SFUSD Budget available on-line

The SFUSD 07-08 budget that was approved in the June 16th BOE Meeting has been published on-line at the SFUSD website:

Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2007-2008 (443 pages, 2.5MB, PDF)

I just learned of its availability, so I have not had time to review it. But I will note that it is in user-friendly, searchable format. Kudos to the district for maintaining this open access and transparency.

Here is a teaser from the Superintendent’S budget message at the front of the document:

San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has distinguished itself by becoming the highest performing large urban school district in the State of California. This distinction has been earned through the hard work of our students, teachers, staff and administrators and the support of our vibrant parent communities and organizations, City and community partners, and the voters of San Francisco who have continually supported strong public schools through the passage of the 2006 Proposition A School Bond and the 2004 Public Education Enrichment Fund (Proposition H). Our commitment to recognizing those who create success in our schools has resulted in the settlement this past year of long awaited contracts with many of our employee unions, the placement of strong school leaders in schools of challenge, and the continued commitment to initiatives that support the development of students, faculty and administrators.

[...]

The State has provided districts with a "maintenance" budget — a budget that reflects a fully-funded cost of living adjustment with few areas of resource growth. However, several factors have severely challenged our ability to maintain a steady budget for next year: substantial decreases in student enrollment that affect our revenue limit, the continual rise in operational costs (e.g., utility costs, health benefit costs, etc), and major encroachment areas including Special Education that provide critical services to our special needs students, student transportation, and child development programs.

Enjoy!

Where is the budget?

Kim has a post on LeftInSf noting that the upcoming BOE meeting has not been properly noticed:
BOE Meeting To Approve 07-08 Budget at 5 p.m.-No Published Agenda (Violation of Brown Act)

Her article aroused my curiosity about this year's budget. It will be approved tomorrow, but I have seen almost no discussion about it. So I went looking for it on-line and I don't see it published anywhere. The SFUSD website is, as usual, no help. The School Board Notes indicate that the budget is available from 555 Franklin. But I do not see any evidence that it is available on-line or in electronic form.

In the past two years the budget has been available in PDF form. Last year they made it searchable. There was steady improvement on public access and transparency.

Now we appear to be regressing.

Sexual predators online - know your enemy

Internet safety is a recurring concern for all parents, one that affects web use in schools. So I was very interested to see the following story posted on BoingBoing: Sexual predators online - the real story

Kids do get preyed upon, but not in the way that it's depicted in the media, and none of the cell-phone-tracking, spyware-installing fear-based parenting does squat to protect them. If you want to keep your kids safe, you need to know what you're keeping them safe from.

This article links to another story with links to long-ish, boring-ish YouTube videos of experts testifying (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).

The broad conclusion make a lot of sense. Forget about violent encounters with predator child pornographers trying to lure your young children into meeting under false pretenses. It just does not happen often enough to worry about. The real danger is neither surprising nor new. The most common form of on-line sexual predators are adults seducing teenagers into consensual relations. The same teenagers who are at risk of running away from home are the ones who are most at risk of falling prey to the old fashioned statutory rape by lecherous adults. These adults are up front about their intentions, and prey on the teenager's age old needs for attention, romance, and risk.

I had never thought of it that way. But it makes total sense. Especially to this parent of two teenagers!

Happy summer vacation

The raft at Birch Lake

Sure, there's a new superintendent. The budget needs to be published and approved. Labor negotiations are simmering. There are still plenty of school issues to blog about.

But it is summer time. We do have other priorities.

Have a fun summer.

SFUD Press Release announcing Superintendent Carlos Garcia

Here are the highlights from SFUSD's press release, including a nice selection of quotes:

San Francisco School Board Selects Carlos Garcia for Superintendent

June 13, 2007 (San Francisco, CA) — The San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education voted yesterday evening to employ Carlos Garcia as the District’s next superintendent.

"We chose Mr. Garcia because of his past experience with San Francisco, his strong track record as a superintendent and his understanding of the challenges that our district faces," said Board President Mark Sanchez.

A superintendent for eleven years, Carlos Garcia has overseen districts with enrollments ranging from 7,800 to 300,000 students including two large urban school districts - Fresno, California, and Clark County, Nevada. Clark County District is one of the largest in the country.

Garcia was principal at San Francisco’s Horace Mann Middle School from 1988 to 1991. During his tenure, the school was restructured, student achievement improved, and the school was designated as both a California Distinguished school and a Blue Ribbon school. Under his leadership Mann was one of the first middle schools in the country to implement block scheduling and there was a long waiting list of families seeking admission.

"San Francisco is a place that is very dear to both my wife and me. I’m excited to be able to work with one of the better school districts in the country,’" said Carlos Garcia. "I’m looking forward to working with a strong team from classified staff to teachers to administrators as well as the school board because no one person can do it all. If we put kids at the forefront and we work together, we’ll succeed."

