Yanking control away from local school boards

This op-ed from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution voices outrage at a proposed Georgia bill that would allow the state to approve charter schools and force them into districts where local school boards had previously rejected them.

The interesting thing is that this is already the case in California and many other states, and few eyebrows other than mine are raised over it — in fact, my impression is that Georgia must be a rarity in not already allowing it.

The editorial writer has it right when she points out:

HB 881 represents a frontal assault on the constitutional powers of school boards and a shift of critical decision-making to a political commission that will have no firsthand knowledge of the district's needs, the local system's own development plans or whether the charter applicants have any credibility or relationships in the community.

Nor will the commission have any accountability to local voters, who, if angry over their school board member's resistance to charters, could always vote the rascal out of office. Those voters will have no recourse against the actions of this commission, which will operate in de facto anonymity, most likely in a nice suite of state offices in Atlanta.

It's unclear whether the editorialist knows that this is the norm in other states. Her outrage is absolutely warranted; the question is why nobody else seems to share it. The whole editorial is here.

I'm thankful too, Jill

Personally, I can't bear to see Bush's mug on the TV any more, so I didn't even consider watching last night's State of the Union address. I had a similar attitude about Nixon back in the day. So when I heard he came out with another proposal for vouchers, I was glad to see these excellent local responses from Jill Wynns and Lorraine Woodruff-Long.

abc7news.com: President Bush proposes new education plan 1/28/08:

'I'm thankful this is the last State of the Union George Bush will give because every year he has proposed federal voucher programs,' said San Francisco School Board Member Jill Wynns.

San Francisco school board's Jill wynns has heard this all before from the president and isn't impressed.

The plan would give public school students federal money -- to transfer to another district or use it for tuition at a private or faith based school.

'The question is, is this the best way to use tax dollars and put the money in the private system where there isn't government oversight and accountability?' said Lorraine Woodruff from Parents for Public Schools.

Lorraine Woodruff long heads up 'Parents for Public Schools.' A mother of two kids herself, she says President Bush's plan takes away money from public schools.

'It's a lot of money that's being out into a program that is something not proven to truly make a difference for low income students,' said Woodruff."

I'm told there is video for this segment, but ABC 7 keeps it well hidden!

SFUSD Students Compete in Special Olympics Soccer Tournament

Last week, SFUSD special education students from six elementary schools competed in the first-ever Special Olympics soccer tournament, the first event in a new partnership between SFUSD and the Special Olympics. Organizer Paul Zager had this to say about the event:

We had at least eighty students overall representing six district elementary schools, with eight teams split up in two divisions that for the most part was very even and competitive. All the student athletes seems to relish in the opportunity to show the skills and enthusiasm they developed over the weeks of training. I know most of us there (including teachers) were very impressed with the skills, sportsmanship, and the level of play. I think most of us were able to see and feel the initial vision of what this program could do. For all those students that were there indoors at the Sunset Recreation Center, with two games continually in play in a rotation basis for over two hours, there were very few problems. The teachers (coaches) did a magnificent job with their organization and class (team) management skills. Staff and volunteers worked very hard and efficiently, and everybody involved seemed to have a great time! We should all congratulate ourselves for a job well done! For me, professionally and personally, the gratification and satisfaction was tremendous, and I felt so honored to be part of bringing so much joy to children who are so deserving of our efforts.

There will be more Special Olympics events this spring, so stay tuned, and kudos to Mr. Zager, Carol Kocivar and the many others who were instrumental in bringing this program to San Francisco.

The Social Impact of Private School 101

I was chatting with my neighbors about their preschool search for their toddler, and the question of public vs. private K-12 came up. When I brought up the issue of values and social impact, I realized that the topic requires a lot of background and a thoughtful presentation to be clear to someone who’s new to the subject.

Parents of a 2-year-old haven't had reason to think about these complexities, and my neighbors were receptive. It wasn’t a situation where I was guilt-tripping someone over their done-deal choices. But it's still hard to impart The Morality and Social Impact of Private School 101 in a brief conversation. Here’s a better effort.

