Subject: San Francisco Unified School District

• The District's Plan to Help Minority Kids Excel in School is Groundbreaking. . .to the Extent it Exists

  May 29, 2008

• Why Doesn't JROTC Count as Physical Education? Oh, Right! Because we Hate the Army

  June 28, 2008

• Political Satire, Like Prostitution, is Being Ruined By Amateurs

  THIS is how you make fun of progressive supervisors! I have a message for the four new Supervisors: Hello. My name is Benjamin. And my job is to say much, much, funnier things about you than anybody did last night. Last night, of course, was the "Roasted Supes" party, which is a vaguely clever name, or "the People's Inauguration," which is not. It was supposed to be a roast, in which women close to the new Supervisors - former teachers, roommates, co-workers and wives - said funny th

  January 9, 2009

• What's the Matter With Kids Today? Did You Ever Think You'd Read the Terms 'Bullying' and 'Sodomize' in the Same Breath?

  Some 'school bullies' have allegedly found a novel use for an umbrella, tooWhen I was in school, we had the boy who left a deposit in the broom closet. We had the boy who kissed other boys because he saw Bugs Bunny do it. We had the boys who ate boogers, paste, and other kids' lunches. We didn't have the boy who tried to open an umbrella up another boy's ass. That was the gist of a brief, but eye-catching, story in today's Chronicle. Oddly, however, the Chron refers, repeatedly to "bullies" and

  February 17, 2009

• Candy From Babies

  October 11, 1995

• S.F. schools sometimes rely on kids to translate bad news to parents

  August 13, 2008

• The Principal Matter

  July 9, 2008

• Not Present

  Former truants relapse, stay away from attendance awards in droves.

  June 18, 2008

• End of an Era

  As The Apologist takes a bow and asks its final questions, it's time to turn the spotlight on ourselves

  January 31, 2007

• Letters to the Editor

  Week of Wednesday, May 24, 2006

  May 24, 2006

• A Study in Size

  Three years ago, San Francisco launched an experiment with a new kind of school. It worked. So why isn't the district pursuing it?

  May 3, 2006

• Extra Credit

  Is outgoing school Superintendent Arlene Ackerman worth a huge severance package and $45,000 in credit card charges? Find out where you stand!

  February 15, 2006

• Separate and Unequal

  Hidden in the city's special day classes, like the roots of San Francisco's segregation itself, are disproportionately high numbers of African-American and Latino kids.

  January 25, 2006

• Pacifists for War

  How the fractured counterrecruitment movement includes those hoping to bring the draft back

  November 2, 2005

• Dream Makers

  How teachers, parents, and a young white principal have taken plans for a Dream School in the Bayview and made them a dream of their own

  March 9, 2005

• Critical Masturbation

  The long-running pro-bike protest known as Critical Mass is a form of ritual self-abuse that hurts the cause of city cycling

  May 14, 2003

• Race for Space

  An unorthodox school for dropout risks is still searching for a campus, leaving students in learning limbo

  June 26, 2002

• Balkans by the Bay

  Aquatic Park, long mismanaged by a jumble of self-interested entities, needs public-spirited refurbishment

  January 16, 2002

• Dog Bites

  Overpriced Sports Star Joins Local Team; Light Reading; A Match Made in Heaven; A Suggestion for Rearranging the Deck Chairs at Salon.com

  August 29, 2001

• The Software That Wouldn't Die

  Despite promises and deadlines, the S.F. school district still hasn't driven a stake through the heart of its disastrous PeopleSoft financial program

  May 16, 2001

• Dog Bites

  Details, Details; Problem Is, It's Hard to Read in the Dark; PG&E Strikes Back

  April 18, 2001

• Class Struggle

  New school superintendent Arlene Ackerman has fostered educational excellence -- and ignited political firestorms. Her first major initiative? A significant shift in funding, from wealthier to poorer schools, being planned behind closed doors.

  January 10, 2001

• The PeopleSoftTouch

  PeopleSoft software has forced a Delaware manufacturer to cut paychecks to Mickey Mouse and let failing Wisconsin college students evade expulsion. Guess what software the San Francisco school district owns?

  November 22, 2000

• Dog Bites

  Hot Lead at 50 Paces; Have Merc-y

  September 27, 2000

• Riff Raff

  Left Of(f) the Dial; Following up

  June 21, 2000

• Busted

  S.F. schools must pay up for breaking federal labor laws

  May 24, 2000

• Letters to the Editor

  Published May 3, 2000

  May 3, 2000

• Unexcused Absence

  School leaders snub supervisors, refuse to show at parleys

  March 8, 2000

• Off the Books

  A school district administrator's extracurricular foreign recruiting prompts investigations in two countries

  February 23, 2000

• Show Them the Money

  Late reports prompt state to hold S.F. school district head's pay

  January 26, 2000

• Making Education Pay

  For consultants, the S.F. school district ATM is wide open

  September 22, 1999

• Demonstrating Exploitation

  A Latino activist group has gained largely positive media coverage for organizing student walkouts to protest government social policies. But how admirable is it, really, to endanger young children for political purposes?

