Newsletter (10/29/21): How will the kid vaccine rollout impact schools?

By meredith | October 30, 2021
Weekly updates from SF Parents

School News

  • Kid vaccines endorsed by FDA. The US Food and Drug Administration voted earlier this week to endorse the emergency authorization use of a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. The Center for Disease Control is expected to issue guidance based on this vote in the coming week, which likely means that California elementary age children will soon be able to get shots. See the events section below for info on upcoming SF Department of Public Health town halls about the child vaccine, available in multiple languages.
    • Changes in California Dept of Public Health recs coming, too? Given the seeming imminent release of the elementary child vaccine, we know many parents are wondering if– and expecting that– our children will finally get a metric-based roadmap to an off-ramp of interventions (e.g. masks, etc). As always, you can see how SF is doing with COVID-19 when it comes to children, here.
  • District announces budget babysitter. This week the budget conversation continued, with SFUSD announcing the state fiscal crisis representative who will be helping us out for some time: a retired superintendent, Elliot Duchon. SFUSD’s fiscal department described how things are moving along more quickly than they had expected, with the state crisis team already working to develop a score card or fiscal health assessment to identify the areas of concern where the district will need to improve our practices. “Structural deficits require structural decisions.” (As much as we’d rather wish this all away).
  • Consider us shocked: Commissioners Collins & Lopez messy public health resolution passes. Sometime after 11 pm at the Tuesday night Board of Education meeting, Commissioners Alexander, Collins, Lopez, and Sanchez voted down Commissioners Boggess, Lam and Moliga to pass a pointless, time-sucking resolution—all while the budget and student wellness and academic outcomes continue to burn the building down around them. 😫This new plan for a plan could further ramp up COVID-19 interventions beyond the highly effective SF Department of Health requirements at a time where our illness trajectory is so low (see above) that these extra measures, well, just make no good sense. The resolution also mandates hiring a new staff person to serve as a liaison between community organizations serving monolingual families and SFUSD and establishes an anonymous complaint hotline for people to report non-compliance with COVID-19 measures at schools, among other things. Read the new policy here. This is a slow clap moment, if ever there were one. 😒 Elections really do matter.
  • African American Parent Advisory Committee releases recommendations. The district’s AAPAC shared its annual report at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday. Included in the report are a number of specific recommendations for the coming year, including a deeper role in Board decision making for Black parents. We commend the AAPAC for their thorough report and thoughtful and important asks of the district. Check out the report here (recommendations on page nine).
  • Student Assignment Policy workshops. Yes, SFUSD continues to work on the specifics of a new student assignment policy for the elementary grades; the policy will be in place for the 2024-2025 school year. Register here to get involved in the discussion; consider signing up for our SF Parents-SFUSD joint conversation on November 3rd.
  • School Site Council meetings–have you attended one? Every SFUSD school has monthly public meetings of its School Site Council, the elected body responsible for advising the principal on the school’s budget and programs, and much more. Every SSC is also responsible for publishing notes on their meetings. Haven’t seen meeting notices or notes? Ask your principal where parents can access this required information.
 

Events – Join us!!

  • Sun 10/31, 3-6 pm: The Great Hauntway–spook you there! 🙂 If you’re looking for a super fun Halloween activity in the sunset, come stop by, say hi, and grab an SF Parents button or sticker or treat! Learn more.
  • Tues 11/2*, 7:30 pm: Child vaccine town halls. Join DPH & UCSF public health experts to answer questions on COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11. RSVP here for English. (*Cantonese on 11/3/21; *Spanish on 11/4/21)
  • Weds 11/3, 6 pm: Join us over Zoom to workshop the district’s student assignment process. SFUSD & SF Parents members and the broader community will have a chance to meet and discuss the new zone-based student assignment policy for elementary schools starting in 2024-25. Learn why SFUSD is changing the policy, what the policy will look like and help them develop the school zones. RSVP here.
  • Weds 11/10, 6:30 pm: How to bring structured literacy to every classroom (and get every child reading). SF Parents & Decoding Dyslexia CA welcomes LiteracyHow’s Margie Gillis to talk about how school districts can bring the science of reading into their practices to improve outcomes for kids. Facilitated by school administrator Nancy Bui. RSVP here.
  • Weds 11/17, 5 pm: Join SFUSD & SF Parents for an info session with SFUSD leadership on early literacy at SFUSD. Dr. Priestly (Chief Academic Officer) and Dr. Ford-Morthel (Deputy Supt of Instruction) will address parent and community questions around how are we doing as a district, what efforts are underway to improve reading outcomes for kids, and how can we do better. RSVP here.
 

Say Hello to SF Parent Action!

You may have noticed a few changes with our online presence as of late. SF Parent Action is the political sister organization to San Francisco Parent Coalition, and is a 501c4 nonprofit. You can find SF Parent Action on Twitter and on Facebook. We’ll be rolling out a website for the organization soon, where you’ll be able to find the latest about Board of Education elections, and donate and support SF Parent Action’s work to make sure the education leaders in charge are putting our city’s students first. Stay tuned!
 

In The News

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