School bus for adults — destination is a diploma
Thousands of high school dropouts in San Francisco would like to return to the classroom, but for many the short distance from home to an adult school might as well be a hundred miles given turf wars, gang ties or other safety concerns.
That’s the challenge described by local education leaders who, starting next month, will bring a classroom to those potential students in the unusual form of a revamped Muni bus stocked with computers, Internet access and a teacher.
The bus will have a regular route, stopping at four or five sites a week at public housing complexes in Bayview-Hunters Point, the Tenderloin and Visitacion Valley, and on Potrero Hill. The mobile school expects to serve 60 students a week, free of charge, to help them complete a high school diploma.
“Honestly, that two blocks or half-mile (to school) — that’s a huge distance for some of our
clients, some of our students,” said Steve Good, executive director of Five Keys Schools and Programs, which plans to unveil the bus-based classroom Thursday. “The whole idea is to remove as many barriers as we can.”
Currently, about 86,000 city residents have not finished high school, including 8,000 in Bayview-Hunters Point, according to Five Keys officials. They believe this is the first mobile school for adults in the country, and plan to expand the program to Oakland and Los Angeles if it is successful.
“We believe that everyone — and we mean everyone, especially those behind the eight ball, so to speak — deserves a dignified, effective and free education,” said Sunny Schwartz, cofounder of Five Keys, which opened its first school in 2003 inside San Francisco County Jail. “They’re our students. They’re our community.”
The $250,000 retrofitted bus has all the features of a traditional classroom, including chairs, desks, a white board, a library and a study area. A 10,000-watt generator will power the
“Everyone ... deserves a dignified, effective and free education.” Sunny Schwartz, co-founder, Five Keys Schools and Programs
school when the bus is parked. Google contributed $100,000 toward the effort.
Sure, it’s a Muni bus, Schwartz said, but it’s arguably more like an ice cream truck, luring people out of their homes for something wonderful — in this case, an education.
“It’s a beautiful bus,” she said. “It’s funky and it’s needed.”
Community activists and public officials said that even though adult schools and learning centers exist across the city, there are still too many residents with unmet needs.
“Taking a bus into this community is just amazing,” said Eason Ramson, a former NFL player who directs the Center for Academic Re-Entry and Empowerment in Bayview-Hunters Point. “I can’t stress how many students I’ve met that have really wanted to do things or go back to school, but couldn’t because barriers were in the way for families and themselves.”
And for those who failed in the traditional brick-and-mortar schoolhouse, the bus will offer a fresh start in a novel setting, said San Francisco school board President Shamann Walton.
The bus “is going to provide an opportunity for more folks to get close to their diploma in a different space,” he said. “I think some people need that and want that and crave that.”