May always is an exciting month full of activity. It’s nigh the end of the school year so definitely a time of many transitions. I personally am living through my daughter’s choosing of which college to attend- so much to think about! May we all make good choices in the moment and hope and plan for the best!
At Dear Community Gala with good friends Gary Rulli (an incredible chef!) and Ron Lee.
Upcoming events
Our monthly San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Citizens Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) meeting is this Wednesday, 5/3, noon-1:30. We’ll be asking questions of the 2021 Bond audits. Special treat: Vice Chair Quincy Yu will be running the meeting. Y’all can join or dial in here.
May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month! SFUSD has a good webpage with lots of items of background and current activities. There’s a fun event at City Hall on 5/3 at 5:30 pm for those who registered. For those that didn’t, check that link for all the amazing cultural, food, and other events going on all through May! Something for everyone in every part of town.
The SFUSD Parent Advisory Council Meeting this Thursday 5/4 from 6-8 pm. It’s supposed to be a group of parents that advocate for families to the District. But since the Seth Brenzel rejection in 2021, a coordinator was sent packing and apparently Education Code was not followed. How will parents be selected to fill the many open slots? Eyes are watching and curious what the District has planned. Agenda and directions to the in-person meeting can be found here. Maybe bring popcorn.
On Thursday 5/4, I’ll be joining the Eastern Neighborhoods Democratic Club (ENDC) at their 5th Anniversary Spring Fling. Come join me, Club Fugazi performers, several electeds, and the many good people at ENDC at 111 Minna at 5:30 pm. Tickets here.
Friday, May 5 is Cinco de Mayo! Enjoy!
Next Monday, 5/8 marks the start of San Francisco Small Business Week! So many events around town. Check em out here!
The Lance Christensen listening tour on improving California and San Francisco public schools is back on schedule! Lance has a lot of thoughts about helping students with reading and other things but he is now crossing the state to hear you! The event’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.
Also, that evening, 5/9, starting at 6 pm, will be the Board of Education meeting. Amongst the many topics in the Draft Agenda, will be the one-week-late Facilities Master Plan presentation. The slides link is broken and the full report is linked here. Our schools need fixing, and how will the district make its proposal?
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),
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
Last Tuesday, the Board of Education (BoE) had a dedicated meeting for Student Outcomes: College and Career Readiness. How’d the Commissioners do? President Kevine Boggess could have been more clear with how public comment was to be run for the Special Meeting. Kudos to Commissioners Alida Fisher, Jenny Lam, and Lainie Motamedi for good questions. Commissioner Mark Sanchez just warmed his own seat. The District staff have a lot of work to do in this area of College and Career Readiness, irk. Video here and auto-generated transcript (with mistakes) here.
Some members of the Board of Education represented at the joint Board of Supervisors Youth, Young Adults, and Families Committee and Youth Commission Meeting. Lots of talk about Proposition G funds spending and student safety. No comment on the BoE Commissioners. As for the teenagers on the Youth Commission? Wow, so articulate with great points and great questions! Video here.
Hot Takes on the News Roundup
Speaking about the student safety item of the joint Board of Supervisors Youth, Young Adults, and Families Committee and Youth Commission Meeting, check out the Frisc coverage here and the Examiner coverage here. The Department of Child Youth and Their Families represented well, as well as the SFUSD’s pilot violence interruption program, known as the School Crisis Support Coordination Project. The Social Media efforts to reduce viral videos of fighting seem off base. I’m interested in efforts that could keep middle schools administrators and teachers from quitting and efforts that would make families feel that the schools are safe.
The teachers contract is several weeks into negotiations. Will the San Francisco teachers union follow the lead of the Oakland teachers union and seek to strike? School district money is still flowing to those consultants working to fix the way-too-long-in-the-tooth EmPowerSF teacher payroll software rollout. Woulda been nice if in prior years the Superintendent and BoE Commissioners did not agree to overspend with such poor results to show for all that money. Check out my prior deep dives on the cans kicked down the road in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Good deep dive on K-12 enrollment at all San Francisco schools by SFEDUp. He comes to a similar conclusion as me that growth in enrollment seems like a stretch over the next few years.
The Eighth Grade Algebra topic is now in a few national news articles. Check out Helen Raleigh’s piece in the City Journal here, a Yahoo news piece here, a Wall Street Journal editorial here, and a Fox News video interview here. What does this mean for SFUSD’s middle school math changes and the in-progress California Math Framework? I’m hoping for better options for the students.
Enjoy the superblooms and small businesses and let’s go Giants and Warriors!