Mr. Garcia began his career in education in 1975 and has held several roles, including teacher, principal, central office administrator, and leader in effective classroom instruction. He is currently Vice President of Urban Markets for McGraw-Hill, which is an educational materials publishing company.

Commissioner Hydra Mendoza explained, "His broad experience at a state and national level as well as his combined public and private sector perspective make him a strong leader whom we believe will continue to engage diverse community members in support of our schools."

[...]"In conversations with several school board members in Nevada, we heard that Carlos Garcia has a strong track record as a prudent fiscal manager and strategic innovator," remarked Board Vice President Norman Yee.

Veteran Commissioner Jill Wynns stated, "Having been through this process two other times, I was impressed by the caliber of the candidates and the way the board worked together to arrive at this decision. I am confident that we have matched our community’s needs with a superintendent who has experience as an effective leader of large-scale improvements in urban school districts."

Envision is really, really mad at Novato

Envision Schools' Bob Lenz keeps lobbing bombs at Novato Unified School District officials, whom he claims had it in for Marin Arts & Tech from Day 1.

I gotta say, Envision is not totally the wronged victim here. Remember, till fall '06, Novato had to fork over $800 more per student to MSAT than it provided to its two other high schools, and the more I read about MSAT, the more it sounds like it was serving a lot of out-of-district students. So Novato students had to sacrifice to subsidize those MSAT students. I'll bet Novato officials wish they'd never heard of Envision Schools.

Novato Advance

School board defends itself on MSAT issue

By Jamie Oppenheim Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 3:06 PM PDT

Most people expect the last day of high school classes to be a day where students and teachers breathed a collective sigh of relief - this was not the case at the Marin School of Arts and Technology (MSAT). The Envision Schools charter school announced at a Novato school board meeting June 5 that it planned to close its doors for good. Furthermore, students attending the school would have to travel to San Francisco to attend Metropolitan Arts and Tech High School to continue their Envision education. Last Friday, teary eyed students presented equally weepy teachers with flowers and individualized speeches expressing appreciation for their teachers during an assembly, the last one students would have as a school.

The library at the school's Indian Valley College campus was filled with a camaraderie and an almost familial feeling. Students seemed to actually enjoy coming to school.

“The teachers here aren't your basic high school teachers,” said MSAT student Rose Fry during the farewell meeting. “They really try to connect with you through learning.”

Since it's inception, MSAT and its governing organization, Envision Schools, have clashed with the Novato Unified School District (NUSD) over the school's financial reporting, fiscal solvency, educational program issues, timely and accurate reporting and most recently finding a new facility. Some of these issues required the district to initiate a corrective action plan mandating the school act in compliance with NUSD's demands, much of which the school complied with; however the school failed to meet the district's demands of having a three percent budget reserve. Despite these shortcomings, trustees of the school board renewed MSAT's five year charter late last year. Two weeks prior to the school's closure announcement MSAT looked into breaking away from Envision Schools to start a charter with the NUSD.

At a school board meeting May 30, NUSD legal counsel told the school that trustees can't move forward until Envision Schools sends the district a formal proposal detailing the charter revision.

According to MSAT principal Stuart Fox, the school was under the impression that the process would be quick. “We had done everything we were asked to do,” he said. “(NUSD trustees) wouldn't answer any questions and they made it into a process. The response in the board meeting was a surprise for us and a continuation of a pattern.”

Trustees didn't give the school enough time to inform them that revising a charter could be a time consuming process, he added. “Stuart's characterization of expecting one kind of a meeting and getting another is fair,” said NUSD board president Jennifer Treppa. Treppa maintains that had members from Envision Schools attended more NUSD meetings the situation might have gone differently. MSAT and Envision School's decision to close genuinely was a surprise, Treppa said. “This district always supported choice. Our district has the most educational options in the county. It's not true that this district does not support alternative forms of education.” Bob Lenz, founder of Envision Schools and founding principal of MSAT, described the situation differently. He said it was typical of the governing board's dealings with the school district. After meeting with MSAT's attorney and the California Charter School Association Lenz said he was under the impression that revising the charter was not a difficult process and it wouldn't require creating a different charter.

“Their attorney had interpreted the process differently. Renewing the process would take three months. School starts in three months,” Lenz said. “This was set up as a political ruse that they were following a process. They can act surprised. They can set up a process but they didn't want the school in the district.” Lenz alleges that NUSD was against MSAT since its inception. “There were fears that they might have to consolidate the high schools if it was successful. It's not about what's best for kids its all about money.” If the district wanted the school to succeed they would have found a way to do it, Lenz said. “Words are cheap.”

