Upcoming Board of Education Meetings

SFUSD Board of Education holds its regular meeting Tuesday evening. Thursday the board's Curriculum and Program Committee meets at 5:30.  

Board of Education meeting: Tuesday February 13 @ 6PM in the Board Room at 555 Franklin Street.

Agenda for the meeting here

Topics to be discussed include:

• National Board Certified teachers will be recognized. Receiving National Board Certification is a rigorous and respected professional certification for educators. More information here 
• The Parent Advisory Council will give their monthly report to the Board of Education. More information about the PAC and other school district advisory councils parents and guardians can join is here
• Proposals for Action:
  • Policy on use of school facilities: this policy sets out the tiered fee structure SFUSD has in place for organizations wishing to use SFUSD classrooms or other school spaces. Two committees (rules and budget) gave this policy a positive recommendation. Details here.
  • Extracurricular and Cocurricular Activities
    • This policy was originally scheduled to be voted on by the board at the January 23, 2018 Board of Education meeting but the vote was postponed.
    • The purpose of the policy is to align district policy with state and federal law to limit prerequisites to participate in school activities, and prohibit discrimination.
    • One part of the originally proposed policy states "no student shall be charged a fee for his/her participation in educational activities.”
    • When this policy was discussed at the Rules committee in January, Commissioners Murase and Sanchez discussed the desirability of adding to this policy a requirement that students should not be required to pay fee to attend "student performances, recitals or exhibitions of student work except that students may be charged a fee to attend student athletic competitions.”  The stated rationale for this addition was that the commissioners viewed these as “educational activities” which all students should have access to regardless of ability to pay. Athletics on the other hand, were not viewed as “educational activities.”
    • Many students and other community members spoke passionately at the January 23, 2018 Board of Education meeting about serious impacts they believed this policy change would have on existing high school arts clubs that rely heavily on ticket sales to fund their programs.
    • The Board of Education postponed the vote on the policy on and noted that it would be referred for a fiscal impact analysis and be brought back for a vote at February 13, 2018 meeting. 
    • There was no mention of a fiscal impact analysis on this item at the February 7, 2018 Budget and Business Services Committee meeting.
    • The policy is slated to be voted on, either in its original form, or with a proposed amendment brought by the Student Advisory Council that would replace the language disallowing fees to be charged for student performances, recitals and exhibitions, with the following: "District staff shall collaborate with the Student Advisory Council (SAC) to develop administrative regulations to ensure that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, have equitable access to all extracurricular and cocurricular activities (including athletics, student performances, recitals, and exhibitions).”
• Report on KALW, a community broadcast service of the San Francisco Unified School District.
• Introduction of proposals for "first read" - they will be referred to one or more committee for discussion and then will come back for a vote ("second read") at a later meeting. Proposals to be introduced include new or updated policies on the following topics:

  •  Naming of Facilities - process and guidelines

  • Drug and Alcohol Free Schools: reflects Proposition 64 (2016) which prohibits any person from possessing, smoking, or ingesting cannabis on school grounds while children are present

  • Parent Involvement: reflects new federal law ("ESSA") which requires the District to have a written parent/guardian and family engagement policy developed jointly with and agreed upon by parents/guardians and family members of participating students

  • Budget: reflects new state requirements for budget reserve balance

  • Advertising and Promotion: this policy covers what types of materials can be distributed at schools, guidelines for advertising in school publications like yearbooks, display of corporate and other sponsorship logos on donated materials. There is some specific new language that disallows any donated materials or advertisements that promote "during the school day any food or beverage that does not comply with state nutritional standards ... including  corporate incentive program that offers free or discounted foods or beverages that do not meet nutritional standards as rewards for students who reach certain academic goals." 

  • Title I Programs: requires that services, salaries, staffing etc are equivalent between schools receiving Title 1 funds and those not receiving Title 1 funds

Curriculum and Program Committee meeting: Thursday, February 25 @ 5:30PM in the Board Room at 555 Franklin Street.

Agenda for the meeting here

Topics to be discussed:

• Policy on Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS instruction: provides for parental notification and ability for a parent to opt a student out of such instruction by written request
• Informational update on curricula related social media 
• Informational update on LGBTQ studies

Public Comment

There is always an opportunity for public comment at school board meetings.

At regular meetings, speakers may speak to any item being voted on or may give general public comment during the time reserved for "Public Comment on General Matters." Speakers must sign up in advance, either by calling the board office at (415) 241-6493 or filling out a speaker card at the meeting and handing it to Esther Casco, the executive assistant to the board who sits next to the podium. Speaker cards must be turned in before the agenda item being spoken to is officially "called."

At committee meetings, those wishing to speak may sign up in advance or simply approach the podium when the committee chair calls for public comment.

Members of the public are typically allowed two minutes to speak, but time given may be shorter if there are a large number of speakers.

Recording and Live Coverage of Meetings

You can access recordings of regular and committee meetings.

Video recordings of regular meetings (not available for committee meetings)

Audio recordings of committee meetings (click where it says "audio recording," under the meeting agenda)

Recordings are usually posted a few days after the meeting.

Regular board meetings are also broadcast live on KALW, SFGOVTV2, and via live webcast.

#BoardWatch: PPS-SF live tweet coverage

Follow PPS-SF's twitter feed: this week we plan to cover the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night. You don't need to have a Twitter account to follow! Just log on to Twitter and search @ppssf #BoardWatch.