
We are proud parents at a wonderful, progressive charter school called The New School of San Francisco. New School SF — a public, charter school — is one of only a few tuition-free, non-traditional schooling options in the city.
Like many, we craved something project-based and non-traditional for our kids — for every child, but we were only tasked with making a major life decision for ours. Since our children were randomly selected for NSSF and it topped our favorites list, this is where we enrolled.
We seem to be experiencing a pivotal moment in our culture, with increasing numbers of families seeking alternative schooling options, from homeschooling to unschooling to charter schooling to independent schooling. One interpretation could be that all who crave something different are racist and classist misanthropes seeking to separate their precious children from the children of the masses. This is a profoundly pessimistic and problematic interpretation, but, sadly, many of our own school board members appear to espouse this view.
Local critics of charter schools will erroneously tell you that New School is no different than your average public elementary school in the city. We can only guess that these people have either minimal experience teaching inside a standard public elementary school or their political mindset disables them from accurate analysis. NSSF’s approach to education — referred to as “inquiry for all” — and the school’s spirit of “hands on, minds on” is not a typical, tuition-free schooling experience in this city.
Students are encouraged to pose big questions, to collaborate, to physically create, and to complete three inquiry arcs a year (each culminating in an exposition night for peers and families). To list the artifacts and products of these group collaborations would require much space and time. A favorite project was focused on environmental and species preservation. Leyla’s daughter, at age seven, understandably horrified to learn that plastic bags in the ocean cause the preventable death of a most beloved sea creature, co-created the prototype for an edible, nutrient-rich “plastic bag.” It was a glorious, papier mâché globe encrusted with vibrant hues of finely crushed Fruit Loops. At the same age, Maria’s daughter worked with her classmates on miniature prototypes for different types of housing structures — which they first designed, and then built.
To state it plainly, the students are engaged, thriving, and joyful. They benefit from effective and sensible teacher-to-student ratios (each classroom at New School has two teachers for grades K-2 and 1.5 teachers for grades 3 and above), the passionate, kind-hearted faculty and staff, and the developmentally appropriate norms and expectations. Students at New School are expected to behave (in terms of minimized adverse impacts on others) and to “come correct,” as the saying goes, but they’re allowed some room to exhale and to simply be kids, too. You’d be hard-pressed to find a classroom teacher at New School sternly demanding that kids sit motionless on the rug with backs erect and hands impeccably clasped inside laps. Kids are given some space (physical, emotional, and psychic) to simply be. The attitude in the air is one of respecting the humanness of every learner. It must continually be said that in the consuming and often exhausting enterprise of teaching and learning, improved teacher-to-student ratios enable respect and responsiveness between teacher and student.
Our school values, such as being kind and courageous, are frequently discussed, explored, and encouraged. Kids learn that acceptance and celebration of difference is an essential component of inclusivity. It’s not all rainbows and ponies, of course. In 4th grade, Leyla’s daughter is learning about social studies and history through Jean-François Lyotard’s presentation of a “master narrative.” Recently, while reading poetry over dinner, she independently connected Roque Dalton’s exceptionally beautiful poem Like You to the concept of a counter narrative. She’s receiving a transformative and joyful educational experience with improved student-to-teacher ratios, a love of asking questions and considering solutions (and a lot of hands-on, multisensory, inquiry-rooted, tinkering time in response to the questions she’s posing).
While standard public schools absolutely contain silos of individual teachers who are passionate about project-based learning experiences and curriculum that responds and adapts to student interest, what New School offers is cohesiveness; the entire school is rooted in these principles. To suggest that such cohesiveness is available at all tuition-free schools in San Francisco is simply absurd. Again, these critics either have very little experience teaching inside public elementary schools or their faulty perceptions are overdetermined by their politics.
At a recent board meeting, following over two dozen comments of beautifully heartfelt parent and child testimony — often from parents of children with special needs — the school board elected to reject our school’s reauthorization and expansion into middle school. (New School SF has always communicated a desire to become a K-12 school.). Expressing an unfair critique of our participation in the El Dorado SELPA (as a state-approved charter, New School SF was not invited to join the SFUSD SELPA); complaints about insufficient racial, cultural, and economic diversity; and the possibility of adversely impacting the district in terms of facilities and revenue, the board rejected New School SF.
