Monthly Archives: April 2009

Meetings, meetings: 9 hours in two days

Posted on April 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

Coming off back-to-back meetings this week. Last night (April 28) was the regular meeting of the full Board, with a packed agenda that still felt mostly routine.  Of note to Board watchers:

  • Francisca Sanchez, the district’s chief academic officer, gave a presentation on the implementation of the district’s Pre-K -3 Literacy Initiative. We have pledged to get every child reading by third grade, since studies show that achieving literacy by this age is key to developing higher-level learning in the later grades. Ms. Sanchez talked at length about the need to teach reading comprehension skills in a more effective way; this is notable because previous reading initiatives have focused more on decoding skills. I would like to see more data on the reasons behind this change in focus; I don’t necessarily disagree with it but believe that many of our students still need significant support with decoding, so I don’t support a one-size-fits-many approach to reading instruction and hope this isn’t where we’re going.
  • The Board unanimously approved the renewal of the Life Learning Academy charter. This is a truly inspirational program that is transforming the lives of its students — a population that is either already mired in the criminal justice system or highly at-risk.  We need more schools like this because this program is saving lives and futures.
  • There were several items introduced for first reading:  a resolution authored by Commissioners Fewer and Yee calling for a Parent Engagement Policy; the Superintendent’s plan for implementing the new graduation requirements to graduate every student ready for college or career; and the draft Master Plan for Physical Education. These will be heard by various Board committees and return to the full board for adoption at a later date.
  • The Citizens Bond Oversight Committee presented the (clean) findings of the latest audit of the district’s various facilities bonds: the fourth in as many years. Serving on this committee is absolutely thankless but it is essential work, because it is the oversight that keeps the trust with the taxpayers. We also approved the appointment of three new members of the committee: Monica Pressley, Brian Liles and Michael Theriault.
  • Bright spot of the evening was a performance by two first place winners from the 29th annual Oratorical and Musical Contest: 5th grader Lumunda Diop and 2nd grader Bethany Pracole O’Campo were AMAZING. Don’t take my word for it–watch the broadcast on SFGOV.tv (the students’ performance starts about 13 minutes in).

Tonight was a meeting of the Ad Hoc Personnel and Labor Relations Committee. This committee hasn’t met since I’ve been on the Board, and there were numerous items referred; most of them were informational with one action — considering the resolution to reinstate the JROTC program. Not surprisingly, based on Commissioners’ previously stated positions, this item was referred to the full Board with a negative recommendation (the vote was 2-1).  The committee also heard updates on:

  • Implementation of a Montessori program at Cobb Elementary School;
  • A proposal for a Chinese Teacher Exchange program;
  • The search for a new Director of Special Education (17 candidates have replied to our job posting and an interview committee is being convened);
  • A grievance that was filed around a music teacher position at Lowell High School.

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JROTC at the Budget committee

Posted on April 21, 2009 | Comments Off

Tonight the Board’s Budget committee took up the resolution to reinstate JROTC, the first of three committees to consider the measure before it returns to the full board for a final vote.

Most of the discussion centered on figures distributed by Deputy Superintendent Myong Leigh which were intended to explain the fiscal impact of reinstating the program. No one really disputes the money the district pays out for this program — 50 percent of the instructors’ salaries (12 FTEs), which is $529,622, plus the cost of their benefits, $354,330 — a total of $883,952.

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Must see: Confessions of a Refrigerator Mother

Posted on April 19, 2009 | Comments Off

Over the weekend I had the privilege of seeing Carolyn Doyle’s “Confessions of a Refrigerator Mother” at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. Ms. Doyle’s 70-minute monologue is about her family life, particularly life with 9-year-old Joaquin, who is severely autistic. (“Refrigerator mother” is a reference to a now-discredited theory by Leo Kanner, the psychiatrist who first identified autism. Kanner believed that autism might be caused by a lack of warmth or affection shown by mothers towards their babies).

Ms. Doyle’s show is funny, unbearably sad, and overall, a very true picture of a family coping with autism. Bravo!

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Views of public school assignment in New York

Posted on April 19, 2009 | Comments Off

A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to New York City and was fascinated by differing attitudes among her friends who send their children to public school. Of course, this is just one person’s view of one small slice of a huge system, but I thought her observations were interesting enough that I asked to post them here:

I had some interesting conversations with parents about school enrollment in NY. Apparently it is by district–[Friend's] district is primarily Black/Latino and considered to be low-achieving so she applied for [child] to a school in another district. At first they said it was full up, but later in the year a spot opened up in the school they wanted. [Younger sibling] will be able to go there, too, because of sibling preference. [Friend] said that people either move to a “good” district or use someone else’s address or rent an apartment to get a spot. They apparently don’t have to show any further proof of address or even use the same address once they have gotten into a school, so this kind of practice doesn’t really seem to be discouraged or considered cheating. Another parent just got her 5th grader into a high-achieving middle school but they had to submit special test scores, grades, letters of recommendation, and have an interview–this is public middle school! I wonder if I got it wrong, but I think she said there were 5,000 applications for 40 spots for this school (math and science focus)–not sure if the district thing applies to middle school.

It was interesting to probe her attitude about students whose parents are unable or ill-equipped to negotiate this process. She said, “Well, there are some kids who can manage to get in even if their parents can’t help them out.” I was speechless but managed to say, “Not many!” Basically the idea of giving students who are disadvantaged an extra leg up didn’t really seem to be on the radar. I was afraid of asking her how the NY schools are addressing the achievement gap for fear that she would say, “The what?”