— Caroline

School Board Notes 6.12.07: District Names New Superintendent

School Board Notes 6.12.07
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• District Names New Superintendent
• Guadalupe School Still Fighting for Computer Lab
• Proposed Budget Shows District Revenues Holding Steady

District Names New Superintendent

The board voted in former Las Vegas superintendent Carlos Garcia to be the new superintendent of SFUSD, starting July 16. Garcia, currently serving as vice president of National Urban Markets for McGraw-Hill Education Company, was superintendent of the Clark County School District in Las Vegas from 2000 to 2005. He also served as superintendent of the Fresno and Sanger, Calif., school districts, as a principal of San Francisco's Horace Mann Middle School, and as a school board member for the San Mateo County Board of Education. He grew up in Los Angeles, a student of Los Angeles public schools.

The board voted 6-1 in favor of Garcia. Kim-Shree Maufus cast the dissenting vote. She said she did so out of concern that the process had moved too fast, rather than because she had a problem with the candidate. "I felt we did not take the time to look right and look left, and make sure we were doing the most we could for the students of San Francisco." She went on to say, "My colleagues have heard my concerns and I know will continue to work to address them."

The district says the compensation package it is offering Garcia — including an annual salary of $255,000 — is less than that received by former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman in her last year of service. Ackerman was making a similar salary but had higher retirement contributions than Garcia will. The differential is due to fiscal constraints faced by the district, according to a press release. Garcia will also receive an $8,000 automobile allowance, a one-time $30,000 signing bonus, a $2,500 monthly housing allowance, and health and retirement benefits similar to those of other full-time district employees.

Board members, along with members of the public who spoke, generally applauded the superintendent search process, which they said had been conducted respectfully and amicably even when disagreements arose. Board members described Garcia as the best fit from among six highly qualified finalists, "all of whom were great people, all of whom I could've seen as superintendent," said Commissioner Mark Sanchez. The commissioners cited as attributes Garcia's experience working with a highly diverse student population and a high percentage of English language learners, his California-centered background, and his experience managing one of the largest school districts in the country. Several went on to qualify, however, that he was "not perfect." "We heard from detractors as well as supporters," said Commissioner Eric Mar. "It'll be up to us to work with him, but also to hold him accountable when necessary."

The Clark County School District and SFUSD share many problems, such as high dropout rates and achievement gaps, that bedevil many urban school districts. But Garcia's former district is also different in a key respect: the 5th-largest school district in the nation, it is also the single fastest growing. During Garcia's tenure, enrollment grew about 12,000 a year, with a new school opening about once a month.

The board voted to extend Gwen Chan's tenure as interim superintendent until Garcia takes over in July; she will stay on in an advisory capacity until the end of August.

Members of the board and the public voiced their appreciation for Chan, who has worked in the district for 40 years. Commissioner Norman Yee was so overcome with emotion he could not finish his speech. Others thanked Chan for her openness and genuineness, and for ushering in an era of cooperation with the board and labor groups.

Guadalupe School Still Fighting to Save Computer Lab

Teachers and students from Guadalupe Elementary School in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood entreated the district again not to close its computer lab. Many of the students are from low-income families without other access to computers. The lab is closing to make room for additional classrooms due to overenrollment. Teachers and parents complained the move is jeopardizing the very students for whom the district has vowed to increase resources. The district has said it cannot get a bungalow set up at the school by the time school starts again in August.

Yee asked the staff to come back with a report as to how quickly they could get a new bungalow put on site. Commissioner Jill Wynns stated such a move was out of order as the board had not put discussion of Guadalupe School on the agenda. Legal counsel David Campos said he thought Yee's suggestions "stretched" what was allowable but probably was not out of bounds. Commissioners Mar and Maufus seconded Yee's request, further aggravating Wynns. Her protests were met with angry rumbling from the crowd. "What is your problem, lady?" one parent shouted.

Proposed Budget Shows District Revenues Holding Steady

Next year's proposed budget shows district revenue holding about even with last year in spite of declining enrollment. The budget includes some cuts, such as layoffs of paraprofessionals and classified employees. It also restores some funding to areas cut last year, when a deficit forced school closures.

According to the district's budget packet, its general fund revenues are expected to increase by about $5.1 million this year over last. Much of this increase represents funds that go directly to charter schools; the increase to district coffers is closer to just over $1 million. That increase, however, along with cuts in other areas is allowing the district to put some money back in to areas it trimmed last year, including weighted student formula (the allocation of money to schools based on the needs of each student), student nutrition and child development (i.e. care for after school and children younger than kindergarten age.)

Copies of the proposed budget are available from the district office at 555 Franklin Street. The board will hear a presentation and hold a public discussion on the budget at its Committee of Whole meeting Thursday, June 14 at 7 p.m. It will vote on the budget at its next regular board meeting, Tuesday, June 26.

It's official: Carlos Garcia hired

As reported in the Examiner: School board hires new supe

Welcome aboard Carlos Garcia. And congratulation to the board for a successful conclusion to an exemplary search process.

