School Board Notes 5.22.07

By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

• District Names First "Small Schools"
• Getting Youth Out to Vote
• Teachers Want Deal by End of Year

District Names First "Small Schools"

The first two schools to participate in the district's small schools initiative will be San Francisco Community School (a K–8 school) and June Jordan High School, Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan announced at the school board meeting Tuesday night. Several schools had applied for the program, said Chan. The selected schools will have more site autonomy, different governance structures, and different evaluation and budgeting procedures from other schools in the district, in an effort to allow them to develop as models of small schools by design. The small schools program seeks to foster student achievement through limiting schools size and offering more customized instruction.

Getting Youth Out to Vote

How to get youth excited and interested in the voting process was a main issue of policy discussed at Tuesday night's meeting. One resolution — introduced for first reading and directed to committee — seeks to adopt a YouthVote curriculum that would educate students about voting and upcoming election issues.

The YouthVote initiative provides for a certain number of days of instruction in voting, as well as discussion about the politicians and issues involved in ensuing elections. The district would hold mock elections to correspond to real ones; students would be able to cast their vote on the delegates, candidates and propositions up for decision. Several members of the Student Advisory Council registered some concerns with the proposal, including that it called for two rather than three days of instruction per year. The proposal was sent to the Curriculum Committee for further discussion.

The board unanimously passed a resolution proposed by the Student Advisory Council that would, in part, seek to increase the number of schools represented. Student delegates to the board have often come from two or three star high schools. The resolution calls for at least one interim delegate to be elected from a school that has not been represented by student delegates for at least three years. The interim delegates will serve from July until November, when the results of student elections are announced.

Teachers Want Deal by End of Year

Members of the teachers union turned out again to press the board for agreement on a contract by the end of the school year, a move that would herald a new era for district-labor relations, according to union representatives. Union leader Dennis Kelly asked the district to put some of the 4.53 percent cost-of-living increase in funds from the state toward salary increases. "We've been bargaining since February 1, and the district has yet to put a single dime on the table," he said. He urged the district to make good on a pledge to bring a compensation package to the table at a meeting on Thursday. "We want to start next year with a contract settled and harmony in this district."