Looking back, looking forward
2023 was a lot, what will 2024 bring?
Hope all are enjoying a nice well-deserved break at the end of this year of 2023! It’s been something— busy, frustrating, a time of change, a time of hope and potential. Here’s my look back and look forward, a 12 month time span. Again, thank you for being such a fan of my takes on San Francisco public education!
For the new subscribers and occasional lurkers, this substack effort has been a great part of sharing with you and the world some details of what I believe are relatively evergreen themes. We can have great public schools in San Francisco, if we focus and we clean out the bad actors. We can expect better coverage of public education from the media and everyone. In a world where there are so many perspectives, the ones who can see the entire elephant, not just the trunk or the big legs, can find the themes that bring things all together. Our individual voices as regular people are making a difference.
First, here’s a look back at the past 12 months. Then I’ll give some thoughts about what we can push for over the next 12 months.
2023 Public schools wrap-up
January 2023 was not as much a break from 2022 as many had hoped. After Ann Hsu lost the Board of Education Commissioner spot and Alida Fisher took her spot, the Board Presidency went to prior Board Veep Kevine Boggess over prior Board President Jenny Lam. At the January Board Meeting, Boggess, in a rare look of dark jacket and tie, said, “I think in a lot of ways, we are in a moment where we have to figure out ways how we can put students and families first so that schools can get out of the crisis-es [sic]” Nice words, right? Check out what I wrote in Randy Shaw’s Beyond Chron in January, and in December. And what Boggess did about Chinese Americans in the Parent Advisory Board was not cool.
The reformers on the Board of Education, articulated most stridently by Commissioner Lainie Motamedi, are in the minority. Lam’s huge effort to bring a better process with less rancor, led to a limp year with a lot of lingering meh.
Superintendent Matt Wayne is in his sophomore year and has put into play many of his own ideas and own people. How has that worked out? Well, he knows who is in the majority on the School Board, so words for change have been followed by not enough change, from the teacher payroll tragic hits to bottom lines, to the lingering district budget deficits, to concerns about safety, to many unfilled educator positions, to a pathetic waste of a High School Task Force.
Nothing says a head scratching Superintendent Wayne move more than giving former Head of Facilities Dawn Kamalanathan a promotion to Assistant Superintendent and a 2 year contract. As a member of the SFUSD Citizens Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC), I will always remember Kamalanathan when said she will seek a “Best-in-Class” CBOC and then went without one for over 2 years. She and her staff continue to stall in not doing simple common sense CBOC recommendations. And now, the rumor is she is being let go. The 2022, 2023, March 2024, now November 2024 ~$1 Billion facilities bond is now unlikely until June 2026.
The 2022, 2023, March 2024, now November 2024 ~$1 Billion facilities bond is now unlikely until June 2026.
Wayne has kept many senior staff from the prior administration, as he seeks to bring changes to curriculum, school resourcing, neighborhood school assignments, and other big topics. In a time of diminished trust, people are starting to have no faith that the current leadership will turn the ship in the right direction.
2023 highlights
In the meantime, I’ve been busy on a number of fronts. LeadershipSF, sponsored by the SF Chamber of Commerce, was an excellent program where I worked with 45 up-and-coming city leaders on learning and discussing many city topics in depth. My good friend Mike Zwiefelhofer of Z Ciccolato is now the new Director of the program.
I finished my year-long tenure on the Civil Grand Jury where we produced 4 reports with big recommendations on how to make City government work better— school hiring, city hiring, nonprofit outcomes for homelessness, and helping small businesses. At times we worked over 20 hours a week on interviews, research, and writing. It was a great diverse group of civic minded folks.
I’ve had published over a dozen Opinion pieces, mainly in Beyond Chron and Wind Newspaper. The editors have been supportive and have given me wider platforms than this smaller newsletter. And yes, city leaders and the media have been reading and reacting.
I’ve finished candidate training with SF Guardians, with Rex Ridgeway, Supriya Ray, and JConr B Ortega. Yes, I am running for DCCC, the SF Democratic County Central Committee, this March 2024, and may run for another office in November 2024. And I have further candidate training starting January with an Asian American group.
As for the DCCC, I’m really excited in the chance to sweep our entire slate into all 24 open slots, for the next 4 years. Check out SF Democrats for Change— great people with their own unique superpowers. We can push the SF Democratic Party in a much better, different direction- through voter registration, endorsements, and resolutions. We can stop virtue signaling and work to solve our current City problems.
I am pleased to announce my first set of endorsements. I have been honored to receive endorsements from the United Democratic Club, the Chinese American Democratic Club, Housing Action Coalition and San Francisco YIMBY.
Speaking of elections, the City ballot propositions C, E, and F are a clear delineation between the two DCCC slates. The current DCCC membership, many in the “Labor and Working Families” slate, are against these common sense propositions on building housing, improving policing, and drug screening for those receiving public assistance. The SF Democrats for Change slate back all three.
2024, Year of the Dragon is nigh
What is in store for 2024? Well, it’s the Year of the Dragon, so watch out. People want change. They want accountability and transparency. They want fiscal responsibility. They want effective government. Advocates have banged the drum for so much this past year. In 2024, we can do the next steps in bringing about the change we want to see.
January 2024 will bring a chance for good turnover in the School Board leadership. Board Vice-President Lisa Weissman-Ward has shown a steady sober voice and a caring heart. It’s her turn at the helm. Boggess can read the writing on the internet.
Mail-in ballots drop around February 5, 2024, the first day people can vote in person in City Hall. Proposition G, 8th grade algebra, can send our slow-moving, tin-earned school district and strong message from voters across the City. As an SFUSD 7th grade algebra student, and an ally to many immigrant parents, I aGree with Prop G.
The school district should hear back from the school communities on how to align limited resources, around April. Maybe the district leadership will roll out a good forward-looking plan on how combining schools can lead to better outcomes? There’s always hope.
As for November 2024 elections, well let’s say a lot can happen. Many new seedlings have been planted. Much unpredictable chaos can overcome the building wave since 2021. It’ll be quite a ride. Thanks for staying involved!