Private schools had neutral impact on public education until some recent time, perhaps 15 or 20 years ago. Back then, public education was not under attack; schools and teachers were respected; the populace still assumed that it was worth paying taxes to provide the services that maintain a civilized society; privatization was not on the radar.

No one — and certainly not the reigning political philosophy — was trying to eliminate public school, as many forces of the right are now.Since then, a perfect storm has come howling in and battered public education. It's based in the privatization movement combined with the anti-tax, "you're on your own," anti-public-spirited attitude that has settled like an icy fog over our culture.

Meanwhile, we Baby Boomers started a trend toward the middle class's adopting lifestyles that were formerly reserved for a lofty elite (I have happily participated in this trend, I admit, when it involved world travel and good restaurants). No longer was private school reserved for the aristocracy.

Today we make demands on public schools that were unheard of a few decades ago, and no one can argue with most of them. Disabled students should have full rights (a concept that began in the '70s). Low-income and nonwhite kids should achieve equal success in school (no one in power cared about this 60 years ago). All kids should graduate from high school (it used to be the unquestioned norm for many working-class kids to drop out).

(On the other hand, I personally don't agree that it's realistic to turn all kids into college material, though that's a demand put on public school nowadays too.)

And in diverse communities, schools are expected to diversify even when neighborhoods are segregated, and are attacked when they don't manage it perfectly (though no diverse urban school district has ever achieved ideal success with this).

Teachers are bashed incessantly over these issues and untold others.

Despite all this, many (most?) public schools are giving students good educations in safe, nurturing, stimulating environments. The others are those that face a critical mass of challenges.

In this climate, public schools need all the support they can get. They especially need to enroll the students who bring with them resources, preparation for schoolwork, supportive and involved parents, and other benefits of the privileged.In encouraging advantaged families to leave public school, "you take out all the people with the power to bring change,” a former headmaster of elite Marin Country Day School declared in an October 2007 article in San Francisco Magazine, "Schools Gone Wild."

That article explored the "more-is-better" frenzy to scale up already-posh Bay Area private schools into Xanadu-like palaces of excess. Author Diana Kapp described "an educational arms race that’s almost certainly not in the best interests of the kids whose best interests we’re all trying to serve."

This doesn't mean it's wrong to choose private school if you feel that's the best thing for your kids. It's also not wrong to drive a large sport-utility vehicle or live in a gated community if you feel that serves your family's needs. I have friends who do all those things. But mindful people are aware of the social impact of those choices, and consider that in making the decision.It’s sometimes hard to get that point across, because while the negative social impact of driving a Hummer is evident to anyone well informed, the negative social impact of private school doesn't get much public illumination,

Another oddity: In San Francisco, parents regularly criticize aspects of our school district — often as justification for choosing private — when private is no better in those aspects. You'd think the expectations would be higher for private when it costs $15-$20K a year, but oddly, parents often don't seem to see that. They seem to expect MORE from the free public school.

• Everyone wants a neighborhood public school they can walk to. The notion of a neighborhood private school you can walk to doesn't exist, except possibly with some parish schools.
  
• The private-school enrollment process, with its playdates and tests and interviews and screenings, is enormously more onerous and labor-intensive than SFUSD's.
  
• The private-school process is no more certain than SFUSD's, depending (in both cases) on what schools you apply to. If your child is not desirable to private schools, it's far less certain than SFUSD's — you may be shut out of private school entirely.
  
• If your child doesn't get your chosen SFUSD school (initially), it was as a faceless number in a lottery, bad luck of the draw. If a private school rejects your child, it was a thought-out personal rejection based on a close assessment of your child and family; a decision that your child and your family were less appealing and worthy than other applicants.
  

The student in this unit of Morality and Social Impact of Private School 101 may now ask: But aren't private schools better? And that's another blog post, or many of them. There is not a clear-cut yes or no.

I'll finish with two points that I've made before.

