The formal decisions regarding school closures have come and gone, but an unsettled feeling still lingers. The process that we all endured over these past several months exposed some brutal truths regarding continued inequities in our district and heartfelt passions about our schools. From this maelstrom, two important realities have emerged.
First, schools support and are supported by strong communities in all neighborhoods in San Francisco. In some cases, this support coincides with easy-to-use, in-vogue measures of quality such as standardized test scores. In other cases, it is co-occurs with more elusive qualities, such as a sense of belonging, affirmation and educational advancements that don’t register in the same way on the cookie cutter performance charts we must measure up against these days.
These differences make it harder to compare one school with another, especially when issues of inequity are thrown into the mix. But, the strong sense of community surrounding such a great number of our schools should be seen as a success in its own right. A school without a solid sense of community will not be able to serve its students well. Schools with that background of support have a stronger framework within which to work for academic improvement.
An example of this type of powerful support can be found around John Swett Elementary School, which the Board of Education (BOE) voted 4 to 3 to merge with John Muir Elementary School. Of the two primary criteria that were used together to initially put schools on the list —enrollment and capacity usage—Swett was somewhat under the enrollment threshold of 250 students and over the capacity usage of 75%, making its presence on the merger list questionable. In addition, the lingering suspicion that an alternative use for the facility (for administrative space) drove the merger makes the decision all the more rankling.
The parents, students, teachers, and local supporters of John Swett are fighting to keep their school open, seeking support for a resolution that would put public pressure on the school board to reverse that decision. This week they made an impressive display of their commitment by staging a strike that kept 200 of its almost 230 students home in a protest against the merger.
What will come of this is hard to know, but the efforts of this community can serve as motivation and inspiration for all of us as we grapple with what to do next. This painful situation highlights a second major outcome of the past recent months. At this point, we have all realized that significant decision making efforts such as the school closures, have not occur in the best possible way. Even hard decisions are easier to make and live with if there is a process that people are confident in.
Critiquing is one thing, but now we face the much more challenging task of devising that new process. The hard decisions are far from over and to keep our district from shattering it is clear that we need to brainstorm and discuss what a different approach could look like.
Three events are coming up which speak to exactly this issue.
The first is an informal discussion with BOE members Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez, tonight at 6pm at the school district office (555 Franklin, Room 106). The goal of this meeting is to start talking about how to address the projected continued decline in enrollment, how the School Board and communities can address planning needs and what the relationships with the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor might be going forward.
The second event is a community potluck debriefing and is being sponsored by three community groups–Parent Advocates for Youth, a program of Coleman Advocates; Chinese for Affirmative Action-Center for Asian Advocacy; and Parents for Public Schools. The event will be on Wednesday February 8th from 6 to 8pm at 459 Vienna Street at Persia. Call 239-0161 ext. 15 in advance to reserve child care. Three items are on the agenda for discussion: last year’s closure process; this year’s closure process; and how to create a better process.
A third event, in the form of a panel discussion, takes place the next night, Thursday February 9th at 7pm in the Community Room of the Page Street Library at 1833 Page Street (near Cole and Page). Speakers include: Ross Mirkarimi, Superivsor; Mark Sanchez, School Board Member; Sandra Lee, Aim High Principal; Joan Livingston, New Traditions parent; and Tim Redmond, SF Bay Guardian Editor and McKinley parent.
All of these events are good starting points for thinking not only about how to address potential closures, but how to respond to declining enrollment differently, and how to start identifying other challenges and educational goals. With these meetings, we should recognize that we have made the important step from calling for a long-term plan for our district to now working towards that plan.
Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children who attend McKinley Elementary School in the San Francisco Unified School District and is the president of the board of directors of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco (http://www.ppssf.org).
