existing schools, without providing any benefits that justify harming our district and our students.

Charters cause conflict and disruption as school communities are forced to accept unwanted charters to share their sites, here and in other districts.

Charter schools’ record in our district is mediocre. Nationally, charters perform no better than traditional public schools, and tend to be far more segregated.

Charter schools are anti-democracy and pro-privatization. They’re a pet project of the political right and a weapon in the arsenal aimed at weakening and ultimately destroying public education. Busting teachers’ unions is one of their main goals.

None of the organizations proposing these charters has a track record of success managing schools. Two have no experience running schools, and another runs a low-performing, segregated school in Oakland, not something we need to replicate here. The organization pushing the state charter has already run a low-performing, struggling school in SFUSD.

The would-be charter organizers are well-funded with private foundation money and state money in their divisive campaign to force unneeded schools into our district. That money could have been used to benefit our students.

A yes vote on a charter proposal is a nail in the coffin of an existing school. For the sake of our students, commissioners, please vote no on all proposed charter schools. If the charter organizers care about children and education, they will withdraw their proposals and find ways to help our kids and our existing schools.

— Caroline

SF Preschool finder gets better and better

The SF Preschool finder site has been updated. Check it out. I liked it back in November and I like it a lot more now. It's a lot more than just a google map page now. Good work.

Feebback is welcome. But publicity is worth even more. Spread the word. Note the new URL: preschool-finder.net

Update on Norman Yee

The good news is that Norman Yee is recovering from being struck by a car on December 26th and hopes to be seated when the BOE meets in February. The Chronicle published new information about the accident and his recovery a few days back in School board member on mend. The new details are certainly sobering. Commissioner Yee appears to have a long road to recovery ahead of him. We wish him the best.

RealClimate: Calling All Science Teachers

RealClimate, a blog written by experts in climate change sicence, is an unparalleled resource for scientists involved involved with climate change research. They have taken note of the controversy surrounding the attempt to distribute copies of An Inconvenient Truth to science teachers that we covered earlier. They clearly feel that the movie is a valuable educational tool that should be used in the classroom. Calling All Science Teachers:

'An Inconvenient Truth,' the Davis Guggenheim documentary on global warming starring Al Gore's presentation on the subject, provides an accurate, engaging, accessible, thought-provoking and (at times) even humorous introduction to one of the most important scientific issues of our time ( see our review of the movie). In some countries, viewing 'An Inconvenient Truth' has actually become a required part of the science curriculum, and with good justification, we think. Given that the DVD is currently selling for $19.99 through Amazon.com, you'd think that the National Science Teachers' Association ( NSTA) would jump at the chance to quickly get 50,000 free copies quickly into the hands of their members. Yet, when Laurie David, one of the producers of the film, made this offer to NSTA last November, it was summarily turned down on the grounds that the NSTA has a 2001 policy against 'product endorsement' (as if Laurie David were trying to shop some new deodorant to high school science teachers). What in the world is going on here?

They also note that science teachers can get a free copy of the documentary if they act quickly. The first 50,000 teachers to fill out this simple form will receive a free copy of the documentary for use in their classroooms. What a deal.

If They Came For Me Today: The Japanese American Internment Project

The Japanese internment is a topic with deep local roots, and those roots have been planted in fresh soil resulting in a new exhibit opening next week at the SF main library: If They Came For Me Today: The Japanese American Internment Project:

The large-scale Japanese American Internment Project traveling exhibition honors 14 survivors of the Japanese American internment camps during WWII and Japanese American artists whose work has been influenced by the internment experience. The project is based on a series of interviews and creative writing workshops with 11th graders at George Washington High School in San Francisco and has been expanded to include the creative talent of students from CW/W's ROOTS program at Balboa High School and Horrace Mann Middle School in San Francisco.

Sounds like a great field trip. Hat tip to LeftInSF for noting this exhibit.

Margaret Spellings gets it way wrong

Today's San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece under Margaret Spellings' byline praising the No Child Left Behind act. It uses a bogus comparison to praise Oakland's controversial American Indian Public Charter School and use it as an example of NCLB success.

