It Takes a Community: Yee's Plan to Strengthen San Francisco's Public Schools

By Leland Yee

Yee's plan for education is built on the belief that our schools will never be at their best until they are truly community schools + working for the community, and fully supported by the community. His plan addresses four key areas: students, teachers, parents, and community partnerships. It contains 22 specific policy commitments that he will make his priority to accomplish as Mayor.

A recent city-commissioned survey found that over 40% of San Francisco families with children under 5 plan to leave the city. A key reason is the perceived lack of quality of our public schools. 
As Mayor, Leland Yee will mount a comprehensive effort to turn that perception around and address the underlying problems facing our school system.

Leland Yee understands that the School Board, the School Superintendent, and the school stakeholders which include teachers, parents and students, are the ones who set and implement policy. He also understands that a fully engaged and committed Mayor, working in partnership, can make a real difference.

Yee's plan for education, as outlined below, is built on the belief that our schools will never be at their best until they are truly community schools + working for the community, and fully supported by the community. His plan addresses four key areas: students, teachers, parents, and community partnerships. It contains 22 specific policy commitments that he will make his priority to accomplish as Mayor.

PUT STUDENTS FIRST

1. Increase student success with wrap-around "community school" services

A long-time supporter of using schools to serve the community, as well as bringing services to school families directly through school programs, Leland Yee believes that community schools are the future of our education system. Community schools connect students and families to academic, health and social service resources and can improve the efficiency of services already provided by the City to these individuals. They also increase academic performance, school quality, parent involvement and community engagement--all key factors in student and school success. As Mayor, Yee will take concrete steps to move the city closer to the community school model by: helping the district leverage the maximum in federal and state dollars to spread the community school model across the city; working as a partner and convener to make sure the nuts and bolts are in place; and bringing together San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and community organizations to collaboratively align school and city services to best leverage resources and available funding.

2. Prioritize underperforming schools for community school reforms

Last year, 10 San Francisco schools in some of our most underserved neighborhoods were identified as chronically underperforming. These schools have since been placed within "Superintendent's Zones" to leverage federal grant money and increased resources to turn these schools around. Yee will work with Superintendent Carlos Garcia and school-site educators to target the first phase of community school-building efforts within these superintendent zones to ensure the first who receive critical wrap-around services are the kids and families who need them most.

3. Reduce truancy and dropout rates, and expand programs for at-risk youth


Anti-truancy initiatives pioneered by District Attorney Kamala Harris and the SFUSD have made progress in cutting down truancy. Still, SFUSD's truancy rates are higher than the state average and other comparable counties, including Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Chronic truancy leads to dropping out of school, and both have a strong correlation with crime--between 2005-2010, 94% of San Francisco's homicide victims under the age of 25 did not graduate from high school. As Mayor, Yee will support and expand successful programs like the DA's Truancy Intervention Program, which has reduced elementary school truancy by 33%. Yee will work with stakeholders, including school parent liaison staff, to find strategies that work for middle and high school students, like integrating the recently created Truancy Assessment and Resource Center (TARC) into the community school model to expand its influence. Today, it's a centralized office where students and their families can address the obstacles that might lead to truancy by meeting with caseworkers who can direct them to city or community resources. As part of Yee's community schools, TARC caseworkers and resources can be available at school sites so every child and family has access to this critical support.

4. Free Muni for public school students

While Yee voted against state budget cuts to schools, such fiscal constraints have forced SFUSD to cut its transportation budget nearly in half--from $6 million down to just under $3.5 million--over the next three years. That means no more bus service for 11 schools this year, with more to follow. Meanwhile, Muni passes for youth doubled in price this year from $10 to $20 a month. That's not right. Transportation to school should be affordable and accessible for all students and families. As Mayor, Yee will bring back free Muni passes for low-income students, and run a new pilot to extend those free passes to kids whose bus service has been eliminated.

5. Promote school-based healthcare services for the entire family

A healthy student is critical for academic success. In San Francisco, the challenge is to connect students and their families to the healthcare programs they are eligible for. 100% of children in families with incomes from 0% to 300% of the federal poverty level have some form of public health coverage or private insurance--that's the best in the state. Yee recently helped pass a new state law that extends eligibility to 400% of the federal poverty level. As Mayor, he'll make sure school-based health programs, like the San Francisco Wellness Initiative in our high schools and similar programs that will comprise community school-based services, are available to this new population. A similar effort will be necessary with impending federal health reforms that will shift many HealthySF recipients onto MediCal--that means parents and family members of kids receiving healthcare through Healthy Families or Healthy Kids will need help transitioning to a new program. By providing services through the schools for parents, children, and any member of the community, we can ensure universal coverage and access in San Francisco and a decrease in missed school days, especially in underserved areas that need it most.

