San Francisco School Board Notes

School Board Notes 10.24.06

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• District to Implement Family Diversity Curriculum
• District Financials Presented
• Recommendations for Improving Bilingual Education

District to Implement Family Diversity Curriculum
The board unanimously passed a resolution to incorporate discussion of family diversity and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) tolerance into health education for K-8. While the district currently has a policy to include discussion of these issues, a lot of schools have not been consistently teaching them, according to reports from educators in the district.

The resolution adopted Tuesday seeks to:

• Ensure approved materials are available at every school, and for every student.
• Integrate the family diversity curriculum into the overall program, so that it is taught throughout the school year and reinforced, rather than just discussed once.
• Establish a task force to recommend teaching materials to support this curriculum. The task force will make a report to the board in May 2007.
• Establish a system for each school to document that it is teaching the lessons as intended.

SFUSD includes many children from alternative families; the resolution was designed to ensure these students feel safe and welcome, according to its authors, Commissioners Dan Kelly, Mark Sanchez and Sarah Lipson.

District Financials Presented
For the first time in many years, the district was able to submit its unaudited financial statements for 2005-06 to the state ahead of the statutory deadline. Getting the documents in on time lends credibility to the district’s finances, avoids a $10,000 fine and allows the district more time to begin addressing problem areas, said Chief Financial Officer Joseph Grazioli

Grazioli went over information he presented to the board’s Budget Committee last week. He outlined some areas for concern, specifically:

• Costs of the so-called “Fund Five,” which governs special education funds. It will be very important, he said, for the district to try to control costs in this area and keep down encroachments (money from the general fund that must be used to cover shortfalls).
• Child development's $3.7 million encroachment, rather than the $700,000 budgeted.
• Student nutrition's $800,000 encroachment, rather than the $0 estimated.
• The district's unfunded liability in workers compensation of $26 million (Commissioner Jill Wynns noted it would take long-term planning by the board to address this problem.).

Recommendations for Improving Bilingual Education
Reporting from the Committee as a Whole meeting in which the Bilingual Community Council addressed board members, Lipson outlined several areas of need in bilingual education and teaching English language learners.

These included:

• A need to meet regularly with the BCC (Before last month, it had been two years since the BCC addressed the board.).
• A need for an articulated process to measure whether programs were being implemented and if they are succeeding.
• A focus on credentialing and recruitment of qualified bilingual teachers.
• An overall master plan for bilingual education.

School Board Notes 10.18.06

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• Budget Committee Recommends Cutting JROTC
• Lunar New Year Holidays Proposed
• Financial Reports for 2005-06 Completed

Budget Committee Recommends Cutting JROTC
The school board's Budget Committee last night gave a positive recommendation a plan to phase out JROTC, by a vote of two ayes (Commissioner Eric Mar and Commissioner Norman Yee) to one nay (Commissioner Jill Wynns).

JROTC costs the district close to $1 million per year more than what the U.S. military, which subsidizes the program, reimburses the district, according to figures presented by district staff.  The costs represent salaries and benefits for the 15 instructors who lead the program. The U.S. military pays for half the salaries and all the materials and equipment needed, approximately $750,000 more. It does not pay for employee benefits.

The motion before the Budget Committee contained one major change from measures previously considered by the board. It looked at phasing out the program but did not discuss a replacement program. Instead it looked at the cost to absorb these students into existing district classes - physical education and electives - plus provide similar after-school activities, such as drum corps, flag corps and color guard. The total cost was estimated at slightly less than it costs the district to run JROTC.

The resolution calls for no new students to be enrolled in JROTC after the current semester, no credits other than PE credits to be rewarded for JROTC after the current school year and for the program to be phased out entirely by 2008-09.

Alan Lesik, a member of the public, thanked the district for releasing figures as to the program's cost. "We are choosing to spend $1 million on this program. There's a sense in the community that it is free."

Wynns voted against the resolution because, she said, the real budget impact could not be known without looking at a replacement program. "All the rhetoric around this has been about finding a replacement program," she said.

Committee members said more detail needed to be presented about how the funds would be redistributed, so that the schools that currently have JROTC instruction would get additional funding to cover the lack.  Although Yee voted in favor of the resolution, he expressed concern that a replacement program "might not be one the one that works or is best for the kids but the one that fits within this budget."