Here's what Spellings, or her staff, wrote:

...[T}he law put American resolve behind the revolutionary idea that "every child can learn," setting a goal of 2014 for all students to be able to read and do math at grade level. This has proven especially beneficial to disadvantaged and minority students.

The results can be seen in schools such as the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland. More than half of the student body demonstrates limited proficiency in English, while 83 percent qualify for free lunch. In 2004-05, 70 percent of sixth-graders scored proficient or better in the English-Language Arts portion of the California Standards Test, up from 36 percent two years earlier. For math, the numbers rose from 48 percent to 78 percent.

But of course, those are two different groups of kids, and the demographics of those two sixth-grade classes are significantly different. The primary difference is that the "before" class was zero percent Asian, and the "after" class was 45% Asian. Most Asian groups are an anomaly in tending to post high achievement even despite low income.

Here are the demographics for the two sixth grades that Spellings misleadingly compares.

In 02-03:

28%	African-American
28%	American Indian
4%	Filipino
36%	Latino
0%	Asian
92%	economically disadvantaged

In 04-05:

25.5%	AA (down from 28%)
9.8%	AI (down from 28%)
45%	Asian (41% Chinese, 4% Vietnamese - and up from 0%)
0%	Filipino (down from 4%)
19.6%	Latino (down from 36%)
88%	economically disadvantaged (down from 92%)

The school still serves low-income students, but that 45% Asian figure, which didn't exist in 02-03, is a huge confounding factor.

— Caroline

Charter-school problems: the archive

From the Parents Advocating School Accountability charter page.

News Articles on Charter School Problems

Why post just articles about problems? Because a number of well-funded charter-school advocacy organizations compile and publicize articles showing charter schools in a positive light. Neither PASA's archive nor theirs gives a complete picture, but PASA's provides a small measure of balance. Disclaimer: PASA is an entirely volunteer project, with no income, budget or paid employees. The charter school advocacy groups are, of course, well funded and fully staffed.

I started this archive only a few days ago. The first article, dated Jan. 3 (11 days ago), is pretty astounding. According to the L.A. Daily News, an acclaimed charter school (where Mayor Villaraigosa delivered last year's State of the City address) has defaulted on a $9.9 million loan from LAUSD. State Board of Ed member Jonathan Williams is founder and co-director of the school. I can't find any reference to this story in the L.A. Times.

January 3, 2007 Los Angeles Daily News Charter School is in Default on $9.9 Million LAUSD Loan
The acclaimed Accelerated School (where L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa delivered last year's State of the City address) defaults on loan to school district. State Board of Education Member Jonathan Williams is the school's founder and co-director.

January 14, 2007 Albany (N.Y) Democrat-Herald Teacher's Aide Indicted in Ritalin Case
Charter school aide accused of trading a 17-year-old whiskey for his Ritalin pills.

January 11, 2007 Denver Post Cole Charter School Set for Closure
Here's an easy way for KIPP to keep its achievement high -- shut down its less successful schools and dump them back onto school districts. But how is that a solution for public education?

January 11, 2007 Metropolitan (Los Angeles) News-Enterprise C.A. (Court of Appeals) Revives Sex Harassment Suit Against Charter School
A legal twist in a lawsuit by a student who charged a charter-school teacher with embarrassing her with "sexual innuendo and profanity" when she visited the school as an 8th-grader.

January 10, 2007 KTVU.com Coach Allegedly Hit Kids' Groins, Showed Porn
Children Say He Poured Water on them in Cold Weather
The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that Gregory Lynn Burr, 28, is accused of regularly hitting players in the groin, exposing them to pornography, and pouring water on them when the weather was cold.

January 10, 2007 Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel Felton Teacher Found Out in Identity Case
Charter school director pleads guilty to impersonating teacher at her school to get personal information about the teacher.

January 9, 2007 Dayton (Ohio) Daily News Former Kindergarten Teacher Held on Sex Count
Charter school teacher charged with sex crimes against a 7-year-old.

January 9, 2007 Riverside Press-Enterprise Charter School Director Rebuts Board's Charges
Administrator is accused of misusing public funds.

