“It’s not a recipe for success when you have a 11 year old girl going to school with 17 to 18 year old boys.” Parent Liasion, Enola Maxwell MS

“Are you all (the School District) only thinking about the money or are you thinking about the kids?” Student from Willie L. Brown Academy

“Small schools are better for students.” Chris Rosenberg, Starr King’s principal

The meeting to talk about closure of seven schools in District 10 was much low-key.

It could have been the day and hour that the District choose for this meeting-7 p.m. on a Friday. But only 80 people came to the District’s meeting to talk about school closure/mergers of Starr King, Daniel Webster, International Studies Academy (ISA-the district’s smallest high school), Enola Maxwell Middle School, Malcolm X Academy (an elementary school), Willie L. Brown Academy (3-5th) and Gloria Davis Middle School.

The district was represented by Mary Richards from Instructional Support Office (and former principal of Lillenthal) and Frank Tom, assistant superintendent for high schools. The district also had Chris Hayashi: Lorno Ho, director of public engagement; Jennie Kong, ISO; Linda Luvenano, ISO, and Kenny Saline, Superintendent’s Office and Broad Foundation fellow.

Also in attendance was BOE President Eric Mar, Commissioner Mark Sanchez, Commissioner Sarah Lipson, Commissoner Norman Yee, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, former Mayor Art Agnos (who was a leader in the “Save Daniel Webster” group) and former Mayor Willie L. Brown.

Frank Tom read the slides perfunctionary. But he did emphasized the role of declining enrollment by pointing out that in 1967-68, the district had over 90,000 students and currently, the district has 57,000 students.

He also announced that the district had moved the deadline for Round 1 enrollment for parents who were part of impacted schools to two weeks after Jan. 13. (He didn’t mention a specific date.)

Starr King was up first-and only had three speakers. A parent with three Starr King graduate and who still volunteers from the school noted that the Childcare Planning Commission shows that there are over 700 0-6 year olds in Potrero Hill and that the neighborhood can support two thriving selementary schools. She also talked about the need for small schools-especially since Starr King is located across the street from the Potrero Hill Housing Projects. Many of the students need special attention in order for them to bridge the achievement gap of the District’s other students.

She also pointed out that the only pre-school in Potrero HJill is at Starr King-and what the district has announced (but didn’t put in the handout) that they would be evicting the preschool from Starr King to make room for the Daniel Webster students.

Another parent came up and talked about the years of work that parents and the community had invested in the Mandarin Immersion program scheduled to be open in the fall of 2006 at Starr King. He pointed out that the program needs time and room to grow-something that wouldn’t occur with 250 more students arriving at the door.

Finally, Chris Rosenberg, principal of Starr King came up. He noted that he was in a precarious position in speaking. But he continued by stating that the community needs to work on increasing funding for education.
The lack of funding created a terrible situation for both the District and the Board to make as many successful schools for the many successful students that could be in San Francisco, he stated.

Rosenberg stated that he would welcome the 250 students from Daniel Webster. But he noted that small schools are better for students.

Daniel Webster Elementary School had two groups-a group of mainly white, middle class parents of toddlers and a diverse group of parents with children already enrolled in the school.

Sophie Maxwell started the testimony for Daniel Webster. She pointed out that she was talking for all schools listed to be closed. “We have more students than almost any other District and yet we have more schools on the closure list.” She felt that the District should create a reasonable process. She wonderfed why the community schools were moved to the SOTA campus where they could get counseling and services that they needed. She wondered why SOTA could be moved to Enola Maxwell, so it could become a 6-12 High School of the Arts. But she told the School Board that District 10 was not willing to take “just anything” but wanted to be part of the process in determining their future.

Patricia Bailey, the outstanding parent liasion to Daniel Webster, said
that Webster occupies 79% of the building and has 271 students-so it doesn’t meet the criteria that the District had created for the schools on the closure list.

Several parents said that while Starr King is an excellent school, it is in an area where drugs are being dealt and prostitution is visible. One parent gave the District 117 letters from parents stating that they didn’t want Daniel Webster to close and that they would take their child to a different school if they transfer him to Starr King.

