Parents for Public Schools-San Francisco

Enrollment issues at Flynn and Alvarado

Enrollment Series in Beyond Chron

See the series on enrollment in the School Beat, by Lisa Schiff, PPS National Board Member.

1) Finding Schools and Evaluating the Assignment Process; Sept. 18, 2008; Lisa Schiff

2) Can SFUSD Take Away Your Child’s School Assignment? In a Word, Yes. ; Sept. 25, 2008; Kim Green

3) Say What? SFUSD’s Painful Communication Gaps ; Oct. 2, 2008; Lisa Schiff

4) SFUSD’s School Assignment Process Needs Transparency, Equity and Reliability; Lisa Schiff‚ Oct. 16‚ 2008

August 7, 2008 - Notes from 8/6/08 Meeting with 23 affected families

I attended the re-assignment lottery meeting at the district on Wednesday evening, August 6 as an observer. The purpose of the meeting was to re-assign all 23 English-speaking families, originally assigned to Flynn and Alvarado Spanish Immersion Schools, via a manual lottery assignment process.

Citing confidentiality, the district included only re-assigned family members and SFUSD staff (including Superintendent Carlos Garcia) in the meeting. As the only member of the public present, I was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to attend, and my role was to observe the process and ensure that stated protocols were carried out in a fair manner.

Almost all of the 23 affected families were present or sent a proxy. Four families who submitted their desired list of schools via an application that day did not attend.

At the end of the evening, all families left with a new school assignment. Judging from families’ reactions, it seemed that everyone was either happy with their assignment or could live with it. Families will have until 5 p.m. Friday, August 8, to change their minds and request placement in a wait pool of their choice.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia expressed his gratitude to these families for their feedback, input and suggestions. In my judgment, the meeting was conducted in a transparent manner. Families were encouraged to suggest changes to the instant lottery process and those suggestions were incorporated on the spot once consensus among the families present was reached.

Personally speaking, I feel the district should have involved parents in developing a solution much sooner. That said, last night’s meeting was transparent, and the administrators were open to input. This is the type of openness we want to encourage.

Going forward, PPS will take the opportunity to push for more venues for parent input in the school assignment process.

Ellie Rossiter
Interim Executive Director
Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco

August 6, 2008

Statement from Ellie Rossiter, Interim Executive Director

Inequities like the recent (July 2008) issue involving the reassignment of several Spanish- and English-speaking families have outraged hundreds of families pursuing and advocating for public schools.

Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco is planning to take on a larger advocacy role by insisting on an overhaul of the student assignment process that ensures that parents have a voice in that change. We feel it is important for all parents to feel they have equal access to schools and school information.

We are working to establish goals and action items to address the issue of the SFUSD student assignment process. In doing so, the Parents for Public Schools’ strategic planning and policy making process will solicit input from our staff, board of directors, PPS members and the community at large. We will continue to update you with information about the student assignment process and this year’s (2008-2009) enrollment process.

I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the parents who have expressed an interest in improving the San Francisco public school enrollment process. We’ll keep you posted on ways you can be involved.

August 6, 2008 - Letter from Superintendent Carlos Garcia

Please read the letter from Superintendent Carlos Garcia to all families in the waitpool (116kb,pdf). Some main points:

Extending the wait pool runs for kindergarten families to November 7, 2008. This extension is only for kindergarten families as this is the only group that may be impacted by the district’s re-assignment process of the 23 Flynn and Alvarado families.
The 23 re-assigned families from Flynn and Alvarado will be given until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 8, to accept their new assignment offers.
The Spanish Dual Immersion Program at Daniel Webster will begin this year regardless of whether any of the 23 re-assigned families
select this program. Families who are interested in enrolling their child in this new program can contact the Educational Placement Center at (415) 241-6085.

August 1, 2008 - Situation update:

As of the meeting on Tuesday, 7-29, EPC said they have had direct contact with all but four families, for whom they have left messages on several phone numbers and sent a letter.
Families have been assigned a dedicated enrollment counselor, Danielle Winford, to answer any questions they have about schools or enrollment.
The district is coordinating a meeting with the Superintendent and district personnel with the 23 families who were affected on Wednesday, 8/6. They can submit a list of up to 10 schools by Wednesday and they will receive their school assignment through an immediate straight lottery on Wednesday. PPS will be present as an observer and recorder of the process, and to ensure that these families’ concerns and questions about their enrollment are addressed.
Families who are unable to attend can participate in this lottery by designating a proxy to represent them during the lottery process. They are being faxed or emailed the forms to participate. Families who have not been reached, or who do not submit their 10 choices by Wednesday, will have their original application choices run in this lottery.
One hundred extra seats are being made open at many schools by overenrolling the Kindergarten classes to 21 or 22. These extra seats will only be offered to the 23 families and this list will close after they are assigned on Wednesday.
After Wednesday, 8/6, the district will know if they are going forward with opening Daniel Webster’s Spanish Immersion class this year. It is dependent on if there are enough applicants from the group of 23 parents. Enrollment for this new program at Daniel Webster is not open to English or Spanish-speakers in the general community until they know if they are going forward with the program.
Spanish-speaking families who requested Flynn and Alvarado as their first choice but were assigned to a General Education program are being contacted to see if they would like to transfer to the immersion program at Flynn or Alvarado. EPC has not contacted all of them yet. At this time, they are not contacting the Spanish-speaking families in bilingual programs – the spots are only being offered to those in General Education.
Per the EPC, the bilingual Spanish class at Daniel Webster will become the immersion class if it goes forward. Spanish-speaking families who are assigned to the bilingual class will be notified if their bilingual class is going to change to immersion. It is not clear if they are being asked to join the immersion class before the 23 families decide to enroll there or not.
Spanish-speaking students are being tested before being placed in the spots reserved for Spanish-speakers at Flynn and Alvarado.

