SF school district should drop the name purge and get the classes open

In which Mayor Breed goes on an epic rant and we applaud

This is a squishy and cautious political climate. So when someone steps up and smacks you with a cold slap of straight talk, you sit up and notice.

Mayor London Breed had the show stopper last week, when she took on the puzzle palace that is the SF Unified School District. Ever eager to go off on a tangent, the San Francisco Names Advisory Committee (not making this up) is doggedly doing a deep dive on the 44 schools that were named after historic figures.

The consideration is, if something is found in the history, like if Mayor Dianne Feinstein allowed a Confederate Flag to fly at City Hall as part of a 17-flag history display (which she did), the name of the school will have to be changed.

To which Mayor Breed said:

“Parents are frustrated and looking for answers. The achievement gap is widening as our public school kids are falling further behind every single day."

Now, imagine your voice rising:

“And now, in the mindset of this once in a century challenge, to hear that the District is focusing energy and resources on renaming schools -- schools that they haven’t even opened -- is offensive. 

“It’s offensive to parents who are juggling their children’s daily at-home learning schedules with doing their own jobs and maintaining their sanity. It’s offensive to me as someone who went to public schools, who loves our public schools, and who knows how those years in the classroom are what lifted me out of poverty and into college. It’s offensive to our kids who are staring at screens day after day instead of learning and growing with their classmates and friends.”

First, whew, nice rant.

And second, thank you.

And to be clear, this is not an objection to changing the names of the schools. Knock yourself out. The name of a school in my neighborhood is not going to change my life. If it makes you feel better, have at it.

Just not now.

It seems impossible that we have lost sight of this. But a cornerstone of American civic society is that our children attend school, every year, from kindergarten through (hopefully) high school.

We have great expectations for this practice. It is where young people are exposed to ideas, experiment with things (some not so good) and learn to interact with others. In our most perfect scenario, opportunities arise that lift students up. Now that it is missing, so is a huge chunk of everyday family life.

So before the district goes off on more research on dead presidents, it needs to accomplish two big, important tasks.

The first, obviously, is getting the schools as close to back open as possible. And no, this current school closure isn’t just a continuation of what we’ve been dealing with since the pandemic.

When schools closed in March, it was easy to imagine it as a kind of extended spring break. And then there was summer vacation, so that made sense.

But now it is fall semester, the beginning of a new school year. After a long, difficult break. What’s the plan?

Two points. First, the fact that gyms, beauty parlors and restaurants are open and schools are not has to be frustrating to parents. Or watch a football or baseball game on TV. People huffing and puffing in each others’s faces, not socially distancing and without masks. Surely schools could be safer than that.

And second, even reputable experts are starting to say kids are not as susceptible to COVID-19. Of course, the problem is, they may become infected without knowing it, and pass it on to someone older.

So it will have to be extra careful. Masks and social distancing. Smaller classes. And testing, testing, testing — with quick results.

I’d worry most about the teachers, older people constantly in harm’s way. School Board President Mark Sanchez, a teacher, said he’d want to be tested once a week.

Skeptics scoff at the time and expense of testing 3,000 teachers a week, but that’s what’s it is going to take. Quick, inexpensive tests are the only way we will be able to track and trace the Coronavirus. If this country had a president, we’d be doing that now.

And second, the district needs to move, once and for all, on the revamping of the Byzantine school lottery system, which has frustrated and bewildered San Francisco families for years. As many as one-third of eligible students in the city forgo the hassle and attend private school.

The hemming and hawing has been endless, but eventually the discussion always gets to the same place. That complicated computer model used to decide which student should go to which school and promote diversity, didn’t work. It actually resulted in more segregation.

And, the die-hards eventually agree, a new plan has to emphasize neighborhood proximity. In other words, you should be more likely to attend a school near where you live.

I thought we laid out the pros back in 2015, when the Chronicle did a mult-part series on the district. I remember two stories in particular.

One was Peabody Elementary in the Richmond. Less than 20 years ago, Peabody was on the list of schools to close permanently. But because a group of parents lived in the neighborhood, they got together, revitalized the PTA, began to raise money and it became one of the showcase schools in the district.

Neighborhood schools benefit from a sense of community.

And the second story was of a Bernal Heights parent I met, who was perhaps the most extreme example of the lottery system. She said there were six school-age kids on her block. And they went to six different schools. She said they hardly knew each other.

Schools are where neighborhoods come together.

And now, finally, the School Board is looking at a plan. They had three proposals and, typically, they picked the broadest and most complicated. It would create school “zones,” of eight to 12 schools nearby. Families could choose among schools in the zone, so they wouldn’t be assigned a school on the other side of the city.

It’s not perfect, but it is an improvement. The Board is mulling it now.

They even say they might be able to implement it.

In 2023.

Hey, no rush guys.

Let’s see, we haven’t talked Jimmy G for at least 30 seconds

Last Sunday’s Santa Rosa Press Democrat column appeared the morning of the game with the Rams. And the premise was that, after the previous week, when Kyle Shanahan benched Jimmy Garoppolo, he needed to leave him out there for this one.

Garoppolo made everyone look good with a standout game (see next item) but at the time there was some real concern. If Shanahan was going to go for the hook after some poor throws, was he going to do it consistently? Was Garoppolo going to spend the year looking over his shoulder?

And then, of course, there were the talking heads who were pointing out that Garoppolo’s contract was arranged so that after the third year, which is after this year, they could cut him and save millions.

There was a lot of stuff swirling around. So the premise of this column was that the 49ers, and Shanahan, had to decide, is he the quarterback or not?

And as it turned out, they did and it looks like he is.

Beating the Rams was a big deal, it says here

There were a ton of reasons to expect the 49ers to lose their cohesiveness in the week after a loss to Miami that even the players called “embarrassing.”

They had a losing record, were last in their division and even 49ers icon Joe Staley was second-guessing them on Twitter — during the game.

And it just seemed like once a team starts to splinter and split, there is no getting it back. What’s more, the game was on national television on Sunday night, so everyone would be watching.

As I wrote in the 49ers Insider the team made a real effort to say they were sticking together. And by the end of the game, with Garoppolo’s gaudy stats, it seemed clear — he is the quarterback.

That’s my current state-of-Jimmy-G call. I think the players not only genuinely like him for being a no-drama down-to-earth guy, I think they believe he gives them the best chance to win.

But I still think the playoffs are a long shot.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments gladly accepted. Complaints not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius