Hold onto your hats cuz I got some things to get off my chest this week! It looks like we got less than a couple of months of public education news coming, until the end of the school year. My verdict? Meh, we could be making so real, lasting changes. Instead, well, to put it nicely, we are staring at lingering and new challenges. Annnnd as we heard in our recent Education Forum, there are reasons to hope.
Upcoming events
My plan to have this newsletter out sooner kinda went sideways, so I’m sharing tonight’s 6:30 pm Board of Education Special Meeting if you made it. On the agenda: Board evaluation of Superintendent Matt Wayne (hopefully keep him and encourage progress against goals), more money for EmPower SAP (only $425K more this time, but egads), and a second progress monitoring workshop- this time on college and career readiness.
My takeaway from the posted slides? 1) Wishing is not planning. Highly skeptical on how plans will achieve stated student outcome goals. 2) Still have grande-sized doubts that the people leading the effort for improvements can do the job, given their suboptimal results in the prior Superintendent administration. But, I’m just some SFUSD alum with a keyboard. And I do wish things go well!
There was supposed to be a Facilities Master Plan presentation tonight, but apparently, it’ll be next week? Another delay. See below for a related news piece.
This coming Thursday, 4/27, at 4 pm, the Board of Supervisors Committee of Youth, Young Adult, and Families Committee will have a hearing on Examining Resources and Safety Plans to Address Youth Safety and School Site Violence. Several incidents related to student safety at schools, public transit, and shopping malls, crystallized parent and educator concerns, as I detailed in an Opinion piece in the Examiner.
Superintendent Wayne is doing LCAP budget meetings differently than his predecessor, with town halls to share information with parents and the community. Definitely a good opportunity to get your questions answered. There are events on 4/26 and 5/2, please RSVP.
The Lance Christensen listening tour on improving California and San Francisco public schools is back on schedule! It’ll be May 9th, 5:30 pm, Richmond District Public Library at 351 9th Ave. Get your thoughts over to Lance about how we can advocate for improving our schools here and across our state. Register here.
For my subscribers, please join me at this neat special event, this Wednesday 4/26, 6-9 pm. United Democratic Club has a fun event with food, a free first drink, and some special elected guests. I helped choose the food and place (El Lopo, 1327 Polk St.) so I endorse!
Speaking of United Democratic Club, I am organizing a volunteer event this Friday, 4/28, all afternoon. Come join me as we help Booker T. Washington with their food pantry, 800 Presidio Ave.! Sign up here.
My good friends in Dear Community are doing their 2nd Annual Gala, Resilient Rabbit, Saturday, 4/29, 6-10 pm, Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant, 2626 San Bruno Ave. It’ll be a grand time. Tickets available here.
This Thursday, Huckleberry Youth has a super fun benefit with Dear San Francisco at Club Fugazi, this Thursday, 4/27, 7:30 pm. As a former gymnast, my mind was blown by what these people do in the show. It’s an amazing night out and a great organization! Tickets and sponsorship opportunity here.
Meet the new SF Guardians Academy Candidates! After many weeks of training, they’re ready to meet the public. Event is tomorrow, 4/26, Grant & Green Saloon, 1371 Grant Ave., 6-8 pm. RSVP here.
May is gonna be quite a busy fun month: AAPI Heritage month, Cinco de Mayo, Small Business Week, Carnaval. Hope to see many of you around town.
Call to action
I’ve met some great people and learned many things in these groups that have openings now:
LeadershipSF (application deadline May 5),
United Democratic Club (join this week, if possible),
Civil Grand Jury (apply by May 12),
San Francisco Unified School District Citizens Bond Oversight Committee (rolling applications).
Sign this petition to bring 8th grade algebra back to SFUSD! Obvi good for students and for equity.
Board of Education watch
Board of Education meetings have been ok. Board President Kevin Boggess could run the meetings better, and Commissioner Alida Fisher could abstain less from votes.
Hot takes on the news roundup
Love the New York Times front page treatment on reading, “A ‘Science of Reading’ Revolt Takes on the Education Establishment.” Poor literacy outcomes, particularly amongst third-graders, is a national travesty, even more so in democratic cities like San Francisco. Let’s get our SF public schools to do best practices in curriculum, professional development, and other steps.
The SF Examiner is continuing to highlight literacy concerns, with several articles by their own reporters and by other sources: “An End to the reading wars? More US schools embrace phonics,” here, “‘Too much to learn’: Schools race to catch up kids’ reading,” here, “This is your Brain on Books: Science Reveals Secrets of Reading,” here. One of my first Opinion pieces in the Examiner covered literacy, “Early reading instruction in San Francisco public schools: A love affair with what has failed.”
It looks like the planned SFUSD 2024 facilities bond will be $1.7 billion dollars, and not cover the earlier plan to move the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts to Civic Center. Keeping an eye on this one, for sure!!!
Teacher housing? Yes, please and a lot! Well, SF State has land and a plan and is hoping to partner with SFUSD and CCSF for even more housing. Fingers crossed for lots of housing at this site cuz we could use it!
Got some free time? Consider being a substitute teacher, cuz lots and lots of need!
Franco Finn knows how to bring the HYPE! Go Dubs!