January 18th, 2012

Greatness at John O'Connell Thanks to MLK

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, more than 200 Bay Area students, community members and Google employees (50 of them) volunteered at John O’Connell High School. The event was hosted by the Center for Music National Service, a music education nonprofit, in partnership with the school.

Kiff Gallagher, CEO and founder of the Center for Music National Service, was proud. ”It’s a day on, not a day off,” he said.

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December 23rd, 2011

Grow a mustache, raise cash for San Francisco schools

By: Amy Crawford

Mike Koozmin/The SF Examiner

Lip service: El Dorado Elementary Principal Tai-Sun Schoeman’s mustache raised about $2,000 for school supplies such as copier paper, P.E. equipment and storybooks.

Tai-Sun Schoeman, principal at El Dorado Elementary School, wanted to help his teachers buy supplies that the Visitacion Valley school’s budget couldn’t cover. So he grew a mustache.

"I am blessed with prodigious facial hair, so it grew in fairly quickly," the hirsute Schoeman said.

He is one of dozens of men — fathers, principals and teachers — across The City who grew mustaches over five weeks this November and December to raise money for public schools. Mimicking a charity walk, they found sponsors for their whiskers through the website DonorsChoose.org.

Mustaches for Kids, which started in Los Angeles in 1999, has been an annual ritual in The City for a decade, but it has taken off in recent years as school budgets are slashed and teachers struggle to afford materials as basic as paper and pencils.

"Our teachers are really resorting to DonorsChoose," said Schoeman, whose mustache netted about $2,000 for items such as copier paper, P.E. equipment and storybooks.

Jason Sterling, whose children attend Peabody Elementary School, raised more than $1,000. He grew his first mustache last year, when there were six participants at the school. This year there were 16.

"It’s kind of the No. 1 event for dads at our school," he said.

Ed Korenman, the father of twin first-graders at Peabody, said the schedule was easier for working dads than most fundraisers.

"I’m not able to volunteer as much as I’d like, but this is something I can do," said Korenman, whose mustache raised $3,000 for Peabody.

But although the payoff might be great, growing a mustache can be uncomfortable — and awkward.

"You get on the bus, go anywhere out in public, and you can see people looking at you, thinking, ‘Does he really think that looks good?’" Sterling said.

"It’s itchy," Korenman said. "It looks ridiculous on me."

Despite his mustache’s success, Korenman planned to shave after Mustaches for Kids’ celebratory ’Stache Bash this month.

"My wife doesn’t like it," he said. "It needs to come off."

Sterling said his wife was not a fan either.

"She probably suffered more than me," he said. "She’s always saying, ‘We’ll forever have the mustache in our Christmas photos.’"

acrawford@sfexaminer.com

Bristly benefactors

San Francisco schools reaped the benefits of men’s facial hair choices for charity.

60: Charity mustaches in 2011
890: Cash donors
$62,000: Money raised for schools this year
$300,000: Money raised since 2008

Source: Mustaches for Kids

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/12/grow-mustache-raise-cash-schools#ixzz1hOv1dkEV

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November 23rd, 2011

Holiday Cuts

By: Alicia Avila & Molly Oleson

Three community friends teamed up with Cesar Chavez Community Schools Coordinator Carlo Solis to host a free haircutting event for children and adults on Sunday, Nov. 21. They were inspired by a documentary chronicling similar charitable events coordinated by the Nation of Islam in the 1930s. Although this was the first event organized by this team of young men, they hope to host many more in the months to come.

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October 18th, 2011

Mission District kids learn to love science

By Lyanne Melendez

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Children living in San Francisco's Mission District are often underserved. One organization though is offering a special enrichment program to help students who live there, not just interested in science, but excited about it.

Mayor Ed Lee and kids will walk it out

By: Stephanie Lee

So this must be what Mayor Ed Lee means by being able to walk the talk.

That's what we call walking in style.
(Mike Kepka/The Chronicle)

On Wednesday — International Walk to School Day — the mayor and other city leaders will walk alongside students and families to Marshall Elementary School and other San Francisco Unified schools.

This fall, San Francisco became the first big city in California to create 15-mph speed limits around schools. Forty-four schools are holding special events Wednesday.

Other walkers will include Supervisor Jane Kim, Municipal Transportation Agency Executive Director Ed Reiskin and Recreation and Park Department Director Phil Ginsburg. Representatives from Walk SF and the Safe Routes to School Program, which is run by the Department of Public Health, will be there too.

Festivities kick off at 7:45 a.m. at Kidpower Park on Hoff Street, between 15th and 16th streets. The walk will conclude around 8:30 a.m. at Marshall Elementary School’s schoolyard on Capp Street, between 16th and 17th streets.

