BOE Meeting of 2/26/08-Votes to Close Western Addition Beacon Center for the Summer (edit this)
The Board of Education met on Tuesday, Feb. 26. The highlights were:
1. The Citizen Advisory Committee for Special Education testified that General Counsel had taken out a portion of their newsletter, stating that it was legal advice. Only Commissioner Mar spoke against censoring the CAC, but he also noted that the District needs to ensure that it is protected from future lawsuits. Both Jill Wynns and Jane Kim defended the General Counsel, stating that the CAC should be working with the district rather than giving advice to parents on how they can best fight for their children when they don’t agree with the District’s actions.
2. The BOE appointed the following onto the Citizen Advisory Committee for Special Education:
Joan Shelby
Chin Hong Lou
Lai Yee Wong
Mee Kit Yip-Li
Christina Chyan
President Sanchez as well as Commissioners Maufas, Mar and Wynns noted that there was a lack of diversity among the appointments. They directed Deborah McKnight, director of special education services, to present a plan to increase the diversity on the CAC.
At President Sanchez’s request, McKnight reported the racial breakdown of special education students versus the population of SFUSD students.
Latino-28% of special education students (23% of SFUSD’s student population)
African American-25% of special education students (14% of SFUSD’s student population)
Chinese-16% of special education students (30% of SFUSD’s student population)
Whites-10% of special education students (8% of SFUSD’s student population)
2. The Board of Education authorize the District to enter a tentative agreement with Local 21-Professional Engineers.
4. The Board approved the adoption of a supplementary history/social studies resource materials for grades 4,8 and 11 that had been created by the Japanese American Citizens’ League.
5. As noted in an earlier post, the BOE voted to send out layoff notices to 535 certificated personnel. They also decided on criteria to determine the order of senority for certificated employees hired on the same day.
An additional point will be given to employees with the following credentials or authorizations:
1. Bilingual Cross Cultural Lanague and Academic Development (BCLAD) Certification
2. Special Education Credential
3. Single subject Math Credential
4. Single subject Science Credential
5. Single subject Library/Media Services Credential
6. Single subject Physical Education Credential
7. Pupil Personnel Services-School Counseling or School Social Worker
8. Cross Cultural LAnguage and Academic Development (CLAD) Certification or current enrollment (as of 1/31/08) in a CLAD certificate program
6. The District reported on its efforts on its four-year plan for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. District staff noted that they had modified 39 classrooms for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Parents complained that the District was not doing outreach for teacher training about working with deaf and hard-to-hear students.
7. The Board of Education voted to close the Western Addition Beacon Center at John Muir Elementary School at 380 Webster (Page) for the summer by voting to approve a contract with Vanir Construction. A ramp is being built in front of John Muir Elementary School for ADA access. Then a door is being created on the back entrance for the school’s elevator. The Beacon Center serves 300 K-8 students. Most live in the public housing that surrounds John Muir Elementary School.
Trish Bascom told the BOE that the students could go to Rosa Parks’ Beacon Center (which parents at previous meetings have noted is located in a rival gang territory, making it difficult for some John Muir ES and other families to send their children to Rosa Parks) or Wallenberg High School located two miles (and two bus rides) away at 40 Vega Street (Masonic and Geary).
8. President Sanchez assigned the resolution on Bridging the Achievement Gap to the Curriculum and Budget committees.
The resolution was created by Coleman Advocates and was sponsored by Commissioners Eric Mar, Jane Kim and Kim Shree Maufas.
Adoption of the resolution would result in the following actions:
a. Adopt a four-year district-wide equity goal, so that at a minimum, 60% of all students in all racial groups are proficient in English/Lanauge Arts and math by 2011
b. Use the achievement gap as a measure to form all decisions, including school closures, assignment of personnel, language programs, discipline policies, disbursement of funds and student assignment.
c. Have the Superintendent will present bi-annual reports that details the progress that the District has made in achieving racial equity
d. Direct the BOE to examine modifications of existing programs, including student discipline, special education, ELL programs, teacher quality, principal and administrative leadership, individual school funds, use of federal and state funds, and student and parent involvement.
e. Have the goal of bridging achievement gap as an element of evaluation for the Superintendent.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:55 am e
I’m curious about the concept behind this Achievement Gap resolution. It appears to be based on test scores, and aims at punishing schools that don’t measure up. How is that different from the concept of No Child Left Behind?
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a. Adopt a four-year district-wide equity goal, so that at a minimum, 60% of all students in all racial groups are proficient in English/Lanauge Arts and math by 2011
b. Use the achievement gap as a measure to form all decisions, including school closures, assignment of personnel, language programs, discipline policies, disbursement of funds and student assignment.
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February 28th, 2008 at 8:43 pm e
From what I’ve seen to date, this is exactly the basis of everything Tony Smith, Deputy Superintendent, is developing for the districts strategic plan for the coming 3-5 years - including measurable goals across a multitude of areas. It’s great that there are synergies happening with the community and district to address this challenge.