Wednesday, October 13th, 12-12:30 pm on our Facebook group

Want to ensure your young child is on target to read, and read well? Join us for a lunchtime Q&A with literacy expert, Megan Potente, the Co-State Director of Decoding Dyslexia CA. Megan will give a brief overview of the questions, resources and signs to watch for to ensure your child is on track, and then answer your questions about reading development for elementary children. Tune in on our Facebook group with your questions. (Join our FB forum here if you haven’t already.)

• State of California begins SFUSD budget intervention. Whew, this got real fast. Last week, we warned you that SFUSD was on track to meet a fiscal cliff head on if the district didn’t begin working together to find student-centered solutions. Unfortunately, the State of California has since put the Board of Education and administration on notice with a stark warning letter and a sobering surprise appearance at a special Board of Education meeting this past Monday. We know this is a lot to digest at once, so we’ve broken down some key questions below. TL;DR: The magical thinking that has been going on for too long with our city’s education leaders absolutely cannot continue.
  • What exactly is the state doing right now?
  • Why is it bad for kids if the state takes over? Can it really be worse than the current school board leadership? Yes.
  • How would a full state takeover work?
  • Do we still have a chance to prevent all this? Yes, *if* the school board cooperates with District leadership and adheres to fiscally sound governing. SFUSD has until December 15th to submit a plan to address our $115M deficit.
• The confusing Collins & Lopez public health resolution. Amazingly, the proposal from Commissioners and Collins and Lopez to buck the highly-effective advice from the SF Department of Public Health and create their own public health school protocols, is still alive, though fortunately fading. We say amazingly because, yes, this resolution–beyond being unnecessary and burdensome–would create significant new, unnecessary costs for the school district; while we continue to hurtle towards state takeover. We hope cooler heads prevail, and soon.
• Have you been to your School Site Council meeting? What’s that, you say? Every SFUSD school is overseen by a group of parents, students (upper grades), teachers and community members called a School Site Council (SSC). Specifically, every school’s official budget and plan for academic outcomes is overseen by this body. PTSAs raise private funding for schools and drum up volunteers and fun events, while School Site Councils keep an eye on reading scores and curriculum, etc, and how the school is spending its official, public budget. So … kind of important! Interested? Schools are required to have SSC meetings once a month; they’re open to the school community and generally very friendly. Plan to attend your next meeting! Email your SSC leader or your principal if you don’t know where to find the SSC meeting link!
• Newsom mandates all California students get vaxxed. Though the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t yet authorized for children under 12, Newsom has preemptively made it a requirement for all children to be vaccinated in order to attend in-person school once the vaccine is FDA approved. The mandate will be phased in. Read the details here. There is still not yet a full mandate for all adults in schools to be vaccinated.
• Picture day! In more light hearted news, picture days are coming up, if they haven’t already happened at your kid’s school. What’s your best picture day story of things gone horribly wrong? Anyone else’s kid color their hair with a sharpie marker the night before? Worse? 🤪
• Did you know? KALW (91.7 FM) is owned and licensed by the San Francisco Unified School district. It began in 1941 and was built by students and educators, and is the first FM station on the West Coast. Go, San Francisco!

• Volunteer with us! We’re going to be out in the community on October 16th and November 2nd, tabling at fun family events in Chinatown and the Mission. Will you sign up to join us?
• Literacy series–tune in! Interested in learning more about how to ensure every child is reading, and reading well, by third grade? Tune into these two upcoming events, presented by other, wonderful organizations:
  • Oct 26 Dyslexia Simulation for SF Audience
  • Oct 28 SFUSD Special Education Community Advisory Committee Meeting featuring Kareem Weaver, a leader of Oakland’s FULCRUM initiative

• S.F. schools’ financial tailspin prompts state to intervene in face of massive shortfall, SF Chronicle
• ‘Time is of the essence’: San Francisco’s school district faces possible state takeover, SF Examiner
• Open letter to SFUSD: Don’t blame the literacy crisis on the children, San Francisco BayView 
• Obesity among children ages 5 to 11 rises during the pandemic, The Washington Post
• Op-Ed: School quarantines keep too many kids at home — with barely any effect on covid, The Washington Post
• Pfizer Asks F.D.A. to Authorize Its COVID-19 Vaccine for Children 5-11, The NY Times
• Cursing, meltdowns and playground tussles: Bay Area schools grapple with emotional toll of pandemic, SF Chronicle
• Judge orders S.F. school district to pay legal costs in school renaming lawsuit, SF Chronicle
• Proposed California Ballot Measure Could Spark Court Challenges to Teacher Protections, The Wall Street Journal
• One loophole remains in student COVID-19 vaccination mandate, CalMatters

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