Special Meeting on School and Program Relocations (edit this)
With only 25 hours notice, the Board of Education called a special meeting on discussion of school and program relocations on Wednesday, May 10. Only 18 people were able to come out to the meeting. All but four were there to protest the relocation of Newcomer to Mission.
Chris Hayashi then did a presentation on the projected cost savings of $2.9 million over 18 months to the District with the proposed program and school moves. She also stated that any change in Newcomer’s relocation
would create a domino effect on the program relocations.
The discussion first centered on Erikson, a nonpublic school housed at 1155 Page to serve emotionally distrubed children. Deborah McKnight explained that the school’s emphasis is on students in middle grades (3rd through 5th) students and the mission of the school is to mainstream the students back into the classroom. Approximately 65%of the students are involved in foster care, while the remaining live in single-family households. Approximately 40% have been in either in-patient hospitals or level 14 residential placements.
The District is proposing to move Erikson from a district property (the former Florence Martin Child Care Development Center) at 1155 Page to Cabrillo Elementary School for a projected savings of $400,000. The per diem cost to SFUSD would be reduced from $170 per student to $110 per student due to reduced occupancy costs. Approximately 10-20 additional students (one additional classroom) would also be able to be served.
Newcomer had been slated to move to Cabrillo after Edison Charter School filed a suit against the District moving them out of their site. So the Commissioners discussed the possibility of moving Erikson to Treasure Island Elementary School. The director of Erikson emphasized that these students do not like public transportation. Currently, only one student at Erikson is scheduled to take a school bus to school-but refuses to use it. Deborah McKnight further emphasized that point to the Commissioners by stating that most of these students have attended 12 schools (the students are from third to fifth grade) by the time that they are referred to Erikson.
Through Commissioner Kelly’s questions, the savings with the Erikson’s move centered on that the District would not charge Erikson rent for using Cabrillo (but are charging Erikson rent now for using the former Florence Martin Child development center at 1155 Page) and that approximately 10 students who were currently going to other nonpublic schools at a higher cost would be able to attend Erikson. The director at Erikson had noted that she had requested a move to the Golden Gate Annex, which is currently empty. David Goldin, Director of Facilities noted that the Golden Gate Annex was empty since it did not currently meet the State’s Field Act.
The Commissioners then discussed the move to Community Scholars of Success (CSOS), Phoenix and Real Alternatives Program (RAP) which are all community schools serving high school students to John Swett Elementary School. The estimated savings was $650,000 which included rental of 1950 Mission (where Phoenix is currently housed) to the San Francisco Police Department. District staff noted that by moving RAP out of its current location at Hilltop (which serves pregnant students and students with newborns), the District would able to increase its funding from Average Daily Attendance by expanding Hilltop.
CSOS is located at the Southeast Community College’s Campus at 1800 Oakdale (Phelps). Deborah Sims stated that they were moving CSOS at the request of City College who wants to use CSOS’ two classroom. Commissioner Sanchez noted that the District’s agreement with City College includes space at its campus on Evans (approximately a mile from their Oakdale campus). The District agreed to talking to City College about the possibility of moving CSOS to City College’s Evans Campus.
The Board of Education then discussed the move of Leadership to Newcomer. Currently, SFUSD is negotiations with the District to stay at their current location at 300 Seneca. The site at 300 Seneca does not meet the requirements of the Field Act, so a letter of agreement is being developed.
The Board listened to testimony of the public who protested the move of Newcomer HS (which serves immigrant high school students during their first year at SFUSD) to Mission High School. Some of the speakers were concerned that this was a move by the District to eventually merge Newcomer into Mission and combine the programs for further savings. Others felt that the District had not adequately created a long range plan to figure out the details such as providing lunch to two schools (Mission has 800 students and Newcomer has 400 students) with one cafeteria. Others also pointed out that Newcomer would get half of the number of classrooms that they currently have at their site in Pacific Heights.
The District showed that there would be a savings of $1,027,500 over a 18 month period of time. CCSF has agreed to 18 month lease and $700,000 of that amount (for one year) is already calculated as savings for 06-07 School Budget.
Commissioner Kelly asked about the wall being proposed to divide the two schools on the Mission campus. Assistant Superintendent Tom said that the wall was a result of an initial conversation with the staff at Mission. Currently, none of the District’s plans include a wall that would divide Mission from Newcomer. The District also stated that they plan to have Newcomer at Mission for one year and then move them to the Edison Campus in the event that the suit that Edison Charter School has filed has ended to the favor of the District.
City College has agreed to rent the former DeAvila site with AIM High moving to the Luther Burbank Campus. The savings with the move and the rental of the DeAvila Campus would result in $865,000 in revenues. Commissioner Sanchez again noted that AIM High’s Board of Directors have voted to severe ties with the District at the end of the school year. The principal and a good number of the teachers will also not be returning to the school at the end of the year. District staff noted that by putting AIM High on the same campus as June Jordan, they will be able to see if placing several small schools by design on the same campus will allow the District to find cost savings while still supporting the small schools by design concept.
At 8 p.m., the meeting was adjourned and the Commissioners went into a closed Board meeting on school assignment.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:44 am e
I asked an insider about the apparently insufficient notice. The rush
was reportedly due to the fact that Norman Yee wanted to attend his
daughter’s college graduation and scheduled the meeting (it’s his
responsibility as BOE president) around that.
Regarding Edison Schools Inc.’s threat to sue SFUSD, it needs to be
emphasized that Edison Charter Academy is NOT an SFUSD-run school but
a rent-paying tenant in an SFUSD property. Its threat resulted in the
need to find another site for Newcomer, and is just another example of
Edison’s and the charter school movement’s harmful and exploitive
effects on public schools and kids. (By the way, I noticed in two
separate places recently the principal of Aim High praising Edison
Charter Academy and describing himself as a leftist. This made me
wonder what planet he’s on.)
A couple of corrections here: >>
It should say “…the move of Leaderhsip to Balboa. Currently,
Leadership is in negotiations with the District to stay at their
current location…”
As the site doesn’t meet the requirements of the Field Act, what
Leadership needs to do is sign a waiver accepting that and holding the
district not liable. That waiver needs to be approved by the state.
May 14th, 2006 at 3:42 pm e
Kim, I previously responded to this on the assumption that your charge of insufficient notice was accurate, because I heard that Norman was frantically trying to arrange the schedule around getting to his daughter’s college graduation (which, if I were in his place
and in a crunch, I would probably prioritize ahead of meeting every fine point of the Brown Act).
But I was just cleaning out my e-mail inbox and came across the e-mail announcement of that meeting. The meeting was Wednesday, May 10, 6:30 p.m., and I got the e-mail on Tuesday, May 9, at 5:28 p.m., 25 hours
and two minutes before the meeting. I don’t know that the time of that e-mail is the legally the earliest notice of the meeting, either.
I believe your comment was flatly stated as accurate, so I presume you’ll post a retraction everywhere you posted the original, to let poor Norman off the hook.
From: “Debra Lenhof”
May 14th, 2006 at 10:02 pm e
Note the change-25 hours may met the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.
School and programs moves have been planned throughout this spring. And President Yee has no doubt known the day of his daughter’s graduation since early this spring. He could have (and should have) given the SF School Community more than 25 hours notice. And then there would have been more than 18 people at the hearing.