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so 2008 was an incredibly important year for education in
san francisco. As many people know, we
established a framework of support for our public schools
that we think is a model for others, and it is called a
partnership for achievement. It was a memorandum of
understanding between the city and county of san francisco and
the independent school district. Rather than try to take over a
school board, as some mayors are doing, and I do not necessarily
criticize that. To me, it is just a solution in
search of a problem. we decided to have a framework
of understanding of areas where we thought we could become more
collaborative, more supportive. We have a $6.50 billion
bureaucracy. The school district has a much
more modest bureaucracy, but we thought if we organize in a way
that could actually begin to close the line or remove the
line between the city and county of sampras'
s, and the school district, recognizing that we
are not policy-makers, but we can support these kids before
school, even during school, after school, and certainly
during the summer months, then we could make a big difference
in achievement, and you can see some of the areas where we of
the supporting our school district, and these additional
areas, which I will amplify hear in this segment of our 2008
state of the city. One of the things that I am
particularly proud of in severance cisco is that we do
not look at the case 312 system as the k through 12 system.
- one of the things I to be prada in san francisco is that
we do not look at k through 12 system.
To me, it is anathema about what is going on around us, not just
internally as to making sure we have kids graduating from our
schools that can get jobs with in the school and county of san
francisco but even within the state of california, where this
country. In order to compete, we need to
focus on getting our kids prepared, in kindergarten, and
then making sure they can get into the real world by focusing
on our k through 12 education system and moving it to a k
through 16 education focus, so that is it, through 26
16 as opposed to 312.
Preschool. - as opposed through 12.
San francisco is the first city in california to initiate
universal preschool. We started in a number of years
ago. We initiated in just four zip
codes in our city, and now we have universal preschool that we
have rolled out to all of the zip codes in our city, and we
believe early 2010, not too far from now, we will have fully
implemented preschool, for all of those that look to stores or
needed, but we did already in 2008 does your wallet out into
every zip code in the city and county of san francisco.
- but we did already in 2008 roll it out.
In order to achieve any real results as relates to the
achievement gap, particularly for the african-american and
latino students, we have got to prepare our kids for
kindergarten. We had a company come in and do
a steady, a survey of preschool programs even child care
programs with the composite up and down the state of
california. no one scored particularly well
outside of our own city, and as you can see, a san francisco was
identified as a bright spot. That does not surprise many of
us, because we have investing a lot in our preschool system.
You can see in 2005, 2006, $3.50 million invested, in the last
year $11.25 million, 11 million $250,000 into our preschool
system, so every year, which are wrapping it up.
Again, I think a model for the rest of the state, arguably for
the country. I do not know there are many
cities, if any - I know that denver has one, but I do not
think many are as robust and as comprehensive as the city and
county of san francisco. Again, not k through 12, but
pre-k through 16. There is something else we have
to a dance that called san francisco promise.
Every sixth grader in our public schools should be guaranteed an
four-year college education. Again, pre-k to 16.
How you guaranteed a four-year education?
How do you do that? And where did you send all of
those kids? california state university
system. We actually asked them to allow
san francisco to become a pilot city through sand francisco
state university to engage in a partnership, a partnership we
have engaged in with the public schools, but with our state
university system, and to build capacity and opportunity for all
of our sixth graders and to make sure that they have college
preparatory courses to make sure that they are acquainted with
the opportunities that exist outside not just graduation day
as a senior in our public schools, and we developed in a
way to amplify that, parent workshops, tours, and training
programs that we believe can become a model for the state of
california. This is a really an exciting
program, and it is a program that as it was initiated this
year already allowed us to do something we never thought we
could do before, and that is - it May not seem like a lot, but
it is significant. We did on the psat, we allowed
all of the students to access free psat support, and, again,
these are just the kinds of things we can do to amplify the
opportunities outside of justice the year of high school.
Again, things that we think can resonate outside and things we
believe are a model to the rest of the country.
Another area we are focused is not just preschool and after you
graduate from high school, but, again, it - the lives of our
kids during school, and one of the areas where we are so
frustrated, we have this thing called no child left behind,
which has left behind tens of billions of dollars in funding,
but one of the areas where we do not have adequate funding is
arts education. In san francisco, we decided to
come together and are finding something called propositionh,
which was passed years ago. - proposition h.
We' re actually finding
comprehensive arts education, dance, music, theater.
Now, we have 72 elementary schools that have on site
coordinators for arts education, 24 in the middle high schools,
and some of our county timidity schools.
