Originally posted on the Voice of San Francisco.
When I was in school, the principal’s office was the last place you wanted to be. But today it’s where we need to be to solve the problems we have with San Francisco public schools.
Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to visit with several of our public school principals. They have dedicated their lives to improving the education system, and are experienced, smart, resourceful, and have great ideas on how we can improve our schools. We should listen to them and implement their ideas.
There are 125 schools in 39 beautiful neighborhoods in San Francisco, and over 50,000 students attend our public schools. The principals at these schools represent the key link between the superintendent and his central office and all the teachers, families, and students. That means they sit in the middle and are the ones that can help interpret and implement the school districts’ strategy as well as listen and prioritize family/student and teachers’ needs in the right way to help shape strategy. In many ways they are the brain trust of our school district, and key to our operational and strategic challenges. We don’t need outside consultants; we already have the answers internally from our brain trust, the principals.
On closing schools, one principal has ideas on how to consolidate, which can both save the district money but also move students from two other buildings in the city to one that has capacity and to improve learning. She knows how to get this done. On raising the bar in education, another principal suggested extending the school year or shortening some of the holidays, especially over the summer: “We can do more and teach more if our students stayed with us longer.” Plus it can be a burden for parents when the summer break is long and challenging when it comes to child care and finding affordable activities for kids. We can utilize that time for more classes in the arts, athletics, and trade. He also has ideas from looking at schools in Europe and in other states to glean best practices that actually have been tried and have worked. On improving equity in schools, the principals say it’s more about treating all the schools fairly, meaning the schools that sit in more affluent neighborhoods have better support from the community generally whereas others struggle to meet needs. Equity needs to be about helping all schools to access resources so they can have the same great curriculum, the same great teachers, and the same great maintained school buildings no matter the neighborhood. The principals tell me that if given the opportunity, they can help determine how best to utilize the funds across all the schools in the district.
The principals I met and walked around their schools with, know each student’s name, they know their teachers, they know their communities better than anyone. They know what it takes to manage an organization; it’s what they do every day. I saw a middle school principal mentor and coach a young man saying how proud he was of this young man’s actions in doing the right thing knowing that it was hard. I saw an elementary school principal on the last day of school carve out time to meet and hug her students and their parents and make sure their summers were off to a good start. I was with a high school principal that proudly showed me the school’s automotive shop building where students can learn how to build engines and cars of the future. An elementary school principal recounted the history of her school and how it became the most diverse in San Francisco. These are the people we need to tap into and we need to hear from them directly. They know what needs to be done to fix our schools, and they care deeply for our kids.
The principals are where it’s at.
Min Chang is a parent and taxpayer in San Francisco.