S. F. schools OK revised system for placements

San Francisco’s school board approved a seismic shift in the city’s school assignment system late Tuesday night, limiting choice, transfers and appeals while trying to increase diversity.

What is now something of a chaotic, random process to get a seat at an elementary school will become a restricted, zonebased system with families guaranteed a spot in one of about 12 schools — but not a specific school.

The Board of Education approved the plan in a 61 vote after spending two years studying, discussing and seeking input on a revamped process.

The new policy won’t solve everything, but it’s an improvement, said board member Stevon Cook.

“We need a process that’s easier to understand, which I think we have here,” he

said.

The zones will be designed to generally reflect the diversity of the city as a whole, and student assignments should ensure each school is equally diverse. In addition, for the first time, students living in public housing — who are some of the city’s most vulnerable — will have priority in the selection process within their zone.

The goal, officials said, is less segregation as well as a system that makes it easier for families to prioritize preferences and apply, knowing their choices are limited.

The district’s renewed focus on diversifying schools comes amid a national reckoning over race, with San Francisco schools engaged in various efforts to address historic racism and inequities. That includes a proposal to rename 44 school sites honoring former slave owners and others associated with oppression or colonization as well as support to end selective enrollment at the academically elite Lowell High School.

In 2019, a quarter of San Francisco’s elementary schools enrolled more than 60% of a single racial or ethnic group even though the district’s overall enrollment was more diverse with no group making up more than 30% of total K5 students. At nearly 60% of elementary schools, at least 45% of students were from one racial or ethnic group, according to district officials.

The kindergarten class of 2023 would be the first group assigned under the new policy, which will not change the middle and high school assignment process.

Currently, families can request assignment at any of the district’s 73 elementary programs, with their odds of getting in ranging from very low to all but certain, depending on demand for the school, siblings, home address and other factors.

The system adopted in 2010 has long been criticized as too complicated, overwhelming and unpredictable, as well as a failure at desegregating schools.

“No one has ever said they enjoyed the school assignment process,” said Kevine Boggess, policy director for Coleman Advocates, a San Francisco nonprofit advocating for young people of color and equity in schools, and an incoming school board member.

“We appreciate the district trying to solve problems that are a pain point for families.”

The school board approved the zone concept on Tuesday, but not specifics. The district, with community input, will later create the specific zones and adopt the new policy, a process that will cost an estimated $ 2.5 million over the next 18 months.

The renewed effort to desegregate schools, something largely abandoned in many parts of the country, “should be commended,” said Jamel Donnor, associate professor of education at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Places that have been models for desegregation, like Charlotte, N. C., or Seattle, have been unable to maintain the success for a variety of reasons, Donnor said.

Elsewhere, like in East Baton Rouge, La., after decades under a federal desegregation order, predominantly white communities in recent years voted to secede from the now predominantly black district, returning to a segregated system hearkening to the precivil rights era.

That San Francisco is still taking this on is a testament to the city’s determination, Donnor said.

“It just shows the level of commitment and the importance of diversity and equity and inclusion,” he said.

It also shows how hard it is to achieve, with class, housing, transportation and other factors often a force of opposition.

“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible,” Donnor said, “but it also speaks to the fact that there are forces at play, people at play, that don’t want to see this happen.”

The San Francisco school board nonetheless is trying again.

The district has modeled possible zones, evaluating the ability to diversify them and the schools in them. It will be up to families, however, to buy into the plan.

Boggess, who has a 2yearold child likely to be in the first group assigned under the new system, isn’t sure they will.

“The biggest hole I see in it is the fact that wealthy families still have the flexibility to still have preferential school treatment that lowincome families don’t get,” he said. “They can basically move to any part of the city they want to.”

Now and under any system, there are schools viewed as better than other schools, Boggess said. A zone structure doesn’t necessarily address that. Will wealthier families flee the city if they can’t appeal a school assignment? Will they just go to private schools?

It’s not clear, but a similar system in the Berkeley Unified School District seems to have found some success. In Berkeley, the city is partitioned into three areas from east to west, with students assigned to schools in those zones to ensure schools are not segregated racially or economically. Berkeley’s system uses a child’s neighborhood demographics as a standin for the student’s race or family income. San Francisco plans to diversify schools using similar community characteristics.

San Francisco school board member Rachel Norton, who led the revamp, said she believes the new system is better than the current one, which created a frenzy to get into some schools and not others.

“The marketbased system actually makes the schools worse,” she said, adding many schools were underenrolled while others were harder to get into than Harvard University.

District officials thought they had figured out how to help diversify schools in 2010 — the last time they overhauled the system.

Instead of desegregating schools, the current process allowed families that didn’t get their school choice to appeal while some even moved to a different neighborhood to get into what they believed was a better school.

“I was really involved in that first effort to redesign it in 2009 and 2010, and we didn’t get it right,” Norton said. “I have always believed we could get this right.”

Limiting choice is a way to set up schools for success rather than failure, Norton said. While some schools were overflowing with students, others were underenrolled, which reduced their state funding and resources for the students who did attend.

The hope is students will attend their assigned school, which will reflect their community as a whole, leaving no school half empty with fewer resources and family support.

That said, “changing the rules doesn’t magically make people want schools they haven’t wanted up until now,” Norton said.

The district needs to use the new assignment system to ensure that every zone offers a range of desired resources, including language programs, so that all schools are desirable, Norton said.

“The zones might look weird and there will be things that won’t be ideal,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to provide a quality program in every part of the city.”