January 6, 2007 Salt Lake Tribune Charter School Head Quits Amid Scrutiny
School's founder resigns amid questions about ethical and financial impropriety.

January 6, 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune Harbinger of Charter School's Failure Ignored
Editorial: With one phone call to Ohio's state auditor – or simply a Google search – the San Diego Unified School District could have learned that Donna Johnson, seeking a charter for the Jola Community School in Mount Hope, had just left a long record of financial chaos in her operation of the Imani Institute Leadership School, her previous charter school in Cleveland. ... Now Johnson owes the San Diego district $162,516 in funding for Jola [Charter School), which folded in fall 2005 after two months' operation...

January 5, 2007 Utah Daily Herald Police Called to School Meeting
Brouhaha over firing of charter school headmaster who was accused of insubordination and mistreating an autistic student.


— Caroline

School Board Notes 1.9.2007

School Board Notes 1.9.2007
By Nicole Achs Freeling

• New Members Take Seats, Yee Joins By Phone
• Sanchez Lays Out Policy Goals
• Bayview Dream Schools Reconfigured
• Bus Drivers Slapped with Health Cost Hike

New Members Take Seats, Yee Joins By Phone

The first board meeting of 2007 began with three brand new members — Hydra Mendoza, Kim-Shree Maufus and Jane Kim — and one empty seat, that of 2006 Board President Norman Yee, who is in the hospital after being hit by a car on December 26.

Yee was hit while crossing the street at Fourth and Bryant streets. He in stable condition after two spinal surgeries and is "in good spirits," according to a statement from him read by Commissioner Jill Wynns. Yee participated briefly in the meeting, speaking by phone from his hospital bed, to nominate Commissioner Mark Sanchez as president. Yee was elected as vice president.

Sanchez Lays Out Policy Goals

After his nomination was unanimously approved, Sanchez laid out his list of priorities. They included:

• "Focus on the neediest... The ones that haven't been part of the success story." African-American students in particular, he said, had shown a marked lack of progress over the last few years, and the district needed to determine ways to address that.
• Implement more "small schools by design," facilities with small student bodies and a focus on personalized learning.
• Look at student assignment not only to desegregate the school system, but the schools themselves. "Some of these schools may look integrated by the numbers, but if you look in the classroom, it's totally divided by race," he said. "If we're going to integrate, we need real integration and not the apartheid that's existing right now."
• Look at getting board members compensated so they can "do the job (they) need to do." Currently, board members get paid $500 a month. Most hold full-time jobs in addition to board service, which, Sanchez admitted, doesn't always leave time to fully research the issues before them.
• Add committees, such as a personnel committee to work on the search for a new superintendent and a labor committee to work with bargaining units and attempt to avoid conflicts such as those that almost provoked teacher and employee strikes last year.
• Start meetings earlier and end them earlier. He proposed beginning the meetings at 6 p.m. and shifting closed session meetings to a different day so the regular meetings start on time.

Bayview Dream Schools Reconfigured

The board voted to

• Keep Charles Drew as a K-3 academy
• Change Willie Brown from a 4-6 to a 4-8 school
• Close Gloria R. Davis (currently a 7-9 school) or move it to an alternate location, where it would become a 9-12 school

The board heard public testimony from Davis supporters — as well as impassioned outbursts from the audience, which included over a dozen uniformed members of the Gloria R. Davis marching band. Community members spoke of the success and impact of the Dream Schools, special programs designed to serve under-performing communities with longer hours and Saturday sessions, uniforms and a rigorous academic curriculum to push students to succeed. Community members also spoke about the importance of continuing to have a high school within the Bayview community, and urged the district to establish Gloria R. Davis as a separate academy housed at nearby Thurgood Marshall High School.

Board members supported the idea, directing staff to explore how it might be achieved and find out how many students would chose that option over going to other high schools. In the meantime, so the students can participate in the Round 1 enrollment lottery January 19, the board voted to give Davis students their first choice of high schools for 2007-08. If students wish to apply to Lowell, they can still be considered (the deadline was in December), although they would have to meet the school's academic standards.