Update: The webcast of last night's BOE meeting is already online.

D.C. schools: a microcosm of urban education

This depressing Washington Post historical view of the Washington, D.C., school system is worth the time it takes to read it, plus the annoying registration process if you aren't already registered (try www.bugmenot.com ).

Arlene Ackerman is interviewed in some depth almost at the end, and it includes a sad view of the outcome of site-based budgeting in D.C.

Summer reading resouce

The Boston Public Library has published a great resource for all parents: Boston Schools Summer Reading Lists

There are many lists offered on the site. Perhaps the most useful are the lists organized by grade. They also have subject base lists available here. Hat tip to LifeHacker for the link.

SF Public Library offers a limited collection of reading lists. Some of them curiously require you to enter a library card number to access. What's the point? The Boston example shows there is a lot of room for improvement. A little collaboration between SFPL and SFUSD librarians could create a very useful resource.

The Hoover Institution misses a point

Today's Chronicle op-ed page prints (for a change!) a view from the Hoover Institution extolling homeschooling, citing the recent National Spelling Bee winner, a homeschooled 13-year-old from Danville with an amazing command of detailed knowledge in many areas.

(An aside — regular Chronicle readers complain that the op-ed page seems to specialize in espousing the views of the Hoover Institution and would run its grocery list. There should be a disclaimer every time that Hoover is not a research institution, as it vaguely makes itself out to be, but an advocacy organization espousing its own views — which is fine as long as it's up front.) From the article:

The number of students who are homeschooled is a matter of some dispute; but it is clear that their numbers are increasing and that the performance of homeschooled children is outstanding.

Because Hoover is not doing the kind of scholarly research that would require it to consider all factors, it can ignore issues like reverse causation. So, what about taking into account the reasons families may choose homeschooling? For example, anecdotally I understand that quite a few homeschooled children have differences such as Asperger's syndrome — a high-functioning form of autism that may cause difficulties functioning socially in a classroom environment but is often linked with extremely high academic performance and "savant" characteristics. We don't know how many homeschooled kids that's true of, but it's an example of factors that influence decisions to homeschool, which confound the notion that homeschooling is working miracles.

In other words, if I chose to homeschool my kids, they would not be likely to turn into one of these miracle-memory supergeniuses. Hoover and other public-education opponents like Caroline Hoxby are glomming onto homeschooling as part of their crusade to crush public schools, but it's not always that simple.

— Caroline

Carlos Garcia in the news

We noted the early reports about Carlos Garcia's superintendent candidacy but we have refrained from joining the fray. The process has been very well managed and very discrete. Yes, it has broken into the public eye, but there is no purpose served in jumping the gun. And it could be harmful and prejudicial. We'd like the new superintendent to set his own agenda and introduce himself first. So why dig up the small crumbs of information about his tenure at Las Vegas or his other jobs at this point? We want to hear from him in his own words.

That should happen shortly, from what we read elsewhere:

• LeftInSf: Info on Carlos Garcia, New Superintendent
• School Beat: We May Have A New Superintendent
• Tim Redmond's Bay Guardian editorial: Advice for almost-new school district superintendent Carlos Garcia
• Chron's S.F. would challenge schools innovator and the more recent article: Offer expected for schools chief finalist

Most of what I read sound very interesting and hopeful. The consensus is that he will be an outspoken and dynamic leader, and not a waterboy for the BOE. He won't accept a status quo that isn't working—and that means we can expect some bold strokes ahead.

I will indulge myself in a a hearty laugh at the expense of many of Arlene Ackerman's critics. Much was made of Ackerman's final contract, the way it was negotiated and approved, the generous terms, the supposedly lavish parachute. Now I think its time for many of the whiny critics to eat some crow. The new guy will get more money than Ackerman. He will get generous housing and car stipends. That's the price we have to pay for attracting a charismatic, experienced leader. I was fine with Ackerman's contract and I'm fine with paying the new supe similarly. This district faces many daunting obstacles ahead. Cheaping out on the superintendent was not an option.

Things get wilder in acclaimed Oakland school

The East Bay Express is reporting on more allegations against Ben Chavis, the in-your-face principal of Oakland's nationally acclaimed American Indian Public Charter School.

According to the article:

A black parent complained that the school told her there was no room for her son, even though Chavis was accepting applications from white students. A former teacher accuses the principal of pushing her down the school stairs while calling her a "fucking bitch." Yet another cites a story that Chavis manhandled his own niece, threatened her, and called her a "slut."

— Caroline

Charter schools just wanna have fun

Ohio charter school defends serving gin to 6th-grade students at graduation

Education Week looks at KIPP attrition

Education Week addresses the commentaries this blog has been doing on KIPP attrition.

