Upcoming Board of Education Meetings
Regular Board of Education meeting this week!
Board of Education meeting: Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at 6:00
Action items (lots of new and updated policies!):
Policies on use of Federal grant funds and other gifts, grants and bequests
For example, a grant can’t require that the Board create an unsustainable or excessively costly program, can’t promote use of violence, drugs, alcohol etc., and can’t require product endorsement.
Gifted books or instructional materials must meet the district’s regular selection criteria
Corporate sponsorships of programs or activities must be in a written agreement and approved by the board.
Policy about time limits and process for bringing claims against the district
Policies on Environmental Hazards and Hazardous Substances
these include protocol for what happens when an environmental hazard (like lead in the water) is detected at a school site
Three policies related to employee compensation
Policies on Non-discrimination and Hate Motivated Behavior
clarifies policy and specifies no racially derogatory or discriminatory school or athletic team names
includes new protection to keep personally identified information from being disclosed to ICE
mandates instruction for students on understanding of and respect for human rights, diversity, and acceptance
provides counselling for students who exhibit hate motivated behavior and victims
Policy on Food Service Operations
incorporates “Buy American Provisions”
also advocates for procurement of food prioritizing small and medium growers writing 250 miles of SF
The board will vote to approve changes to its policy on Student Assignment and the Lowell Admissions Policy.
Student Assignment — policy change relates to: 1) adding a “Bayview preference, ” in the middle school assignment system; 2) codifying the practice of granting educators hardship appeals in the assignment process; and 3) updating the policy to include the assignment policy and tie-breakers for assignment to transitional kindergarten.
The Bayview preference would create a tie-breaker in the middle school student assignment process for students attending K-5th grade at one of the four elementary schools in the Bayview (Dr. George Washington Carver, Dr. Charles Drew, Bret Harte, Malcolm X Academy ). This tiebreaker would fall below the sibling and feeder elementary tiebreakers and above the existing CTIP1 census tract tiebreaker.
The policy would also be updated to memorialize the existing practices of providing a staff priority during the student assignment hardship appeals process to all permanent, full-time, site-based staff who live in San Francisco and who wish to have their child attend the school where they are employed.
Finally the policy would also be updated to reflect the current practice with respect to the TK assignment process.
Proposed policy is here
Lowell Admissions Policy — proposed policy amendment primarily makes changes with respect to Band 3 enrollment.
Approximately 15% of applicants are admitted each year through Band 3, which admits students to Lowell High School from “underrepresented” public and private middle schools in San Francisco, based on “points” (calculated from GPA and testing) and principal recommendation .
Under the amended policy, any student who has attended 6th-8th grades at Willie Brown Middle School and receives a minimum of 64 points (the minimum required for all applicants under Band 3) will be eligible for assignment to Lowell High School, regardless of whether students from Willie Brown Middle School are “underrepresented or overrepresented” at Lowell High School in a given year.
Proposed policy is here
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 the time given may be shorter if there are a large number of speakers.
Recording and Live Coverage of Meetings
We will be live tweeting from Tuesday night's meeting! Follow us on Twitter (you don't need an account to follow) @ppssf #BoardWatch
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.