July 29, 2008 - District held a community meeting at Daniel Webster Elementary at 6pm. An estimated 100 attendees included:

Superintendent Carlos Garcia;
Davide Celoria, Asst. Superintendent, who is in charge of Flynn and Alvarado;
Linda Luevano, Asst. Superintendent, who is in charge of Daniel Webster;
Darlene Lim, Director of the EPC;
Archie Fokin, Asst. Manager of the EPC;
Pilar Mejia, Multilingual Department;
Hydra Mendoza , BOE Commissioner and Education Advisor to the Mayor;
Gentle Blythe, Office of Public Outreach;
Kevin Chávez, EL Services Dept.;
Moraima Machado, Principal of Daniel Webster;
members of PREFund, the group that is supporting Daniel Webster;
Ellie Rossiter, Interim Executive Director of PPS-SF;
Victor Martinez, Board President of PPS-SF;
Vicki Symonds, Parent Network Coordinator for PPS-SF
Suzanne Morikawa Madden, Communications Manager of PPS-SF;
Jenny Aldaz, Chairperson of SF AME;
Sally Payson Hays, Co-Secretary of SF AME
Rachel Norton, Board of Education Candidate
Emily Murase, Board of Education Candidate
Glenn Davis, Board of Education Candidate

The omission of any other district or community attendee is unintentional and we apologize if we left anyone off this list. Besides the members of the 23 affected families, attendees also included families currently in the waitpool, public school parents from various public schools, parents from Flynn and Alvarado. Spanish translation was provided.

July 29, 2008 - The questions and issues raised at this meeting were summarized and submitted to the district: 7-29-08 Summary of PPS Forum Questions in English and Spanish (169kb,pdf). A date has not been set for receiving the answers from the district. PPS is following up with the district to receive and make public the answers to these questions.

July 28, 2008 - PPS-SF held a forum for parents and individuals interested in this issue to meet, share ideas and concerns, and voice their questions. This meeting of about 50 attendees included English and Spanish speaking parents affected by this decision. Other attendees included

Hydra Mendoza, Board of Education Commissioner and Education Advisor to the Mayor
Former Mayor Art Agnos
Victor Martinez, PPS Board President
Jenny Aldaz, Chairperson of SF AME
Sally Payson Hays, Co-Secretary of SF AME
Rachel Norton, Board of Education candidate

The omission of any other district or community attendee is unintentional and we apologize if we left anyone off this list. The meeting was moderated by PPS National Board Member Lisa Schiff, with simultaneous translation into Spanish. Comments and questions were recorded in English and Spanish.

July 25, 2008 - PPS-SF has recently learned about an error made by the school district in enrollment of English and Spanish speakers in the Immersion programs at Alvarado and Flynn. This is information we have as of this writing:

The desired balance of English to native Spanish speakers in Spanish Immersion programs is 50%/50%, but due to an error in coding siblings in the system, a disproportionate number of English speakers were assigned to each school.
23 families will receive phone calls and letters offering to enroll them into a new Spanish Immersion program at Daniel Webster Elementary.
Families who don’t choose this option are being given the option of priority in the waitpool for any other school.
Spanish-speaking families who listed the immersion programs at Flynn and Alvarado as their first choice but who didn’t get assigned there are being contacted to offer them spaces in the immersion program at Flynn, Alvarado and Webster.
Additionally, Spanish-speaking families from Marshall and Paul Revere may also be contacted to offer them spots at Flynn, Alvarado and Webster, opening up spots up for the displaced English-speaking families.
The district is having an informational meeting on Tuesday, July 29 at 6pm at Daniel Webster to give more detailed information and to clarify any concerns or questions.

Enrollment issues at Flynn and Alvarado

Enrollment Series in Beyond Chron

Statement from Ellie Rossiter, Interim Executive Director

MORE INFO

Share your comments and questions

OTHER RESOURCES

SF AME - San Francisco Advocates for Multilingual Excellence

PREFund - Potrero Residents Education Fund (www.prefund.org)