• My son attends an SFUSD high school that attracts many kids from private K-8s. Kids from SFUSD schools and private K-8s (and some suburban schools) mingle in classes. There are no clear-cut lines — no pattern of private school kids' being smarter or better educated. There are smart, diligent, engaged high achievers from both SFUSD and private schools; there are struggling or disaffected students from both; there are students in between from both. When 11th-graders at the school took the PSAT (Preliminary SAT) this fall, the top scorers were announced publicly. Three students tied for top score. Two of them had attended SFUSD schools K-8; I don’t know the K-8 background of the third. That may be methodologically meaningless, but it still tells me something.
  
• Yes, the SFUSD enrollment process can be harrowing. It's nowhere near as bad as the private school process unless you have a perfect child whom any private school would die for. But it's admittedly not suburbia, where you really can just walk in and enroll in the nearby school. That said, many families get their first-choice SFUSD school, and the vast majority get one of their choices in the first lottery round. I've known dozens and dozens of families who have gone through the SFUSD enrollment process, and I've never met or heard of anyone who didn't get a school they were happy with if they actually stuck it out through the process (as opposed to giving up early). You know all those families you've heard of who "couldn't get" a school they wanted? They dropped out after the first lottery round and pursued something else. Honest, I guarantee it.

As a public-school advocate and SFUSD booster, I wish the process weren't so stressful. Between the fact that the most popular schools (an increasing number) have more applicants than openings, and the pressure/need to diversify schools, there's no easy answer. But you will get a school you're happy with if you stick with the process.

For the basics on public school in SFUSD, join Parents for Public Schools, http://www.ppssf.org/ .

Statewide WSF! Good idea, bad Google page rank...

Hat tip to blogger extrodinaire TMAO for leaving a comment here alerting me to AB 586.

Never heard of AB 586? You're not alone. Apparently none of the robots at Google have either. Searching Google News yields little or nothing. Searching their web index gives little more. This one appears to be a sleeper. But go ahead and read the text. It is short and to the point. Reform the way money is allocated to schools. Weight the funding based on student needs. What a concept. Weighted Student Formula funding at the state level.

As TMAO notes in his post, Sacramento Gets One Right (so far)

This is about more than money. Money can be misappropriated, misspent, misapplied. No, what gets me really excited about this bill is the essential principle at its core, the formal, legislative recognition that getting better results for low-income, high-need kids requires something different and something more.

Yes, this bill traces its roots back to the Getting Down to Facts effort. Sounds like one of those reforms that should move forward, even in this year's harsh budget climate.

Batten down the hatches

During these dark, stormy, wintery times there's been plenty of ominous rumblings on the school budget front. I've been lax about reporting the news, partly because we're so early in the game—much of what we hear now is posturing ahead of the real battles in Sacramento. And partly because I'm starting a new job and have other fish to fry. But here are a few links worth noting:

Kim Knox has been providing her usually comprehensive coverage of SFUSD meetings and developments:

• Superintendent: Freezing All New Programs Under Prop H’s Third Third
• 1/22/08 BOE Meeting Minutes
• BOE To Cut Classroom Funding, But Keeps Extra $6.5 Million for Themselves

I often disagree with Kim and find fault with her reporting, but I have to give her credit for her consistent effort and diligence.

Here is a link to the webcast of the January 22nd BOE meeting.

School Beat also weighed in on the budget battle with Education is a Budget Target, Again

If we haven't depressed you enough yet, here are some SfGate articles that report the bad news in technicolor:

• Governor's Budget Proposal - K-12 Education
• State schools chief coping with cuts

Me? I suggest taking a walk in the cold and the wind and the rain. All this squalling about the budget will blow over eventually. Yes, hard times are ahead. But the real dimensions of the bad news, and the real remedies and impacts won't be visible for a long while yet. Mother Nature's storms are so much more real. And quite beautiful in their own way.

Update: giving credit where it is due, the photo above was found on Flickr and taken by Flickr member say.fromage

More millions for KIPP schools

Developer Eli Broad just donated $12 million to four L.A.-area KIPP schools (plus another $12 million to Aspire, another charter chain).

The L.A. Times followed the news of the donation with an intelligently reported (to the eye of a KIPP skeptic) profile of one of the KIPP schools.

