School Board Notes 1.9.2007

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• New Members Take Seats, Yee Joins By Phone
• Sanchez Lays Out Policy Goals
• Bayview Dream Schools Reconfigured
• Bus Drivers Slapped with Health Cost Hike

New Members Take Seats, Yee Joins By Phone

The first board meeting of 2007 began with three brand new members — Hydra Mendoza, Kim-Shree Maufus and Jane Kim — and one empty seat, that of 2006 Board President Norman Yee, who is in the hospital after being hit by a car on December 26.

Yee was hit while crossing the street at Fourth and Bryant streets. He in stable condition after two spinal surgeries and is "in good spirits," according to a statement from him read by Commissioner Jill Wynns. Yee participated briefly in the meeting, speaking by phone from his hospital bed, to nominate Commissioner Mark Sanchez as president. Yee was elected as vice president.

Sanchez Lays Out Policy Goals

After his nomination was unanimously approved, Sanchez laid out his list of priorities. They included:

• "Focus on the neediest... The ones that haven't been part of the success story." African-American students in particular, he said, had shown a marked lack of progress over the last few years, and the district needed to determine ways to address that.
• Implement more "small schools by design," facilities with small student bodies and a focus on personalized learning.
• Look at student assignment not only to desegregate the school system, but the schools themselves. "Some of these schools may look integrated by the numbers, but if you look in the classroom, it's totally divided by race," he said. "If we're going to integrate, we need real integration and not the apartheid that's existing right now."
• Look at getting board members compensated so they can "do the job (they) need to do." Currently, board members get paid $500 a month. Most hold full-time jobs in addition to board service, which, Sanchez admitted, doesn't always leave time to fully research the issues before them.
• Add committees, such as a personnel committee to work on the search for a new superintendent and a labor committee to work with bargaining units and attempt to avoid conflicts such as those that almost provoked teacher and employee strikes last year.
• Start meetings earlier and end them earlier. He proposed beginning the meetings at 6 p.m. and shifting closed session meetings to a different day so the regular meetings start on time.

Bayview Dream Schools Reconfigured

The board voted to

• Keep Charles Drew as a K-3 academy
• Change Willie Brown from a 4-6 to a 4-8 school
• Close Gloria R. Davis (currently a 7-9 school) or move it to an alternate location, where it would become a 9-12 school

The board heard public testimony from Davis supporters — as well as impassioned outbursts from the audience, which included over a dozen uniformed members of the Gloria R. Davis marching band. Community members spoke of the success and impact of the Dream Schools, special programs designed to serve under-performing communities with longer hours and Saturday sessions, uniforms and a rigorous academic curriculum to push students to succeed. Community members also spoke about the importance of continuing to have a high school within the Bayview community, and urged the district to establish Gloria R. Davis as a separate academy housed at nearby Thurgood Marshall High School.

Board members supported the idea, directing staff to explore how it might be achieved and find out how many students would chose that option over going to other high schools. In the meantime, so the students can participate in the Round 1 enrollment lottery January 19, the board voted to give Davis students their first choice of high schools for 2007-08. If students wish to apply to Lowell, they can still be considered (the deadline was in December), although they would have to meet the school's academic standards.

Bus Drivers Slapped With Health Cost Hike

A week before Christmas vacation, the district's school bus drivers were told they would be facing increases in health insurance costs of up to 500 percent when school started again in January. For a family with children, the cost deducted from employees' paychecks soared from about $60 to $450, said school bus driver Brock Estes. The bus drivers believe the last-minute notice about the increase violates their contract. Estes said Laidlaw, the company that employs the drivers, has refused to expedite arbitration, which means it could take eight to 10 months for the issue to be settled, and the money will continue to be deducted from employees' pay.

Although the district contracts with Laidlaw for transportation services and has limited ability to influence the issue, Estes urged the board to ask Laidlaw to expedite arbitration and settle the issue quickly. The San Francisco bus drivers have an outstanding safety record, Estes pointed out at a previous meeting: Each year, about 75 children are killed on, entering or exiting school buses. "The rate for San Francisco over the last 35 years we've been providing bus service is zero."