Again, we put more money because of prop 8 into a musical
equipment and the like. How many cities do not have
access to this? san francisco is not a city that
is going to leave behind support for things outside of
mathematics and science, as critically important as they
are. Not everyone will be enlivened
by mathematics and science, but we can create opportunities for
people to be fully express it. We can create the conditions
where people live their lives in a much more meaningful way by
participating artistically and building that'
s up steam, which is so important to a framework
of them building a life that we won all of our young people to
build, - building self-esteem, which is so important.
The other thing I referenced in the health care section in the
state of the city that I want to amplify here is putting doctors
and nurses back into the schools, as well.
Again, think back. How many doctors and nurses are
in our public schools today? When I was a young person, I
remember that there was a doctor and nurse, but how many have
doctors and nurses today? Not many.
In san francisco, we said enough is enough, and we are funding
putting doctors and nurses back in, and we are calling them
wellness centers, and we have 15 now in high schools, and we are
about to do five more in our middle schools, and this is
about adolescent mental health needs, critical to focus on
adolescent mental-health issues, a lot of stress, particularly in
certain sections of our city, where there is crime and
violence, a lot of posttraumatic stress, a lot of issues
associated with a lack of self- esteem and a lot of pressures
that young people go through to have that connection, this is
also important. These also act as critical
resources as well, and they connect for larger referrals,
connecting the entire health care delivery system of the
city, a way of developing support for our public schools,
so it is not just public schools in isolation as silos, where all
of the money comes from the state, a little from the feds,
and then a dollar or two from the government - we do not
believe that is the best approach.
Until the federal government gets its act together, and until
our state gets its at together, san francisco has stepped up,
and we are bearing wilfred. - and until our state gets its
act together. San francisco has stepped up,
and we are bearing fruit. Gibbs health prevention, health
care, mental, physical. - health prevention, health
care. Supporting the energy levels of
our kids to focus more intently on their schoolwork, but before
and after school, to make sure that they are prepared for the
opportunities that exist and develop in terms of engaging in
the broader community. We focused on getting them to
eat better, so we have these 25 salad bars in our schools.
this is a phenomenal success story.
It is something that I hope is in every one of our public
schools. It is a pilot program that was
just initiated, and it is something part of our green
initiative and our health initiative in our city, and when
I talk more about our environmental sector, I want to
talk more about the green initiatives that tie into these
systems, again, environmental health as well as physical and
mental health, a big part of our solutions, and I talked as well
about shape up, san francisco, in that section, and we are very
proud of our physical fitness that we have advanced by
partnering whitby school district to engage in more
physical activity during the school hours.
- we have engaged with the school district it
If we are going to do preschool
for all, why not do after school for all?
People say, wait a second. preschool is difficult.
If you' re going to do it, that
would be remarkable. After school is much more
complex and difficult. Well, if we hear another
professional talking about the importance of the hours between
3:00 and 7:00 P.M. And keeping our kids engaged, etc., we have
all heard of that. What are we doing about it?
i am proud that we have an initiative, a real initiative,
for after-school programs for all of our kids universally by
2010, and I want to say that we are on pace to meet that goal in
2010. This is a remarkable effort and
initiative to partner the good works of the entire team over
there with others who have committed themselves to this
effort, a lot of advisory committees, again, and board of
supervisors that is enlightened on this, and a city that says we
can do more, and we can do better, and we are raising the
bar, not just for preschool, not just for four-year college, and
not just for well as opportunities, but also after
school opportunities. Again, we think, a model for the
nation. Another area where we need to do
more and do better is supporting our teachers.
We all pay lip service to supporting our teachers, but we
need to do more than lip service.
We need to support them by giving them more money at
recognizing, I support and recognizing their work and
commitment and contribution, by supporting them, as well.
I could not be more proud of this.
We have established a program that you would have thought
would have been done years and years ago, and that is a teacher
of the month award, just simple recognition.
We will talk about money in a second, but this was not about
money. This was just about saying thank
you to our teachers. There is no one more important
when a child steps in a classroom, nothing and no one
more important to academic achievement.
It does not matter how good you are.
it does not matter how rich or parents are.
It does not matter the color of your skin.
What matters more than anything else is your teacher, so we have
to recognize that we are not supporting them enough.
One of the things we started recently as this teacher of the
month award, and we have recognized 17 outstanding
teachers, and we have an awards ceremony, and it is and that
standing thing. - that is an outstanding day.