Lunar New Year Holidays Proposed
The committee recommended that there be a day off for Lunar New Year, observed by a majority of the city's Asian population, even in years when the day falls on the weekend. Schools are currently closed for the holiday when it falls during the week. The new proposal would also give a day off - the nearest Monday or Friday - in years the holiday falls on the weekend. The cost of doing so would be $207,000 every year in which this is the case. There are only two such years coming up in the near future, 2010 and 2013.

Financial Reports for 2005-06 Completed
The district completed its unaudited financial reports for fiscal year 2005-06. Board members congratulated the financial office for presenting them on time - something they have had trouble doing in previous years - which will assist the district in current budget planning.

Most of the budget corresponded to that which had been projected in June, but there were some surprises, particularly when it came to encroachments.

Encroachments occur when funds earmarked for a specific purpose are not sufficient to cover the program, and general funds must be used to cover the shortfall. Encroachments in the area of child development were expected to be $1.5 million and turned out to be $3 million. Encroachments in student nutrition were expected to be $0, and turned out to be $770,000. In addition, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Grazioli said the district was facing an unfunded liability in worker's compensation of about $26 million. "It's going to be almost impossible to reach that in future years," he said.

Presentation of the reports and analysis as to what they mean to the district will be presented at the next board meeting.

School Board Notes 10.10.06

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• Rash of School Violence Reported
• Burton Cuts Blamed on Poor Enrollment
• Programs for Deaf, Hearing-Impaired Detailed
• Board Supports Proposition 1D

Rash of School Violence Reported
School resource officers, the police officers assigned to schools, have been busy this year, responding to a rash of assaults and robberies, Lt. Colleen Fatooh, the resource officers' liaison with the district, told the S.F. school board last night.

There has been a wave of incidents in which students attack and beat another student while a classmate associated with the attackers records the incident on a cell phone camera, presumably for bragging rights. "We've had five or six this week alone," Fatooh said. But, she added, "At least these kids are getting caught so the victims aren't afraid to come to school." She also said there have been numerous iPod thefts and an increase in fights, especially among young women.

Providing the board with a breakdown of last year's arrests, Fatooh reported 219 arrests last year involving students on school grounds or traveling to and from school, mostly for robbery, battery, vandalism and aggravated assault. There have also been incidents of weapons possession. Forty-four percent of those arrested were African American, 8 percent were Latino, 6 percent were Asian, 9 percent were Caucasian and 13 percent were Pacific Islander.

The off-campus incidents largely occurred at bus stops and on Muni lines. Certain lines are particularly problematic, Fatooh said. These include the San Bruno Avenue corridor; the stop at 16th Street and Utah headed to Potrero Hill; the 47 line and Van Ness corridor; the 22 Fillmore bus; and the J Church line.

Commissioner Dan Kelly said he was concerned about the disconnect between the number of students arrested at school and the much lower number that came before the board for expulsion. He asked if the staff failing to take administrative action or the presence of officers raising the level of response to schoolyard fights.

Fatooh said officers had neither the time nor desire to arrest kids for schoolyard fights. "These are not little incidents. We've had a couple of kids go away in ambulances," she said. "When there's a clear aggressor and someone has to go to the hospital or is beaten up pretty bad, that's when an arrest is made."

Board member Mark Sanchez asked that the district look at how community-based organizations such as conflict resolution programs could work with the administrators and resource officers to address some of the less serious problems and reduce the reliance on police.

Burton Cuts Blamed on Poor Enrollment
Several teachers and programs were cut at Burton High School virtually overnight seven weeks into the school year, several Burton families reported. Students received notices yesterday that their schedules had been revised, some of their teachers moved to other schools and some of their programs eliminated, said Burton student Filmer Yu. Students arrived in class to find instructors they'd never seen before. Among the programs dropped was an orchestra that had grown to include some 150 kids, who would show up at 7 a.m., an hour before school began, to participate, Yu said. The instructor, who had shared time between Burton and Visitacion Valley Middle School, is now exclusively at Visitacion Valley.

Burton is one of 15 schools with enrollment well below what was projected in the spring. It is 254 students short of the number expected. District staff said making the projections was often difficult and was unclear on the reasons for the shortfall, other than that parents had chosen to go to different schools or to leave the district entirely.

Programs for Deaf, Hearing-Impaired Detailed
The district is implementing several programs for deaf and hearing-impaired students, according to a report presented by program administrator Pam Macy.

Among the goals are to developing a continuum of services for toddlers through 12th-graders who are deaf or hearing-impaired that will include magnet programs for these students. Magnet programs were launched this year at Cesar Chavez, Claire Lilienthal, and Lafayette elementary schools; Aptos and Lilienthal middle schools; and John O'Connell High School. 