6. Expand nutrition education to improve healthy eating at home


Yee has long fought for better nutrition standards statewide. San Francisco leads the nation in meeting and exceeding nutritional standards + providing high quality food, local products and fresh produce. It is critical that San Francisco's children receive proper nutrition and nutrition education to maximize their ability to succeed in the classroom and at home. Sixty-five percent of teachers nationwide report they have kids in their class who show up hungry every day, and we must continue our hard work to keep that from happening in San Francisco. SFUSD is setting the standard for nutritional excellence, and the City should follow that lead. Summer programs run by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) fed more than 4,400 kids each day and demonstrated that a free meal program featuring organic fruits and local meat is sustainable in San Francisco. As Mayor, Yee will work to expand support for healthy meals and nutrition education services at before-school and after-school programs throughout the city. By partnering with local community gardens to extend healthy learning beyond traditional school hours, we can bring kids and families together to learn about and practice healthy choices at school and at home.

7. Bridge the digital divide

San Francisco is increasingly becoming the home of tech leaders like Zynga and Twitter. But the existing evidence raises the question of whether we have made real progress in bridging the digital divide. A 2005 report from the California Board of Education ranked San Francisco dead last in computers per 100 students and in classrooms without internet among all cities in the state. As of 2007, black residents were two times less likely and Latino residents were four times less likely than white residents to have home internet access. Neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, Tenderloin, Mission, and Excelsior all have significantly lower rates of home technology use than other San Francisco neighborhoods. To bring internet access to those who don't have it, Yee will work with local businesses that can deliver broadband as a universal lifeline service to all San Franciscans who need it, and use city infrastructure like schools, firehouses, and police stations to deploy it city-wide. To ensure that all children have access to computers, Yee will work to expand access at schools and libraries, and work with the community to replicate a program just announced in Chicago to provide computers to low-income families whose children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch through a public-private partnership.

8. Make college a goal for every student

A child with a college savings account is seven times more likely to attend college than one without--regardless of income, race or academic achievement. That's why the expansion of programs like Kindergarten to College (K2C) and San Francisco Promise are so essential. Right now, K2C provides kindergarten students with between $50-100 of seed money in a college savings account; SF Promise currently serves--and guarantees a spot at San Francisco State University (SFSU)--to 1,400 of the city's sixth graders. Yee's first step as Mayor will be to make SF Promise available to all sixth grade students, and give each sixth grader who enrolls another $100 in their college savings account. The eventual goal: combine SF Promise and Kindergarten to College, make it a full K-12 program, and give every student $100 for college savings each year they complete in San Francisco public schools.

9. Make the Dream Act a reality

The California Dream Act means undocumented students in California will soon have access to both private and state-funded financial aid and scholarships. Yee was a proud coauthor of the Dream Act because the need in San Francisco is very real--some school officials estimate that as much as 20% of students at Mission High alone may be undocumented. Now that financial aid is available for these students, we must ensure they know how to access it--we already know that 60% of students eligible for aid don't know or don't feel empowered to apply for it. That means beefing up existing outreach efforts and workshops, working with community groups, SFUSD, and local universities to get the word out and ensure every student--undocumented or not--files their forms and follows through to get the aid they need to attain higher education.

10. Improve language proficiency for all students

The demands of a global economy are beginning to challenge our ability to produce the workforce necessary to compete in a world of multilingualism. San Francisco's public schools are paving the way with a host of successful language programs that will help us produce bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural students. Yee will support additional Proposition H funding for language immersion programs, and will help integrate language instruction programs into the community schools model--by supplementing instruction outside of school, we can improve student success and expand these programs to reach more students. As an immigrant, Yee also understands that language support for recent immigrants is essential. That's why he believes we need to give recent immigrant students the resources to learn English--while maintaining their native language and culture--within two years.

