Controversy over closing of Urban Pioneer Continues

Copy Date: September 26, 2003 2:27 PMBy

Controversy over the closing of an alternative Bay
Area high school rages more than a month after its
closing.

In a 4-3 vote on August 26, the San Francisco Board
of Education ruled to revoke the charter and close
down the Urban Pioneer Experiential Academy. Members
of the school board discussed the fact that more than
83 former Urban Pioneers had yet to be placed at other
high schools.

“We have not lived up to our promises,” said Eric
Mar, vice president of the school board. “We promised
127 families who want to keep the Urban Pioneer
community together that we would try.”

Former UPEA students are upset with the SFUSD school
board’s decision and are actively voicing their
opinions.
“The district doesn’t care about us or understand
students and our needs,” 2003 UPEA graduate Ronaldo
Rodriguez said. “Urban was shut down because of
politics and personal relations.

“I started high school at Gateway, but I wasn’t the
model student, and so they asked me to leave. At
Urban, I learned about life outside of the classroom;
I learned basic life skills, how to communicate with
other people, and I learned about myself, my love for
the wilderness and how to cope with real life
situations,” Rodriguez said.
He added that UPEA provided a safe and loving learning
environment unique from other public schools.

Former UPEA student Caroline Rivera agreed. “This
decision is absolutely wrong,” Rivera said. “The
district isn’t helping me find another school, I had
to make the step and try and find another school and
take care of myself. The district isn’t doing anything
for me right now.”
However, the majority of the school board members
believed ample reason to shut down the school existed,
alleging financial mismanagement.

“The Urban Pioneers Experiential Academy was
absolutely in financial disarray,” board member Dan
Kelly said.
Fellow board member Jill Wynns agreed. “We really had
no choice; we cannot allow a school that is bankrupt
and cannot manage its finances to operate.”

The members of the school board who voted in favor of
revoking the charter also believe that UPEA placed
students in an unsafe environment.

The district found UPEA to be incompetent on various
accounts, according to Kelly.
“When Urban Pioneer was part of McAteer High School,
we believe there was poor supervision on wilderness
trips, and that the staff of Urban Pioneers were not
acting responsibly,” Kelly said.
After the tragedy in March, which resulted in two
deaths of UPEA students, police investigations found
inadequate supervision of the students on the trip,
according to Kelly.
“No other school had such a poor safety record as
Urban Pioneer,” Kelly added.

Wynns agreed and added that students were continually
put at risk.

In addition to safety concerns, members of the school
board felt that the academic requirements for
graduation were sub par compared to other Bay Area
high schools, according to Wynns.

“Students of Urban Pioneers were academically
limited, and some do not have very many credits,”
Wynns said.

While the majority of the board voted to revoke its
charter, three members tried to save UPEA, including
Mar.

“We voted to allow the school to keep its charter,
but we also required some changes in the school’s
program to eliminate all dangerous parts of its
curriculum,” Mar said.

Mar, along with the minority of the school board
members, felt that the district did not give UPEA a
reasonable amount of time to respond even after the
school showed that it had eliminated all threats to
the health and safety of their students. The members
believed that the board scrutinized UPEA to a greater
degree than the other charter schools in the district.

“They were given impossible deadlines to meet, and
often when some criticism was brought forth, the Urban
Pioneer administration was the last to hear about it,
and therefore wouldn’t have time to respond,” Mar
said.
In addition to disagreeing with the majority of the
members, a vocal minority expressed great concern for
the well being of former students who, at this point
in time, have no school to attend.
Urban Pioneer was an alternative high school providing
students with traditional classes and a wilderness
education course which included camping trips and
outdoor retreats, according to Wayne McDonald, founder
and co-director of UPEA. Urban Pioneer also offered an
optional adventure semester better known as the “Urban
Pioneer Challenge,” which emphasized hands-on learning
opportunities.
The program was founded 29 years ago; however, it
received a charter only last summer, according to
Kelly.
UPEA alumni are offering support for the program.
Sarah Weinberg, a Class of ‘93 McAteer graduate, spent
one year at the Urban Pioneer Experiential program
when it was located on the McAteer campus. The current
director of a non-formal teen program at the San
Francisco Jewish Community Center, Weinberg attributes
much of her current success to her experiences at
Urban Pioneers.
“Urban Pioneers saves lives,” Weinberg said. “It
catches at-risk kids and sends them into the world
with confidence and life-skills. It was the most
important year I spent in school, and I learned to be
self-sufficient and independent as a result of it.”

While UPEA is currently closed, the former
administrators refuse to give up.

“I’m going to re-write a charter and keep trying,”
McDonald said. “Urban Pioneers gives kids a shot at
life. We have something that works so well, and I
won’t give up on that.”