Welcome to my special newsletter about actions to change the school board. This is update 2.

More than 800 parents and residents have signed up so far. The goal of this newsletter is to bring people together, provide information, and give direction on how you can get involved.

This update includes:

• Communication and Coordination

• Recall and Reform Efforts 

• Expanded City Attorney Lawsuit 

• Lowell High School Report

• Worst Moments of School Board Meetings

If you know others who might be interested in this newsletter, please share this message and ask them to sign up here.

Thanks for your support,

Joel Engardio

COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION
It’s important that we can find and share information in a central place on social media. 

• If you are on Nextdoor, please join the citywide group “How to Change the School Board.” Click here to join.

• If you are on Facebook, a sister group is also called “How to Change the School Board.” Click here to join.

The same info will be posted in both Nextdoor and Facebook groups. 

Note: I encourage public school parents to also join the Facebook group “Decreasing the Distance.” This is a place for parents to discuss very specific issues about dealing with pandemic-era learning. Click here to join. 

Let me know if there are any other relevant social media groups I can share in the next newsletter. 

RECALL AND REFORM EFFORTS
More than 30 people met by Zoom this week who represent various groups around the city that independently formed to change the school board. It was important to get everyone talking together so they can coordinate efforts.

Four possible actions were discussed:

• Recall the three board members (Collins, Lopez, Moliga) who can be recalled. The other four members are not eligible because they just started their term in January. 

• Put a charter amendment on the June 2022 ballot (the earliest possible date for a charter amendment) to restructure how the school board is formed by having the mayor and/or other officials appoint members instead of directly electing them.

• Put a non-binding declaration on the expected special election this fall to recall the governor. (Note: charter amendments are not allowed on special election ballots.)

• Replace the three board members up for re-election in November 2022 (Collins, Lopez, Moliga) by picking a slate of qualified candidates and organizing voters citywide to choose the slate over the incumbents. 

Each option has its own hurdles. A recall has the steepest hurdle because it requires gathering 70,000 in-person signatures (pen on paper) for each of the board members we want to recall.

This would require a level of commitment and organization from parents and residents on a scale never seen before in San Francisco. We would need 700 people to get 100 signatures from their neighbors in a pandemic within 120 days. A successful recall would depend on hundreds of dependable volunteers who can hustle and deliver — plus lots of donors to fund it. Is there enough parent outrage to harness to make it happen? This is the question that advocates for a recall must answer.

Read my blog that outlines all the steps required for each option listed above.

Nothing has been ruled out yet. A group may decide to push ahead with a recall. Others might focus on the remaining options. I will let you know which group is doing what — and where to sign up to volunteer and donate for each cause — as soon as they are set in motion.

I’ve been told at least one group will have established their legal PAC (political action committee) and have a website up by next week. You will be the first to know when it goes live.

CITY ATTORNEY LAWSUIT
City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the school board last week to implement a reopening plan for schools. It said the school district violated its official duty under state law, which was updated during the pandemic to require every school board “to offer classroom-based instruction whenever possible” during the 2020-2021 school year.

This week, Herrera expanded the lawsuit to say SFUSD “violated the state Constitution and equal rights laws by not providing in-person instruction despite the ability to do so.” See Chronicle report.

The lawsuit continues despite the school district and teacher’s union announcing a tentative agreement to get teachers vaccinated and back in the classroom. There are many questions about whether the agreement goes far enough to actually open schools in any meaningful way. See Chronicle report. 

Why the lawsuit? Because the school board cannot be controlled by the mayor or the Board of Supervisors. It is a body of seven members directly elected by voters and does not answer to any other legislative authority. The school board derives its power from the state education code, state law and the city charter (San Francisco’s constitution).

Note that even if the lawsuit is successful, it will not do anything to change the school board members who created the need for a lawsuit.

LOWELL HIGH SCHOOL REPORT
The school board voted 5-2 to permanently end merit-based admissions to Lowell High School and move to a lottery system. The two members who voted no were Kevine Boggess and Jenny Lam. See Chronicle report.

The school board said this was necessary to address a culture of racism and racial inequity at Lowell. But the decision was rushed with little community input and lacked analysis of how a lottery system would improve the school’s culture and promote racial equity.

Lowell parents did their own research and combed through responses to a district-wide survey that asked students to rate the culture and climate of their school. The data show that students reported problems at many high schools. Lowell falls in the middle of the pack in a number of categories — though Lowell did have one of the lowest scores in the “sense of belonging” category for Black students.

The parents shared their research with the group Families for San Francisco. See the full report here. 

Lowell is one of the best ranked high schools in the nation and a popular option for families who can’t afford private school. More than one-third of Lowell students have low-income parents.

WORST MOMENTS OF SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS
School board meetings are notorious for running seven or more hours before members even start to talk about essentials like how to safely reopen schools.

This week’s meeting was no exception. Here are two tweets from Chronicle reporters that highlight some of the worst moments of a marathon meeting that went well past midnight (and the bedtime of most parents). 

From Heather Knight:
“The SF school board tonight spent two hours talking about whether to allow a gay dad of mixed-race SFUAD kids to volunteer for one of several empty seats on a parent advisory group. Their problem was that he’s white and doesn’t bring diversity to the group. They didn’t appoint him...And seven hours after the meeting started, they still aren’t talking about how to safely reopen schools.”

From Jill Tucker:
“The SF school board has abandoned meeting protocol, giving time to outsiders supporting the measure to speak at length on their opinions and personal experiences after public comment. I’ve spent countless hours in public meetings and this one is off the rails.”

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