San Francisco Schools

In a radical bid to rejuvenate troubled schools, education officials here plan to remove the entire staffs at three problem campuses--teachers, cafeteria workers, everybody--and start over from scratch. If a federal court gives approval, as expected, for the "reconstitution" plan at the low-achieving schools, the three principals and about 200 other staff members could be transferred to schools throughout San Francisco.

A powerful U.S. senator has demanded more information about the financial health of UC San Francisco's medical school, raising questions about whether the entire University of California system may be mismanaging federal research funds. Sen. Charles E.

When urban school superintendents gather to discuss test scores, usually no one has cause to break out the champagne. The reasons--or excuses, as critics would cast it--for big-city schools' below-par performance are serious: They have students mired in poverty and hobbled by language gaps. And they don't have enough qualified teachers or enough money to buy books or upgrade deteriorating campuses.

The State Board of Education voted Thursday in Sacramento to allow a controversial charter school run here by the for-profit Edison Schools Inc. to reopen under state control after summer vacation. After three years of acrimony, the San Francisco Board of Education voted two weeks ago to sever most of its ties with the Edison Charter Academy, which operated in the city's upscale Noe Valley neighborhood.

The state sued San Francisco's public school district Thursday for its refusal to administer California's new standardized achievement test to students with limited English skills. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, represents the toughest move yet by State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin in demanding that California schools comply with a state requirement that all students in grades 2 through 11 take the test.

What's wrong with this picture? The children at Edison Charter Academy--formerly one of this city's most notorious schools--are learning to read and do math. Their test scores have begun to improve. Their parents are delighted. But the board of education, here in the nation's most ideological city, wants to kick out the for-profit corporation that has run the campus for the past three years: Edison Schools Inc., which vowed at its birth to revolutionize education in America.

San Francisco's new schools superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, has quickly made her presence known, demoting 30 district workers from coveted office positions to teaching jobs and removing the district's chief financial officer. Ackerman took over as superintendent Aug. 1 and said she is making good on her vow to "streamline central operations." "I'm beginning with a reorganization of the most critical positions in the district," she said. "Fiscal issues are a top priority for me.

With educators across the nation watching, the city's school district is struggling--unsuccessfully, so far--to create a school assignment formula that can maintain an ethnic balance in each school without using race as a criterion. U.S. District Judge William Orrick has ordered district officials to submit a race-blind plan Friday for the 2000-2001 school year.

Now that long-reigning Democratic Speaker Willie Brown is safely out of town, it's payback time for conservative Bernie Richter. Literally. Assemblyman Richter (R-Chico) steered a bill through the lower house last week that seeks to spread around to 42 counties a bonanza of $87 million a year by raiding the tax base of one city--San Francisco. The city by the bay, maintained Richter, has been hogging more than its rightful share of property tax revenues for 17 years.

For years, figure skater Brian Boitano has wanted to work with kids in his hometown. There was just one problem: San Francisco didn't have a year-round ice rink. Now it does. So the 1988 Olympic gold medalist has joined with San Francisco's Unified School District and the city's new downtown ice rink for "Brian Boitano's Youth Skate" a non-profit organization that will introduce school children to ice skating. "This isn't just great for the kids, it's great for me," Boitano exclaimed.

After years of complaints from parents about San Francisco's crowded, ill-equipped and run-down schools, the FBI has been called in to find out whether the mess is more than just a matter of bad management. City and school authorities asked the bureau earlier this spring to determine whether the mishandling of millions of dollars was criminal. "This is a very broken school system," said Arlene Ackerman, who has been superintendent for less than a year.

School board members have given Edison Schools Inc. 90 days to fix problems that critics claim exist at the city's only for-profit school. The board's 6-1 vote late Tuesday followed the release of a district investigation launched about a month ago, following complaints by parents, students and teachers. But Edison has said the real problem is that some people do not approve of having a private company run a public school.

What's wrong with this picture? The children at Edison Charter Academy--formerly one of this city's most notorious schools--are learning to read and do math. Their test scores have begun to improve. Their parents are delighted. But the board of education, here in the nation's most ideological city, wants to kick out the for-profit corporation that has run the campus for the past three years: Edison Schools Inc., which vowed at its birth to revolutionize education in America.

A prestigious ballet school has been accused of violating San Francisco's new law against size discrimination for rejecting a young ballerina allegedly deemed too large. In a complaint lodged with the city's Human Rights Commission, 8-year-old Fredrika Keefer and her mother, Krissy Keefer, say the San Francisco Ballet School dashed Fredrika's dreams because she did not fit criteria requiring applicants to have "a well-proportioned, slender body."

The San Francisco Board of Education has dropped tough graduation requirements for the class of 2001 after learning that 30% of the city's high school seniors would fail to meet the standards. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday, saying it had failed to provide students with enough tutors or extra classes to meet the requirements. In 1997, the board voted to require more math, English, science, arts and foreign language courses.

San Francisco's new schools superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, has quickly made her presence known, demoting 30 district workers from coveted office positions to teaching jobs and removing the district's chief financial officer. Ackerman took over as superintendent Aug. 1 and said she is making good on her vow to "streamline central operations." "I'm beginning with a reorganization of the most critical positions in the district," she said. "Fiscal issues are a top priority for me.

A San Francisco judge ruled Friday that the state cannot force 6,000 immigrant students there to participate in a statewide test of reading, math and other skills. The decision by Superior Court Judge David Garcia is a major victory for the San Francisco Unified School District, which had refused to abide by the rules of the state's new STAR test, given for the first time this spring. Garcia's one-sentence order did not explain his reasoning. A spokesman for Gov.

Stanley Weigel, an irascible liberal whose three decades as a federal judge in San Francisco brought major rulings on school desegregation and the rights of prisoners and the elderly, died Wednesday at his home in the Russian Hill section of the city. He was 93. After his appointment to the federal bench in 1962, he built a reputation as an old-style constitutional liberal who often was hot-tempered in court when faced with an ill-prepared attorney.

With educators across the nation watching, the city's school district is struggling--unsuccessfully, so far--to create a school assignment formula that can maintain an ethnic balance in each school without using race as a criterion. U.S. District Judge William Orrick has ordered district officials to submit a race-blind plan Friday for the 2000-2001 school year.

Stanley Weigel, an irascible liberal whose three decades as a federal judge in San Francisco brought major rulings on school desegregation and the rights of prisoners and the elderly, died Wednesday at his home in the Russian Hill section of the city. He was 93. After his appointment to the federal bench in 1962, he built a reputation as an old-style constitutional liberal who often was hot-tempered in court when faced with an ill-prepared attorney.