Students Rally to Save Balboa High School

Please speak out to the school board members and the superintendant!



School Board Members Contact Information:

Mr. Norman Yee _President_e-mail: yeen [at] sfusd.edu;
Ms. Sarah Lipson_Vice President_e-mail: slipson [at] sfusd.edu
Mr. Eddie Y. Chin, J.D. _e-mail: echin [at] sfusd.edu
Dr. Dan Kelly _e-mail: dkelly [at] sfusd.edu
Mr. Eric Mar, Esq. _e-mail: emar [at] sfusd.edu
Mr. Mark Sanchez_e-mail: msanche [at] sfusd.edu
Ms. Jill Wynns_e-mail: jwynns [at] sfusd.edu


I was unable to find phone numbers for individual school board
members, but you can leave a brief message for the entire board at
this number, the person I spoke to was friendly and said she is
keeping track of numbers people calling on this issue: 415/241-6427 ( Esther
V. Casco,_Executive Assistant to the Board of Education)

The acting District Supervisor, Gwen Chan, also needs to hear from you
about this. Her telephone number is 415/241-6121.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please pass it on to other folks.




My sample letter, feel free to cut and paste it as you wish, use if verbatim, or write your own:


Dear School Board members:

I am aware of the plan to move Leadership High School Into Balboa High
School.

This is a bad idea on all fronts, and will endanger Balboa High
School. Over the past ten years, the performance of students at
Balboa has improved and Balboa is known as a high school that is fast
improving.

As an example of how much this school has improved and how strong it is, on Tuesday, April 25, over 200 Balboa Students, as well as many teachers, alumni, and family members turned out for a rally at the school board to call upon you to reject this plan, to protect Balboa High School, and to find another home for Leadership High School. It is inspiring to see a student body so energized and proud of their school, working with their teachers and community members, and engaging in the political process to save their school. This is the kind of school community we want…engaged, empowered, and unified.

In order to make room for Leadership, the following programs will be
moved and possibly removed: Peer Resources, which teaches and develops
skills such as conflict management and interpersonal communication;
the College Room, which helps students, many of whom are low income
and the first in their family to attend college; Roots, a program for
students who have been incarcerated or who have incarcerated parents;
United Playaz, a program helping at risk youth get out/stay out of
gangs; and the 20 year old Teen Health Clinic. All of these programs
are vital resources that help Balboa students cope with and rise above
the challenges they face.

The students at Balboa mostly claim Sunnydale, while Leadership High
students mostly claim Lakeview. This means that there is a high
likelihood that violence will break out in the facility if both
student bodies are forced to share it.

Another way this action will impact Balboa is that teachers will be
displaced from their rooms and become "roaming" teachers, which means
they will have no permanent classroom, and no place to store their
materials. This will obviously have a negative impact on teacher's
ability to do their jobs well, which will hurt the students again.

Finally, Balboa is a school that has been steadily improving. Test
scores are improving, and Balboa has six "small learning communities"
which have been labors of love from the teachers who spend many extra
unpaid hours integrating classes and collaborating with one another to
improve student's academic experiences. If classrooms and teachers
are consolidated, the pathways will not be able to exist in their
current forms, it is likely that the quality of the programs will
suffer and the programs may ultimately be completely eliminated.

All concessions that come with moving Leadership into Balboa are
expected to be made by Balboa High School. Leadership High School
gains immensely, while Balboa will lose immensely. Charter schools
may have a lot to offer to some students, but they should not be
elevated and privileged at the expense of public schools.

If Leadership High School cannot continue to operate out of it's
current facility, it is up to the school district and the school board
to find a solution that does not depend on taking away needed
resources and academic opportunities from students who are from
communities who are always being taken away from. The current plan
that the district is attempting to enact pits the two schools against
each other and makes it look as though either way, one of these
schools is going to have to suffer.

If our elected officials and our public employees are unable to think
creatively enough to come up with solutions that will be beneficial
for all of the students in the district, then we will replace them
with people who can.

Yours sincerely,

etc

Those pictures are wonderful.