RESPECT AND REWARD TEACHERS

1. Expand teacher recognition and incentive programs

A key part of bringing the community together around schools is to ensure that we all recognize the amazing job done by our teachers. In this time of budget cuts and pink slips, it's important that we constantly remind the community of the worth and value of teachers--as individuals and as a group. As Mayor, Yee would continue current recognition programs to honor our local teachers' contributions like the Mayor's Teacher of the Month. He'll expand the program, adding awards that specifically recognize excellent new teachers, paraprofessionals, and teachers who make a difference in at-risk neighborhoods. He'll prominently highlight them on the mayor's website, and help them spread their ideas and best practices to other teachers. Yee will also work to provide scholarships for teachers to pursue university studies or academic conferences and workshops. But most importantly, Yee supports Proposition A funds that pay for teacher retention bonuses and incentive pay, and he'll work with educators to expand them to make sure we have--and keep--the best teachers in San Francisco.

2. Teacher Power: appoint educators to City boards and commissions

The perspectives of local educators are critical to developing local policy across a broad range of issue areas including local planning, parks and recreation, civil service and beyond. As Mayor, Yee will ensure their voices influence city policy by appointing local educators to staff positions within City government as well as to city boards and commissions. And to make sure there's always a connection between City Hall and the classroom, Yee will institute monthly educational roundtables with the best and brightest teachers--our true education experts.

3. Develop the best future educators by recruiting the best college graduates

Fifty percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. The numbers are even worse at underperforming schools. We must do everything we can to recruit and retain the best and brightest to teach our most vulnerable. That's why Yee will vigorously support and promote successful programs like the San Francisco Teacher Residency program, which recruits talented college graduates, career changers, and community members to teach in San Francisco's hard-to-staff schools and subjects for a year-long teaching residency. Yee will expand the program by connecting these outstanding teachers to city-funded rent subsidies if they stay beyond their residency year to increase the likelihood they can afford to stay and teach in SFUSD. Yee will also work with SFUSD to create a program to recruit and train local high school students interested in education careers, and connect them to specialized training in education programs at local universities. A similar program in Florida trained and placed over 300 teachers in local schools, and retained 91% of them over three years. We can do the same here to make sure our students are taught by the best and brightest.

4. Real affordable housing for educators

San Francisco employs well over 4,000 public school teachers and over 1,000 paraprofessionals--about 30% of them don't live in the city, many because they simply can't afford it. We must provide local educators with every possible option to live and work in San Francisco + particularly as dwindling funding for public education in California has depressed the wages of these professionals. That's why Yee has already pledged to protect rent control and require developers to create affordable housing units, and why he will champion an affordable housing bond that includes a carveout specifically for teacher housing. He'll support projects like 1950 Mission that build affordable housing on SFUSD property, and look for other opportunities to use surplus SFUSD land to generate funds for teacher housing. Yee also supports first-time homebuyer programs like Teachers Next Door, but since many teachers can't afford to buy their own home, he'll create a pilot program to provide rent subsidies for newly hired teachers or those moving into the city.

5. Help teachers pay for classroom materials

Funding for classroom supplies is growing increasingly scarce, especially as we face difficult budgeting decisions at the local, state and federal levels. Nationally, teachers spend more than $500 of their take-home salary for classroom supplies and instructional materials + and we know for many teachers in San Francisco, that amount can be much higher. It's an unfortunate reality that our schools aren't adequately funded to provide these resources, but it's unacceptable for teachers to be forced to spend their own money on basic classroom supplies they need to get through the day. Until we can adequately fund our classrooms, we need to find ways to help teachers reduce the amount coming out of their paychecks. As Mayor, Yee will work with teachers and administrators to find ways to lessen teachers' financial burden. Options should include providing teachers with pre-tax spending accounts for classroom materials, creating a central portal for schools and teachers to access classroom philanthropy organizations like DonorsChoose or Adopt-A-Classroom, and negotiating with local businesses to offer teacher supplies at-cost.

PROMOTE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

1. Create a network of community partners to expand reach of wrap-around services

It is essential to forge coalitions that will work to best serve the educational needs of San Francisco. Building coalitions allow stakeholders to present innovative solutions, make compromises and overcome difficulties. Community-based organizations across the city already partner with schools to provide services, but most of these arrangements are with individual schools, so services can vary widely across the city. As Mayor, Yee will work with SFUSD to establish a network of schools, practitioners, and city service-providers to connect services across neighborhoods, share best practices, and forge new partnerships to expand successful programs across a city of community schools.