It wasn’t so much this particular person that shocked me but the idea that the NY schools could have such a different set of values, such as no explicit effort to desegregate or level the field for kids with fewer resources. I can’t really believe that’s true, so there must be multiple systems operating so that the efforts to address the achievement gap really are off the radar for white, middle class families. Makes me wonder what kind of advocacy by parents exists in NYC. I notice that PPS has chapters in Buffalo and Syracuse but not in NYC.

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Are you prepared?

Posted on April 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

disaster1April 18 is the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, and the amazing parents of Argonne Elementary have organized a disaster preparedness event for families and other community members. The event is  from 9 a.m. to noon TODAY,  April 18, at the school — enter on 17th Ave. between Cabrillo and Balboa Aves.

The Argonne parent organization will be giving away supplies, and officials from the Cityand the Red Cross will be on hand to help families learn how to be prepared for a major disaster.

The photo above is my own disaster kit, which contains enough shelf-stable food,  water  and other basic supplies to sustain our family for three or four days without help. Which reminds me: the stored water needs to be changed every six months, so it’s time to flush out and refill the containers!

To learn more about being prepared for a major disaster, go to: www.72hours.org

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When do the puppies and kittens show up?

Posted on April 15, 2009 | 4 Comments

It seems like life on the school board is one tough vote after another. Tonight’s agenda featured a resolution authorizing the district to lay off 20 paraprofessionals and reduce the hours of 14 more. Reader, I voted for it, even though I truly value the contributions that paraprofessionals make in our classrooms every day.

Ultimately, the resolution was defeated 5-2, saving the jobs that were threatened.  Still, I know there are many UESF members who aren’t happy with me because I supported this resolution. Let me explain why:

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It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad public

Posted on April 13, 2009 | 2 Comments

Tonight’s meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment was angrier than earlier meetings– I think because many of the members of the public who attended are reeling from the results of the Round I lottery. There were many comments from people who feel they were given unworkable or inappropriate school assignments for next year and who want the Board to put into place a system that is simpler and more predictable than what we have now.

I really do sympathize with families who are facing the uncertainty of Round II, and those who had their hearts set on schools they did not receive in the lottery. I understand their anger and frustration and I agree that the current system is not working for enough people. I would also venture to say that all or most of my colleagues feel the same way. But trust me: Being disruptive and refusing to abide by the ground rules of public comment does your cause more harm than good.

A group of families from New Traditions Elementary also attended the meeting, speaking in favor of their school’s alternative status and voicing their support of school choice.

So what did we accomplish? The Board voiced support for plans to run eight simulations that will test various policy objectives, like attendance area boundaries, assignment clusters, and limited choice. In addition, we will simulate “baseline” conditions — testing what would happen if every student were assigned to the school closest to their homes– and a “proximity” model proposed by Commissioner Yee. This model would examine the effect of assigning students to one of the schools within a certain radius of their address.

The Board conducted a discussion on whether there should be schools with citywide attendance areas, and of so, how many. We did not come to any hard and fast conclusions, but seemed to come to a consensus that we need to develop a clearer strategic objective for schools with citywide attendance areas.

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A sobering view of the state of inner-city schools

Posted on April 10, 2009 | 3 Comments

A Baltimore Sun education reporter writes about a talk she had with noted education reformer Jonathan Kozol, author of “Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools” and many other books on the unequal state of education for America’s inner-city children.  Mr. Kozol’s indictment is sobering:

Kozol quoted a recent speech by President Obama who said high school dropout rates have tripled since the early 1980s — when, Kozol says, the schools began to “massively resegregate” and Brown vs. Board of Ed was effectively dismantled. He says black and Latino children are more segregated now than they have been since 1968, the year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

“I’m utterly out of fashion these days in that I actually believe Dr. King was right,” said Kozol, 72, who doesn’t use a computer and had hand-written notes for the address he was about to deliver to more than 100 people in a university auditorium. He says segregated schools convey the message to the children there that “you have been sequestered in this institution so you will not contaminate the education of white people.” Children get this message from the condition of the buildings (often “squalid surroundings”) and from dispirited teachers who have to “give up joy and creativity to become drill sergeants for the state.” (Kozol went on a hunger strike in 2007 to protest No Child Left Behind.) He says the most successful African-Americans he’s seen — including Obama and Kurt Schmoke (a student of Kozol’s once upon a time at Yale) — did not have to attend segregated inner-city schools.

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Hundreds of SF teachers get good news!

Posted on April 2, 2009 | Comments Off

Today, at a press conference in Room 200 at City Hall, the Mayor and Superintendent Garcia announced that the school district will receive $24.5 million from the City’s Rainy Day Fund. The distribution will allow us to rescind almost all of the layoff notices mailed to 405 teachers last month.

Thanks to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors, which voted unanimously to release the Rainy Day Funds to the schools.

Click here for a district press release, and here for more information from United Educators of San Francisco.

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Posted in BOE, budget, Great things going on

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April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day

Posted on April 2, 2009 | Comments Off

In 2007, the United Nations passed a resolution designating April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day (April is Autism Awareness month in the United States). The designation recognizes that autism is a growing health crisis worldwide, and seeks to raise awareness about the signs of autism so that parents can get early treatment for their children. Research shows that early treatment of autism can significantly reduce symptoms of the disorder, which affects social and intellectual functioning.

For more information and to learn the signs of autism and related disorders, go to: http://www.autismspeaks.org

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