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 .
Rachel Norton 
Hey Joyce,
All the BOE meeting minutes are here, and seem to be up-to-date:
http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=minutes
I spoke with another member of the board of this new group (not Lorraine) and learned that he/she was a strong supporter of neighborhood schools, for all of the same reasons that I am (creates neighborhood community, attracts”opt out” families back into the district, lets kids walk to school instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to schlep across town, environmentally sensible). My sense is that this group hasn’t sorted this out yet, and there are people on both sides of the issue (but if I had to guess, I would guess that the group as a whole leans towards thinking that proximity should be a strong factor in the assignment system. However, since the group is just getting started, there is room for new people to join and affect the mix!
@sfmom22, I haven’t gotten that sense from the group — Lorraine Woodruff-Long is very active in the group and as you probably know, Lorraine has been a strong advocate for choice. I believe we did a pretty good job in the new system balancing options vs. certainty (time will tell if I am right) so I am certainly not advocating for a neighborhood-only school assignment system at this point.
“A high quality public education for all children in every neighborhood” seems to me like code for a return to neighborhood schools. Carmen Chu is a strong advocate for neighborhood schools, consistent with the desires of many of her D4 constituents. Would I be correct in assuming that this new PAC advocates a SAS with a greater emphasis on neighborhood than city-wide assignment?
@Joyce – OK then! I’ll look into that.
The last set of BOE meeting minutes on SFUSD website are from Feb. 23. Seven months without update.
Hi Joyce – I am not sure this information is compiled by the Board office but you can get a sense by looking at the Board minutes, which are supposed to be posted on the district web site. My sense is that both Commissioners have good attendance records.
Can you provide the BOE attendance records for Kim and Hydra? This information does not appear to be readily available from SFUSD. Thank you.