We do give them some money, and we have done massages, and I
want to thin ank michael milken,
and the milliken family. they did this at an elementary
school, many receives $25,000 in bonuses.
Talk about recognition. Just this last week in san
francisco. It is that same spirit, and it
is a spirit that I think we can, again, elevate and continued to
contribute to I simply just thinking folks - thanking
folks, and there are a lot of teachers to be thankful for and
who should be complimented, as there are principals who are
doing extraordinary work. I do every single week, and i
visit them, sometimes two, sometimes three schools a week.
You can always tell how good a school is performing by the art
on the walls and by the first observation right when you meet
the principal and have engaged an enthusiastic that principle
is. They treat the condition and the
environment that allows teachers to prosper as well, and we
initiated a similar program for our principles, and that is a
program again that does not cost money but that needs to be done.
- a similar program for opera it'
s a palace - for our principals.
Let' s talk about the context of
money beyond these recognitions, but substantively, every single
day, not just those who are performing at the highest of the
high levels, but everyone else who is struggling to perform at
the high levels or struggling to make ends meet tuesday in san
francisco to teach or to justify their commute in sentences the
- or struggling to make ends meet to stay in san francisco.
There was proposition a, an opportunity not only to support
our teachers, again, financially, but to support them
through ongoing education, and incorporates a new
accountability strategy, as well, which is a trade-off.
We can do more by offering more cash and by demanding a little
more in return, and this was negotiated with the teachers'
union and negotiated with the school board and the city, and
carlos garcia is doing a great job.
It is because of the support of philanthropists, like warren,
that this initiative passed as overwhelmingly as it did.
Here is what it did. It is $28.50 million a year for
teachers raises, professional development, an ec technology
innovation is a part of it, and the opportunity - and you see
technology innovation is a part of it, and there is a
significant base salary increase.
Again, how many of us have heard about these cuts, teachers not
be able to be paid enough? In this economic climate, we are
paying our teachers $5,000 more just as a base line, but we also
added these other provisions that if you support our needs in
supporting a focus on hard to staff schools, and you are a
teacher, and you want to go there, which will give you
another $2,000. You have got a subject matter
that no one is teaching to, we will give you another thousand,
and another 2500 for a master teacher.
- we will give you another $2,000.
That is a 22% pay increase for some teachers in this city.
We just approved this. The voters in just approved
this. I am very thankful to san
franciscans to support our teachers in a meaningful and
substantial way. This act is leading the way, and
I compliment you for helping bridge the city'
s interests in this, as well as the school
districtd. Ufty and the supervisors - as
the school district. commissioner dufty and others,
we appreciate it. And we have a tax to fund this
new initiative. One of the other initiatives
that we are funding through our partnership for achievement is
the spirit spaces for youth. We are looking at opportunities
to build capacity. You know, you have got a school
day that begins and ends at a certain time, and during the
summer months, is basically locked down, but these are
community assets, and we want to share the space and the school
district with the citizens of san francisco and vice versa,
sure public spaces outside the school district with the school
district itself. - share public spaces outside
the school district with the school district itself.
We are taking school playgrounds that are locked up
after school and keeping them open.
We have 12 of them now. Our supervisor has led the way
in this opportunity to increase capacity of our playgrounds.
We think that we can do more with this in the future.
I cannot tell I have been in elected office for, the, 12
years, almost 13. It took about that long.
I have been in elected office for, I think, 12 years, almost
13. we had one community say
absolutely not, that school is locked down after school.
We do not trust the school outside the school to take care
of the playground, but in most cases, it has really worked, and
we think it is a model. I will talk a lot about another
topic in another section. we are actually at malcolm x
academy, creating opportunities for parents to get more support
so they become better parents, and they get financial literacy
training. They get support for their an
academic needs and to help them raise their children, as well,
and that is another way of using the schools in the evening hours
as anchors to the community, and that could not be more examples
than by this new grant, and in providence,
rhode island, and san francisco, we got hundreds of thousands of
dollars in this grant, but looking at the city schools as
community hubs and building on some of these principles that I
have an example by taking it to a whole other level, this is
something that is a preview. - that I have examples -
exampled. This is something I am very
proud of in terms of exercising the grants, again leading the
way and marking what the school district to build on that
capacity. We'
re also doing the same with our greeting exercises, and I
will talk more about this in our environmental section.
