With a vote of 7-0, the SF School Board voted to close Treasure Island at the end of the winter quarter on Dec. 15. All (but one) speaker came up with a heavy heart to recommend closing the school.

Treasure Island was once a K-8 school. Many of the students came from formerly homeless families that found housing in one of the many shelters on the island. But when it faced the school closure list last spring, it emerged as K-6 “Dream School.” With only four teachers (one of whom was a substitute), a principal and a janitor, it was run without the promised added resources of a Dream School. One parent told the Board that the promised counselor came only three weeks ago-well into the school year. The fifth grade was taught by a succession of substitutes.

At the Meeting of the Whole on School Closures, the BOE was given statistics and facts for the 19 schools that were on the school closure list. At the Buildings and Grounds Committee yesterday, Commissioners Sanchez also asked for information on SOTA for a possible move to another location. Sanchez pointed out that SOTA has one of the largest campus-and is only utilitizing 51%.

Commissioner Mar noted that of the seven top ranking schools on the closure list that the District had created, 2 were in the Western Addition and 5 were in the Bayview/Potrero/Hunters Point. So Mar suggested that the District look at closely Peabody located in District 1 along with Cabrillo.

Today at the Meeting of the Whole on School Closures, the District staff presented several ideas for mergers:
1. Merge Daniel Webster Elementary School and Starr King Elementary School on the Starr King site
2. Merge John Swett ES and John Muir ES at the John Muir site
3. Merge International Studies Academy (a high school) with Enola Maxwell Middle School to create a 6-12 school in Portrero at Enola Maxwell’s campus.
4. Merge JBBP West with Cabrillo at the Cabrillo Site or merge JBBP West at Rosa Parks. There appear to be more support to merger JBBP West with Cabrillo.
5. Merge New Traditions ES with Grattan ES at the Grattan school site
6. Move Newcomer alone or with Newcomer School with Everett’s and Francisco’s newcomer programs to the Edison School Site at 18th and Dolores. There was also some discussion at looking at high schools that are have capacity to fit Newcomer H.S.
7. Close Burbank MS and put Aim High (6-12) and June Jordan School for Equity (9-12) on the Burbank campus.
8. Merge Willie Brown Academy (4-6) with Gloria R. Davis Middle School (7-9) at the Gloria Davis Site.

Commissioners Mar, Sanchez and Yee suggested that the idea of Ortega merging with Sheridan at the Sheridan site should be explored. The SFUSD administration was reluctant, due to the combined size of both schools would overwhelm Sheridan’s campus.

The District also release a list of the schools that they were recommending on closing in ranking order:

Enola Maxwell (District 10)
Treasure Island (already closed as of 12/6 and in District 6)
Gloria R. Davis (District 10)
Willie Brown Academy (District 10)
Malcolm X Academy (District 10)
Rosa Parks ES (District 5)
Luther Burbank MS (District 11)
John Swett ES (District 5)
Chinese Education Center (District 4)
Newcomer High School (District 2)
John Muir ES (District 5)
Aim High (District 5)
Starr King ES (District 10)
Jose Ortega ES (District 10)
Cabrillo ES (District 1)
New Traditions ES (District 5)
Sheridan ES (District 10)
June Jordan School for Equity (District 10)
McKinley ES (District 8 )

Only Commissioners Mar, Lipson and Sanchez were the ones to remark on how many of the above schools are in the Western Addition and District 10 (Potrero/Hunters Point/Bayview). They were also the only ones to try and identify schools in other parts of the City-in order to redistribute the impact of the schools closing.

The BOE decided to look over the figures and come back with a resolution for their regular board meeting on Dec. 13.