Education Week 6/8/07
KIPP Student-Attrition Patterns Eyed

High Mobility Rates at Certain Schools Attract Criticism, Despite Suggestions That Problem Is Easing Over Time

By Erik W. Robelen

As the high-profile Knowledge Is Power Program network of schools continues to expand, KIPP leaders are taking a close look at student attrition amid arguments from critics that the loss of students at some of those public schools of choice is alarmingly high.

Attrition rates at a few KIPP schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, in particular, have recently drawn scrutiny. Fewer than half the 5th graders who entered three new middle schools in fall 2003 are still enrolled this academic year, when they would generally be finishing 8th grade, according to a KIPP analysis. At one of the schools, in Oakland, Calif., only about a quarter of the students from that 5th grade class have remained.

National attrition data on the San Francisco-based network of 52 mostly charter middle schools are unavailable. But information the network provided on a handful of other schools, as well as a review of national enrollment data by Education Week, suggests that levels of student mobility vary widely across KIPP campuses.

In certain KIPP schools, in fact, attrition appears very low.

Still, some observers are raising concerns, especially given the accolades KIPP has attracted. For one, if most of the exiting students are low-performing, they say, the average test scores could be higher than they would be otherwise, and not accurately reflect the schools’ actual success.

Unfortunately, the article is behind the EdWeek subscription wall. But we have to quote the reference to our efforts here:

Caroline M. Grannan, a parent activist in San Francisco, has repeatedly posted entries on the Web log www.sfschools.org that raise questions about attrition at Bay Area KIPP schools.

“I started looking more closely [at enrollment data] … and discovered this really staggering attrition at some of them,” she said in an interview. “They’re being held up as superior to public schools while there is this huge confounding factor. That’s a problem to me.”

The Bay Area schools also attracted the attention of The Washington Post, and in response to an inquiry from the newspaper, KIPP provided an in-depth analysis of attrition for three of its five schools in the area that appeared to have lost a lot of students. The network also made the analysis available to Education Week.

The KIPP analysis, which relied on exit interviews with families conducted by school staff, suggests that about half the departing students moved out of the area, while the other half chose to leave for reasons mainly tied to the KIPP approach. Only two students at one school, KIPP says, were explicitly told to leave.

For the students who did not move, the most common reason cited for leaving was to avoid repeating a grade. KIPP schools are aggressive about promoting students only if they demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to advance. Other common reasons cited were the extended school day and the strict discipline code.

— Caroline

More charter school joy and harmony

Eeek...

Contra Costa Times 6/8/07
Anger boils over at Livermore charter school meeting
by Eric Louie

LIVERMORE -- The Livermore Charter Learning Corporation board were privately meeting late into the night Thursday regarding its executive director and school principal after a tense evening in which Livermore police were called.

There was over an hour of public comment, mostly in support of executive director and founder Lon Goldstein who many believed the board was going to be let go. At times speakers criticized the board, sometimes by name. There was also criticism for what they considered overly negative coverage of the school, with some in the audience calling out a Times reporter by name.

The closed session items were listed as "Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release/Leave" and named the executive director and Livermore Valley Charter School principal as the positions to be discussed.

Livermore police Capt. Mark Weiss said officers were asked to check on the school because of the potential that people would be upset with a personnel decision. He said police were to check on the school frequently during their patrols, though at least two patrol cars were seen staying in the parking lot. Weiss said the meeting ended peacefully.

The rage being generated by Bay Area charter school issues right now could run a power plant.
— Caroline

School Board Notes: District's Plan to Boost Lunch Money for Schools

District's Plan to Boost Lunch Money for Schools
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

School officials appealed to the city for a $1 million electronic meal payment system that they said would save SFUSD $1 million a year, money that could go into providing healthier student meals. Following the meeting Thursday of the Select Committee of the Board of Education and Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi (District 5) said he believed funding such a system would have broad support on the Board of Supervisors.

"It's incumbent upon us to figure out a way to come up with this money," said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, (District 10), who was responsible for bringing up the discussion. "This is important for us, it's important for our children and it's a way for us to say that this city cares about its families."

Also in attendance at the meeting were Supervisors Bevan Dufty (District 8) and Commissioners Hydra Mendoza and Jill Wynns.

Representatives from the Mayor's Department of Children, Youth and Families, and from the district's Student Nutrition program, discussed efforts that have been made to improve student nutrition, beginning with outlawing the sale of junk food and soda in 2003. They highlighted some pilot programs that have shown promising results. One is developing "Grab and Go" breakfasts that students eat at their desks during the first 15 minutes of school. The idea came about because many students rush to class just in time for the bell without having a meal first. In the schools where the Grab and Go breakfasts have been implemented, the numbers of kids eating school breakfasts has shot up 225 percent, according to district representatives.

Another initiative has been putting salad bars in cafeterias at schools such as Balboa High; this has increased the number of kids eating school lunches by 26 percent.

