The new executive director of Parents for Public Schools–San Francisco — a network of parents who work with the school district to improve public education in The City — urges parents to volunteer, join committees and get involved in their children’s schools.
Why is parental involvement so important?
Research has shown that parental involvement is one of the strongest indicators of student success.
What are your goals as head of Parents for Public Schools?
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Donald Vargo, 61, has survived three heart attacks and a stroke in the past two decades. He suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, and sometimes chest pain keeps him awake half the night. But while Vargo knows he is dying, the Navy veteran is determined to pack as much life as he can into the time he has left.
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A new San Francisco Unified School District administrator allegedly used unorthodox disciplinary methods in previous jobs as a principal in Boston and suburban Atlanta, leading to a successful lawsuit in one instance and her resignation in the other.
Esther Adames, formerly known as Esther Adames-Jimenez, was accused in the first case of punishing a 4-year-old who had bitten his peers by ordering them to bite him back, an allegation that she denied. In the second incident, Adames admitted forcing a boy to shock himself with a novelty pen he had brought to school.
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As City College of San Francisco awaits an accreditation review that is expected to highlight its faltering grip on financial solvency, college officials have compiled an austere budget for the 2012-13 school year that has more cutbacks in store if voters do not approve a tax measure in November promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown.
“The college is facing a historic, unprecedented fiscal crisis,” Interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher said in an address to faculty last month.
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In 1987, more than half a century after San Francisco built the O’Shaughnessy Dam, the debate over the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was briefly rekindled.
Donald Hodel, President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the Interior Department, may have seemed an unlikely environmentalist, but San Francisco leaders saw no joke in his proposal that the reservoir be drained.
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Graduation rates are up for San Francisco’s high schools, according to new data from the California Department of Education.
The San Francisco Unified School District’s four-year graduation rate for the class of 2011 was more than 82.2 percent, nearly five points higher than in 2010. The state average was just 76.3 percent
Hispanic students showed the greatest gain, from 59.4 percent to 67.8 percent. Black students gained seven points, to 64 percent.
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Along with its open-mindedness, embrace of eccentricity and political liberalism, nothing so defines San Francisco as its desire to be green. The Bay Area was the birthplace of environmentalism, and we express our ecological sensibility in everything from locally raised food to hybrid cars to bans on plastic bags.
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Despite lingering uncertainty about the outcome of labor negotiations and the amount of state funding that will be available after voters have their say on proposed tax increases in November, the San Francisco school board unanimously approved an austere but balanced 2012-13 budget Tuesday night.
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In the minds of many San Franciscans, The City’s tap water is indelibly linked to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. But recently, when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced plans to drill new wells on the west side of The City, officials concluded that they might have oversold the Hetch Hetchy brand.
“One of the things we’ve heard from people on the west side is, ‘You’re going to make us drink groundwater, instead of that pristine Hetch Hetchy water? You’re discriminating against us!’” recalled Steve Ritchie, an assistant general manager.
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Restore Hetch Hetchy operates out of a shabby fifth-floor office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, across Mission Street from abandoned storefronts and a rundown SRO hotel. The small nonprofit's staff is forced to drink bottled water, because the aging buildings rusting pipes make tap water unpalatable.
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Yosemite National Park draws up to 4 million visitors each year. They come to admire the stunning granite of Yosemite Valley, hike in the Sierra Nevada and enjoy the unspoiled wilderness. Yet Yosemite also is the source of 85 percent of San Francisco’s drinking water. And that has made it the setting of one of the country’s longest-running environmental debates.
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Lisa Willson and her partner, both emergency medical technicians, know firsthand how important it is for children to learn how to swim when they live in a city surrounded by water.
“We both see more than we want to, near-drownings mostly,” said Willson, whose son, Zachary, is 5. “It’s hard, especially with children.”
Click on the image to the right to see more information about the pool situation in San Francisco.
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Green day? Activists say companies use Pride to “buy favor” with LGBT people.
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Money earmarked for programs in San Francisco schools — including physical education, art and music — will be diverted to the district’s general fund to allow the district to maintain financial reserves required by law.
The school board voted Tuesday night to divert $16 million out of $62 million in state funds earmarked for specific education programs. The vote was a required step before the board can approve a 2012-13 school-year budget.
The board voted 5-2 to divert the money, with board members Sandra Fewer and Kim-Shree Maufas dissenting.
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San Francisco is home to 35,000 children under 5, and many of their parents rely on a patchwork of public programs for day care and preschool. The school district, three city agencies and a bevy of nonprofit groups offer options for all kinds of families — but navigating the system can be confusing.
So last month, as part of his budget proposal, Mayor Ed Lee announced his intention to combine all city services for young children and their families into a single office, which would be created if the Board of Supervisors approves the mayor’s budget.
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