SAN FRANCISCO / Four schools get the ax / Board of Education approves closures to plug budget deficit -- two other campuses survive
News // Education
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
April 27, 2005 Updated: Jan. 19, 2012 1:39 p.m.
1of3Parents of the Golden Gate School put up signs for their school during the meeting. The San Francisco School Board meets to decide to close schools in San Francisco. John Storey San Francisco Event on 4/26/05John StoreyShow MoreShow Less
2of3Auzhanee Starks, 6, from Gold Gate Academy speaks before the board.The San Francisco School Board meets to decide to close schools in San Francisco. John Storey San Francisco Event on 4/26/05John StoreyShow MoreShow Less
3of3San Francisco Schools to Close. Chronicle Graphic Show MoreShow Less
The San Francisco Board of Education voted late Tuesday to close four schools to help eliminate a budget deficit and deal with a continuing slide in student enrollment.
De Avila Elementary, Franklin Middle School, Golden Gate Elementary and Yoey Child Development Center will close by the end of the school year. The board spared Malcolm X Elementary and McLaren Child Development Center.
The board's decision came during an emotional meeting before hundreds of angry parents, students, teachers and principals who filled the board chambers and lobby to plead for their schools to remain open.
The board has been planning to shut schools since February, whittling a list of potential schools meeting by meeting until it had its final six. The schools were chosen mostly because they aren't filled to anywhere near capacity. Poor academic performance also played into the decision.
Supporters of both McLaren and Malcolm X erupted in cheers when their schools were saved. Gina Bissell, a first-grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary, said she was ecstatic.
"I'm elated for the children and the parents," she said. "Malcolm X is a home for many of these children. They spend eight hours a day there. I didn't realize how much support we had; it makes me proud after 18 years that I'm still there."
Board member Sarah Lipson said before the meeting that it would be by far the most difficult decision she'd have to make since being elected to her seat in 2002.
"It's really hard to tell students that they're not going to have a school anymore when they're present at these meetings, fighting for their schools," she said. "It's not their fault, and it shouldn't be their burden, but we're putting it on them."
The board members and Superintendent Arlene Ackerman agree it's necessary to shut schools to help close a $22 million budget gap for this year and the 2005-06 academic year. Much of that deficit comes from increases in the cost of health care for employees and pensions for retirees.
Closing one elementary school can save more than $300,000 in utilities, facilities, administrators and clerical staff, and closing a middle school can save more than $500,000, district officials say.
The district also has seen a continuing loss of students, who bring in around $4,800 apiece each year from the state. The district hit its peak of 90, 000 students in the 1960s and now has just 57,000. It is projected to lose another 4,000 students in the next five years.
Many middle-class families with children have left San Francisco because of the city's steep housing prices, and children make up just 14 percent of the city's population, the lowest percentage of any city in the country.
Families also have left the city or sent their children to private school after being disappointed by faraway school assignments for their children under the district's court-ordered desegregation plan.
Of the children left in San Francisco, 30 percent attend private school, one of the highest percentages in the country.
Shutting public schools is becoming old hat around the Bay Area, as several school districts face the double whammy of budget deficits and declining enrollment. San Jose Unified, Oakland Unified, West Contra Costa and Benicia are all closing schools this year.
Still, it's hard to swallow for students, parents and staff at the affected schools. Those at Malcolm X, a struggling but beloved school in Hunters Point, were especially vocal about wanting their school to stay open.
They got a big moral boost when Mayor Gavin Newsom stopped by Monday afternoon, saying it would be too big a loss for an economically depressed part of the city in which his administration has been trying to improve public services.
Heather Knight
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Heather Knight is a columnist working out of City Hall and covering everything from politics to homelessness to family flight and the quirks of living in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. She believes in holding politicians accountable for their decisions or, often, lack thereof - and telling the stories of real people and their struggles.
She co-hosts the Chronicle's flagship daily podcast, Fifth and Mission, and co-founded its program #TotalSF to celebrate the wonder and whimsy of San Francisco.