Director Topp's Community Meeting

Where some interesting things were said.

I must first confess that it has bothered me for some time about Director Gina Topp; she reminds me of somebody but I couldn't put my finger on who. She is clear and measured in her statements, even the ones she puts some teeth into, she seeks answers and you really feel her as a leader. Then, it came to me.

She's the female Pete Buttigieg.

The meeting last night via Teams had 10 people. There were two press people - me and Tracy Record at the West Seattle Blog. One participant was the former head of SPS CTE Shep Siegel, one was a lunch lady at Denny MS, one was a SPP teacher at a K-8  and the others were parents. 

It seemed that closures was the main item on their minds plus concern for their individual schools like Pathfinder. Not one parent seemed to support closures or questioned why it had to be such a large number of schools. This thought came into play later on in the discussion.

Director Topp expressed disappointment that the district - see Superintendent Brent Jones - who did NOT provide their plan and clear criteria metrics at the June Board meeting as requested. She said it should come in September.  I pointed out that because the Board had gone to only one meeting a month and the only meeting in September was on the 18th, that perhaps the Board should push for the plan to be at the August 28th Board meeting. 

I was very pleased to heard Director Topp say that at the still-to-be-scheduled Board retreat she is going to advocate for two Board legislative meetings per month during the closure period. I'd like to hear why that is not a good idea from other Board members. 

I didn't say this out loud but clearly the district wants to run out the clock. I checked again and there are no community meetings scheduled for the rest of July or in August. I did mention the process that San Francisco Unified School District is using and how much longer and more inclusive it has been. 

One parent, Alice, had multiple questions. She wanted to understand what capacity document that the district is using because in one place her school had one number and yet in the district presentation, a different number.  She also challenged the idea that a bigger school would actually have more benefits than a smaller school. 

She asked about class size and Director Topp said that the increase by 1 in class size would only be in middle and high school. She also opined that closing schools

Another parent, Sarah, was worried about what the district's process would be for transitioning kids from a closed school to a new school. She mentioned the rising 5th graders who had been kindergartners during COVID and that it was a lot of stress for the youngest learners. Topp agreed that there should probably be supports for that group of students. 

Recalling that mention about the number of closed schools, Director Topp said she had asked two questions of the district. One, is about how different schools would look under this plan and she stated that the answer was not a lot different but better supported.

The other question was if the Legislature gave the district $100M, would SPS still close schools? The answer was yes. 

I had not heard this and I was somewhat shocked. The district STILL would put the entire district through all this churn even if the budget was not in trouble? Wow. 

Clearly, they have a bee in their bonnet over the number of schools but maybe that's because of the declining enrollment that they have done nothing to stop.

Parent Michael asked about a plan for phones in the classroom but I don't think he got an answer. My understanding is that it is a school by school decision.

The lunch lady (and that's what she called herself), Doree, said that she covers various schools in the summer to support the summer lunch program and that at every school people feel like there is "a hammer over their heads ready to smack you." She also mentioned the on-going safety issues. 

Parents also want to know what they can do to advocate for either their school and/or to the Legislature for more dollars. I think it would behoove the Board to tell parents what they can do, particularly at the Legislature and not count on SCPTSA to do that.