Posts Tagged ‘schools’

Having heard horror stories about San Fran’s public schools, I’ve been surprised how many nice schools I’ve seen during this fall’s school tour process. Seems like I’m not alone in being pleasantly shocked, if a post last week from SF Gate blog The Mommy Files is to be believed. In “Let’s Face It: S.F. Has Good Public Schools” writer Amy Graff teases out several pertinent nuggets proving her case, such as:

• After nearly 40 years of declining enrollment, the San Francisco Unified School District’s applications went up by 308 in 2008, with 500 more in 2009.
• Enrollment is up so much that a closed school, De Avila on Haight Street, will be open next year.
• Earlier in 2009, “San Francisco schools posted the highest test scores (API) among urban districts in the state, far surpassing even the state average in both math and English.”
• The number of San Francisco public school students taking Advanced Placement tests has increased every year since 2000 and in 2009 increased 20 percent.

Of course, enrollment is still way down compared to a decade or two ago: enrollment in 2009 is about 55,000 students, a decrease from 62,000 in 1995. But after declining for four decades, a blip upwards is very interesting, indeed.

My theory? Housing is so expensive everywhere that parents figure they might as well stay renting in the city instead of splitting for the suburbs. It’s the influx of these parents (PTA membership is also way up in the city!) that are changing the schools, fast.

First-round assignments for incoming San Francisco Unified School District kindergarteners have just gone out, and at least 948 local families are currently writhing in agony, having received none of the seven schools they signed up for in the torturous SFUSD lottery system. Still other families are evaluating what they got with varying degrees of unhappiness, asking themselves questions like Can I really get to 40th and Cabrillo by 7:15 a.m.? and Is it worth putting up with getting our seventh-choice school to avoid the hell that is the second-round lottery?

With all the pain there is to go around, conversation is heating up again at the SF K Files, the definitive blog on the SFUSD assignment process.  Forget the SFUSD’s official bulletins; this is the blog with the real down-and-dirty, including the controversy over sibling assignments artificially swelling the percentage of parents the SFUSD claims got a first-round assignment, and the lightning-fast opening of new elementary school De Avila.

Though the blog mistress, a San Fran mom who started the blog when seeking an assignment for one of her two children, posts frequently on various topics, the real action is on the comments board, with useful insider gossip and advice, as well as snarky commentary from cranky parents.

Looks like Burlingame is having some of the same school problems San Francisco parents have dealt with in recent years. As the San Jose Mercury News reported Friday, two of the pricey city’s best-regarded elementary schools, Franklin and Lincoln, are expecting so many new students this fall that they’re forcing parents to enter a lottery for spots at the school.

The Burlingame parents are particularly incensed, because many of them left San Francisco to escape the school lottery process and be guaranteed entrance into one of the area’s top-of-the-line schools. They also feel they’ve been jerked around by school officials. As the Mercury News writes, “Parents of about 75 children were told repeatedly by district and school officials their youths would be admitted to the high-performing but overcrowded Lincoln Elementary School on a first-come, first-serve basis. During the first day of registration on Feb. 2, about 30 to 35 parents showed up before dawn to be first in line, including a few who even camped out overnight. But when Principal Diane Garber arrived at 7 a.m., she told the parents the Burlingame Elementary School District had instituted a random lottery system for admissions.”

Ooh, yeah, that does suck! But it could be worse, Burlingame parents. You could have had your assured spot at Flynn or Alvarado yanked right out from under you.

Hi parents of kids aged 3-4! I know that you just yesterday got your kid into preschool, but it’s already time to start thinking about kindergarten. You may have heard your friends with older kids having anxious conversations about the San Francisco Unified School District’s lottery school-assignment system. It all starts with info-gluts like tonight’s Kindergarten Information night, a festive evening of chatting with administrators and teachers from more than 60 kindergartens around the city. Get ready for handouts, because Good Parent Regulation 602.31 requires your attendance.

When: Wed., 5/7, 6-8pm, Adults only; Free.

Where: Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. (at Presidio), San Francisco, 415-292-1283, jccsf.org.