All those who think it's a good idea to keep fifth-graders in school for 10-hour days and then add two to three hours of homework — and to make a student feel like she wants "to cut her wrists every morning" — raise your hands. (And Sit Up, Listen, Ask Questions, Nod and Track the Speaker With Your Eyes — this is KIPP's SLANT policy, required of all students.)

Strict rules mark schools
Pupils' workloads are heavy at L.A. charter sites that have drawn a billionaire's support.
By Jason Song, L.A. Times, Jan. 18, 2008

Antonio Chavez spends 10 hours a day at school and two or three doing homework because he wants to go to UCLA. He isn't sure what to major in. "I need some time to learn what my interests are," he says.

Fifth-graders generally do.

Click to read the rest of the article...

Continuation school to share Balboa site?

I'm told that school board members Mark Sanchez and Eric Mar are bringing a proposal before the school board in closed session tomorrow (Thursday) night that would move Downtown High School, a continuation school, onto the Balboa High School campus.

The reported purpose would be to allow June Jordan High School to have a campus of its own (it shares its current site with Excelsior Middle School). The proposal would reportedly also move Excelsior Middle School — I don't know where — so that two charter schools can have the current site (the former Luther Burbank Middle School near McLaren Park in the Excelsior).

It seems like the Balboa community, for one — not to mention families who have just filed their applications for Balboa — might want to provide some public input on moving a continuation school to share their campus. So it's really odd that this proposal is being made in closed session. At the very least, this should be done openly, with public input and sunshine.

All salad bars, all the time

Not that we're obsessed with this issue. No! Not us! We have petitions, we have videos, we have polls. Here's a simple picture. Feast on this. Then go send emails to the BOE, vote on the poll...

Cast your vote for Prop H spending priorities

Over on the sfschools group I've opened a poll that lets you vote your favorite proposals for new spending under Prop H. This year the amount of money available under Prop H is increasing, as it has every year since Prop H was approved. Under the rules of Prop H most of the new money is allocated to specific areas. But the so call "third third" is less encumbered and has been allocated to a variety of programs such as Peer Resources, Translation services, Academic coaches, Wellness centers, Violence prevention, Learning support professionals, etc.

The Prop H CAC has sent their recommendations for new spending to the BOE for a vote at the next BOE meeting on January 17th. In the poll I've listed many of the proposals that came before the committee, along with estimates of their cost. Unfortunately you'll have to be a member of the SfSchools list with a valid Yahoo! ID in order to vote. (And the blogger.com tool I use to publish this blog does not, as far as I know, support polls!)

Here are the choices in my poll:

• Green schoolyards (non-bond schools) $250,000
• Grants writer $90,000
• MS Bike Racks $15,000
• MUNI passes for homeless youth $120,000
• Teacher technology program $2,600,000
• School fiber connectivity $750,000
• Point-of-sale system for cafeterias $250,000
• Salad bar expansion $130,000 (not $262,500 shown in the poll)
• Teacher support and recruitment $546,000
• Program development project $250,000
• MUNI passes for MS and HS students $2,000,000
• Innovation seed funding $500,000
• Sustainability / Green schools initiative $100,000
• LEP Parent outreach coordinator $100,000
• PSAT / SAT preparation $174,000
• Whiteboards $500,000
• GATE $88,100
• Pre-K-3 literacy initiative $450,000
• Equitable Education for MS $640,000
• Culturally responsive initiative $250,000

While the poll is a fun way to express your priorities, I put it together to put the issue of the salad bar expansion in context. There is roughly $5M in new "third third" funds available this year. The pressure to commandeer this money to help defray the looming budget will be enormous. Yet the salad bar expansion and the POS system for the cafeteria are modest sums. They are not ongoing expenses, and they figure to increase revenues from the cafeterias and pay for themselves.

Yet the Prop H CAC did not include the salad bar expansion in its recommendations to the BOE.

Let's hope the BOE corrects this mistake.

Meanwhile, go vote now!

Save our salad bars!

