Mission Beats Lowell, Lincoln Beats Wallenberg in OT (edit this)
Let me tell you a Cinderella story in boys basketball.
One of the smallest high schools within SFUSD with a coach who has only been coaching for two years beats the largest and best funded SFUSD high school with a score of 68-56. The team is filled with seniors who remember getting into the City Championship to be defeated by the district’s largest and better funded high school.
The small high school? Mission High School with an approved 07-08 budget of $5,820,908 with 864 students. This is the 2006-07 enrollment as reported by the CA Dept. of Education, link to the info .
The District’s largest high school? Lowell High School who is the two-time City Champion Boys Basketeball. Its approved 07-08 budget is $12,186,096 with 2,671 students (2006-07 enrollment as reported by CA Dept. of Education).
As the District’s largest high school as well as magnet school for academics, Lowell also has the most active alumni association. (And I applaud their alumni in supporting their alma mater. All schools should have such an active support.) According to a recent District Document, Lowell Alumni along with its PTSA funds more than 20 positions (English and World Languages) at Lowell as well as an additional $1.5 million for the school’s budget (Link ) Mission has the resources to only offer one world language: Spanish.
In order to win the City title last year, Lowell beat Mission. Mission remembered that game and vowed to not repeat it.
Kudos to Coach Steele and his great team of Demaree Hamption, Harry Howard, Grant Thomas, Jordan Pusang, and Ronnell Foster! Well Done, Bears! (And good job, Cardinals in keeping the game exciting!)
It took an overtime for powerhouse Lincoln to beat the Wallenberg Bulldogs, another small school with a great basketball coach. Victor Chew converted a full layout to tie the game to 49-49. The Mustangs was able to win the game in overtime with a nail-bitting 58-57.
Well Done, Mustangs! (And good job, Bulldogs and the Wizard of Vega Street!)
February 1st, 2008 at 2:53 am e
Lowell is NOT the “best funded SFUSD high school.” In fact, it receives less per-pupil funding than any other public high school. It is the worst funded SFUSD high school. I believe you’ve been told that before, Kim. Several times before, in fact. When it’s going to sink in, I have no idea.
By all means congratulations to Mission for its victory, but that victory need not be bolstered by deliberate factual errors planted for the sake of a Cinderella story.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:01 am e
Kim, I wonder when you’re planning on joining the rest of us over in the reality-based community.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:42 am e
I’m afraid Will is right, Kim. In 2006-07 (the most recent year for which figures have been posted), Lowell received $12,114,975, or $4546.97 per student for its 2671 students, even including nearly $400,000 from the PTA. Mission, on the other hand, received $5659,701, or $6550.57 per student for its 864 students (that’s 44% more than Lowell received per student.)
To find out how much money was allocated to each school, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/vjly8
Find the school you want, then click on “history” and select 2006-07 profile; note the enrollment given near the top, then scroll down to the end of the profile and click the link for “fiscal profile.” Here you can see all of the funding the school received that year. Divide the total by the number of students enrolled.
I don’t think anyone would question the fact that Lowell enrolls less students qualified for free lunch, or has a more active PTA and alumni association to help them raise additional funds. And certainly Mission serves a population which is more challenging, and therefore more expensive, to educate.
But that isn’t what you claimed - you claimed Lowell was the “best funded” SFUSD high school, when in reality it is among the lowest funded, with Mission among the highest. Do the math and don’t just bash based on your own personal prejudices.
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am e
The small high school? Mission High School with its 2007-08 approved budget of $5,820,908 with 864 students. This is the 2006-07 enrollment as reported by the CA Dept. of Education, link to the info .
The District’s largest high school? Lowell High School who is the two-time City Champion Boys Basketeball. Its 2006-07 approved budget is $12,186,096 with 2,671 students (2006-07 enrollment as reported by CA Dept. of Education).
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am e
As the District’s largest high school as well as magnet school for academics, Lowell also has the most active alumni association. (And I applaud their alumni in supporting their alma mater. All schools should have such an active support.) According to a recent District Document, Lowell Alumni along with its PTSA funds more than 20 positions (English and World Languages) at Lowell as well as an additional $1.5 million for the school’s budget (Link ) Mission has the resources to only offer one world language: Spanish.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm e
This still does not make Lowell the “best funded” high school in the district, Kim. Since the amount of funding a school receives is based in part on the nnumber of students they serve, it is moronic to try to claim that Lowell, which enrolls more than 3 times the number of students that Mission does, is “better funded” just because they get more money than Mission. Of course they get more money - they enroll more students! It is how much they receive PER STUDENT that matters, not the total budget.
And I am not disputing that your story is a good one - the Mission beats Lowell story is always of interest, just as it was of interest when Balboa beat Lowell at the city Mock Trial competition a couple of years ago. You don’t need to try to make the story better by claiming that Lowell is also better funded (because they aren’t.) It is enough that they are Goliath to Mission’s David.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 pm e
What about the racial breakdowns of these basketball teams?
I saw the mightly Galileo Lions play Burton a while back. Galileo had at least four African-Americans on the team. Yet African-Americans are only about 8% of the school’s population. Isn’t this unfair to the Asian-Americans who constitute most of the student body?
Or was the school merely trying to put the best possible team on the court?
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm e
Other than that, I am elated as well every time Lowell loses anything.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm e
Kim, your point about the inequity of private fundraising is valid. That’s why the PTA emphasizes that it’s NOT a fundraising organization, because its more crucial role is to advocate for adequate funding for all schools.
However, SFUSD’s funding structure does work to provide more funding for students with higher needs, which is why Mission gets considerably more funding per student than Lowell does.
Based on your intriguingly creative methodology, an Francisco schools are far better funded then Atherton schools, because after all, the SFUSD budget is bigger.
And again, while the private-funding disparity is definitely a valid issue to raise, larger schools are inherently able to offer more choices in such areas as world language, other electives, and AP classes. Some of SFUSD’s K-8s are wildly successful fundraisers, but their middle-school grades offer fewer electives and similar options than far-less-privileged larger schools such as Aptos. That’s because (say) Rooftop’s sixth grade is much smaller than Aptos’, so Rooftop can’t offer the spectrum of electives (Aptos has full band, full orchestra, visual arts, drama and, soon, choir). It’s the population of the school that allows that.
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm e
Nakayama, shouldn’t the teams be expected to represent the ethnic breakdown of the entire district? At least I think that’s Kim’s usual standard. So each school’s team would have to have exactly the same ethnic breakdown. (I guess it’s still to be worked out whether the ethnic breakdowns on the field vs. the bench would be subject to these requirements.)