Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today the district released the following statement:

Effective immediately, SFUSD will not be offering Transitional Kindergarten (TK) for the 2012-2013 school year. Only students turning 5 years old on or before Nov. 1 will be eligible for Kindergarten entry for the 2012-2013 school year.

In the Governor’s proposed budget for the 2012-2013 school year, school districts would not receive any funding for Transitional Kindergarten, and the state would not mandate districts to offer it.  Given that SFUSD cannot afford to offer Transitional Kindergarten if it is not funded by the state, SFUSD will not plan to offer Transitional Kindergarten for the upcoming school year.

While the California Department of Education continues to provide updates and the situation may change over the course of the next several months, SFUSD is moving forward on the assumption that there will be insufficient funding to offer Transitional Kindergarten in the 2012-2013 budget.  SFUSD is providing this notification so that families who were interested in TK can take action to make alternative arrangements for their children for the 2012-2013 school year.

The Governor’s budget is just a proposal. What if the legislature
still decides to mandate and/or fund Transitional Kindergarten for the 2012-2013 school year?
SFUSD will not plan to offer Transitional Kindergarten (TK) unless it is state mandated. The legislature is required by law to adopt its budget by July 1 each year though in some recent years the state budget has been passed later than this. Transitional K will affect Kindergarten spaces throughout the district and cannot be accommodated with such late notice. Additionally, families need to plan for their child’s educational setting months in advance. If it is state mandated, SFUSD will offer Transitional Kindergarten spots at two Early Education schools in 2012-2013:  Havard and McLaren Early Education Schools.

I am a parent who had planned on sending my child to an SFUSD Transitional K program. What do I do now?
If your child is in preschool, ensure your provider can maintain a space for your child. If your child is not enrolled in a SFUSD Early Education Department school (EED school) and is no longer eligible to continue in his or her current program, you may find out more information about eligibility for SFUSD EED placements by contacting Melissa Luc at (415) 750-8500.

Warren with Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza at the 2010 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert for SFUSD students (photograph by Charly Franklin 2010)

San Francisco’s schools have lost a great champion with the passing of philanthropist and Lowell alum Warren Hellman yesterday evening. From the school district’s press release:

“Warren was by far the most generous supporter of San Francisco public schools. He championed so many important opportunities for our city’s children. Not only did he personally give, but he inspired others to give; his contributions were multiplied millions of times over,” says School Board President Hydra Mendoza. “He will be deeply missed. We send our condolences to his family.”

Hellman led the campaign to create the Public Education Enrichment Fund, a City Charter amendment passed by voters in March 2004 that guarantees city funding for public schools and pre-schools through 2015. The fund includes support for arts, music, sports, and library programs in SFUSD.

He was also a major contributor to three successful school bond campaigns resulting in every one of San Francisco’s public school facilities receiving or slated to receive facilities upgrades, including replacing aging school buildings, improving accessibility for disabled students and modernizing classroom interiors.

“The district has lost its best friend. No one has singlehandedly done more for our schools than Warren. His legacy is in the generations of public school children who now have better school buildings and whose access to arts, sports and libraries has been sustained through local funding in spite of the economic downturn,” says Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

In addition to his leadership for local school funding propositions, Hellman chaired the San Francisco School Alliance Advisory Board through which he engaged other business leaders in contributing to school district initiatives.

A great music lover, he also sponsored an annual event as part of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, where once a year, thousands of sixth grade students in the city were brought to Golden Gate Park to enjoy a private concert just for them.

Beyond sending my condolences to his family, there’s nothing much else to say besides: Thank you, Warren, for everything you did for San Francisco. You will be greatly missed.

Two upcoming events of interest in the next week:

• 2011 School Planning Summit: Saturday, Feb. 12, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Everett Middle School. Principals, teachers, parents and other school staff will gather to hear a budget outlook from Supt. Garcia and attend workshops on everything from site-based budgeting to transportation changes.  Everett MS, 450 Church St.
• Committee of the Whole on the Superintendent’s Zone & SIG grants: Board members will hear an update on Superintendent’s Zone planning and implementation of School Improvement Grants (SIG).  Tuesday, Feb. 15, 6 p.m. in the Boardroom at 555 Franklin St.

Every year during the first week of December, the Inclusive Schools Network promotes National Inclusive Schools Week. I want to commend SFUSD parents and administrators for bringing this year’s commemoration to the highest level yet. Schools across the district are holding inclusion awareness events, panel discussions, and even movie viewings (“Including Samuel” by photojournalist Dan Habib is a must-see; also I am a fan of the harder-to-find but still relevant ”Song of Our Children” — every year I think I am going to organize a double-feature of these two films and never quite get around to it).  On the district web site, there is a lovely article by SFUSD parent Audrey Vernick — an excerpt is below (but please read the whole thing!):

Inclusive schools foster the building of an inclusive society. Our children are teaching us how to be more accepting, in spite of the experiences we may have had growing up in a more segregated society. Almost everyone will have some form of a disability at some point in his or her life, whether they are born with it, have an accident, or develop it in the natural process of aging. It’s important that young people are raised to accept others despite their challenges.