- with our greening exercises. we have a new director of the
environment and public schools, just doing a great job over
there be a they are doing a lot more environmental field trips.
- doing just a great job over there.
There are doing a lot more environmental field trips,
composting, assemblies. - they are doing a lot more.
i will talk more about that. All of this, again, making our
kids more attuned to the world around them, literally, not just
figuratively, at something I am very proud of has made a big
impact in this last year. Green schools, amplifying on the
service learning and our Ot diesel fleet, the school
district has, 100% biodiesel. We'll be talking a lot about
that in the transportation section of the state of the
city as well as the environmental section.
Solar, we've got 18 installations.
I thank pacific gas & electric for their installations on
school. We've got 30 school gardens and
money coming from our bonds that will fund even more school
gardens. The composting, which we'll
talk a lot more about. Already 70 schools are doing
composting of food waste. We talk about the salad bars,
what do they do with the broccoli they didn't eat?
We compost it, an we have through the environmental
learning initiatives, they'll actually put the food into a
food scrap bin and then it will be composted.
They'll get the dirt back. The nutrients coming from that
composting, and then they'll plant in these school gardens
the same food that they actually are eating in those
salad bars, again, creating a connection, a cradle to grave
connection to the earth that is really important.
I don't want to get too esoteric, but it's fundamental
to educating people and entertaining them at the same
time to the connection we have with mother nature.
Another area where we are trying to do more and we've got
to do better is truancy. This one, a little bit more of
a hard-headed focus. The dropout rate in this
country is a disgrace. 70% of high school students
graduate. It's deplorable for
african-american kids and hispanic kids and in san
francisco it's no different. We need to do better.
We need to do more. we've got good partnerships
with community-based organizations.
One of them is this new center for academic re-entry, the care
program. 60 youth.
It's not enough, but it's a good start that have been
served. We're seeing some progress.
We've got school attendance reviews that are happening with
this new review board and school coalition.
I recently went out with my friend patricia, my principal
over at balboa high school. I got so frustrated we started
knocking on doors together to try to get these kids to
school. We've got to do a better job at
this. And something for the new year,
rest assured, we're going to do more.
we're going to do better on true antsy and dropouts.
If that means I have to get an army of people to go in and
knock on these doors and support these parents, not just
by incarcerating them, but by supporting them.
Most of these kids that are dropping out, these are
families in crisis by and large.
And having visited a lot of these families, each and every
story was remarkable. I met one woman who was going
back to iraq and the daughter was terrified of her mother
leaving again. And we could talk about
arresting that mother for the kid not going to school, but
that is not going to help much in supporting that single
mother with her daughter that's not showing up to school.
We've got to support that daughter with some of the
emotional issues and the challenging issues of having a
mom going back to iraq for another tour of duty.
And that's one of the reasons, again, she's just too scared to
go to school and she's just too confused.
She is in need of a lot of support.
That's where the city can step in.
That's just an example of where we can do, I think, a better
job supporting some of these initiatives and doing better on
the dropout rates. Another area where I think we
can do more and do better is volunteerism.
I think it should be a rite of passage the I don't think you
should graduate public high school without giving back.
The thing I look forward to most, and I don't know what the
speech is going to look like. But when barack obama gives his
inaugural speech I expect it to resonate or rather the issue of
volunteerism to resonate as a big part of the speech.
Contribution. Giving back at time when we
need people to be more engaged and more involved in the life
of their community and their city and their state in this
nation and the world we're trying to build.
I think it should start in the schools.
So we have a program that we're trying to advance that does
require every child that graduates to have given back
sometime in terms of volunteerism.
Programs like the rotc help in doing that.
And I am happy that the rotc bill be passed.
I disagree with the war, just like many of you do.
the vast majority of you do. But this is a 90-year program
that was making a difference in kids' lives.
And I think that program deserves the support it
received by the voters, and we can restore that program and
restore that spirit of contribution and community and
volunteerism, building discipline and self-esteem.
we have another program called experience corps that also
deserves attention. This is getting seniors to give
back to their public schools and get involved in mentoring
and tutoring, and this is something we want to expand.
And then more partnerships, in the most benign sense, where
business leaders can come in and mentor the kids, talk about
what they're doing in the real world and how it can resonate
in the lives of our children. All told, our city investment
in the public schools has increased exponentially over
the years. Just $8.4 million a few years
ago. Now $46.6 million of city money
that we've transferred over to the public schools.
