Why can't SF's foundation muscle bucks for schools like those in the 'burbs do?

September 1, 7:54 PMSF Education ExaminerCaroline Grannan

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The moderator of the SFSchools discussion listserve complained about a help-wanted announcement he found online that seeks an executive director for the San Francisco School Alliance.
 

Excerpts from the lengthy announcement:

Founded in 2005 as an independent 501(c)(3), the San Francisco School Alliance (the Alliance) builds partnerships, raises money and advocates for the policies to ensure that every student in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) receives a world-class education. … [T]he Executive Director will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for staff, programs, expansion, fundraising, and implementation of its mission as a civic fundraising and support organization to SFUSD.

“Sounds like a bunch of gibberish,” the SFSchools commentator griped. “What value will this position provide to anyone in any school?”

Well, I don’t really share that skepticism, but I sure would like to see the SFSA start realizing its potential to provide value.

The SF School Alliance is supposed to fill the role that I've posted about sometimes -- the equivalent of the foundations in places like Mill Valley and Orinda that are highly visible, that everyone in town donates to. There are big signs in public places in those towns and many other well-heeled suburbs announcing how much the foundations have raised, and every business in town prominently displays its window stickers announcing that it donates to the foundation every year.

Here's the one in Mill Valley: KIDDO, the Mill Valley Community Schools Foundation.

Orinda's: Educational Foundation of Orinda

I don't see any reason why San Francisco doesn't have a foundation functioning the same way -- even if our city has low-income children of color and those suburbs don't, we still have rich folks who care enough to support the schools, and could create a climate in which having that window sticker was essential to demonstrate that every business was a good community member.

It's a mystery to me why SFSA hasn't filled that role. I know that SFSA's former  executive director was suddenly fired a few weeks ago after a short time with the organization. I have no information about why that was, though I've been told that she was working to build SFSA into the kind of foundation I'm describing, and that she had done that same work successfully in Portland with a foundation.

By the way, speaking of money and our schools' needs, I was curious whether there was a snowball's chance that there's a legal way to cancel SFUSD’s newly minted contract with the National
Urban Alliance, $2.9 million for staff development. When our schools’ budgets are so tight, it seems indefensible to funnel this kind of money to an outside organization unless it has absolutely proved that it walks on water.

What would it take for a couple of school board members to have a change of heart? (I understand that Norman Yee was wavering before he decided to go for it, for one. The contract was approved by a 4-2 vote, with Rachel Norton and Jill Wynns against, and Hydra Mendoza absent.) It's unknown what the contract language allows, of course. But we could so use that $2.9 mil in our classrooms.