8/26/23 BOE Meeting Notes
The 8/26 BOE meeting was, in many ways, a continuation of the meeting a month ago on 7/29: the two main items were a re-vote (due to a parliamentary issue) on the ethnic studies pilot curriculum purchase, and the vote on the Dragon’s Gate charter petition. Additionally, we were expecting a board vote to approve the hiring of an interim Associate Superintendent of Educational Services, but it was removed from the agenda for unknown reasons.
Dragon’s Gate Charter Petition
In the 7/29 meeting, proponents of the Mandarin-immersion charter school made their case, then on 8/11 the district published a formal staff recommendation against granting the charter. In the 8/26 meeting, Dragon’s Gate had the opportunity to respond formally to the report, answer questions, then the Board would vote on its charter petition.
Dragon’s Gate (DG) chose not to make a formal presentation rebutting the District’s report, but instead said they would answer any questions the Commissioners had.
Initial public comment surfaced:
- Consensus on all sides that Mandarin immersion is in high demand, and SFUSD should offer more
- Families may leave SF or go private if the public system can’t expand its offerings
- The principal of Everett Middle School did not take kindly to a picture of his building being used in the Dragon’s Gate presentation as a potential co-location site (DG clarified that it was an example of co-location, as it was an under-utilized central location made sense if possible)
- Heated concerns around an 11% cap on SPED students (during subsequent discussion it came out that this 11% was not a cap, but an estimate used for budgeting purposes, though DG should have used the current 14% district average)
Discussion with the commissioners and district staff was lengthy. The Cliff Notes:
- State monitor Elliot Duchon weighed in to point out if a district is under a negative certification, that can be basis for denial
- Commissioner Alexander seemed not unsupportive, though questioned whether the DG team had the educational expertise to launch a school
- Commissioner Huling seemed concerned that DG wouldn’t have enough certificated teachers and/or wasn’t properly budgeting for them
- Dragion’s Gate alleged that the staff report and the BOE was biased against charters (the majority of the board has previously signed the UESF pledge which includes language against charters), and pointed out that many of the items in the critical staff report mirrored SFUSD practices/policies in its own immersion programs
The Vote was split into two resolutions:
- Would the BOE Adopt the findings of the Staff Report as their own: Vote: 6-1 in YES, Commissioner Ray voting NO
- Would the BOE Deny Dragon’s Gate Petition: Vote: 7-0 in YES
Purchase of Ethnic Studies Pilot Curriculum (Re-vote)
Ethnic studies was, once again, on the 8/26 BOE meeting agenda. An ongoing sensitive and heated topic, it was only on this meeting’s agenda again because of a parliamentary issue with how the BOE voted on purchasing the new curriculum earlier in August.
During public comment we heard a lot of both defending and attacking the old curriculum (which the district has at least temporarily moved on from), the pilot curriculum (Voices), while simultaneously debating the merits of a full year requirement vs. single semester, or making it completely elective.
When it was time for the re-voteon the purchase of the Voices curriculum, further discussion between the commissioners was modest. Commissioner Gupta made a few salient points that echoed much of the earlier public comment:
- There are clearly many strong feelings on this issue
- It is unfortunate that the board could not do a proper audit
- It is non-ideal that the teachers were not given enough time to get up to speed on the new curriculum
Despite the issues, the majority of commissioners voted to move forward with the purchase. The school year has already started, and voting it down would create a hole in students’ schedules this year.
Commissioner Ray also weighed in, pointing out that while she supports ethnic studies, the way this was handled by the district has created tremendous division, and is troubled by the name-calling against those acting in good faith. She ultimately decided to vote against the purchase, saying that “This is important, and we should (take the time to) get it right.”
Vote: 6-1 in YES, Commissioner Ray voting NO
As a reference, here is the district’s plan for moving forward.
– Eliot Kent-Uritam