SFUSD sunshine

by kim knox

The San Francisco Board of Education is considering the adoption of an open government policy (Resolution 511-15A1) for the San Francisco Unified School District. Championed by Comm. Mark Sanchez, the policy is a good first step in creating greater transparency of the SFUSD's business practices and improving public access to the board's deliberations.

Some of the suggested changes under the proposed policy include allowing people to sign up to speak by signing a speaker's card at any time during an evening Board of Education meeting. Currently, anyone who wants to address the board has to call in during the day to the BOE office or sign up right before the meeting begins.

The proposed policy would also require that the superintendent and the BOE president maintain a public calendar including the time, place, and subject of all meetings involving district business. The proposed policy would also allow a member of the public to request records during negotiations of sole-source contracts, and leases with revenues of $500,000 or more or with a term of 10 years or more.

But there are problems. Unfortunately, the open government policy doesn't include any penalties for violations.

And one item in the proposed policy would actually limit the public's access to the SFUSD. The change was proposed by the district's staff, and it would give the district 30 school days to review any formal appeal from a member of the public on the handling of a public record.

A 30-school-day period for the appeal process translates into a three-month wait during the summer.

Here's how it could work. Say a member of the public requests a document that impacts his or her child's education. Under the California Public Records Act, the district would have 10 business days to respond. If the district refuses to provide a copy of the document, the person seeking the information could appeal. But if an appeal is filed at the end of May or in June, just before the "school days" end for the summer, the person wouldn't get a response until the end of September or the beginning of October.

Another problem: The policy doesn't address the SFUSD's current requirement that all visitors to school board meetings must sign a log. This is in violation of Section 54953.3 of the California Government Code, which states that "a member of the public should not be required, as a condition, to attendance at a meeting of a legislative body of a local meeting, to register his or her name, to provide other information, to complete a questionnaire, or otherwise to any condition precedent to his or her attendance."

Section 54950 of the California Government Code, the preamble to the Brown Act, states, "It is the intent of the law that the actions be taken openly and that the deliberations be conducted openly.... The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for the people to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments that they have created."

Sanchez should be applauded for introducing this resolution. But we as a community need to work together to ensure that the board improves, passes, and implements this policy and others in order to truly create a more open school board and school district. Because in the end, it is the voices of the parents, teachers, staff, community, and students that should be guiding and leading the board and the district in their decisions.

Kim Knox is an education and environmental activist. She is the editor and coauthor of several books that teach students about water and water conservation. She is also an elected member of the San Francisco Green Party's County Council.