On October 15th I presented a seminar at the San Francisco Board of Realtors with Hydra Mendoza, a member of the Board of Education and Gentle Blythe, the Director of the Office of Community Outreach for SFUSD. Their presentation was focused on giving Realtors information to answer our client’s questions about admissions and the quality of education in The City.

The questions I hear all the time center on the admissions policies and local school issues. Here are some interesting facts that came out in the presentation.

When a child is entering school or moving up to the next level, middle and high school an application is filled out by the parents naming seven choices of schools the family has chosen. Although most schools have a designated attendance area, the administration has found over the past five years that the majority of families chose schools based on special programs available in individual schools rather than proximity to home addresses. The first round of admissions to those schools goes to the students that live in the attendance area and then the siblings of students that already attend the school. The remainder of the admissions go to students that have chosen it as one of their seven choices. 67% get their first choice of schools and 87% receive one of their seven choices.

If the school has more applicants than seats available the diversity index is used to assign students.

The Diversity index currently is:
1. Academic background of the student. (Pre-school for kindergarten)
2. Academic background of the sending school.
3. Extreme poverty.
4. Language spoken at home.
5. Family income

We were presented with a number of facts that show perceptions to be false:

• In San Francisco 70% of our students go to public school and that number is consistent with ratios throughout the country.
• USA Today reports that overall performance in core subjects, student’s performance is no better if the student graduates from private high school or public high   school.
• SFUSD has 7 high schools in the top 5% of high schools in the country according to Newsweek Magazine.
• For six consecutive years SFUSD has improved on test scores and outperformed the seven largest urban school districts on the California Standards Test (CST).
• SFUSD has an 11.3 year average term for teachers, which is higher than the CA average of 10.4 years.
• San Francisco has a declining population of school age children, but that the entire state is losing at the same rate.
• SFUSD has 56,000 students and is losing 800 each year.

The high cost of living and the assumption that you can’t get a quality education in San Francisco’s public schools has led to the fact that SF has the lowest population of school age children. My own experience raising two children in San Francisco has shown that there are good schools and great educations to be had. Parental involvement keeps the children on track and community involvement keeps the schools on track.

San Francisco is a great place to raise kids. They have a level of sophistication because they are a part of this City.

Here is a link to a good group that is working to preserve the history of our neighborhhods.

http://www.outsidelands.org/index.php


Have fun!

Saturday October 13, 2007 NERTs gathered to apply their knowledge and practice the skills we have learned.

I love it when neighbors come together and get organized. This drill was especially helpful because of the presence of a SFFD observer who was very good at explaining changes to the nomenclature of the Incident Command System (ICS).

We were joined also by government officials! Sean Elsbernd, Supervisor District 7 (our neighborhoods) and Daniel Homsey, a Miraloma Park neighbor and the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services (MONS) both came by to lend support and to be

Many thanks to JoAnne Tracht-Rawson of the Ingleside Terraces group for being the host organization.

Jed

This piece was written by a student at Lowell HS and he gave me permission to share it with all of you. Enjoy.


Justin Chan
Façade of Iridescence

San Francisco; two words, four syllables, one city, one life, my life. At day, at Mount Davidson, the zenith; I open my eyes. Below, lies the city hidden in omnipresent fog; caffeine, sex, nature, wind, traffic. Above, rests a reflection, a memory of colors. San Francisco is an illuminated dahlia, a kaleidoscope of my experience, a multi-colored mirror to my being; the home of my home.

Sunset District, my place of green. Serve, smash, volley. Courts, crumbled by use, balls shaved from friction, racquets scratched from experience. Games, sets, matches. From dawn till dusk – my winter days, my summer nights, are filled with green. New friends, new rivals, new enemies – a never-ending passion to give love. Two years of ambition and I’m still yearning for the greener grass on the other side, the side beyond my reach – a line of lines I must step across. What am I? I’m confused, but Sunset is my place of green; my place as a tennis player, where I am unique, where I am like no other. I can twirl. I can spin. I can fly. I can put my heart into every last shot; and still, I will be what I aspire; to be me.

The Haight, my place of red. Three, two, one, bang! There, four hundred meters of the gritty-asphalt hippodrome – an oval arena where every second counts, where the victor stands above others. My first love began here. Faster and faster, all out, from the sweet age of five to sixteen. Scraped knees, broken ligaments, poetry slamming, music making, ecstasy taking void – what time is it? I’ve forgotten much, but not the Haight, not my place of red, not my place as a runner, where I drip every last ounce of sweat, where I think of my friends who will me through and are by my side spiritually. I can run. I can jump. I can cry and drain every last drop of my essence to finish. And I will finish; I will not give up.

