Diverse families helping southeast SF school grow

From Catholic San Francisco

[Some parents have] decided to enroll [their] children because of the school’s diversity, its close-knit family atmosphere, peaceful and orderly environment, and her long-standing relationships with the teachers...with African-Americans, Samoans, Filipinos, Chinese, Latinos, Vietnamese, and Caucasians as fellow students,... children feel at ease with different cultures. 

More than half the children at the school receive substantial assistance, said Church of the Visitacion pastor Father Thuan Hoang, who escaped from Vietnam in a boat in 1987 after the Communist government closed the seminary.

Offered chance, few failing schools close doors

From the AP,

Over the last decade, San Francisco's Willie Brown Jr. College Preparatory Academy has seen enrollment plummet and student performance lag. Just 15 percent of students scored proficient in reading on state tests in 2010 and 17 percent in math.

When the school shut for summer recently, it was for good. The district has chosen the most drastic of four options — closure — in a federal program to help students at poorly performing schools. About $45,000 in federal money will pay for a counselor to help families enroll elsewhere for the coming school year. Eventually, a new school will be built at the site.

"It will provide a fresh start," Assistant Superintendent Patricia Gray said. "This is about closing it, starting something new and having something much better."

Read more at the Associated Press

Nearly 500 in S.F. schools to get pink slips

From SFGate,

Nearly 500 San Francisco teachers, aides and administrators will find pink slips in their mailboxes within the next two weeks as the school board works to backfill an estimated $27 million shortfall if the state's worst-case budget scenario pans out later this year.


If the layoffs hold, class sizes would go up and overall support for students would decline, district officials said Tuesday night.


The layoff notices are expected to hit struggling schools the hardest because of a disproportionate number of new teachers at those sites. Under seniority rules, it's typically last in, first out in layoffs.


At El Dorado Elementary in Visitacion Valley, for example, half the school's 15 teachers are expecting to get a layoff notice.

Read more at SFGate

SFUSD Local Schools Plan - SFGate

SF School Board OKs plan to offer more choices - Jill Tucker, Chronicle

The San Francisco school board put the finishing touches on a new and long-awaited student assignment system Tuesday night, giving children a better shot at getting a seat at the school down the street while still offering families a choice if they want a different site.

Read more...

How does this help D10? Hopefully, one of the things that it does is that it gets kids off their long MUNI commute and puts them into quality local classrooms. Of course, we have to get higher quality local schools for that to happen. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction, though.

I'm sure this will be a topic of conversation this Saturday, 3PM, at the "Family-Friendly D10 Candidates Forum" at St Gregory's Church:

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Co-hosted by Saint Gregory's Church and Daniel Webster School PTA.

This is a non-partisan, unbiased, completely independent, unsponsored forum. The focus is on District 10 families and children. All candidates for Dist. 10 Supervisor, regardless of party or other affiliation(s), have been invited to participate.

RSVPs have been received from:

James Calloway
Malia Cohen
Teresa Duque
Kristine Enea
MJ Marie Franklin
Rodney Hampton
Chris Jackson
Tony Kelly
DeWitt Lacy
Geoffrea Morris
Steve Moss
Eric Smith
Lynette Sweet
Stephen Weber
Diane Wesley-Smith

A Google map with SF's Schools shown:

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