The department is also implementing a new toddler program for 18- to 36-month-olds, which opens October 2007 at Tule Elk Child Development Center. It is also looking to implement pre-K programs by next August, but the locations have not been identified.

Other goals include streamlining enrollment so students can access the magnet programs and recruiting staff trained to serve this population. The special education department will continue to hold quarterly meetings to gather input from parents. The next meetings are December 12; March 6, 2007; and June 5, 2007.

Board Supports Proposition 1D
The board approved a resolution in support of Proposition 1D, a $10.4 billion bond issue on the November ballot to provide funding to repair older California public schools and ease overcrowding. The proposition could provide almost $20 million of support for projects in SFUSD's 2003 bond program, as well as $30 million for the proposed 2006 bond program. Proposition 1D bond funds can be used for earthquake retrofits, playground safety, asbestos removal and updating old structures.

School Board Notes 10.05.06

Programs for English Learners Falls Short, Committee Says

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

The Bilingual Community Council delivered a pointed critique of the district's services for English language learners, saying many of the programs and practices the district claims to have in place are not being carried out in the classroom.

Reporting to the board meeting as the Committee of the Whole, the council said the district's ELL programs are ad hoc and disorganized, lack leadership and are plagued by inadequately trained teachers, insufficient staff and poor instructional materials. The council's report came after months of visiting elementary, middle and high schools.

As a result of a 1974 Supreme Court decision, the SFUSD is required to develop and monitor programs that provide meaningful education to English language learners. Its Lau Report, last published in 2005, is designed to document what the district is doing to comply.

But the community council was scathing in its appraisal of the report, saying much of what is written there is not actually being implemented in the schools.

There is no Spanish bilingual program at the high school level at all outside of Newcomer, where students stay only a limited time, council members said. Middle schools also have a marked lack of resources, they said.

Schools are operating without direction, each inventing its own way to deal with English language learners, according to community council members' reports. "This is a bus that doesn't have a driver," said council member Pete Cayeros. "I'm blown away by the energy, creativity and dedication of these people, but we just don't have a system in place, and the direction and the accountability and assessment to drive what's going on."

One of the biggest problems, council members said, is that programs teaching English language learners do not teach enough of the core curriculum.

Educator Luisa Esquero pointed to one type of instruction cited in the Lau Report called Native Language Content Courses,  in which student is supposed to receive instruction in core subjects like math, science, social studies and language arts, in their native tongue until they begin to gain proficiency in English.

"I'm sorry to say, but that's not what we have any more."

Staffing has been a systemic problem. Many of the teachers are not adequately credentialed. Council member May Huie said she'd been to several schools where teachers actually were credentialed to teach ESL, but didn't speak students' native language and had no paraprofessionals to help. Students in the class become, in effect, the teacher's assistant, she said.

"The schools are doing the best they can at the site level. But it's an overwhelming task," Council member Tina Alejo said. "I was at one school that had only one ESL teacher for all of its students, and a large number of (those) students coming in."

The council report also cited a serious lack of continuity among programs to serve English language learners. "Programs are deleted, added and changed, and it's not based on what's working or isn't working, it's based on staffing and budget needs," Huie said.

Huie said it was vital for the district to gather data and develop an assessment program that will give its leaders some idea which programs are failing and which are having the most effect. Based partly on the council's findings, the district has initiated an effort to work with the Information Technology and Multilingual departments in an effort to devise a data-gathering system, said Christina Hiroshima, staff liaison to the council.

Board members listened somberly to the council's assessment. Commissioner Eric Mar pointed out that some reports show the achievement gap between English language learners and native speakers widening in the district.

"We know we have issues in human resources, credentialing, facilities and content, tracking systems and assessment," board member Eddie Chin said. "We need to take the initiative to open up the dialogue between principals, IT, central office, HR, staff and the board to fully engage this issue."

Some board members cited the difficulty of finding bilingual teachers who were certified both to teach ELL and core curriculum subjects. "We simply don't have people coming out of college with these credentials," board member Mark Sanchez said, adding that retraining existing staff and offering financial incentives might be other ways to address the issue.

The board members called for making ELL a priority issue and developing better, ongoing communication with the council, which had not reported to the board in two years.