Richmond District, my place of silver. Ready? Fleche, sidestep, parry, extend, lunge – Bout. Three minutes of touching, flicking, and penalties. Bruises, bloodshed and scars. Sweat, stains, trapped-heat, all shared with team-mates past and present. This is a place I could never live in. The money I have is a few cents and dollars in my back-pant pocket and no where near enough to suffice for the fancy houses. Why can’t I? It pains me, but not in Richmond, not in my place of silver, not my place as a fencer where I leave my reality outside of my mask, where I have to concentrate on every movement. I can advance. I can retreat. I can scream in disappointment, but even then, I will shake the hand of my new obstacle.

Downtown, my place of black. Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, Embarcadero. It is a hole of judgment, a six-floor-high plant of tangibles, a theatre of sneaking arts, and a market of edibles. Silly-go-round, I spin twice, losing my companions in the midst of the unknown – I lose myself as I always do in the array of people. Chinatown, Japantown – they’re all the same – Where am I? I’m lost, Downtown is my place of black, my place as a teenager, where I can explore, ant-like to the skyscrapers towering above, where I am just one of the lost voices in the many that envelop the land. I can hide. I can yell. I can drown in the pool of people, though I will adapt; I will live on.

Ingleside, my place of blue. Incomplete with rocks, signs, and men in orange suits.  There are old parks, new parks, tediousness that only cause more troublesome complications for both me and those who do the job. Open, close, detour – stop; let it be simple and clean. Why pre-grown clichés? Just cut holes in our pocket; we’ll be fine. Why do things break? I’m troubled; Ingleside is my place of blue, my place as a child, where I can wander, where I have nothing to worry about – because this is my home. I can eat. I can sleep. I can lie, but I will tell the truth.

At night, every night, I contemplate my existence, gazing at the light-pollution color sky asking for an answer to my life’s purpose. There are superfluous lights and colors, but my eyes perceive and discern only those within arms length and my memories of who I am, what I am, and why I am what I am when I am. What I see, is the ever-verisimilar, what I remember, is the façade of iridescence…

Justin Chan

As of October 2007 I will be creating and distributing a print version of the Fog City Guide. In it I will provide recent activity in our area. If you have any questions or recomendations feel free to post them here.

After ten years of volunteer service to the NERTs of Mt Davidson and Miraloma Park Gary Isaacson has stepped down as our coordinator. Bill Jeong and I have been asked to assume the leadership positions.
 
I took my NERT training in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake motivated by a radio interview I heard of a volunteer who found a woman in a collapsed building and after telling her he would return with help found her dead when he returned. As a new father at the time this was all I needed to motivate me to be better prepared. I have a construction and business management background and currently am a Realtor in the area. My contact information is (415) 425-9810, Jed@JedLane.com or www.FogCityGuide.com  .
 
Bill took his NERT training in 2006 and has been active since. He is a retired PG&E employee and also is a Red Cross volunteer working with their Disaster Action Team. Bill's e-mail is BillJeong01@hotmail.com
 
Our first order of business is to update our member list and contact information. We have sent out an e-mail to all the people that are on the roster supplied to us by the Fire Department. We called everyone that didn’t have an e-mail address. If you have not responded to the message or have not received an e-mail please send either of us your contact information. At this point in time very few of our members are not using e-mail so that is the preferred method of communication.
 
Our second piece of business is to let all of you know that NERT’s next city wide drill will on October 13th. This drill is being organized city wide but working locally in each of the battalion districts. We will gather October 13th from 9:00 till noon at the open area along Junipero Serra at Mercedes in the Ingelside Terrace area. The focus of this exercise will be on setting up the Incident Command Center using ICS protocol and working on the communication relay throughout the neighborhoods in this battalion area.

Next I am very pleased to announce a new joint training available from NERT and SF SAFE. Many of you are familiar with SF SAFE this organization is responsible for Neighborhood Watch and many other valuable programs.

NERT Personal Preparedness Workshop/Block Captain Training with NERT and SF SAFE, Wednesday, September 26, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training, 2310 Folsom @ 19th Street.
This free workshop for non-NERTs covers what every individual needs to know to prepare for a disaster, including: risk awareness, disaster supplies, personal disaster planning, utilities overview, NERT overview, and block disaster planning. Please RSVP to sffdnert@sfgov.org, or call 415-970-2024 to register.

There is a great place to get information about real estate that I've been participating in. It's on Trulia and it's called Trulia Voices. Here is a link http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Other-San_Francisco_CA-85527/

Good threads of conversations and good questions.

Check it out!

I met today with the Project Manager for the Miraloma Park playing field work. We reviewed the scope of work and talked about our Bella Vista garden project. From the meeting discussion I believe that the best vision for the garden, long term, is to create a visually pleasing space with drought resistant low maintains ace plants.

We will have water available to help establish new plants and there is money to remove the dead  trees and trim the others.

I welcome your comments and appreciate your help.

After ten years of volunteer service to the NERTs of Mt Davidson and Miraloma Park Gary Isaacson has stepped down as our coordinator. Bill Jeong and I have been asked to assume the leadership positions.