Parents, staff and students of Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 came together on Wednesday night to fight back against a proposal to split the student body into two groups, with only certain grades remaining on site during a planned three-year renovation at the school.
If the plan from the school district goes forward, six of Buena Vista’s nine grades would move to the Excelsior, to the former Luther Burbank Middle School site where June Jordan School for Equity is also located.
“You’re engaging in what will ultimately be an exciting journey,” said Matt Wayne, the superintendent for the San Francisco Unified School District, who presented the proposal. But not without its challenges, he added.
Parents, staff and students, however, were not ready to accept the school district’s plan.
“¡Distrito! ¡Escucha! ¡Estamos en la lucha!” (District! listen! We are in the fight!) shouted some 100 parents, staff, students and community members of the K-8 school gathered in the school’s auditorium.
After years of chronic habitability issues on the premises — not limited to lead in the plumbing, rodents, a gas leak and a crumbling ceiling — the district in 2021 approved $40 million for repairs.
The renovation project has now reached the end of the design phase and the district is focused on where the school’s 620 students will go during reconstruction, to begin in 2025.
For the school community, the proposal to split the classes and have students at two different locations poses logistical problems. Most families live in the Mission and would have to adapt to longer commutes — or two commutes for families with children in different groups. While the district did suggest potential transportation services to address this, how exactly that might work remains unclear.
Breedeen Pickford-Murray has a son in kindergarten and a daughter in 2nd grade. She and her husband both work as teachers in the Presidio and Ingleside. Her husband takes the kids to Buena Vista on a cargo bike. Factoring in a run to June Jordan would be challenging logistically, she said.
Beyond that, Pickford-Murray said, having her kids in the same school has allowed them to form a wonderful connection and support one another. “It just would be really hard to lose that,” she said.
Jenny Pritchett, who has coordinated the community’s response asked, “How in the world is this kind of proposal not going to destroy the community?”
Other parents and staff expressed concerns about how existing resources — including an after-school program with Jamestown — would be distributed.
“We only have one principal. We only have one nurse. We barely have enough staff for one site,” said Alejandra Palomo, who works at Buena Vista.
The school also has a program that gives shelter to families who need a place to sleep. The district confirmed during the meeting that the program, which is at capacity with 69 guests, would remain at the Buena Vista site.
In May, the community presented six demands including one to find a site large enough in the Mission to keep the school together.
On Wednesday, the district’s representatives outlined the six locations they had considered for relocation, including City College and San Francisco International High School. They said the district does not currently have any empty sites that could accommodate all of Buena Vista’s 620 students. Most of its schools have an average of 300 students, Dawn Kamalanathan, the associate superintendent, explained at the meeting.
Splitting the school was the only viable option, district officials argued. This would take place starting 2025, and continue until the completion target date, in June 2028.
“You ask us to trust that you have our best interests and needs in mind, without asking what those needs are,” said Diallo Grant, a parent who spoke in response to the district’s presentation.
“They listen and they ignore us,” María Nuñez, a mother of two children who attend Buena Vista, said in Spanish.
Some also expressed fear that splitting the school up may be a step in eventually shutting down the school entirely.
“It kind of feels like a punishment,” said another parent, that the conditions are so decrepit that students have to be separated. “I grew up going to a school like this. That one got shut down,” she said, referring to a school in Treasure Island. “I don’t want that to happen here.”
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Estoy muy enfadada con las pésimas toma de decisiones y sus ejemplos viables como lo llaman ellos, se equivocan cada vez que abren la boca, la comunidad no confía en el
distrito scholar, su trabajo verdadero es actuar y no presentan sus estrategias tontas que en el lugar de crear una solución genera otro problema más, y tengan por seguro que todo lo que llegue a pasar a con el personal,estudiantes y familia el distrito será culpable, si tienen tanto estudio y preparación para estar en un puesto así,pónganse a trabajar,y dejen de perder tiempo tienen para pagar transporte,que para mí es un gasto innecesario,si empiezan a buscar un lugar en el área de la missión eso es hacer su trabajo nuestra respuesta es su plan no nos beneficia y no lo aceptamos.
Protest all you want. No one will listen to you and the power that be will do whatever they want anyway. No pierdan su tiempo.
Sending vulnerable schoolchildren to an unsafe spot on problematic bus lines defies any logic. It’s too bad that SFUSD is so clueless about the trauma in store for the moved kids. But what can you expect from this COVID – damaged body, huh?
Very sad that this is proposed as a solution. BVHM is a very special place with good energy and a good sense of community. I’ve taught in the June Jordan complex. Until a year ago, a charter high school, city and arts, was there. They moved when they merged with leadership high, another charter. there aren’t many schools that are further away from BVHM since June Jordan. I would only drive there, I would never take public transportation there. The space is not conducive to learning. They need to find a better solution
How long will it take before the “temporary” solution becomes permanent? Then the toxic waste dump will be transformed into a “future” site of affordable housing for mentally-ill homeless drug addicted progressive zombies who have ruled our once-proud town since the days of St. Dianne the Great (cue the Blue Angels)
Excellent and timely journalism- this is what local news does best. Splitting up Buena Vista Horace Mann for 3-4 years is not just about a local school or logistics, it’s about dismantling the Mission community- we are all affected.
Excelente reportero- noticia local es lo mejor.
La división de Buena Vista Horace Mann no es solo un historia de una escuelita y logísticos, pero también es intentar destruir la comunidad de la Misión – todos somos efectos.
Recently, Superintendent Wayne complained about his arduous trip to the Excelsior to visit a school. And that was a one-time event for one adult.
He’s sure changed his tune about that schlepp now that it doesn’t involve him, but rather families with young children. A twice a day “commute” to and from a distant school is no longer an arduous trip. Since it’s not about him anymore, it is suddenly “an exciting journey.”
Wayne didn’t provide details of his arduous trip, but one could assume he drove himself or was Ubered out there. BVHM families might have the option of driving their twice daily roundtrips, but many are reliant on Muni. June Jordan/Luther Burbank is about half a mile from Mission Street, so the 14, 14-R and 49 still leave half a mile of walking or transferring to the 29 or 52.
Though “disruption” is still considered cool by the tech-crunch-disrupt crowd (I can’t believe people still talk/think like that …), it is not glamorous or “outcome”-focused to divide a school and burden families with long transit times. Wayne is just plain lying when he calls this “exciting.”
If there really is no viable alternative to this proposal, Wayne would look a lot less like a clown and more like someone who is a thoughtful, competent and responsible public servant if he showed a modicum of recognition that the long-commute two-school option will be difficult, painful and time-consuming rather than “exciting.”