It was the crying and pleading for help that got to me most. I recently ran for School Board this past election and heard stories from families all over the city. While I did not win, the experience truly brought home the gap between our words and the work we still need to do. Whether it was a grandmother in Chinatown trying to get her grandchild to want to return to class or the working mothers in the Mission who had been fighting the system for years to get their children high dosage literacy tutoring, they poured their hearts out to me.
Three and a half years ago I started a substack newsletter on the San Francisco Board of Education to share stories of how things were so wrong in how we were running our public schools. As a child of immigrants and a San Francisco Unified School District alumnus, I had such extreme frustration with the lack of news coverage of these concerns that I was bursting to get the stories out myself.
We were spending so much money on our public schools and the buildings were falling apart and our teachers were not being paid and our students were failing at reading.
Last week we swore in four Commissioners to four-year terms in the grand setting of the North Court of City Hall before a large and energetic crowd– Board President Matt Alexander, and Commissioners Parag Gupta, Jaime Huling, and Supryia Ray. Newly-elected Mayor Daniel Lurie spoke about how we are at a new era of results for our students. California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and San Francisco Superintendent Marie Su continued the theme.
As I sat in the crowd clapping with the others at the speeches, I felt both the hope and the heavy concern of the work ahead. The platforms and agenda of these four winning School Board folks were pointing us in the right direction of excellence and equity. Yet the work to get there would not be easy. Maybe new leadership can solve old problems? Maybe.
The first School Board meeting this Tuesday will quickly bring focus on how to govern. The seven Commissioners will vote on a Board President and Vice-President, who largely set the tone and agenda for the year. Will they agree to continue with President Matt Alexander and his short track record that included replacing former Superintendent Matt Wayne and his poor plan to close schools?
Will the School Board agree to a $200,000+ contract for a new Head of Communications and Governance while the district encourages hundreds of senior teachers to retire early?
Parents are demanding results now and are moving with their feet. Buena Vista Horace Mann families have had so much frustration with how they will be sent from the Mission across town to June Jordan School in the Excelsior that many are applying to charter schools. How does a School Board balance fixing schools with maintaining and growing enrollment?
Other big questions hover. How can we get students reading and math scores up when we have less money for teachers? How can we get people happy with their neighborhood schools when the outcomes differ so dramatically from one school to another?
We are at an important time of having the rubber hitting the road. San Francisco schools have improved before and other school districts are improving right now, with even less resources. Let’s keep pushing for leadership and results. Our families deserve it.
Laurance Lem Lee is a second-generation Chinese American, SFUSD graduate, small business owner, and good government advocate.
