Resolutions I’ve Authored
As one of the most prolific members of our Board, I believe in working WITH the community I serve. I have partnered with community members as co-authors of many resolutions to create real change for our district.
Roadmap to COVID Recovery Resolution
Primary author with Commissioner Gabriela Lopez, in partnership with SFUSD parents
The Roadmap to COVID Recovery Resolution articulates a district commitment to ensuring health and safety protocols are in place at each and every school. It also commits district staff to “work toward the opportunity to mandate full vaccination of District staff.”
The focus of the resolution is on requesting that the Superintendent draft plans to assess current capacity and what is needed from City, State, and community partners: 1) To provide heightened testing and tracing protocols for staff and students; 2) To provide support for schools that wish to increase the use of outdoor space for instruction and eating when it is feasible. This support may include: procuring tents, increased custodial and lunch monitor staffing; 3) To provide a full-time staff member to serve as a district liaison for our most vulnerable youth and families, including those living in SRO’s and low-income supportive housing.
Additionally, the resolution directs staff to do the following: 1) Work in collaboration with official district parent advisory bodies and labor partners and with the San Francisco Health Department to establish a clear and anonymous complaint system for students, families, and staff for reporting non-compliance. 2) Develop a public assessment for “providing high-quality remote learning options for all families who desire it with no penalties for enrollment in online learning (students won’t lose enrollment in their previously assigned schools)
SFUSD’s Expanded Early College Interns program for high school and transitional age youth
Collaborated with Supervisor Gordon Mar and Matt Haney to author a Board of Supervisors Resolution – unanimous approval from Board of Supervisors
With support from Commissioner Alison M. Collins, Supervisors Gordon Mar and Matt Haney connected with SFUSD staff, including Linda Jordan, to explore opportunities for expanded high school learning. Before this resolution was introduced, funding for expanded learning programs at the high school level had been excluded from city budget conversations and faced severe cuts. This resolution called for city funding of SFUSD’s Expanded Early College Interns program in the summer of 2021. Supervisors Mar and Haney successfully advocated for $2.7 million in funding to bolster this program which provided for 800 internships in July and August 2021, ranging from 35 to 150 hours.
In Response to Ongoing, Pervasive Systemic Racism at Lowell High School Resolution
Primary author with Commissioner Gabriela Lopez and Matt Alexander, in partnership with the Lowell Black Student Union, BLADE alumni association, African American Parent Advisory Council (AAPAC) and SF Naacp – approved 5 (Collins, Lopez, Alexander, Sanchez, Moliga) – 2 (Lam, Boggess)
The resolution, which was authored in response to calls for action from the community, initiates a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the SFUSD and the Education and Civil Rights Initiative (CRI) of the University of Kentucky College of Education, Lexington KY, in collaboration with the SF NAACP, California NAACP, and National NAACP to facilitate the creation of a Equity Audit Taskforce. This community taskforce is charged with defining and overseeing a district-wide equity audit and resulting action plan to “address the exclusion and ongoing toxic racist abuse that students of color, and specifically Black students” across SFUSD with a specific focus at Lowell High School. It also eliminates selective enrollment based on standardized test scores and grades which has led to underrepresentation of Black, Latinx, Samoan Pacific Islander students as well as students in Special Education and English Language Learner programs, many of whom are Asian-American newcomer students.
Equity Studies Resolution
Primary author, coauthors Mark Sanchez and Jenny Lam – unanimous approval
This resolution calls for decolonizing instruction Pre-K through 12 grade by teaching about historically underrepresented communities and cultures and commits to removing oppressive curriculum, books, activities, school celebrations, and other school practices. This humanizing curriculum is based on the principles of Knowledge (and Love) of Self, Solidarity between communities and with the most marginalized, and Self-Determination. This resolution calls for mandatory professional development on anti-racist educational ractices at all levels including central office leadership. It also established a permanent Equity Studies Team to identify most effective practices in developing educator leader capacity to address the issues of race/ethnicity, language, culture, gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation, ability, and underserved populations as they impact instruction in the classroom.
Commissioner Collins also worked with the SF Human Rights Commission to establish an Equity Studies Community Taskforce to ensure community input and accountability of this work. The task force includes representation from students, families, site-based educators, and community members. Cultural groups that are highlighted are Asian American, Black, Latinx, Native American, Arab, and other underrepresented cultural groups. This group is currently developing a district calendar and curriculum resource guides to highlight celebrations of all cultures PK – 12.