  January 6, 1999

• The House of Tudor

  December 10, 1997

• Chalk Fight

  Teachers' union grand dame Joan Marie Shelley is forced into the campaign of her career by a formerly loyal lieutenant

  May 21, 1997

• Bus to Nowhere

  Why San Francisco's Byzantine school desegregation program systematically fails the children it was designed to help

  April 2, 1997

• School vs. Play

  April 2, 1997

• Mulch

  December 25, 1996

• School Work Needing Supervision

  Superintendent Rojas says he was just trying to avoid red tape; a lawsuit claims he willfully ignored city law

  December 11, 1996

• State and National Candidates

  October 30, 1996

• Mulch

  October 16, 1996

• Logic Boards, Not Blackboards

  The schools' low-wire act leaves students dangling

  September 25, 1996

• Cleaning Slates

  Superintendent Bill Rojas is pushing a simple solution for troubled schools: Get rid of everybody.

  July 31, 1996

• Gavin Newsom is no civil service reformer

  May 6, 2009

• JROTC Update: Cadets Must Physically Educate Themselves

  JROTC is in the house...​Despite the best efforts of the progressive establishment to purge JROTC from San Francisco's schools over the past three years, the leadership program taught by retired military personnel will begin its march back from oblivion when school starts this month. Following a May, 2008 letter from Public Advocates that threatened a lawsuit if the San Francisco Unified School District continued to award credit for PE, the SFUSD made its move (The state h

  August 7, 2009

• Were S.F. Public Works Jobs Part of Massive Fraud Scheme? Union Officials Say Yes.

  Don FeriaPolice escourt a woman from NBC General Contractors' Oakland offices during a May raid​If you're looking for the Lord Voldemort of local labor, Bay Area union officials have a nomination: Monica Ung. The owner of NBC General Contractors has been charged by Alameda County prosecutors with methodically defrauding her limited-English workers -- and the state -- of millions or even tens of millions of dollars. In a nutshell, Ung is accused of exploiting her Chinese immigrant labor pool by

  August 26, 2009

• Union Official: Contractor Facing Scores of Fraud Charges in E. Bay 'Pulled Same Scam' in San Francisco -- and Then-Mayor Willie Brown Was Warned About This

  Don FeriaA woman is led away by police during a May raid on NBC General Contractors' Oakland offices​On Wednesday, we wrote about the beleaguered NBC General Contractors, a company facing 40 felony counts in Alameda County for allegedly ripping off its vulnerable, Chinese immigrant workers and the state of California in a massive fraud scheme. An excellent cover story in the East Bay Express documented how owner Monica Ung purportedly forced her underpaid workers into six-day weeks of 12-hour

  August 28, 2009

• Backing Off Earlier Denial, S.F. Unified School District Now Says It's Unsure If It Employed Contractor Charged In Massive Fraud Scheme

  Was Bob defrauded here in San Francisco?​Late last month, SF Weekly ran several stories about the purported San Francisco ties of NBC Contractors, a scandal-infested building firm charged with dozens of felonies in Alameda County. The firm is charged with systematically forcing its Chinese electricians to work 12-hour days and six-day weeks while paying them below the city's minimum wage -- but reporting to government authorities that the men were paid prevailing wage and worked only part-time

  September 14, 2009

• Donate Art Supplies to Grade Schoolers, Receive Crème Brûlée

  ​S.F. public school teachers get a whopping 50 cents per student per year for art supplies, a fact that has motivated Crème Brûlée Cart to pitch in with a fundraiser on Sunday, October 18 from 2-4 p.m. at Fabric8 (3318 22nd St. at Valencia). There, you'll be able to buy a brûlée ($4) or receive one for free in exchange for bringing usable art supplies. All proceeds and donations will be given to the San Francisco Unified School District's STAR Schools Art and Music Planning Program.Items

  October 16, 2009

• SF Gov InAction: City Brings Hammer Down on Anti-Prostitution Program, Then Forms a Glee Club to Sing Social Services to Sleep

    I've had a really busy few weeks, and I haven't been able to catch up on any of the new fall shows yet. So I tried to cram a lot of television in this weekend while writing SF Gov InAction. Just so you know. Monday, Oct. 19, 10 a.m. - Public Safety Committee Somebody has to say it: the Public Safety Committee we have in San Francisco isn't nearly as good looking as the one they have in CSI Miami. Can we get them re-cast? I wouldn't mind if the supervisors stay around a

  October 19, 2009

• SF Gov InAction: A Big Week For Nurses, Lawsuits, and Jokes About Fights on Muni

    Monday, Nov. 16, 2 p.m. - Public Safety CommitteeIt's an exciting time to be on the Public Safety Committee. Swine flu is rampant, there's a new top cop in town, and SOMEBODY needs to decide if Hugues de La Plaza was: (a) the victim of a grisly murder, or; (b) a committed neat freak to the very end. The committee will be touching on several of these issues today, in the form of its regularly scheduled crime-n-stuff hearing, as well as approving grants for things like a swine flu "in

  November 16, 2009