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September 21st, 2011

San Francisco Mayoral Candidates wash cars at McKinley Elementary

San Francisco Mayoral Candidates washed cars in support for McKinley Elementary on the sunny Saturday of Sept. 17th.

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September 14th, 2011

San Francisco bank accounts put children on college path

By: Amy Crawford | 09/13/11 4:00 AM
Examiner Staff Writer

School fund: San Francisco is the first city to start accounts for kindergartners. (AP file photo)

Some 2,400 kindergartners have their own bank accounts courtesy of the city of San Francisco.

The city program, Kindergarten to College, is now in its second year, after a pilot run last year for 1,200 students at 18 schools. By next year, every kindergartner in The City’s public schools will have a savings account, said Leigh Phillips, manager of the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, a division of The City’s treasury.

“This is pretty pioneering,” Phillips said. “It’s the first of its kind in the country.”

When a child starts kindergarten, The City places $50 in an account at Citibank, with an extra $50 if the child comes from a low-income family. Parents are encouraged to deposit their own money, and private philanthropies will match up to $100 of the family’s contribution each year. The philanthropies also will give families a $100 bonus if they set up automatic deposits into the account.

Phillips said students will have until they turn 25 to use the money. It can go toward a two- or four-year college or vocational school after a student graduates from high school.

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September 9th, 2011

The Stanford/SFUSD Partnership: one pinch of happenstance, four parts strategy

YourSFPublicSchools.org Guest Blog Columnist: Laura Wentworth, PhD

Director of the Stanford University/San Francisco Unified School District Partnership A project of California Education Partners and the Silver Giving Foundation

Contact: laura@caedpartners.org

What’s the recipe for a strong partnership between a school district and a university?

- Combine one superintendent, one dean, and one private foundation that desire to work together

-Stir in two cups shared research interests

-Throw in a handful of resources (that already existed, but were under-leveraged)

-Add daily, weekly, and monthly channels of communication

-Then blend together with one dedicated partnership director funded by the foundation

-Place in close geographic proximity to one another and sprinkle on a common vision

-Top with the common goal of advancing student achievement

San Francisco Unified School District and Stanford University utilized this “recipe” over the last two years to benefit from all their partnership has to offer. Cooked up by the President of the Silver Giving Foundation, Phil Halperin, the out-going Dean of Stanford University’s School of Education, Deborah Stipek, and SFUSD’s Superintendent Carlos Garcia, the three leaders turned a happenstance relationship into a more formalized partnership during the 2009-2010 by hiring me, Laura Wentworth, as a Partnership Director,. Since then, the partnership has:

1. Insured all Stanford projects in the district are aligned with SFUSD priorities;

2. Set up agreements and processes that streamline communication;

3. Helped SFUSD and Stanford personnel have a two-way dialog about research and research findings on a more consistent and reliable basis.

Every year Stanford and SFUSD personnel get together for an annual meeting to review and revise the vision statement and examine the most recent research findings from Stanford projects. Rather than this old recipe gathering dust, both Stanford and SFUSD personnel take time to work in the kitchen side-by-side while considering district decisions based on findings from Stanford research studies. This mutually beneficial relationship continues to improve, so be on the lookout for new ingredients!

To learn more about the Stanford/SFUSD partnership, go to: http://silvergiving.org/stanfordsfusd-partnership

Stanford/SFUSD Partnership Vision Statement, Updated for 2011-2012 The partnership between Stanford University and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) supports and promotes innovative, practical research, and engages practitioners, policy makers, and academics in a dialog about research findings and implications for decision-making.

The partnership helps Stanford research inform San Francisco’s policies and practices and Stanford learn from San Francisco’s expertise, with the goal of advancing student achievement in San Francisco and beyond.

Tell us about ways you’ve seen the Stanford/SFUSD partnership benefit SF’s public schools.

Check out my blog, "Data Download" that captures some of the research being used and discussed in the Stanford/SFUSD partnership: http://www.datadownload.blogspot.com/

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August 25th, 2011

Five decades of kindergarten in San Francisco (photos)

Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email, Twitter) | August 25 2011

The Poop | The Chronicle Baby Blog

Bill Young/Chronicle 1960

Don't feel bad, kid. We didn't feel like we fit in at kindergarten either. This photo was taken on Sept. 8, 1960, on the first day at Winfield Scott School in San Francisco. The conscientious objector in the back is named Christopher, according to the photo caption.

In honor of school coming back in session in the Bay Area, this week's archive search features photos from kindergarten in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. There are quite a few tears, two safety patrol kids, nap time and one dunce cap. You can buy these photos and others like them in the Chronicle Photo Store. And starting this week, I'm recording a bonus video exclusive to the Chronicle iPad app.