Candidate Forum 10.03.06

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

Fifteen candidates vying for three open seats on the Board of Education staked out their positions at a forum Tuesday hosted by the League of Women Voters in cooperation with Parents for Public Schools, San Francisco Education Foundation and San Francisco School Volunteers. The candidates are running for four-year positions on the seven-member board. The election will be held Tuesday, November 7.

The moderator posed four questions, and each candidate gave a one-minute answer. The questions concerned how the candidates would ensure quality teaching staff, close the achievement gap, revise the student assignment process and address the issue of school closures. They each had the opportunity to present a one-minute closing statement.

Following is a summary of each candidate's statement, along with their answers to some of the questions. The candidates are presented, as they were at the forum, in alphabetical order.

A full, videotaped version of the forum will be available on cable channels 26, 27 and 29 throughout the month of October. The video can also be ordered through the League's Web site starting Thursday.
      
Joel Britton
As the candidate the Socialist Workers Party, Joel Britton he offered a "revolutionary alternative" to education and said he would work to uphold the platforms of the party, such as abolishing the death penalty, defending a woman's right to chose, and pushing for the unconditional withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. In terms of school-related issues, Britton said he would fight to end the "denial of diplomas to thousands of high school youth on the basis of exit exam scores," uphold busing and battle against segregation.

Asked what he would do to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Britton said: "The high drop-out rate is symptom of racist oppression. ... Until there is a working class struggle to transform the social equation, this is going to be a symptom of this dog-eat-dog society."

Asked how he would reform school assignment policy, Britton said: "The Socialist Workers Party has a proud tradition of fighting against neighborhood schools and anti-busing movements (and) ending inequalities" in the school system.

James Calloway
James Calloway has a doctorate in education and has been professionally affiliated with SFUSD for 35 years, starting as teacher's assistant, then becoming a teacher and eventually a principal. He said his goal was to improve the quality of education for all SFUSD students, get more funding for the schools and be part of the process selecting a superintendent to lead the district in the years ahead.

Asked how he felt about school closures and what criteria should be used in determining whether to shutter a school, Calloway said he did not feel it was necessary to close more schools. "We have to figure out how to get more money from the state government, the federal government and maybe Prop. H funds."

Asked how he would reform school assignment policy, Calloway said: "I support neighborhood schools 110 percent. But what's more important is that all schools are good schools. As long as the schools are inferior, people are going to make choices that favor (over-enrolled) schools. If every school is a good school, the issue is taken care of."

Bayard F. Fong
Bayard Fong is a parent of three children in SFUSD and his wife has been a teacher and administrator for 23 years. Fong said he was dedicated to the cause of neighborhood schools. Having worked monitoring equal opportunity for the Human Rights Commission, Fong said he would bring the work he has done in civil rights to bear in shaping district policy.

In answer to the question of how to insure there was a quality teacher in every classroom, Fong said: "We need to insure teachers have the staff development they need to teach students from different cultural, different ethnic and different social backgrounds."

Asked how he would reform student assignment policy, Fong said: "Quality schools in every neighborhood - that is the answer.... We set a schedule of quality schools in every neighborhood by 2010. We say every year, we must make six schools better."
       
Dan Kelly
Incumbent Dan Kelly has served on the board for 16 years and has also been a public school parent, children's advocate and community pediatrician. "There is no question this district runs better and the children are taught better and the buildings are maintained better than they were 15 years ago. I'd like to believe I've had a part in that." Kelly said he has worked on the board to develop arts programs and Proposition H, nutrition programs, and policies that promote diversity, among other causes.

Asked about school closures, Kelly responded:  "It would be fiscally irresponsible not to close schools. We have 500 students in buildings for capacity of 1,500. Not only is not closing schools in such cases financially irresponsible, it gives the appearance of neglect and abandonment." He said the closures, however, should "make an even impact on all parts of the community."

Asked how he would revise student assignment, Kelly said: "Segregation has increased consistently since a court order was decided, I think erroneously, in 1999." Kelly said he appreciated the need for neighborhood schools, but said that needed to be balanced with "a weighted lottery for schools that are not ethnically and socioeconomic ally diverse. We need to create stronger programs in the south and east to relieve pressure on the west, and improve outreach to (minority communities) where most families are enrolling in March."
      
Omar Khalif
Omar Khalif serves as ombudsman for San Francisco's Juvenile Probation Department, has four children in SFUSD schools, and has served as chair of the district's Parent Advisory Council. Khalif said he would be a child-focused, parent-sensitive conciliator and would work to reform schools and reverse the cause of declining enrollment.