Arts Equity Resolution
Lead author, Co-author Gabriela Lopez, Unanimously approved
(See the Board discussion starting at 4:00:42)
When Alison’s daughter was in fourth grade and showed her that the district art department was excluding low-income and immigrant students from arts education by requiring families to rent instruments and violating state law, she didn’t just speak up, she did something about it. When she got on the Board of Education, she and President Gabriela López wrote the Arts Equity Resolution. It directed district staff to design a plan to provide quality arts instruction for all children. This also included ensuring students who are in middle school English Learner and Special Education programs (who are almost entirely excluded from participation in arts and music instruction due to scheduling) are included. (This is also education discrimination and a violation of the California State Education Code.) In just one year the rental policy was eliminated and thousands of instruments were bought, and participation went up. Even during the pandemic, 4,500 recorders went home. This year SFUSD purchased 2552 villains, 110 ukuleles, 150 trumpets, 100 flutes,and 200 guitars. More children participated in music education, and the type of music education was more culturally inclusive.
Native American / Native Alaskan Resolution
Coauthored with Mark Sanchez in collaboration with the American Indian Parent Advisory Council – unanimous approval
For the first time, San Francisco Board of Education formally apologized to Native American families for the pain and trauma caused by racist imagery, textbooks, and mascots in district schools. SFUSD acknowledged consistent erasure of American Indian and Indigenous students by omission in data collection and demographics reporting and committed to removing stereotypes and misinformation about American Indian, Alaskan Native and all Indigenous people from school walls, celebrations, and textbooks, including the current United States History textbooks. This resolution was notable in that it was written with not for the community it is meant to uplift.
In Support of Black Lives in SFUSD and the Abolition of Armed Law Enforcement in Schools #BlackLivesMatter #DefundThePolice #InvestInCommunities #BlackMindsMatter,”
Primary author, coauthors Mark Sanchez and Jenny Lam – unanimous approval
The resolution declares schools a sanctuary space from law enforcement so that we can continue to create safe, healthy, and equitable schools for all SFUSD students. It also calls on support from the City to set policies that align with SFUSD’s goal of protecting youth and families from unnecessary contact with police, such as by investing in Community School Coordinators who can serve as a mechanism for bringing more resources into schools. The resolution also calls on the City to support community and City partners by reinvesting funds currently used for policing and investing those resources into youth development, mentoring, community-based violence prevention, and other social services.
SFUSD Data Access, Inclusion, and Partnership to Enhance Student Success Resolution
Primary co-author with Commissioner Faauuga Moliga, with Commissioner Jenny Lam
In an effort to better reflect the diversity of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and capture the true identities of the student population, the District revised its data collection systems to maintain more specific racial/ethnic, national origin, language, and gender-specific data. Commissioner Collins worked with community-based organizations including Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC), Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinese Progressive Association, and others to author the “SFUSD Data Access, Inclusion, and Partnership to Enhance Student Success Resolution,” This resolution ensures data collection allowed communities to be seen who were previously invisible including Vietnamese, Arab, and other Asian American communities that were previously invisible. The cultural identities of multiracial students also become more visible. For example, students who are mixed, Samoan Pacific Islander, and Black previously only showed up in one or another report, now students who identify as multiracial will appear in multiple reports by the cultural/racial groups that align with their identities.
Our Healing in Our Hands SFUSD Resolution: Creating Schools as Spaces of Student-Driven Healing, Transformation, and Growth
Co-author with Commissioner Faauuga Moliga, and Jenny Lam, in partnership with youth leaders from Chinese for Affirmative Action (CPA) Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC) and Coleman Advocates for Youth and Families – unanimous approval
This resolution increased funding to support preventative wellness services for students. It expanded student voice and skills as leaders and decision makers and gave them a seat at the table to inform wellness and healing in their schools. It directed the district to hire more wellness staff, including therapists and social workers. It also directed staff to implement peer-led coaching programs with support from CBOs to integrate culturally responsive and linguistically diverse mental health curriculum that address root causes of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. This resolution was youth-led and was based on a report which outlined the disparate access that students have to mental health services. It specifically called out the lack of access to culturally competent mental health services for students who speak languages other than English. This report also specifically named the overrepresentation of Black and Latinx students who are referred for discipling and the underrepresentation of Asian American students in referrals for mental health support.