Nestwife, a tireless advocate for better food in our schools, has posted a video of students at Balboa High School enjoying their salad bar on YouTube. On the sfschools list she's asking everyone interested in better food for our schools to contact the BOE and Superintendent to request that both Student Nutrition Services (SNS) proposals for Prop H money (otherwise known as the Public Education Enrichment Fund) be funded – Point of Sale (POS) swipe card system and expansion of salad bars. Both proposals can be found here. The SNS proposals are #9 and #10. Nestwife goes on to say:

I have written in the past about the fact that 26% more students per day are eating the cafeteria lunch at Balboa now that it has a salad bar. Now we are seeing that this is not a unique situation, and schools all across the district are seeing similar or even greater increases in the number of students eating the cafeteria lunches with the opening of the salad bar. If we had a POS system, all of this data would be current as of yesterday. Unfortunately, we don’t have a POS, and so all data must be entered into the system manually; thus the most recent month for which this manual data has been completed is November. The average increase is 16%, but some schools have seen huge jumps in the numbers of students eating lunch in the cafeteria, for example:

John Yehall Chin ES – up 29.4%
Francisco MS – up 30.3%
Horace Mann MS – up 59%
Presidio MS – up 22.7%
Excelsior MS/June Jordan HS (shared cafeteria) – up 29.3%
Thurgood Marshall HS – up 58.6%

More students eating in the cafeteria means more revenue for SNS, resulting in lowered deficit and less encroachment on the general fund. This in turn frees up more general fund money to pay for other school expenses which may be taking hits from the Governor’s proposed education budget cuts. As students love the salad bar and are turning out in record numbers to eat there, opening more salad bars not only addresses the most common demands from students for more fresh, nutritious food in their school lunch but also helps drive down the department deficit – a win-win!

Please write to the Board of Education and the Superintendent before January 17^th and ask them to provide funding for the salad bar proposal as part of Prop H spending. Email addresses are here. Thanks on behalf of all of our students!

More enrollment deadline coverage

Here are a pair of snapshots that attempt to captur the orderly hum of activity at 555 Franklin on the enrollment deadline day. I didn't want to interrupt the staff at the EPC office to get better pictures. They had more important business to attend to.

And attend to it they did. Plenty of people coming and going, many with small children in tow. All I can say is that all the staff had smiles on their faces and were calm, busy, efficient, and focused on helping. As a result applicants I saw were relaxed and happy to get in and out without any discernable hassle.

Well done!

Election day at SFUSD

Today is the deadline for submitting round one enrollment applications. We got ours in two days ago, and my wife tells me it was a breeze. On a lark I decided to drop in to 555 Franklin to see how it was going today. At around 10:30 it was going very smoothly. Lots of smiles, short lines, and a calm hum of activity.

The whole process is a lot of work and very stressful for some families. But I have to take my hat off to the hard working folks at EPC. The process seems to be running smoothly.

Kudos all around.

Please advocate for salad bars in SFUSD cafeterias

From Dana Woldow, parent volunteer chair of the SFUSD Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee:

As most of you know, Student Nutrition Services submitted two proposals for funding under the “third third” of Prop H money; one request was for the first of a four year cycle to pay for the Point of Sale (POS) swipe card system in every school, while the second request would fund the opening of 12 more salad bars next year, in addition to the 25 opened this year with one-time money from the Mayor’s Office.

This “third third” pot of Prop H money is separate from the pot which funds preschool, and the pot which funds sports, arts, libraries, and music, so the distribution of “third third” funds does not affect funding for those areas.

The good news is that the Superintendent has recommended funding both SNS proposals, but the bad news is that the Prop H committee, whose members are appointed by the BOE to make spending recommendations, approved the POS money but not the salad bar proposal. Please understand that as successful and popular as salad bars are, each one costs about $10,000 in equipment and installation to get started, and with SNS running a deficit which far exceeded $1 million last year, there is NO money in their budget to open any salad bars at all next year; if outside funding is not provided, the number of salad bars will stall at 25, leaving many schools which serve a primarily low income population without one.

Further bad news is that because of the dire predictions for the state budget, the Superintendent may even revisit his spending recommendations for Prop H, to see if there is any money which could be diverted to cover what is now projected to be a deficit of up to $20 million for the district next year. This could even imperil the POS funding, which both the Prop H committee and the Superintendent have endorsed.

