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Faced with intense pressure on multiple fronts, including reopening schools and a recent decision to end merit-based admissions to Lowell High School, the president of the San Francisco school board has signaled that its members are suspending controversial efforts to rename 44 district schools.
In an opinion piece published Sunday on SFChronicle.com and in Monday’s print editions of The Chronicle, Gabriela López admitted errors in the process that resulted in a potential lawsuit and recall efforts targeting several board members directors, including López.
“There have been many entertaining public debates as we work to reopen our schools,” she wrote. “The name change of schools is one of them. It was a process started in 2018 with a schedule that did not anticipate a pandemic. I acknowledge and take responsibility that errors were made in the name change process. “
López said working on the reopening of schools will be the council’s “sole focus”, and the renaming of committee meetings will be canceled in the meantime. She said the council plans to make the process more “deliberative” by involving local historians.
“In the meantime, this is the last time I will publicly comment on the name change until the schools reopen,” she wrote. “We will not take precious time from our board’s agenda to discuss it further, as we need to prioritize reopening.”
Other council members declined to comment.
On February 10, San Francisco attorney Paul D. Scott sent a notice to López alleging a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. He argued that the board had not properly notified the public that it was making the final decision to rename the school sites and only gave notice that it would decide on a list of “potential” schools to rename.
He said families and the public have been denied due process and the case should instead be dealt with school by school. The letter gave the board 30 days to overturn the decision or legal action would be taken. On Tuesday, the council held a special seven-hour closed-door meeting that presumably addressed the court challenge and the issue of the name change.
Responding to the opinion piece, Scott said he was glad that the council had “clearly seen the reason” but wanted “clarification in writing” before deciding whether or not to pursue further action. justice.
“Changes of this magnitude should not be forced from above on our local communities,” he said. “Parents, students, teachers, alumni and others related to each school are the real stakeholders. They should be trusted to make good judgments for their particular school and to have their point of view respected. “
On January 27, the school board voted 6-1 to rename 44 schools because they are named after historical figures believed to be linked to racism and oppression, from Dianne Feinstein School to Jefferson School by the way. by Abraham Lincoln High School.
Critics of the name change cited mistakes made by the committee recommending that schools be renamed based on links to slavery, oppression, racism and colonization. In several cases, committee members relied on Wikipedia to decide whether a name met the criteria.
In the case of the Alamo Elementary, the committee cited the Battle of the Alamo and its connection to the Mexican land grab during the Texas Revolution. But in reality, the school was likely named after the Spanish word for poplar, based on the tree that identified a traveler’s rest station in the city, which is now Alamo Square.
“I am delighted to hear that the school board understands how flawed the process was,” said Terence Abad, executive director of the Lowell High School Alumni Association, who was also on the list for the name change. . “Like most people, I think the name change process is important, and I’m happy to do it in an orderly and proper manner.”
Abad noted that due to the name change process, additional research showed that Lowell was probably not named after James Lowell, the poet, but rather Lowell, possibly based in Lowell, Massachusetts, given a letter from the district superintendent in 1894 referring to the new name of the school as “Lowell High School”.
The move garnered national attention and was criticized by leaders and parents alike for not being taken at the right time as families struggled during the pandemic. In October, the Mayor of London Breed criticized the name change plan.
Meanwhile, pressure has been on school officials to reopen classrooms, which have been closed for nearly a year. At a press conference on Wednesday, Lopez and San Francisco Unified Superintendent Vincent Matthews said officials were trying to resume in-person learning as soon as possible, but declined to guess when the first students might be from return. The district recently said the goal was to have six weeks of partial live instruction before the end of the school year on June 2.
The San Francisco City Attorney sued the school district, alleging that officials failed to create a specific reopening plan as required by state law and violated the state constitution and laws on equal rights by not providing in-person instruction despite the ability to do so.
The controversy helped fuel a signature campaign, which began on Friday, to recall three board members. To date, more than 1,200 city residents have signed a petition to recall President López, Vice-President Alison Collins and Commissioner Faauuga Moliga.
The effort will require 70,000 signatures for each of the three members to get the reminder on the ballot. Organizers Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj, who are parents of five, said they wanted to “get out of education policy.”
Lizzie Johnson, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, contributed to this report.
Kellie Hwang and Jill Tucker are editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @KellieHwang, @jilltucker
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