Potrero Hill, San Francisco

I’d like to thank Supervisor Maxwell for attending the regional meeting on school closures at Thurgood Marshall High School this past friday, and speaking in support of our neighborhood.

As you may be aware, the SFUSD is proposing to merge Daniel Webster Elementary School at Starr King, and the International Studies Academy at Enola Maxwell Middle School.

Her office also released the following statement today regarding the potential closures, mergers, and relocation of schools in San Francisco.

I have grave concerns about how the San Francisco Unified School District is moving forward with plans to merge, close and relocate a number of schools throughout the city. The decisions they are about to make will have long term effects on our children’s education and the communities in which the schools reside.

With declining enrollment and underutilized school facilities, we do need to strategize about how to better utilize our limited resources. However, the current practice the school district is engaging is not the solution. Schools are successful when there is active participation with the community of neighbors, parents and businesses. We need a comprehensive dialogue with the community about those challenges and we need to work together to find creative solutions.

Last Wednesday evening, I attended a hastily pulled together meeting called by the school district at the Enola D. Maxwell School of the Arts. I was quite shocked and disturbed by the district’s inability to give those of us who attended a clear and thorough understanding of their process and reasoning for closing, merging and relocating schools, other than their funding problems.

However, what they are proposing are profound changes to our educational system. They were not forthcoming about how the school closures and mergers would ultimately effect the education of our children, their parents, and the communities the schools are in. There was no mention of how the schools would be improved and how they will better serve their students. They provided no evidence on how the proposed configuration of elementary, middle and high schools would work or what resources would be added.

I believe the school district needs to go back to the drawing board and have a thorough and engaging community process, one that gives a clear and comprehensive view of our educational system, the challenges ahead of us now and in the future, in a way that enables all stakeholders to participate. Let’s work together, study the challenges facing the school district, and consider all alternatives. It is in everyone’s best interest to have a school system that we can invest in. These conversations should be driven by how do we provide the best education for our children, not simply by how much money can be saved. It is only then that we will truly see some creative, well thought-out and supported solutions to the problems facing our school system and our city.

Sophie…