Bus Drivers Slapped With Health Cost Hike

A week before Christmas vacation, the district's school bus drivers were told they would be facing increases in health insurance costs of up to 500 percent when school started again in January. For a family with children, the cost deducted from employees' paychecks soared from about $60 to $450, said school bus driver Brock Estes. The bus drivers believe the last-minute notice about the increase violates their contract. Estes said Laidlaw, the company that employs the drivers, has refused to expedite arbitration, which means it could take eight to 10 months for the issue to be settled, and the money will continue to be deducted from employees' pay.

Although the district contracts with Laidlaw for transportation services and has limited ability to influence the issue, Estes urged the board to ask Laidlaw to expedite arbitration and settle the issue quickly. The San Francisco bus drivers have an outstanding safety record, Estes pointed out at a previous meeting: Each year, about 75 children are killed on, entering or exiting school buses. "The rate for San Francisco over the last 35 years we've been providing bus service is zero."

How charter schools harm public education, kids

With four charter schools trying to muscle their way into SFUSD, it's time to take another look at the problems created by this unsuccessful, damaging and misleading "reform."

Posted on the www.pasasf.org website

Charter schools: grassroots experiments freed from burdensome bureaucratic regulations to test innovations that can be adopted throughout public education – or destructive weapon aimed at undermining and privatizing public education, backed by the might of the Bush administration and the right-wing think tanks?

The correct answer is B — cloaked in a disguise as Answer A.

Here are some ways charter schools harm public education.

• Charter schools undermine a critical job of elected school boards — determining how many schools a district needs to serve its children. An excess number of schools means draining resources away from students’ and classrooms’ needs. Charter backers exert intense pressure on school boards to open additional schools — and in many cases charters can be forced upon an unwilling school district by a county or state board of education.
• The charter movement promotes itself by attacking and disparaging public education, endlessly citing charter schools’ supposed superiority to traditional public schools (though academic studies show that charters underperform or at best perform as well as traditional public schools). This erodes support for public schools.
• Charters drain students from existing schools, threatening their survival.
• Charter schools tend to be far more segregated than traditional public schools, and some serve to cloister privileged white students away from low-income students of color.
  Education blogger Sandra Tsing Loh:

  “…one might encourage such class separation via canny choice of curriculum, venturing into the projects (or similar) and saying, "Hands up everyone whose number one priority for their teens is a daily Socratic dialogue, and close reading of The Aeniad. No one? Well, can’t say we didn’t ask ya! Bye now."

• As school districts and elected school boards become increasingly familiar with the drawbacks, they are less and less likely to approve proposed charter schools. Determined and powerful charter organizers can then go up the chain and get their charters forced into the unwilling school district. Even charter advocates admit that this does not make for a beneficial working relationship between district and school that it oversees against its will.
• In California, current interpretation of the law requires school districts to provide sites for charter schools – even charters they did not authorize nor want, and even if it displaces existing programs. In districts around the state, this is beginning to cause conflict and protest, which can only get worse.
• It’s a crushing, complex task for “grassroots” organizers to run an entire school on their own. So chains operate most charter schools. They wind up constituting their own separate school systems, almost entirely unaccountable.
• “Successful” charters often achieve any gains through two practices that are not real solutions and are not sustainable. One is getting rid of unsuccessful students; the other is making superhuman demands on initially willing teachers and administrators that rapidly burn them out. For obvious reasons, neither of these “solutions” addresses the real challenges facing public education.
• A school district’s only means of imposing oversight is the threat of revoking the charter. But when the charter movement deploys its ample resources to fight back, destructive and divisive controversy is inflamed. That harms districts, schools, kids and all of public education.
• For that reason, it’s very difficult to close even a disastrous charter school that chooses to resist.
• It sounds great to blast the “burdensome bureaucratic regulations” from which charter schools are joyously liberated. But actually, most of those “burdensome” regulations are there for a reason — to combat patronage and favoritism, to ensure access for disabled students, to keep students safe, to gain fair wages and working conditions for teachers. If needless regulations exist, they should be lifted for all schools, not just charters.
• Looting, fraud, misconduct and abuse can happen at schools of all types. But charters open up a whole new income stream for crooks and thieves, and a new hunting ground for predators and abusers. See PASA’s archives for examples.