Asked how he would insure there was a quality teacher in every classroom, Khalif replied: "I think we need to bring a quality superintendent on board who has served in an urban district and has the experience we need" to lead the charge to hire qualified personnel.

Asked about his approach to school closures, Khalif said: "I do believe we will need to close schools," however, he called for ways to "lease out spaces to charter schools or artists and bring some revenue back to the district. And we must be clear on the criteria we are using."
      
Jane Kim
Jane Kim directs a youth leadership program for students in 11 public high schools, has served on the Proposition H Community Advisory Committee and advocated for youth and education. Kim said her priorities on the Board would be to bring more discretionary funding to the school district; to strengthen middle schools with small schools and support programs like tutoring and mentoring; and to implement after school programs for all.

Asked what she would do to insure a quality teacher in every classroom, Kim outlined three steps: "tracking students in our high schools to go into education in college and then return to the district;" supporting and encouraging the development of quality principals, and giving experienced teachers financial incentives to go into underperforming schools.

Asked how she would reform student assignment, Kim said: "We're not capping enrollment at the most popular schools, which is causing others to be under enrolled." She suggested popular programs, such as some of those at Clarendon, which has three separate programs, be moved to less popular schools. "We also need a two-year plan. We can't be closing schools three to six months before (the closures) go into effect."
      
Kimberley Knox
Kimberley Knox has been an education activist for 20 years, mentored 82 SFUSD high school students and was named mentor of the year. Knox said she believed the district has amazing potential and is full of outstanding, little-known schools. She said she would work to better market the schools, bridge the achievement gap and reduce the dropout rate. She noted that, "94 percent of murder victims under 24 in this city were dropouts."

Asked how she would insure a quality teacher in every classroom, Knox said: "We need more professional development days. Early childhood educators don't have any professional development days. Our other professionals have five days - the lowest number in California. We need to work so we can afford seven days of professional development" as well as "offer a premium to experienced teachers to come into our struggling schools."

Regarding school closures, Knox said a big problem is outreach to minority communities that tend not to participate in the lottery. "We need to move enrollment to March and spend January to March working on outreach. We also need to market the hidden gems in our system and relieve pressure on the seven most-requested schools."
      
Hydra Mendoza
Public school parent Hydra Mendoza currently serves as Mayor Gavin Newsom's education advisor and liaison. She is the former executive director of Parents for Public Schools and has also worked on the PTA and a number of policy committees for the district. Mendoza said she was dedicating to working for equal educational opportunities for all. "It takes more than passion (to improve the schools). It takes experience, and I have that experience."

Asked how she would approach the issue of school closures, Mendoza said that some closures were "probably inevitable." She said she would push for adequate funding from the state and try to be more proactive in recruiting families to under-enrolled schools. She also cited the need to improve the process and phase out closing schools rather than make the decision months ahead of shutting the facilities.

Asked how she would reform student assignment, Mendoza agreed the district needed to find a balance between neighborhood schools and parental choice. "We have a lot of desirable schools," and should market those more effectively. "The current system is probably the best system we've had so far," she said, citing problems with fraud with earlier systems.
      
Kim-Shree Maufus
Kim-Shree Maufus, who is finishing her master's degree in business administration in finance, is the mother of a public high school student and has been active in advocating parent concerns before the board. "It is parents working with teachers and the community that is going to be the answer. No more finger-pointing. No more fighting among ourselves."

Asked how she would insure a quality teacher in every classroom, Maufus advocated recruiting students and encouraging them to become future teachers in the district. "We should use the San Francisco school district as a teacher academy." She also called for "incentives for qualified teachers to come here, and more professional development, both in (terms of) California standards sense and cultural sensitivity."

Asked how she would revise student assignment, Maufus said: "Student assignment has been reformed over and over, and it's still under construction. If we don't go out and educate parents about the process, it's not going to change. Poor, black and brown families are not applying until the third and fourth rounds and by that point, their choices aren't available. The criteria we have are great, but families don't know about them."
      
Wilma Pang
Wilma Pang has been involved in education for 30 years in various capacities, including teaching music, ESL and conversational Chinese at City College of San Francisco. She is the founder and co-chair of ABCT (A Better Chinatown Tomorrow). Pang said her priorities included arts and neighborhood schools. "I'm very excited about the Arts Education Master Plan. .. Now I feel that whether I'm elected or not, I really want to be involved."

Asked what she would do to insure a quality teacher in every classroom, Pang said: "What is a quality teacher? Teaching disadvantaged students is very different from teaching academically inclined students.... It depends on the school the teacher is teaching at. Teachers should be selected based on students' needs."