On Thursday at noon, the Mayor will issue a proclamation in support of inclusive schools on the steps of City Hall. Please join us to be part of this district-wide celebration. SFUSD still has a long way to go to be truly inclusive, but we are making progress every day. My heartfelt thanks to the parents, teachers and students who are helping us get there.

Today is the first of four furlough days SFUSD adopted for this school year to  close our yawning budget gap. As I sit here watching my daughter happily surf the web instead of doing in math in her 5th grade classroom, I think today’s forced vacation is a good opportunity to reflect on how things could be different — and what better way to do that than reading your voter guide and preparing to VOTE tomorrow!  Here are some of my choices in local, down-ballot races:

• School Board: Brodkin, Mendoza Murase – these candidates have deep involvement in the district as parents and advocates and I would be proud to serve with them.  Mendoza is an incumbent with a strong consensus she should be re-elected; of the newcomers, Margaret Brodkin has a 30-year record as an advocate in SF; Emily Murase has deep roots in the community as a product of SFUSD and a current parent of two children in the district. She will be a thoughtful, dedicated board member who deserves election. Please vote for Hydra, Emily and Margaret!
• District 8 Supervisor: Rebecca Prozan
• Superior Court Judge: Michael Nava
• Prop B: No. We need to address the City’s burgeoning pension liabilities but this isn’t the answer, in part because it will hit teachers hard.
• Prop D: Yes — I initially had some concerns about non-citizen voting, but I think this ballot initiative will give immigrant parents (of which there are many in SFUSD) an added stake in our district. It’s not a magic bullet for parent empowerment, but it can’t hurt! 
• Prop G: Yes! Fix Muni Now! 
• Prop L: No. Sidewalks are for people.

Yesterday I attended an interesting campaign kickoff and fundraiser hosted by a  group of San Francisco parents at a house party in Cole Valley — Senator Mark Leno and Supervisor Carmen Chu were guest speakers and a number of other elected officials attended. These parents have formed a new group called the San Francisco Parent political action committee. According to their mission statement:

We are San Francisco parents. We advocate for:

• a high quality public education for all children in every neighborhood;
• enriching after-school, out-of-school and summer opportunities that support working families’ needs; and
• healthy, safe and vibrant communities city-wide.

We will support candidates and policies working to make these goals a reality.

For more information, and to contribute to the campaign to elect the group’s endorsed candidates (full disclosure, I have endorsed the same slate! ), go to: www.sfparentpac.com .

This afternoon I visited a school in a lower-income part of town and saw again, first-hand, evidence of the inequity that happens every day in our special education programs. At this school, there is a classroom that has been designated for students with a particular disability; the teacher told me s/he has not had specialized training in teaching students with that disability, and the person designated by the district to serve that class (who DOES possess that specialized training) is only scheduled for one hour per week.  Worse, that hour is supposed to be spent “consulting” with the teacher rather than providing direct service to students.

I also spent an hour talking (through an interpreter) with the parents of some students in the class, and though they are not English speakers, they are very aware that their children are not receiving appropriate services.  What they don’t understand is WHY, since they also know that in other district schools, there are programs in place that would benefit their children.

“How do we get an intervention program at our school?” they asked me. “What can parents do?” And I was horribly embarrassed when I realized that the best advice I could give them was  “learn the language of special ed and start to apply pressure using that language.”

To be honest, I ran for the school board because I knew that some people knew the language and others didn’t;  I knew that situation was deeply unfair.  The audit released by the school district this week validates that knowledge; in my personal opinion it is the biggest news to come out of the school district in a decade.  But still I feel sad that the best advice I can give parents of underserved children is to learn the tactics of empowered parents.  I know I gave them the best and most efficient advice; arguing that they should work WITH the system would have been unethical because the system doesn’t work right now.  Still, it makes me deeply sad to acknowledge that our system of special education programs doesn’t yet work the way it should.

I also believe that district leadership (our new Assistant Superintendent Cecelia Dodge and her boss, Deputy Superintendent Richard Carranza) are fired up and willing to make real, sustained changes in the way our district serves students with disabilities, but what I believe doesn’t matter in the end. What will matter is whether Ms. Dodge and Mr. Carranza can  make change happen at the school I visited today — so that the children who are currently enrolled in that school’s special day classes can realize their potential and receive the eduation they deserve.  I’ll check back in six months or so to see how they are doing.