Resource Alignment Initiative Weekly Updates

Resource Alignment is a complex initiative, and we're committed to keeping you informed about the latest developments. This page will be updated weekly with key developments from the previous week and upcoming events. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us through the Family Resource Link.

Welcome to our Weekly Update

Below is a summary of the Resource Alignment Initiative’s recent activities and upcoming events.

Weekly Update: April 19-25

April 22 District Advisory Council Meeting 

On the evening of April 22, the District Advisory Council met virtually for their regularly scheduled meeting. The discussion focused on the Resource Alignment Initiative’s Focus Area 4: Invest in Priority District-Wide Programs. Here are the agenda and slides from the meeting. During the discussion, district staff shared contextual information about Special Education programs, shared contextual information about Language Programs, and helped the council align on an outline of May meetings. You can learn more about the District Advisory Council and see materials from all of its meetings on our website.

 Community Engagement

After extensive outreach in multiple languages, SFUSD collected over 10,000 survey responses from the first survey between March 28 and April 6. Over 650 participants joined the first Virtual Town Hall on March 28, and 700 participants attended in-person community sessions, advisory council meetings, and committee meetings to provide direct feedback on the criteria.

Ten themes emerged from feedback gathered during the in-person community meetings.

Community members highlighted ideal outcomes of the Resource Alignment Process equity and academics that closely resemble SFUSD’s commitments including:

  1. Safe, welcoming, positive, and stable school cultures and environments
  2. Equitable distribution of resources and opportunities
  3. School access -  schools conveniently located within neighborhoods or have transportation provided, as well as an equitable geographic distribution of schools
  4. High academic performance
  5. Importance of social-emotional development in students
  6. Access to special programs - including language pathways, specialized instruction for students with differing needs
  7. Qualified teachers in every classroom and reducing turnover rates of teachers and other school site staff

Community members also shared constructive feedback on the engagement process, which district staff are using to improve cycle two. Some examples include:

Feedback

SFUSD’s Response

There are concerns about impacts on popular offerings like small class sizes, K-8 programs, and bilingual programs.

Many of these offerings are what make SFUSD’s schools special. Having fully enrolled and resourced schools will create rich learning environments for every student in every school.

There’s skepticism about the data being used, a feeling that data is being withheld, desire to understand underlying causes of low enrollment.

Facts about our current school portfolio have been presented to the District Advisory Committee and are available on the Resource Alignment Initiative website. Information about our decision-making process including meeting materials and the results of the first survey are on our website. We are always open to making corrections and additions where needed. 

There are concerns that the root of the budget problems will not be addressed by school closures. 

School closures will not save enough money to address the district’s financial deficit, that’s why the Resource Alignment Initiative has five focus areas to address the issue in multiple ways. The goal of Focus Area 5: Creating a new portfolio of schools  will create strong and supportive learning environments for our students.

Using criteria like school discipline, attendance, academic performance, facility condition, and cost per pupil are in opposition to the goal of Equity.

Some criteria were not rated highly by the community and will not be included. For the ones that are (academic performance and building condition), the equity audit will weigh criteria in such a way that will allow SFUSD to mitigate harm.

The consolidation criteria in the first survey were too vague or could be interpreted in multiple ways.

We added more detail to the criteria and directions to complete the survey. SFUSD staff are available to assist with survey completion at in-person events and Family Liaisons at schools sites are also trained to assist those who need help.

The Spanish translation of the survey was unclear.

We revised the Spanish translation in 24 hours and added quality assurance measures to prevent unclear translations.

How will impacted families, students, teachers, and staff will be supported through the changes?

We are creating a One Team transition plan to support affected school students, parents, and staff.

The next cycle of community engagement begins on Thursday, April 25. In this cycle, community members will be asked to complete a second survey to give their input on the importance of each criterion. As with the first cycle, SFUSD will reach out to community members in multiple neighborhoods throughout the city and provide translation and interpretation to ensure an inclusive process. After incorporating the community’s feedback, Superintendent Wayne will present the recommended criteria for mergers, co-locations, or closures to the Board of Education in June 2024.

📅 Upcoming Events 📅

Please mark your calendars for the following important events, organized by date:

April 25: Virtual Town Hall 2

April 25 - May 5: New Survey Launch

  • Focus: Gathering input on the criteria for school consolidation
  • Link: Participate here

April 27: In-Person Community Sessions at Sheridan Elementary School

April 27: In-Person Community Sessions at Roosevelt Middle School

We value your continued involvement as we strive to enhance our schools and community. We encourage you to participate in these events and share your insights.

Weekly Update: April 11-18
Weekly Update: April 11-18

Community-Based Organization Meetings

This past week, we convened three meetings with community-based organizations to gather feedback on the first cycle of community engagement and provide an overview of what to expect in cycle two.

  • Participants found the following to be successful in the first cycle:
    • Facilitated meaningful discussions with in-person, Spanish, and Cantonese sessions, improving community engagement.
    • Enhanced transparency and communication about district decisions involving grassroots-level community-based organizations.
    • Increased understanding among parents regarding the nuances of school district operations and decision-making.
  • Participants identified the following areas for improvement:
    • Differentiate criteria for mergers, closures, and co-locations to effectively address schools’ unique needs.
    • Maintain consistent language across sessions and use plain language to clarify complex topics.
    • Provide clear decision-making criteria and support families with survey completion.
    • Set clear financial targets and engagement metrics for underrepresented groups.

District leaders will continue to seek and integrate feedback into our future work to be responsive to our community’s needs. 

Survey Analysis - Our research partners at Stanford are currently analyzing 6,849 complete survey responses to inform the design of the next survey.

Event Preparation - District leaders are integrating feedback from the first cycle into our upcoming community engagement sessions.

  • Approximately 700 participants joined our in-person community meetings
  • Approximately 650 participants joined our Virtual Town Hall

Site Leader Updates—District leaders gave school principals a preview of the April 25th Virtual Town Hall, in-person community sessions, and survey.

📅 Upcoming Events 📅

Please mark your calendars for the following important events, organized by date:

April 22: District Advisory Committee (DAC) Meeting

April 25: Virtual Town Hall #2

April 25 - May 5: New Survey Launch

  • Focus: Gathering input on the criteria for school consolidation
    Link: Participate here

April 27: In-Person Community Sessions at Sheridan Elementary School

April 27: In-Person Community Sessions at Roosevelt Middle School

We value your continued involvement as we strive to enhance our schools and community. We encourage you to participate in these events and share your insights.

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This page was last updated on April 26, 2024