Newsletter May 12, 2022 (English)

Weekly updates from SF Parents

San Francisco Parent Coalition sends an enormous THANK YOU to all of our supporters.

For our first year plus, SF Parent Coalition (then as Decreasing the Distance) was entirely run by parent, caregiver, and community volunteers.
We continue to be powered by dedicated parents on the ground, driving our work and advocating for what kids need to learn and thrive. Since launching a formal non-profit 501c3 organization in August 2021, we also have received donations from now over one hundred parents, caregivers, and supporters. Our parent volunteers and donors are the true fiber of our organization. (Don’t see your name listed? With a couple of quick clicks, you can change that right now!)

We are also honored to now receive funding from several education-focused institutional and family foundations.

Thank you to our major individual donors, many of whom are parents, as well as the institutional and family foundations now supporting us: Chavez Family Foundation, Crankstart, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, and the Perkins Hunter Foundation. This support opens up new possibilities for SF Parent Coalition to further our impact for SF’s public schools by broadening our network and getting more parent voices heard.

That’s right! We’re hiring! With funding comes the ability to grow our team. Would you love to join us, or know someone else great for one of these roles? Apply today or spread the word! Stay tuned for future opportunities, as well, as we determine additional needs on our team.

 

 

Everett Middle School unaddressed violence leaves a child hospitalized. Parents and caregivers at Everett Middle School and others across the district have been sounding the alarm bells for months about challenging behaviors, mental health issues, and ongoing violence at the schools. We reached out to SFUSD, community organizations, city supervisors, and parents to understand what more can be done to support this school and ensure safety for our students, teachers, and staff.

 

The SFUSD literacy audit is released. SFUSD partnered with an external organization, TNTP, to audit our literacy curriculum and instruction at SFUSD. The audit is finally complete and was presented at Monday’s Curriculum Committee meeting. Haven’t had a chance to read it? You can find it here, or better yet, check out our quick 1-page Explainer:

 

Budget status, in case you missed it. Speaking of explainers, we highly recommend taking two minutes to watch this super cute student rendition of our 1-page explainer (co-written with Families for SF) on the current status of SFUSD’s structural budget deficit. Check it out on Instagram (We’re @sfparentcoalition in case you don’t follow us yet).

  

Special education funding. In April, SFUSD presented to the Board of Supervisors Youth, Young Adults and Families Committee on the topic of special education finances and trends. Special education services are not nearly fully funded by the federal and state governments, contributing to our structural budget deficit. We applaud Supervisor Ronen for introducing a resolution to call for the doubling of state funding for special education services, which was unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors. SF Parent Coalition supports this ask, and sent this letter to Assemblymember Phil Ting, urging him to ensure the doubling of funding to special education services to districts across the state.

 

Teacher pay fiasco continues. We’ve heard from SFUSD, educators, administrators, and Board of Education Commissioners that the challenges with fixing the payroll errors unfortunately continue. While a majority of teachers are now receiving accurate paychecks, some teachers are still seeing major errors, impacting their ability to pay bills and rent. We stand with our teachers and urge SFUSD, the City, and the business community to do everything possible to fix these remaining errors swiftly and completely.

May 22nd  ||  Family Action Day (by Families for SF & YIMBY). On Sunday May 22nd from 10a-12p, join the parents of YIMBY and Families for San Francisco for a Family Action Day at Duboce Park. Do you think SF should be more affordable for families?! So do we! We’ll have a table there, so please come and say hello. RSVP here.

 

ICYMI  ||  Literacy Forum with SFUSDIn April, SF Parent Coalition and SF Ed Fund cohosted a literacy forum with SFUSD’s Dept of Curriculum and Instruction Chief Academic Officer Dr. Nicole Priestly. If you missed it, catch the recording here

 

San Francisco Unified has another school board election right around the corner, yet the parent energy that achieved the recall is already waning. Our students need parents to keep paying attention, and the broader city needs to keep listening to public school families for direction on voting for the future of the school board.”

–Meredith W. Dodson via EdSource,

SF Unified recall shows how parents can transform a district

 

SF Parent Coalition centers the needs of children and youth in San Francisco public schools by bringing together a diverse network of parents and caregivers to advocate for a thriving, equitable school system.

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