Both the Superintendent’s recommended spending plan and the Prop H committee’s recommended spending plan are just that — recommendations. It is up to the BOE to craft the final spending plan, which is then sent to the Board of Supervisors for approval (and the BOS does not cherry pick the spending plan — they either accept it or reject it as is.) Given the current disastrous budget scenario for the state and the school district, it is more than ever the responsibility of the elected BOE members to consider all of the recommendations and then make the hard calls about what to fund with Prop H money.

I am asking you to please take a minute and write to the BOE members and to the Superintendent to urge them to fund these two SNS proposals (see addresses below). The POS system, when fully implemented, is expected to save $1 million a year for SNS, drastically reducing the SNS encroachment on the general fund and freeing up that money to cover some of the budget cuts anticipated from the state’s slashing of education funding. To fail to fund this vital piece of technology would be the very definition of “pennywise but pound foolish.”

Likewise, by increasing participation in school lunch programs (at Balboa HS, lunch participation increased 26%, nearly all low income students qualified for free meals), salad bars not only provide students with healthier lunch choices but also drive higher revenue for SNS, helping to pay down the deficit.

The BOE will take up the issue of Prop H spending at a committee of the whole meeting on Thursday January 17th, 5:30-7pm.

Please write to the BOE and to the Superintendent prior to that meeting, and if you can possibly attend the meeting and speak in support of the two SNS proposals, that would be enormously helpful. Anyone who can attend, please contact me at Nestwife@owlbaby.com ; I can also provide suggestions for what to say in your letter of support if you need help. Please share this message with everyone you know who cares about better food for our students, and thank you for supporting better nutrition for ALL of our students!
BOE e-mail addresses
Mark Sanchez SanchezM5@sfusd.edu
Jane Kim KimJ7@sfusd.edu
Kim-Shree Maufas MaufasKS@sfusd.edu
Eric Mar mare@sfusd.edu
Hydra Mendoza MendozaH@sfusd.edu
Jill Wynns Wynnsj@sfusd.edu
Norman Yee YeeN1@sfusd.edu
Superintendent e-mail CarlosGarcia@sfusd.edu

Enrollment Deadline is Friday, Jan. 11!

ABC-7's "View from the Bay" has done a nice outreach segment reminding parents in San Francisco that the deadline to submit an enrollment application for the 2008-09 school year is this Friday, January 11. Submitting an application by the deadline is important because it ensures the student the widest choice of schools and programs.

On the calendar...

Here are a few events of note on the Sfschools calendar:

• January 9: Parcel Tax Community Meeting to discuss a potential parcel tax to enhance achievement, access and accountability in our schools.
• January 9: San Francisco LGBTQ School Advocacy Workshop Join other parents and school allies for our San Francisco LGBTQ School Advocacy Workshop. Learn about exisitng anti-bullying efforts and resources, and identify how you can make a difference in your schools.
• January 10: CES: Embrace the Possibilities of Small Schools. The San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the San Francisco Unified School District share their common vision of powerful and equitable education through smaller, more personalized schools.
• January 12: Women In Sports Day. Exploring Your Future Possibilities.
• January 13: SF Family Appreciation Day. San Francisco families with children ages 0 to 18 enjoy 35 museums and other attractions for FREE!
• January 14th: Lloyd Thacker, author of "Colleges Unranked: Ending the College Admission Frenzy", will speak at Lick Wilmerding

Lots more on the calendar, including SOTA performances and Prop A rallies. Check it out!

Oh, and let's not forget the main event:

• January 11: SFUSD Round 1 applications due

Updated SfSchools Newsletter

We recently announced a new way to keep up to date with all the SF Schools news. You can subscribe to our new newsletter which will deliver all new articles published on this blog. The newsletters will arrive no more than once a day when there is new content on the blog. Of course, you can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time.

We know that many of our readers are most comfortable with email. Many are not familiar with subscribing to our RSS feed, and many occasional visitors have no way of knowing when we publish timely information. If you fit that profile the email newsletter is ideal for you. You won't be pestered by daily emails; we only send the newsletter three times per week and only when there are new articles.

