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From: Your Name <you@example.com>
To: carlosgarcia@sfusd.edu,leighm@sfusd.edu,limd1@sfusd.edu,WynnsJ@sfusd.edu,YeeN1@sfusd.edu,MendozaH@sfusd.edu, mare@sfusd.edu,kimj7@sfusd.edu,MaufasKS@sfusd.edu,sanchezm5@sfusd.edu,fokina@sfusd.edu
Subject: Petition to SFUSD
Dear Superintendent Garcia, Darlene Lim, and members of the School Board,
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our hope that you will keep the spots you are offering to the displaced families from Flynn and Alvarado open to those of us who are listed in the waitpools for those schools, both in the August run and in the 10 day count.
We are pleased that you are making accommodations for the 23 families, spreading the impact over the district by increasing a few class sizes at the most popular schools to 21 kindergarteners. Since the District is prepared to expand the number of slots by two at select schools, we are requesting that --regardless of any movement during the 10 day count-- that you continue to keep those places available, and not reduce the open spots by two (to return the class size to 20) when attrition occurs during the 10-day count. In this way, the spots that you are generously offering to the displaced Flynn and Alvarado families now would not be ones that were simply being taken away from those of us who received nothing in Round I or Round II and are in the waitpools for those schools.
In addition, we would like to request that you keep the waitpools open for all schools until the end of the first semester of this year.
In your literature and publicity about the SFUSD assignment process, you say that it "promotes and supports family choice", and that 87% of families receive one of their Round I choices. The implication often heard during the application process about those families who did not get their choice, is usually that those families did not list 7 choices or that they only listed the "7 most popular" schools.
Many of us with soon-to-be kindergarteners diligently took time off of work and got extra childcare to spend the fall and early winter touring the 10 or 15 schools closest to us in order to make sure that we listed 7 schools that would be good fits for our family and our children in years to come. We made sure that our list included schools that were underenrolled or were not as popular the year before. We got excited about our child's attending any one of those schools. Little did we know that nearly half of us (45%) whose first child was entering kindergarten would not receive ANY of our choices.
So we scrambled to visit more schools to try to expand our lists for Round II. We included schools that were nearly always underenrolled, we included schools farther away, and still, many of us got nothing.
In Open Enrollment, we had few choices, and many of us ended up enrolling our children in schools which were across the city, with start times that were difficult for work schedules, ending times difficult for younger siblings' nap schedules, some with no aftercare options. Many of these schools had qualities which might be a good fit for some families, but were completely different than what we had been looking for in our original and exhaustive searches. This is not "family choice" at all. For 45% of us, it is random placement, at a school which could be across town, unworkable logistically, which may not be a good fit for our families.
We do not think that this is how the system was intended to function, and it is certainly not how the SFUSD portrays the system as an attempt to keep families in San Francisco and attending public schools.
Those of us who got nothing in Round I were counting on our priority status in this last waitpool run in August, and especially in the 10 day count, to give us a chance at getting a school that works for us logistically, a school we could be happy for our children to attend, a school we could be involved in, a school we could love. We were counting on the fact that, aside from those with a family hardship, those of us who had gotten nothing in Round I after listing 7 choices, would be given the highest priority in filling spots left by children who were enrolled, but not planning to attend kindergarten in public school in San Francisco this year.
Now we have learned that, to rectify a District error, families displaced from the Flynn and Alvarado immersion programs will be offered a special lottery, where they can choose from "found" spots at many of our neighborhood schools, where we have sat on the waitpools for months with no movement. We do not begrudge these families the right to the best solution, given what has been done to them. But we question why the solution that has been found cannot be left in place for us as well, so that any slot one of these families takes, does not take away a spot from anyone in the waitpool.
This is simple to remedy: the EPC would only have to agree to keep those spots open through the waitpool run after the 10 day count, so that any spots taken by the displaced families were, if more spots opened at the school through attrition, not lost to those of us in the waitpool. We urge you to do so, as a part of your attempt to make the idea of "family choice" a bit closer to reality.
Your Name
Your Organization
123 Your St.
Yousville, YO 12345
Phone: (123)456-7890
Fax: (123)456-7890x123
p.s.