And one final point worth noting: When charter schools were freed from the burdensome regulations constraining public schools, they were supposed to act as fountains of innovation, devising creative new solutions to the persistent problems in education, which could then be adopted by the mainstream public schools, for the benefit of all students. But 15-plus years after the first state law passed authorizing charter schools, public schools are still waiting for that fountain of innovation to start flowing. Can you name one single innovative idea that originated within the charter school movement? Neither can even the most passionate charter-school boosters.
— Caroline

2007-2008 SFUSD Instructional Calendar

The district has posted the calendoar for the 07-08 school year (PDF):

Jul. 04: Independence Day (Holiday)
Aug. 22: Teacher Work Day
Aug. 23-24: Professional Development Days
Aug. 27: Students Report — First Day of Instruction
Sep. 03: Labor Day (Holiday)
Oct. 08: Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day/El Dia de la Raza (Holiday)
Nov. 12: Veterans Day (Holiday)
Nov. 21-23: Thanksgiving Recess
Dec. 17-31: Winter Break
Jan. 01: New Years Day (Holiday)
Jan. 21: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Holiday)
Jan. 24: Fall Semester Ends
Jan. 25: Semester Break
Feb. 07: Lunar New Year Observance (Schools Closed)
Feb. 08: Professional Development Day (Schools Closed)
Feb. 18: Presidents’ Day (Holiday)
Mar. 24-28: Spring Break
Mar. 31: Cesar Chavez Day Observance (Schools Closed)
May 26: Memorial Day (Holiday)
Jun. 13: Last Day of Instruction/Spring Semester Ends

It may not seem like a big deal to have this information available this early, but some of us old timers can remember when this info was practically kept secret.

These dates have also been entered into our calendar.

GreatSchools.net: Prop H Committee Decides How to Spend Discretionary Funds

Originally published on GreatSchools.net here
Prop H Committee Decides How to Spend Discretionary Funds
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

A community advisory committee decided Thursday evening, January 4, 2007, how to allocate $10 million worth of discretionary funding through Proposition H, a voter-approved initiative that provides millions for programs to enrich public education.

Proposition H allocations will total $30 million in 07/08. One-third goes to the First Five Commission for preschool for all, one-third goes specifically for sports, libraries, arts and music programs (SLAM), and one-third can be used at the committee's discretion for a wide range of purposes. The Proposition H Community Advisory Committee voted Thursday on the portion known as the "third third," the portion allowed for general uses.

The committee sorted through numerous competing requests for the funds, including a spending plan proposed by the Superintendent's office and about $1.8 million worth of programs proposed by the Student Advisory Council. Since the committee plans to continue funding all of the programs it has initiated in previous years, the amount left for new programs in the "third third" is about $3.3 million.

The appropriations the committee approved included:

• $600,000 for translation services to help teachers, administrators and the district communicate with parents, both orally and through written materials. It is intended to include interpretation and translation in languages such as Samoan and Russian, for which there are currently no translation services, as well as expanding services in Spanish and Chinese.
• $600,000 to support Peer Resource Programs at middle and high schools. The funds continue programs initiated in prior years through Prop H, and add two new middle school and two new high school programs, for a total of six middle school and eight high school Peer Resource Programs.
• $770,000 to add wellness centers at four high schools. Wellness Centers provide health and mental health services including nursing services, substance abuse counseling and conflict resolution. With the addition of these centers, every one of the district's high schools will now have a wellness center.
• Close to $3 million to have a part-time nurse, counselor or other learning support professional at each elementary school. This allocation would simply continue to fund a program already initiated through Prop H; it does not allocate any additional funding or
• $585,000 in new funding to provide middle schools with mental health services. The funds would add one part-time mental health professional at each middle school.
• $250,000 in in-kind services (rather than funds) from the city's department of  public health, possibly to be allocated for a pilot mental health program in secondary schools.
• $300,000 to develop a program at O'Connell High School and a  as-yet-to-be-determined middle school providing targeted support to students who reenter the school system after being chronically truant. The program