To subscribe, click this link and enter your email address. You will then receive email instructions for verifying your new subscription.

Originally, this service was provided by a company, Zookoda.com, that has proven to be completely unreliable. We are now using FeedBurner.com to deliver the email. I hope they prove to be a lot more reliable and trustworthy.

It goes without saying, but we pledeg we will only use your email address for sending the newsletter and for handling any support issues that may arise. We will not share your personal information with any other parties besides FeedBurner.com. FeedBurner has a separate privacy agreement that you can review here.

Fix Our Parks - Yes on A!

Some San Francisco neighborhoods have great parks:








Others don't:







On Feb. 5, while everyone else is paying attention to that other election, San Franciscans have the opportunity to vote on Proposition A, a bond measure that will continue the work begun in 2000: transforming our neighborhood parks and upgrading recreation areas in all of our City's neighborhoods.

There is an urgent need to fix our parks: Proposition A will raise $185 million for much-needed structural repairs, focusing on facilities in the worst condition and with the highest public usage. The $185 million breaks down like this:

• $117.4 million for neighborhood parks like the Chinese Recreation Center, Mission Playground, Dolores Park, Palega Playground, and many others;
• $33.5 million for waterfront parks and bay access -- called the "blue greenway"-- which will create new parks from Heron's Head park all the way up to Pier 43 near Fisherman's Wharf;
• $11.4 million to repair or replace every free-standing park restroom in S.F. and add new restrooms where needed;
• $8.5 million to match private funds for renovating city athletic fields.
• $5 million for trail restoration;
• $5 million in grants to do improvements to parks nominated by community groups;
• $4 million to plant new trees and restore the aging park tree canopy;
  

Prop. A adheres to strict fiscal and accountability standards: new bonds will only be issued as old ones are retired, holding taxes steady; the public will be given unprecedented access to information about bond expenditures and the Citizens General Obligation Bond Oversight Committee will have the authority to stop the sale of bonds if any question about spending should arise.

There is virtually no organized opposition to Prop A, and almost every elected official and major civic organization has recommended a "Yes" vote on Proposition A.

Parents don't have to be sold on the importance of parks and athletic fields, but because this bond requires a two-thirds vote to pass, city residents without kids need some convincing as well. To help get out the yes vote for Prop A, consider coming to one of these events:

• Saturday, Jan. 12, 10 a.m.: Rally at Dolores Park! Join Sen. Migden, Supervisors Dufty and Mirkarimi, High School athletes and community groups for a campaign rally, free food and literature walk to talk with voters in Noe Valley, the Mission and Glen Park neighborhoods.
• Sunday, Jan. 13, 10 a.m.: Bike the Blue Greenway! Join city leaders and park advocates for a tour of the new recreation areas this bond will help create along the waterfront. The bike tour will leave from Heron's Head Park at 10 a.m. (alternate transportation available for non-bikers).
• Saturday, Jan. 19, 10 a.m.: Campaign rally and literature walk at Sunset Playground, 28th and Lawton Ave.

To learn more about Proposition A, go to the campaign web site where you can find a map of all projects, as well as lots of other information. For information about how you can volunteer, please contact Patrick Hannan at (415)240-4150.

Ed budget struggle starts with an idealistic note

bookmark this story and come back to it in six months to see what remains. The housing market woes will almost certainly capsize these plans

Governor has lots of proposals to fix California schools

In his State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to announce an ambitious but controversial education agenda that includes merit pay for teachers, more local control of school finances, and essentially barring 4-year-olds from entering kindergarten.

Schwarzenegger's education proposals have been anticipated since last spring, when a landmark study by Stanford University - commissioned by the governor and the Legislature - declared the state's school system 'irrational' and in need of an overhaul.

The governor then promised that 2008 would be the Year of Education and asked an 18-member committee of education experts to propose the fixes.

The article is referring to the "Getting Down to Facts" study that we wrote about back in March. At the time I wondered if anything would come of the wealth of studies and until now I no evidence that they had. Hopefully some of these reforms will survive — especially the idea of moving a lot of the ed budget money out of restricted funds and giving local boards more control. Here in SF that would make a huge difference, and potentially reinvigorate the Weighted Student Formula site based budgeting.