2. Expand and formalize partnerships with universities to share space, expand service-learning opportunities, and align strategic plans

Programs like SF Promise, Gateway to College, Bridge to Success and Bridges to Baccalaureate are great examples of successful partnerships between the City, school district, and higher education institutions. But these partnerships tend to be created ad hoc, and no formal set of goals exist to guide our efforts in expanding connectivity, preparedness, and access to higher education. As Mayor, Yee will form an alliance of all education segments and the City that will bring all parties together to evaluate current partnerships, share best practices, explore ways to maximize on current successes, and ensure that the strategic plans of all entities--SFUSD, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), SFSU, and the City--are aligned to best serve each other in our respective missions and in our larger purpose of serving and bettering the city as a whole. That means coordination around cultural events or sharing meeting and class spaces. It means expanding service-learning initiatives that get students out into the community and working with schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) to improve educational opportunities or administer after-school programming. It means expanding the current relationship between City College and the Office Of Economic and Workforce Development to extend job recruiting and job training programs currently available in the Bayview to the new Chinatown campus. It means building on the progress made through the Invest in City College project, where the City and CCSF found ways to ease the budget burdens faced by CCSF and its students and put money back in to the classroom. An official collaborative partnership between the City, SFUSD, and every local university is essential to craft a joint vision for the future, find additional ways to leverage resources, and find savings to ensure classes aren't cut and students have universal access.

3. Expand partnerships with businesses to ensure college and career connectivity

For every dollar we invest in a student's education, we receive an enormous return benefit. The best way to improve our economy is to ensure we have a well-educated workforce + beginning in our elementary schools and progressing through job training programs and our colleges and universities. As Mayor, Yee will connect students at SFSU or CCSF with internships and job training programs at local businesses, tech companies, or biotech labs to prepare for professional careers in growing industries. Yee will also support the School-to-Career Partnership, a joint effort of business, education and community leaders that works to improve college and career opportunities for all San Francisco students by integrating classroom learning with work-based learning through internships, job shadows, and career mentorships. Key collaborative partnerships like this program are a model for what we can provide students at every school in San Francisco.

4. Create an alliance of school and parent advocacy groups to improve connectivity and collaboration

There are numerous school and parent advocacy groups in San Francisco, including Parents for Public Schools, ParentPAC, Community Alliance for Special Education, Coleman Advocates, Educate Our State, the PTA, and other parent groups at individual schools or within certain neighborhoods. Yee will join with SFUSD to convene an alliance of all these groups to meet regularly, communicate issues, work together to solve problems, and where appropriate, bring other alliances of stakeholders together for joint discussions and collaboration. Parents, families, service-providers, community members, and educators will be most successful when we all work together.

ENCOURAGE PARENT PARTICIPATION

1. Time off to attend school functions and parent-teacher conferences

In California, parents and guardians are entitled to take up to 40 hours of leave each year to participate in their child's school or daycare activities--but many people don't know this, and it only applies to businesses with 25 or more employees. As Mayor, Yee will help inform businesses and employees of this benefit, work with smaller businesses to ensure access for their employees, and work with businesses to ensure employees can substitute other forms of paid leave to attend critical activities like parent-teacher conferences, plays, or athletic events.

2. Support and promote the SFUSD Parent Engagement and Partnership Plan

Increasing parent engagement is a key component of community schools. SFUSD is preparing to roll out its Parent Engagement and Partnership Plan (PEPP), which includes three major goals: 1) assist schools in deepening a culture of partnership with parents, 2) strengthen community partnerships to facilitate strong family engagement, and 3) expand SFUSD's organizational and accountability structures for family engagement. Yee will use his capacity as Mayor and as a community school partner to support that effort, helping to align city family services like Family Resource Centers with the community school model and bringing in new partners to strengthen parent engagement. That should include involving the alliance of advocacy and parent groups to the table in achieving that goal.

3. Community school wrap-around services for parents

Yee envisions community schools that serve to engage and enrich every member of the community, where families, neighbors--anyone in the community--can go to receive economic assistance, take adult education classes, meet and collaborate with other parents and teachers, receive healthcare, mental health or social services well after school is done for the day. Where parents and students can take language classes together, or where parents can work towards getting their GED--all while their child is next door in an evening study program run by community organizations and university students working towards a degree in school counseling. By centering schools as hubs of family and community activity, we can engage more parents simply by making it a one-stop-shop of community services.