Today is Cesar Chavez Day-celebrated by the state of California offices and SFUSD.

San Francisco’s largest employer does not honor Cesar Chavez Day. Who is the City’s largest employer? The City and County itself.

Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval and then-Supervisor Matt Gonzalez announced six years ago that they were going to lead an effort to declare Cesar Chavez Day as a city holiday. But after a few hearings, the two supervisors lost interest and went on to other things.

But even those who don’t get the day off can honor the great labor organizer, Cesar Chavez. Here are some suggestions:

The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club will be meeting on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. at the LGBT Center, 1800 Market.

1. Announcements (7:10-7:20)

2. President’s Comments (7:20 to 7:30)

3. Panel Discussion on Issues Surrounding D-9 (7:30 to 8:30)
a. Ted Gullicksen speaking on Tenants Rights
b. David Campos speaking on police and crime prevention
c. Mark Sanchez speaking on education
d. Eric Quesada speaking on housing
e. Alda Okutani, Program Manager for Arriba Juntos on Economic Justice and Jobs
f. Still unconfirmed-ATA on art and artists

4. Issues that We Want to See on a DA’s Platform (8:30-8:50) Discussion will be listed to issues only.

Tomorrow begins SFUSD’s Spring Break, beginning tomorrow on Cesar Chavez Day. Classes will begin again on April 9.

Have a great (and safe) spring break!

The Bayview Community Center Foundation is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

While the Joseph Lee Center (two blocks down) is being built, it provides a safe space for Bayview students to do their homework, participate in table sports and talk to their friends. Only on Friday, March 16, Nisha Morgan was shot in fron of the Bayview Community Foundation’s Center at Third Street and Quesada.

A groups of family, friends and supporters stood outside of the Center and remember a vibrant young woman who was getting ready to go to the college-the first in her family to do so.

Published in the Bay Area Reporter
by Matthew S. Bajko
m.bajko@ebar.com

photo by Jane Cleland

A new union-backed effort aims to harness the power of queer youth in the fight for economic justice issues. Dubbed the Youth Organizing Project, it is an offshoot of the San Francisco chapter of Pride at Work, whose aim is to build coalitions between the labor movement and the LGBT community.

Union officials have hired two campaign organizers, both in their 20s and out of the closet, to network with the city’s queer youth and recruit them to work on both political campaigns and labor-endorsed initiatives. The project is focused primarily on queer youth, whether union members or not, between 16 and 25 years old.

Mr. or Ms. New Superintendent (and Candidates), here is a leftinsf primer about SFUSD and student enrollment.

As you know, the District has a lottery for students who want to attend schools that have more applicants than seats. Those who have siblings in the school get automatically in. The applications of those that don’t have siblings in the school are weighed by a variety of factors ranging from quality of their sending school to income level.

The District released some numbers about 2007-08 student enrollment.

This year, 90% of the eligible incoming 6th graders and 91% of incoming 8th graders got their applictions in Round 1. There was an increase in kindergarten applicants-3,972 applicants (compared to 3,869 applicants last year). But both incoming 6th and 9th applicants went down. There was a decrease of 137 students or 4% in the number of 6th grade applicants compared to 2006 (3,145 students versus 3,282). There was a decrease of 423 or 9% in the number of 9th graders compared to 2006 (4238 students versus 4661 students).

The District is a projecting a 11% decline in the enrollment in high school for the fall of 2007.

It’s not often that Matt Smith of the SF Weekly and I agree on anything. It seems we agree today, though, that Gavin Newsom has screwed up the wi-fi plan.

Back in 2004, when Tom Ammiano was floating his inoperable fiber-optic plan, Newsom needn’t have blown him off as he did. Instead, Newsom could have patted Ammiano on the back for his great idea, and included a proposed city-owned network as one contestant in a bidding competition for S.F. broadband. And there it would have died on the merits.

In my fantasy world, Gavin Newsom would read my Guardian op-ed and think, “damn, he’s right. I need to work with the Board on the wi-fi deal.” If he did that, here are some ways the concerns I listed in my article could be addressed. If we could solve most–or all–of these concerns it’d make the contract much easier to support.

Here are the highlights of the BOE Meeting of 3/27/07:

1. During public comment, fourteen people signed up to speak about the Young Scholars Program. Prior to public comment, Superintendent Gwen Chan stated that the district didn’t have any intention of closing the Young Scholar Program (a study program for high school students in the Bayview at Burnett Facility on Third Street and Oakdale), but they plan to evaluate whether the program was still following its mission. In fact, she stated that the District was planning on expanding the outreach of the Young Scholars Program.