Bur realistically, the old adage that comes to mind is "No plans survive first contact with the enemy", and the frightening budget deficit that looms ahead is surely the enemy.

2007 Stories in Pictures

Happy Belated New Year

Click on the images to jump back to some stories of 2007.

School Beat: What’s up in 2008

The ever-well-informed Lisa Schiff starts the new year with an excellent overview of the issues facing the district in her School Beat column: What’s up in 2008 for San Francisco’s Schools:

The arrival of the New Year marks the approximate half-way point in the school year, which so far has passed by relatively quietly. But the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), like all districts around the country, faces difficult challenges requiring difficult decisions, so that relative calm will surely be coming to an end soon. Familiar issues will drive those decisions, though 2008 will bring some unique aspects.

Budget cuts, BOE ambitions, enrollment changes, Prop H priorities... there has been an unusual calm in the district. Let's see if the BOE, the Superintendent, the labor leaders, and all the other stakeholders can keep the peace once they start grappling with the difficult issues ahead.

New Year, New Calendar Page

Welcome back. I hope you've all enjoyed a quiet break. It certainly has been quiet around here. But the SF Schools Calendar gets pretty busy this month. The highlights include:

• Friday, January 4, 2:00pm
  Community Kickoff for DisabledCommunity.Org
• Friday, January 4, 6:00pm
  Teachers 4 Social Justice: PUBLIC EDUCATION 411
• Sunday, January 6, 10:00am
  Prop H CAC Meeting
• Monday, January 7, 5:00pm
  Prop H CAC Meeting
• Friday, January 11
  SFUSD Round 1 applications due
• Sunday, January 13
  SF Family Appreciation Day
• Tuesday, January 15, 6:30pm
  Second District PTA Mtg
• Monday, January 21
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Thursday, January 24
  Fall Semester Ends

Drop me an email if you know of any events that should be listed here, or if you have any corrections.

With the new year I've decided to upgrade our SF Schools Calendar page. Calendar events are listed in agenda format by default. I'm using Google's tools for formating the events. Hopefully it will be cleaner, clearer and easier to use. The SF Schools Calendar is published as a Google Calendar and can be accessed by any calendar management software that supports the iCal standard. Our calendar's iCal feed is here for those of you that know what to do with it.

Questioning homework and early mornings

Happy new year!

As I face another fun-filled year parenting two teens, I'll toss a couple of thoughts out.

My son just gave me Alfie Kohn's book "The Homework Myth." I haven't read it yet, so I can't do a proper blog item, but thought I'd launch the subject now. So far, I actually think the arguments against a steady shower of homework are kind of convincing.

I see various types of research projects, reports, presentations, re-creations of history and similar assignments as productive and valuable. But just as the homework critics say, a lot of assignments do seem calculated to turn education into drudgery.

My 11th-grader has a friend and classmate, a methodical, conscientious and diligent kid who can be trusted to have a handle on the homework — and who sometimes helps keep my disorganized kid on track. I'm always pleased when they do a project together — I know my son contributes depth, creativity and intellectual flair, but his friend will make sure the work is done as assigned (he follows directions — what a concept) and on time. I was chatting with this organized young man the other day and he remarked on the difference between "busywork" homework and work that's actually engaging and educational. I would have assumed that such a responsible kid wouldn't see any of his homework as "busywork." That's revealing.

I wonder if it's possible to question the value of the "busywork" category without dropping standards and getting all loosey-goosey. I remember the "On-Location Education" program in my high school days — known as "On-Vacation Education." That's not really what I have in mind.

And speaking of teens, they're famous for having an internal clock that keeps them awake late into the night and dead to the world till noon. What would happen if high schools recognized that and tried later start times? Despite myself, I have to say that Night Owl High is begging for some charter organizer to come along and start it. What about the SATs (currently always at 8 a.m.)? Are our most successful kids the ones whose physiology means they don't need much sleep? My son doesn't use caffeine, and I find myself wishing I could convince him to try it. Just this once! The first time's free!