That's a full 150% increase. This does not, however, include
the rainy day fund money. If the governor's $2.5 billion
goes into effect and we see another $20 million of cuts
locally in our public schools, the rainy-day fund will be
triggered, and that means that our investment will actually
grow to 677%, because we've already set aside the money to
go up to $65 million from the $46.6 million, if indeed we
have to utilize that rainy day fund.
So, again, this is a city that walks its talk, a city that is
investing well beyond its prop h mandates, incidentally, into
supporting our kids with these programs as well as these
dollar resources. Another area that deserves some
attention in terms of public education is the investment the
public's made. You look at these facility
bonds. $295 million in 2003.
The prop h, which I just referenced, prop a in 2005.
city college, which is another one of our partners as it
relates to building capacity and partnerships to allow our
kids to look beyond just 212. And then the big one, which was
a $450 million school bond and i referenced earlier the $28.5
million, which was the partial tax, another prop a, all the
education bonds, education set asides are a's on the ballot,
appropriately so and we've gun getting straight a's in this
city. The voters have been getting it
right each and every time and I want to congratulate the voters
of san francisco for stepping up and supporting these school
bonds and these initiatives for our public schools.
What has it all meant? Well, what it's meant is that
we're the top-performing urban school district in the state of
california. Number one in the state of
california seven years in a row with improved test scores.
You can see where our schools are compared, in terms of our
test scores, compared to everybody else.
here all the other counties in the state of california,
there's the state average. We're ahead in math and english
language, arts, again, compliments to the
superintendent garcia, men do zarks the liaison, committees
to the city of san francisco and to the board of supervisors
and the elected officials for stepping up and stepping in.
These numbers are examples of the commitment and the success
of these partnerships. The bar's low.
Urban school district. But we are raising it in
contrast to others in san diego, oakland, fresno, L.A.
No one's doing better. We can do more, but I'm very
proud of those efforts. Final two points.
We want to do more in science and math.
So one of the things we are looking forward to is investing
in a new k-8 small school. When 3,600 housing units are
developed in mission bay area, we now have the opportunity to
receive, pursuant to that development agreement, a site
for a few school in mission bay.
Basically a new neighborhood being conceived for a new
school. We want this school to be a
science and technology school, focus, again, k-8.
One of the things we want to add to the school is create a
science center so that high school students can also access
this school and teachers can access the school site for
professional development. Again, anchored in the heart of
mission bay, where some of the most innovative companies in
the world are operating, where our stem cell research center
is operating, where the campus site exists.
What an ideal space to lead the nation with an innovative 28
program. I mention - k-8 program.
I mentioned this in my speech, and I want to say there's a lot
of progress being made and in 2009 I hope we initiate the
progress in a formal way not just between the school
districts and the city, but institutions of higher learning
who can also take advantage of this, the state university
system, the U.C. System. We have a framework to do
something extraordinary and that's something we look
forward to advancing. We have not walked away from
this. We're absolutely committed.
and, again, 2009 I think is when we'll get most of that
done. So, again, we want to continue
our efforts in advocacy to lead by example.
We want to continue with the new speaker of the house and
the new President To advocate for federal resources and
investments that could pay great dividends and that could
be models, that could be scaled in other cities.
again, we love to be the first out front.
We talked about S.F. Promise. We're going to continue to
advocate for more federal resources to advance that
program. We've got a new child nutrition
act that's being reauthorized. We want to focus on our
wellness strategies and our health care strategies and
prevention strategies and we want to make sure we get that
one right. We also have some legislation
that we are supporting at the state level about data and
dropouts and truancy to make sure everyone gets the same
measurements and we're all on the same page.
And we want to focus on this educational round table where
the mayor of fresno and others have been working to get more
support between the governor's office, superintendents and
mayors up and down the state. And we've got a new initiative
on truancy that we're advancing at the state with this
education round table. And finally, the reduced and
free lunch program. Look, we're a high-cost place
to live, and we need to get more support for our free and
reduced lunch program. Hawaii and alaska have some
benefits that a lot of states and cities don't receive.
We think san francisco should be considered for those same
benefits, and that's another area that we'll be focusing on.
All told the state of education in san francisco can be better,
but we're doing very well. Top performing urban school
district in the state, a partnership that we believe is
an envy for the rest of the nation, pre-k to 16.
We think this city is moving in the right direction.
We appreciate the public's patience in terms of getting
the school district where it needs to negotiation but I'm
feeling very good about the state of the district in
contrast to where we were even just a year or two years ago.