Your Personal Statement
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To: carlosgarcia@sfusd.edu,leighm@sfusd.edu,limd1@sfusd.edu,WynnsJ@sfusd.edu,YeeN1@sfusd.edu,MendozaH@sfusd.edu, mare@sfusd.edu,kimj7@sfusd.edu,MaufasKS@sfusd.edu,sanchezm5@sfusd.edu,fokina@sfusd.edu
Subject: Petition to SFUSD
Dear Superintendent Garcia, Darlene Lim, and members of the School Board,
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our hope that you will keep the spots you are offering to the displaced families from Flynn and Alvarado open to those of us who are listed in the waitpools for those schools, both in the August run and in the 10 day count.
We are pleased that you are making accommodations for the 23 families, spreading the impact over the district by increasing a few class sizes at the most popular schools to 21 kindergarteners. Since the District is prepared to expand the number of slots by two at select schools, we are requesting that --regardless of any movement during the 10 day count-- that you continue to keep those places available, and not reduce the open spots by two (to return the class size to 20) when attrition occurs during the 10-day count. In this way, the spots that you are generously offering to the displaced Flynn and Alvarado families now would not be ones that were simply being taken away from those of us who received nothing in Round I or Round II and are in the waitpools for those schools.
In addition, we would like to request that you keep the waitpools open for all schools until the end of the first semester of this year.
In your literature and publicity about the SFUSD assignment process, you say that it "promotes and supports family choice", and that 87% of families receive one of their Round I choices. The implication often heard during the application process about those families who did not get their choice, is usually that those families did not list 7 choices or that they only listed the "7 most popular" schools.
Many of us with soon-to-be kindergarteners diligently took time off of work and got extra childcare to spend the fall and early winter touring the 10 or 15 schools closest to us in order to make sure that we listed 7 schools that would be good fits for our family and our children in years to come. We made sure that our list included schools that were underenrolled or were not as popular the year before. We got excited about our child's attending any one of those schools. Little did we know that nearly half of us (45%) whose first child was entering kindergarten would not receive ANY of our choices.
So we scrambled to visit more schools to try to expand our lists for Round II. We included schools that were nearly always underenrolled, we included schools farther away, and still, many of us got nothing.
In Open Enrollment, we had few choices, and many of us ended up enrolling our children in schools which were across the city, with start times that were difficult for work schedules, ending times difficult for younger siblings' nap schedules, some with no aftercare options. Many of these schools had qualities which might be a good fit for some families, but were completely different than what we had been looking for in our original and exhaustive searches. This is not "family choice" at all. For 45% of us, it is random placement, at a school which could be across town, unworkable logistically, which may not be a good fit for our families.
We do not think that this is how the system was intended to function, and it is certainly not how the SFUSD portrays the system as an attempt to keep families in San Francisco and attending public schools.
Those of us who got nothing in Round I were counting on our priority status in this last waitpool run in August, and especially in the 10 day count, to give us a chance at getting a school that works for us logistically, a school we could be happy for our children to attend, a school we could be involved in, a school we could love. We were counting on the fact that, aside from those with a family hardship, those of us who had gotten nothing in Round I after listing 7 choices, would be given the highest priority in filling spots left by children who were enrolled, but not planning to attend kindergarten in public school in San Francisco this year.
Now we have learned that, to rectify a District error, families displaced from the Flynn and Alvarado immersion programs will be offered a special lottery, where they can choose from "found" spots at many of our neighborhood schools, where we have sat on the waitpools for months with no movement. We do not begrudge these families the right to the best solution, given what has been done to them. But we question why the solution that has been found cannot be left in place for us as well, so that any slot one of these families takes, does not take away a spot from anyone in the waitpool.
This is simple to remedy: the EPC would only have to agree to keep those spots open through the waitpool run after the 10 day count, so that any spots taken by the displaced families were, if more spots opened at the school through attrition, not lost to those of us in the waitpool. We urge you to do so, as a part of your attempt to make the idea of "family choice" a bit closer to reality.
Your Name
Your Organization
123 Your St.
Yousville, YO 12345
Phone: (123)456-7890
Fax: (123)456-7890x123
p.s.
Your Personal Statement
--
Delivered by CitizenSpeak!
Report abuse to abuse@citizenspeak.org [1325]
