The SFUSD and School Board are still broken
Trying times for fans of public schools
This past Sunday was not only Mother’s Day, but the day that CNN aired a show “What happened to San Francisco?” It’s definitely trying days for fans of this beautiful City. And it’s also trying days for fans of San Francisco public schools. The School Board President, guided by “feels” instead of the law, had no problem with racial discrimination or state law. And at the same time, the district still has quite a few leadership staff slow-rolling all the goals to improve student outcomes. Grumble grumble.
But first a pretty view of San Francisco Bay, from last week.
Feature
Last week I previewed the Board of Education vote on an illegal, racially discriminatory parent slate brought forth by the Parents Advisory Council. The good news is that six of the seven Board Commissioners got a clue and tabled that plan. The bad news is that the Board President, Kevine Boggess, had no problems with such trifling things like state laws, racial discrimination, and Board Policy, and was fine with the slate. He based his thinking on “feels,” as opposed to legal advice. Must be nice to not have to worry about wasting money on possible lawsuits. Aiyyah, incredible. My opinion was published in the weekly Chinese-American Wind Newspaper, and translated by editor Portia Li.
Upcoming events
In what could be the last School Board meeting of the school year on May 23rd, the main topic will be math. Draft agenda here. Draft slides from the district on their math plans here.
I am all for SFUSD having success at its math goals that it has agreed to. However, the slides leave so many concerns.
Concern 1: Interim goals are more wishes than plans
Interim Goal 2.1: The percentage of Grade 3 African American students at proficient or above will increase from 44% in March 2022 to 54% by March 2024
Interim Goal 2.2: The percentage of Grade 6 students at proficient or above will increase from 58% in March 2022 to 68% by March 2024.
Interim Goal 2.3: The percentage of Grade 7 Latinx students at proficient or above will increase from 45% in March 2022 to 55% by March 2024.
Admirable goals to be sure, and much needed. But the plan is to do a pilot, learn and assess? Call me skeptical as these planned improvements look uncommon and not sustainable in recent district history.
Concern 2: As highlighted by SF Parents Action, #SFkidscantwait, the District is slow rolling improvements, as they say they have to pilot, assess, and learn over three years. Puh-leez. Get off your tails or have someone else make the changes that are already successful in other districts. Check out the SFParents petition.
Concern 3: Apparently 8th grade algebra is not even on the table, three years in the future. Tell that to the 2000+ signers of the SF Guardians/ GrowSF petition. Please sign and share the petition!
I’m hearing of many college decisions. Wishing everyone all the best on their next steps in their journeys and congratulations to all the graduates and just everyone who has made it to nearly the end of another school year!
Hot takes on the news roundup
The Oakland teachers and school district reached an agreement after 8 days of teacher strikes. Happy for the teacher pay increases. As for the “common good” provisions, it’s kind of controversial, and the agreements can be found in links in this coverage. We’ll see if the San Francisco teachers union UESF wants to follow this path.
Governor Newsom released his plan for the state budget, including K-12 funding. It’s basically seen as good news, as there is much less money to work with this year. We’ll keep an eye out on how such numbers will translate to SFUSD.
Speaking about Newsom, the dyslexic one got around to agreeing to spend $1 million for dyslexia screening. It’s a huge win for dyslexia advocates, profiled here. I wrote an advocacy piece about a year ago in Beyond Chron here.
District facilities staff revealed their grand 10-year Facilities Master Plan and the Board approved such. Slides here. Lots of questions from commissioners and the public, from the lack of work on the long-promised Civic Center Ruth Asawa School of the Arts site, to why staff decided to focus on boilers versus other items. It’ll be dynamic times up to the upcoming 2024 Facilities Bond for sure!
Here comes the spice! Earlier this week, SF Chronicle opinion writer Soleil Ho spoke of their experience in a magnet school like Lowell High School and then expanded on their thoughts. I graduated from Lowell in the 1980s and it was an incredible experience in my life. As for Ho, I could not follow their strawperson rhetoric, cherrypicking history, leaps of logic, and under explored personal guilt. Bless her for taking on the controversial topic. I was far from persuaded in what she was trying to advocate for. Comicle, do better.
Throwback
Why do we still need Eyes on the SF Board of Education and SFUSD? Sunshine of one bad incident is not enough. A year and a half ago, recalled-then-Board President Gabriela Lopez and recalled commissioner Faauuga Molina hid behind a “rubric” as they cherry-picked their friends for the Equity Audit and Action Committee. Now the district is not transparent on how they chose the current High School Task Force membership. And local media won’t cover this stuff.
Please go out and enjoy all the great things going on in this beautiful City. For me, the most beautiful part of this town are the smiles and souls of the many dedicated to contributing to the good of it. I may have said something of such sentiment today in an interview which is scheduled to be on CNN tonight.
photo credit: Jessica Wan