Four years ago, students at Everett Middle School were afraid to walk the halls. The campus, located on the border of the Castro and Mission districts, had a reputation for violence and low test scores. The San Francisco Unified School District decided to turn to the federal government for help.
Now, the changes made possible through the School Improvement Grants program are noticeable — and federal and state officials have taken notice as well, citing San Francisco as a model for how to approach underperforming schools and how to fund them.
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A complaint filed against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges requests the removal of the harshest sanction issued against City College of San Francisco, claiming the commission violated “federal law, state law and their own guidelines.”
The California Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, which jointly filed the claim this week, say the commission is designed to review CCSF’s educational program but that instead it evaluated the administration and finances, among other things.
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City College of San Francisco department chairs will be back in the classroom, albeit in reduced numbers, and working on-site five days a week.
An agreement with the Department Chair Council was approved by the board of trustees Thursday.
“This contract will go a long way toward helping our college achieve a more sustainable economic and management structure, which will be a critical step toward keeping our accreditation,” Interim Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman said in a statement. “It is our hope that other campus unions will now follow the DCC’s lead.”
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Lea Lunden learned in January that San Francisco State University graduates’ names are not read as part of the school’s official ceremony. For such audible recognition, the psychology major could attend her department’s dinner cruise — but Lunden and any guests of hers would have to fork over $85 apiece. Neither she nor many of her Psychology Department classmates can afford the Hornblower cruise event, so Lunden has been searching for a venue big enough to hold students and their friends and families. She also wants to keep the price at $20 per person.
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Three supervisors are calling on City College to use millions of dollars from a parcel tax to fund more classes rather than shoring up its financial reserves as college accreditation officials have warned it to do.
The nonbinding resolution, introduced Tuesday at a Board of Supervisors committee, asks CCSF to use the $16 million it will receive from Proposition A each year for the next eight years to fund classes.
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The 61 department chairs at City College of San Francisco are keeping their jobs but taking large pay cuts under a tentative labor agreement.
The agreement, if approved by the Department Chair Council and the board of trustees, would reduce the school’s costs by more than $1 million annually.
Darlene Alioto, president of the council and chairwoman of the social sciences department, said taking the pay cut is telling.
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Students from the San Mateo County Community College District are expected to be the first in California to have the opportunity to apply for a program to travel to China, free of charge, to study the language and learn about the nation’s economics and relationship with the U.S.
“It’s exciting,” said district Chancellor Ron Galatolo. “We have a number of students who come here from China, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to send our folks to China.”
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Black and Pacific Islander students in The City have been graduating high school at a higher rate, and local educators say the key has been changing the mindset of kids living in disadvantaged communities.
In the past two years, the graduation rate among black students in the San Francisco Unified School District has increased significantly, jumping from 56.9 percent in the 2009-10 school year to 70.8 percent last school year, according to data released Tuesday by the California Department of Education.
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Last month, Sophia kept her 8-year-old daughter out of school because of alleged bullying that she thought was not being properly addressed by school administrators.
Tired of waiting for a satisfactory official response to a situation that she says began in August, Sophia called police after her daughter was allegedly thrown to the ground by her neck. That’s when she removed the girl from class.
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State and local officials are joining UC San Francisco Medical Center employees today for a rally to protest against the decision to cut nearly 300 positions.
The medical center says the staff reductions are being made to prepare for costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping health care reform signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17506/17506?page=1&type%5bstory%5d=story