However, the district's Student Nutrition Services continues to face a gap between the "lunch money" it gets from the state and federal government and the costs of operating the program. The gap has shrinking over the last several years from $1.2 million to about $560,000, but that deficit has to be made up from the district's much-strained general fund.

A point-of-sale system, in which students pay for meals using prepaid electronic swipe cards, would bring tremendous value, supporters said. They estimated after the one-time cost of installation, it would save the district a million dollars a year by eliminating the need to collect and count cash, providing better inventory control and enabling faster reimbursement from the government. The program would make meal lines move much faster and, because of this streamlining, make it possible to expand the successful Grab and Go breakfast program to every school, supporters said. Also important, the system would eliminate the stigma of receiving free meals by making it impossible to know which students qualified and which were full-paying. The reduced stigma could mean more kids would apply for free and reduced lunches, which are reimbursed through federal funds. The district policy is not to turn away any child who doesn't have lunch money; in the cases of children who haven't applied for free lunches, the district simply absorbs the cost.

The money the district saved each year would mean nutrition services would not encroach on the general fund budget, district representatives said. The district would also have about $350,000 a year to put back into school meals for improvements, such as expanding salad bars and bringing more seasonal produce to the menu.

"None of this is in the mayor's budget that has come to us," Mirkarimi said. "We need to figure out where to come up with it." But he said he thought there would be support for finding the funds. "I definitely think it will be well-received by the other supervisors. I can't see why it wouldn't be." He noted, however, that "we seem to be discovering this almost by accident. I'm wondering why it wasn't put to us more formally by the mayor's office or the school district."

For her part, Wynns said she hadn't known district representatives intended to ask the city to fund the program, although she supported the idea. Wynns said the district has applied for a grant to fund the system but could put those funds to other student-nutrition-related uses.

Strawberry Quick? Or Reefer Madness?

Suddenly, with the ubiquity of an internet rumor, word is spreading of the latest drug menace: Strawberry Quick. What is it? Speed. Methamphetamine. Why is it a sudden phenomenon? Because it is laced with candy coloring and flavoring that, supposedly, makes it attractive to kids.

But is it? The Chronicle Local News Blog explores the phenomena and comes to a mixed conclusion. Yes, colored forms of speed that look like candy are rumored to be for sale in San Francisco—although no busts have proven this yet. Snopes, a reliable source of information on most internet rumors, considers the threat real, albeit with many prudent disclaimers.

As I read it, the threat is being over hyped. Speed is a dangerous, readily available drug. Every parent and educator should be well aware of the dangers, especially with the ready availability of drugs on our streets and in our schools. But the fact is that methamphetamine use is down nationally. This new form is unlikely to be aimed at kids. It is unlikely that it allows anyone to ingest the drug orally—speed is typically snorted or injected in part because of its bitter taste. More likely it is nothing more than a new marketing scheme for dealers who want to differentiate their "product" among users and not as an attempt to expand the market by tricking kids into trying it. It is likely to be a way of masking impurities.

So there is no harm in keeping abreast of the current trends in drug use. No harm in talking with your kids about the phenomenon. But stay calm. When grownups over react and get hysterical they fall into the Reefer Madness trap and loose all credibility with the kids who need to hear the message. Instead of convincing them of the dangers of speed, it might just make it sound more appealing. So relax a bit. This is not invading our schools. Its an old nemesis in new clothes.

Marin charter merging with SFUSD charter?

The Marin Independent Journal is reporting that San Francisco-based charter operator Envision Schools is closing its flagship school, Marin School of Arts & Technology in Novato, and inviting MSAT students to enroll at Envision's Metro Arts & Tech in SFUSD, newly moving to the Newcomer High School campus in Pacific Heights.

Envision Schools' own materials are calling this a merger between the two schools.

That raises questions. Can a charter just declare that it's merging an out-of-district school into another without consulting the district the oversees the receiving school?

And SFUSD just agreed to let Metro move temporarily to the Newcomer High campus in Pacific Heights (which is a long way from Metro's current North Bernal-Mission digs). I've heard that the Newcomer facility needs major accessibility upgrades before it can legally be permanently occupied by an SFUSD school. Envision seems to be billing this as a long-term move, though. Does that commit SFUSD to doing the upgrades?

Novato's charter high school calls it quits
Don Speich
Marin Independent Journal 06/05/2007

Accusing the Novato Unified School District of lies and empty promises, leaders of the district's charter high school say they're calling it quits, ending an uneasy four-year partnership.

The Marin School of Arts and Technology will close at the end of this school year, officials said.

"We have determined that in light of NUSD's continuing intransigence, there is no future for MSAT, so we are going into exile," said Patrick Macias, a parent leader of the charter school.
I had to ask, 'Are we doing the best things for the kids if we keep going on like this until the middle of the summer?' "

School officials have been seeking a new site because their lease with the College of Marin expired and was not renewed. The college needs the space as part of its $249.5 million construction program.