Asked what she would do to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Pang said she believed arts were the answer. She said it was difficult for better-educated white and Chinese teachers to understand how to teach to disadvantaged kids and that art reached kids who didn't have strong academic inclinations.
      
Roger Schulke
Roger Schulke has a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MBA in finance from Golden Gate University. Schulke says he wants to ensure children get a high-quality education with neighborhood schools. "We need to get back to the basics. If basics got a man on moon, why do we have kids graduating who can't write their name? There is too much politics and not enough education."

Asked what he would do to insure a quality teacher in every classroom, Schulke said a bigger problem was students disrupting the classroom. "We have to have a better way of sorting students so we don't have ... a student with a 150 I.Q. dealing with a student with a 50 I.Q. who is disrupting the class."

Asked what he would do to reform student assignment, Schulke said: "I walked to school and my dad walked to school. ... It's ridiculous to have kids bused all over. They spend more time on buses than on studying English and math combined. We need to improve neighborhood schools, not bus kids all over."
      
Robert M. Twomey
Robert Twomey is a native San Franciscan and SFUSD parent who has worked on school site councils and the PTA. "We need to show dignity and respect to every member of our district. If we have that as an overlying ethic, we'll get where we want to go."

Asked what he would do to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Twomey said: "I think we need to start at pre-K right up through high school, and keep them engaged from 7 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon." He said the curriculum needed to include areas like mechanics and applied science that would engage student's interest even if they were not drawn to an academic curriculum.

Asked what he would do to reform student assignment, Twomey said, "I will do everything I can not to resegregate the school system. There has to be a way to balance the need for neighborhood schools with a school environment that is diverse, because that is the way society is."
      
Boots Whitmer
Boots Whitmer has been a public school parent for 16 years and served on school site councils at Presidio, Lowell and Washington. She was prompted to run, she said, by her "outrage" over the allocation of Proposition H funds, which were approved by voters for sports, library, arts and music (SLAM). "Those funds were banked, and the decision of how to spend them was given to committee of mostly non-stakeholders. (Some funds) were used to close the budget gap. The distribution of those funds has been a travesty, and that's what I want to remedy."

Asked what could be done to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Whitmer said:  "We need to look at each child individually, because there's not just one approach." She called for "a SWAT team of teacher, social worker, nurse and counselor" who could come in and work with each struggling student. "The problem is best solved child by child."

Asked how she would reform the current student assignment process, Whitmer said: "I wouldn't reform it. I would dump it. The current system is a complete disaster. It is a source of greater unhappiness than any other single policy in the district." Whitmer suggested returning to the previous system of neighborhood schools, with a few alternate, "at-large" schools that those who didn't choose their neighborhood school could attend.

Richard Van Loon
Richard Van Loon is a public school parent who is frustrated by what he calls the low quality education at SFUSD and an excessive emphasis on political issues on the board. "Will the board be part of the solution, or continue to contribute to family flight by injecting there personal political views into the debate and policy?" Van Loon said he would work to "bring the board's focus away from politics and back to quality education and strong neighborhood schools."

Asked what he would do to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Van Loon said: "I'm in favor of anything that can close that gap. I'm in favor of Dream Schools and especially small schools by design, which have been shown to lower the drop-out rate and close the achievement gap." He said he also supported strengthening tutoring, mentoring and after-school programs.

Asked how he would reform student assignment, Van Loon said the diversity index had not been successful. "We can't expect parents to be happy with perfect diversity yet lower-performing schools. When school performance improves, schools will naturally diversify."

Mauricio Vela
Mauricio Vela has spent 22 years in nonprofit service, and worked as a youth and community advocate through organizations such as Coleman Advocates for Youth and the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, where he served as director. "Underperforming schools and students are my priority. I also support fair compensation for our workers and the need to find a good superintendent who respects all the stakeholders."

Asked what he would do to improve the performance of African-American students and close the achievement gap, Vela said, "I entered the race because this is a priority issue for me. For 30 years we've been trying to solve this problem and failed." Vela said the district needed to focus on the needs of underperforming communities, specifically African-American, Latino and Samoan. Curriculum that engages these students more specifically might be one approach. "Things like ethnic studies - that's how I got engaged and involved."

Asked what he would do to reform the student assignment process, Vela said: "We need to bring race back into student assignment. The current system is wrong and doesn't reflect the city's diversity.... I also support outreach, especially in low-income communities."