While these are complicated matters, it’s essential to emphasize that our school founders have repeatedly sought to make modifications to our charter — at the state level — to create an enrollment priority lottery for families receiving free and reduced lunch. The founders absolutely recognize a need for improvement here. School board members repeatedly critiqued the low percentage of students with free and reduced lunch at our school while they refused to reauthorize our program with the modification to our lottery (that would enable wider representation). They are complaining about a problem that they refuse to help solve.
Some board members seem absolutely fixated on the number of white families at New School. Yes, it’s true: New School — not unlike Grattan, Creative Arts, New Traditions, and McKinley — has a considerable white population (52%). It’s not as if New School SF is sponsoring enrollment fairs at J. Crew (or any other supposed enclave of white presence and culture); the founders aren’t spending weekends in Napa distributing school pamphlets to San Francisco’s white families while collectively basking in the glow of artisanal wine, whiteness, and sunshine. This is merely the way the random lottery — with over 500 applications for kinder — plays out. Even with frequent and purposeful outreach at targeted preschool programs including but not limited to Head Start, the lottery does what it does. Due to the very high number of “white kid” applicants, there are many white kids who get in. This is why — aside from ongoing, historical, and targeted community outreach — the school has repeatedly sought to modify the charter to create a priority (a floor, not a ceiling) for low SES applicants.
It’s been said that over 65% of white families in SF send their children to independent schools. Do we want to live in a city where alternative educational options are only available to the elites? In this day and age of increasing interest and enthusiasm for whole-child and personalized learning, why wouldn’t we want critical thinking, improved student-to-teacher ratios, and powerhouse educators available to more children whose families cannot afford independent, progressive schooling options?
The families at New School are not the 1%. We are a diverse group. You should know that there are teachers, counselors, firefighters, nonprofit workers, documentary filmmakers, service employees, artists, single mothers, nurses, and professors in our community. We aren’t dipping our crumpets into caviar. For many of our children, this educational experience would have been unattainable if not for this wonderful school, and we want more families and more children to attain access.
Quite frankly, we’re perplexed by the hypocrisy of some board members who’ve sent their own children to racially isolated White and Asian schools. It’s difficult to endure finger-wagging lectures about diversity by folks inside glass houses, particularly when their own privileges are married to political power. It’s intriguing to think that there are board members who support schools that are exclusive by design such as Lowell and SOTA, and yet they critique New School SF.
At the board meeting on September 24th, we were saddened to watch that evening’s most outspoken critic, Alison Collins — an individual whom we once admired deeply — verbally insult our parents, students, faculty, and staff because we committed the apparently unforgivable offense of arriving to an important meeting — concerning our school’s fate — wearing New School t-shirts. What Collins may not realize is that such gestures are benign and joyful acts aimed at creating and celebrating community.
Lastly, NSSF has repeatedly offered to minimize impact on existing school communities in various ways such as suggesting an unused “moth ball” building for school use as opposed to a forced colocation with an existing school. NSSF has also offered financial concessions in terms of leasing rates. We wonder if thriving charter schools could be prioritized in terms of district leases. Would it be appropriate to reserve a priority for a non-profit charter school to lease district space over a for-profit corporation, for example? At the height of enrollment, SFUSD educated nearly 100,000 students. Today, there are 54,000 students. When considering these numbers, one wonders about facilities and the possibility of reduced or eliminated impact on existing school communities.
As parents in the community, we now desperately hope that the State Board of Education will approve our school. We’ve written hundreds of letters in support of our phenomenal school leadership, faculty, and staff. The SF School Board seems unable to distinguish between charters that are striving to be fair and inclusive places and charters that are not. We hope that state leaders will be capable of a fairer analysis.
-Leyla Momeny is a special education teacher, an early childhood parent educator, and a mother of two. Maria Breaux is a copywriter and filmmaker. Both are members of a mighty group called Families of Color at New School of San Francisco.