Envision and MSAT parents have been meeting with Novato officials since February in an attempt to find a new site. Various options have been suggested but all ultimately ejected because, among other things, nothing could be found to house all of the school's students.

Novato School Board President Jennifer Treppa expressed surprise at the decision, saying she had not known about it until informed by a reporter Tuesday.

"Our assumption is that the process would continue and conversations would continue," she said. "We thought we were going down a road where both would explore alternatives, (though) there were no guarantees of what that would be. I was committed to the process as I understood it."

Bob Lenz, educational program director for Envision, which operates charter schools in San Francisco, Alameda and Hayward, dismissed that.

He said the district had been involved, in a "slow painful way ... to get rid of the school.

"If they act surprised they are acting. This has been a concerted effort to get (Envision) out of the county."

Novato Superintendent Jan La Torre-Derby said Tuesday, "I am so sad because I have not been informed of that (MSAT's closure). I think we were making progress and I am sad. Bob Lenz is a fabulous, fabulous administrator and Stewart (Fox) has done admirable work to continue the program.

"The whole thing is sad all the way around. There has been a lot of hard work on everybody's part."

But, said Lenz: "We've had a long and rocky history with the district. We anticipate they will continue with their lies and misrepresentations of the facts."

When MSAT was under development its curriculum specializing in the arts and high technology was sought by many parents and students, and attracting students has not been a problem.

However, like many new charter schools, its early years were plagued with financial and other problems, most of which were resolved. There remained tension between the school and Novato's central administration, a product, as it has been elsewhere, of two essentially autonomous entities.

Publicly funded charter schools, while part of a district, are governed separately by parents, who are involved in hiring teachers, setting curriculum and making a variety of decisions that have traditionally been made by central school administrations.

Last November, the Novato school board renewed the school's charter for five years with a list of conditions, including compliance with corrective plans such as timely and accurate reports and budgets.

The school is known for its creative programs, successful project-based learning and high academic achievement. Supporters say that more than 70 percent of the school's graduating seniors this year have been accepted to at least one four-year college and have been
awarded more than $830,000 in financial aid.

Along with this, said Lenz, has come praise about the quality of school programs from numerous nonprofit foundations that help fund the school. It is "very sad that we have had to resort to this for a school that has been so incredibly successful," he said.

Macias said MSAT parents had been told almost from the start by district officials that they supported the charter school, but were worried that Envision would "steal" the district's money.

The implication, he said, was that if the parents would drop Envision things would improve.

Last month, parents and students at MSAT said they wanted to sever their ties with Envision and create a new nonprofit themselves to take over financial responsibility for the school.

Macias said he and others met with district officials in private meetings, believing they were hammering out a process by which they could make the new proposal work.

He said he and others believed things were progressing nicely, until the district's attorney informed them at a recent board meeting that parents would have to begin again the lengthy process of applying to the board as a new charter school.

That, Macias said, was the final straw, because students, teachers and parents needed some immediate assurance about the future of the school.

MSAT parents and officials concluded the district's problem is with MSAT, not Envision.

"We came to the conclusion there is no possible, rational, feasible means to continue to operate under the auspices of Novato schools," Macias said.

This article leaves some open questions, such as: Why would the Novato district hate Envision so much? (MSAT posted far lower test scores than Novato's other two high schools, until a couple of years ago when it made a big jump, and now posts just slightly lower scores.)

I also asked the reporter how MSAT's claimed rate of college admissions compares with Novato's other two schools', since that information is meaningless without that context. He didn't know.

It remains to be seen whether MSAT's students will quietly disperse to other Marin high schools or whether a big group of them will be heading our way over the bridge. So this may be an ongoing story.

— Caroline

School Baord Notes: Board Discusses NCLB's Impact on the District

Board Discusses NCLB's Impact on the District
By Nicole Achs Freeling
Greatschools.net Correspondent

With George W. Bush's education reform initiative No Child Left Behind soon to come up for reauthorization in Congress, school board members discussed the impact of NCLB on the district at a Committee of the Whole Meeting Monday night.

The board, along with the district and teachers, has been highly critical of NCLB and its members have lobbied heavily against it.

What is NCLB?

The discussion Monday began with an outline of the requirements of NCLB. The act is based around an assessment of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which sets annual progress goals for how many students should reach levels of "proficient" in key subjects each year. The goals are established to have 100 percent of students reach the level of proficient by 2014. Schools and districts that do not meet growth targets two years in a row are deemed to be in "program improvement." SFUSD has 26 program improvement schools and this year it was deemed a program improvement district.