One of the leaders for the parents with toddlers said that they had begun working with Daniel Webster because they liked the administration and teachers. But suddenly the District put Daniel Webster on the closure list. She said that the group would work together to raise whatever funds the District needed to keep Daniel Webster opened.

Mike Lin stated that there is 20,000 housing units scheduled to be opened in Potrero/Mission Bay in the next 10 years. Currently, Potrero Hill has a population of 10,000 and its population is scheduled to triple in 10 years.

Malcolm X always has eloquent speakers-and they talked about the need to create a community to raise successful scholars. One of the most outstanding was Ms. Miles, the outstanding parent liasion (featured in the Chronicle). She talked how Malcolm X was on the school closure list and that the parents had fought back to get it off the closure list. She recounted how excited and motivated the parents were with that success-and how it has funnel the successes over the last year. Mrs. Miles reminded the School Board that empowered parents create empowered students. So she asked that the Board continue its promise-and not close Malcolm X Academy-”So we may move forward.”

Enola Maxwell’s speakers were centered on the students’ safety. The parent liasion for Maxwell pointed out, “It’s not a recipe of success to have 11 year old girls with 17 to 18 year old boys.” So he proposed that the District create a K-8 elementary school by combing Webster and Starr King and bringing them to the Maxwell campus. He stated that the school could a K-8 school for the performing arts and act as a feeder school to SOTA.

He pointed out that many ISA students went to Enola Maxwell Middle Schools. He got the night’s biggest laugh by stating, “They will be thinking, ‘I’ve got to go back to my Middle School in order to graduate.’”

Taylor White, a student from Maxwell also pointed out the dangers of having 11 to 12 years on the same campus to 17 to 18 year men (and even older with the Special Education classes). She got the second biggest laugh with “I am not saying ISA is a bad school, because my sister wouldn’t go there if it was.”

ISA speakers spoke about the tradition of ISA. It was created to offer students different languages-as well as field trips to different countries. It has a Alumni Association as well as several traditions. Verna Castro, coach at ISA, pointed out the practical-ISA just invested $15,000 in uniforms with the name “ISA” emblazed on them.

One of the students quoted the district’s website. He said, “The District has 10 core beliefs-and one of them is ‘Children come first.’ The website further defines this core belief as not just words on paper but a commitment that all decisions be based on this belief.”

Another parent pointed out the chilling fact that there hasn’t been any successful models of a 6-12th school at SFUSD.

Gloria Davis had only three speakers-two were sister and brothers. They pointed out that when you are closing schools in the District, you will get more students who won’t be willing to cross rival turf areas-and risk their lives. So you will have more pre-teens and teenagers hanging out in the streets-which escalate the violence.

Willie Brown Academy was last. Former Mayor Brown had already left-but he would have been pleased with their presentation. Derrick Toliver spoke about how the District has changed Brown/21st Century three times in the last four years. He stated that the District now centers its enrollment on incoming K, 6th and 9th grade. If students from Willie Brown/Gloria Davis students enter into the system at 3rd (starting grade from Willie Brown) and 8th (starting grade from Gloria R. Davis), the schools won’t attract the number of students that they need.

But Willie Brown Academy’s best speaker was a parent who prefaced with her remarks to the District with “I am going to be real with you and break it down.” She pointed out that all of the schools with a large number of African American students are on the closure list. She said, “You are setting these kids up for farilure and structuring the system so they can’t progress. You should be talking to the parents and the community instead of sitting in the Board Meeetings with those closed doors.”

She then spoke to the crowd and said, “If they close our schools, then on the first day of school, send your kids down to the District Office so they can see that they are losing money. And we will educate our own children-as we always have.”

Art Agnos was the last speaker. He said, “All good mayors know that schools are very important part of the community. You should involve the City-with a $5 billion budget, they can find $4 million to stop school closures. You need to work with City officials to keep strong schools in our community.” Supervisor Maxwell was applauding his remarks and shaking her hand in agreement.

So we have one vote. All we need is five more.