Critics of NCLB say the 100 percent proficiency target is unattainable. Rather than being measured by one national standard, proficiency is measured differently state by state. Commissioner Jill Wynns said California standards are especially high. "Proficiency" according to state standardized tests was designed to be higher than grade-level, and, in fact, to the level that would be on target to qualify for admission to the state university system. There are estimates, Wynns said, that every district in the state will be a program improvement district within the next three years.

NCLB has a number of other key requirements, including:

• That, by the end of this year, all teachers be "highly qualified." This means they must have a bachelors degree, have proper certification, and be actually teaching in the subject areas in which they are trained. District representative Ky Vu said 95 percent of SFUSD teachers will meet that requirement by the fall.
• That junior and senior students contact information be made available to military recruiters, unless those students "opt out" of receiving information from both the military and college scholarship/financial aid organizations. The district, Vu said, has adopted a rigorous opt out program, which informs students of the program and gives them the opportunity to opt out starting in the 9^th grade.
• That the district allow students to transfer out of a program improvement schools to another school, and that the district provide transportation to the new school. This has not affected SFUSD much because of its choice-based enrollment system, Vu said. Only two students requested transfers this year under NCLB.
• That the district fund after-school tutoring for students who are testing below proficient and at program improvement schools. Under this provision, the district must use some of its federal funding to pay for tutoring services through private firms like Kaplan and Sylvan Learning Centers.

Impact On Curriculum

 During the discussion, district representatives laid out several key areas in which they feel NCLB has negatively affected San Francisco schools. The biggest impact is in curriculum itself, district representatives said. "We're testing rigorously every three to six weeks," fifth grade teacher Dawn Murmur said. "The curriculum is mediocre, dumbed down. It's an insult to the students and it's an insult to me."

One of the biggest impacts, board members agreed, has been the narrowing of curriculum at underperforming schools. Board members say this hurts the very students it's meant to help, by not offering them a rich curriculom that will excite them and keep them in school.

"One of the reasons test scores have gone up is people have learned what's going to be on the test, and they teach toward that, and the kids are being cheated," said Board President Mark Sanchez, who is an eighth-grade teacher. "[Meanwhile] the numbers go up and it makes it look like we're doing our job."

NCLB mandates that kids below proficiency take additional remedial classes in core curriculum rather than electives. Because of this requirement, electives have been virtually eliminated at some underperforming, mostly East Side, schools, according to Vu. "In some middle schools, kids are getting two to three hours of math and English a day," Sanchez said.

NCLB has also been controversial in the way it treats special education students and English language learners. Critics say the tests are stacked against these students, and schools with high numbers of these students end up penalized for lower test scores.

Where the Act Stands in Congress

Some members of Congress including Democrats are pushing to have a bill reauthorizing NCLB out of the House of Representatives before the summer recess, and a Senate version could be taken up as early as the fall, according to UESF leaders. National Educators Association representative Cecil Cahoon said the fast timeline would pre-empt the kinds of rewrites needed to improve the program. And, if there were to be major revision, Bush might veto it, leaving NCLB standing as is, he said. He urged people to write to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voicing their opposition to NCLB in his current form. For more information on the letter writing campaing, Cahoon can be reached at ccahoon@nea.org.

Weekend reading from the Chron

Here are three excellent articles from the Chron. Highly recommended:

On the State of Schools and Schooling / A fond farewell to San Francisco public schools

JUNE 7 is graduation day for our high-school senior, Max, and for us. After 17 years in the thick of the San Francisco public school system, with two sons, five schools, one year of running a Parent-Teacher-Student Association and uncountable field trips, we're getting out.

Maybe that's not the best way to put it. Getting out implies you want to make a break for it, like from prison -- or a bad marriage. We, instead, are bidding a very fond farewell, with many thanks. San Francisco public schools don't work for everyone, but they worked for us. They might work for others, if they would only give them a try.

Let children be children / Is your 5-year-old stressed out because so much is expected?

For 30 years as a teacher of primary kids, I have operated on the Any Fool Can See principle. And any fool can see that the spread between what is developmentally appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children and what is demanded of them on these tests is widening. A lot of what used to be in the first-grade curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Is your 5-year-old stressed out? Perhaps this is why.

Home prices' hard lesson / As families leave S.F., schools struggle to attract those left

Public education is in danger of sinking along with the fortunes of its departing middle class.

By now, most San Franciscans are familiar with the dismal litany: the soaring cost of housing, the resulting loss of some 800 kids from the public school system each year, the constant battles over school closures.

As they compete for a dwindling number of children, San Francisco's public schools are making heroic efforts to survive. Thanks to special arts-in-schools funding voters approved three years ago, the city's public schools are awash with artists-in-residence, dancers-in-residence, poets-in-residence. Language immersion classes are the hot thing in public education. San Francisco parents have seen the future, and it is multilingual. You can watch kindergartners rattling off Mandarin and first-graders speaking Spanish as if it were their native tongue.