-Peter Hartlaub

Barney Peterson/Chronicle 1949

Sept 8, 1949: There are five kids in this photo taken at an elementary school somewhere in the Richmond District (the back of the photo includes names and addresses of the kids, but no school), and I count four pairs of suspenders. That's one thing I learned from this series: Little kids dressed way better in the 1940s and 1950s. I don't think I looked as sharp as the kid on the far left when I interviewed for my current job. I looked through hundreds of photos and didn't see one kid in the middle part of the 20th Century wearing a SpongeBob T-shirt and sweatpants.

Art Frisch/Chronicle 1950

Sept. 6, 1950: This is Robert James Tarczy, having a rough time on his first day at Alamo Elementary School in San Francisco. The photo was one of three in an excellent series I found in the kindergarten file in the Chronicle photo morgue. (Spoiler alert! Everything turns out OK for Bob.) I was so inspired by these photos that I tracked down Bob Tarczy, now retired and living in the Sacramento area, and plan to interview him later this morning. If everything works out, I'll post the interview and the rest of the photos later today or tomorrow.

Joe Rosenthal/Chronicle 1952

Sept. 4, 1952: One more thing you're going to learn from this series: The safety patrol in San Francisco was hard core in the 1950s. This photo of a patroller directing traffic was taken at the corner of Jackson and Hyde. Notice the old televisions for sale (RCA Vision!) in the window and the Motorola Radio sign near the door. I wish I could hop in a time machine and tell these kids to buy stock in Google.

Peter Breinig/Chronicle 1959

Sept. 10, 1959: Didn't I tell you not to screw with the School Safety Patrol in 1959? The kindergartners in this photo look like they're in boot camp. There's no name for this kid in the caption, but I like his style. Please contact me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com if you know him. He has a Michael Douglas-in-"Falling Down" approach to safety patrol that I think will make for an interesting interview. The streets were safe in 1959 ...

Duke Downey/Chronicle 1963

Sept 5, 1963: There are a lot of variations of this photo in our annual Santa Tantrum Awards, which feature children crying on Santa's lap. There's a kid who is totally losing their @#$%, right next to a child who is being overcompensatingly angelic. This photo is from the first day of kindergarten at McCoppin School. That's Karen on the left and Rohonda on the right. The girl consoling Rohonda is a sixth grader who was assigned to the classroom to help with the little ones.

Joe Rosenthal/Chronicle 1965

June 15, 1965: This is a last day of school photo, but I'm including it because of the pure looks of joy on all the faces. That's principal Ella Beseman of Twin Peaks School bidding the kids goodbye, which is a totally unneccessary because not a single one of them is looking in her direction. You know it's San Francisco because it's the middle of June, and every one of these kids is wearing a jacket or sweater.

Art Frisch/Chronicle 1968

Nov. 10, 1968: The caption says that these children from Hawthorne Elementary are at Diamond Heights. And can I say, teachers in the 1960s really needed to step it up with the field trips. C'mon, people, gas was something like 38 cents a gallon. You could have sprung for Muir Woods. Hawthorne (now Cesar Chavez Elementary) is less than a mile from Diamond Heights. These kids could have walked. That is a pretty sweet bus, though. Ken Kesey would approve.

Joe Rosenthal/Chronicle 1970

Sept. 10, 1970: Even though these are elementary school children, all that pops in my head when I see this photo of kids traveling to Lafayette School in San Francisco are the words of high school sophomore Samantha Baker: "I loathe the bus." This was a fun one to look at all the facial expressions. You can definitely tell who likes school and who is scared out of their mind.

Dave Randolph/Chronicle 1971

April 26, 1971: According to the caption on the back of this photo: "Principal Ruth Peabody (left), kindergarten teacher Dorothy Chegwidden during nap time at Grant School." Two thoughts about this. 1. Principal Ruth Peabody looks like she could kick some serious tail. You can see it in the fear in the striped shirt kid's eyes. No one ate any paste in this school. 2. Children in 1971 had some high-quality mats. Those white rugs are better than what I slept on during most of the four years I spent in my 20s as a journalist in Los Angeles.

Peter Breinig/Chronicle 1971

Sept. 17, 1971: As this series goes on, I've thought about song pairings for these photos. Cake's "Short Skirt Long Jacket" keeps going through my head for this one. Listen to that as you watch Bell King guide three El Dorado Elementary kindergartners on their first day of school. Note the Planters sign in the back. This photo was taken at the Bayshore Freeway offramp, near San Bruno Avenue.

Gary Fong/Chronicle 1983

Sept. 7, 1983: Ryan and James share a seat on their first day of kindergarten. (The photo doesn't specify what San Francisco school they're attending.) I'm jealous of James's Peanuts lunch box and 1980s Alex P. Keaton vibe. James, if you're reading this, you should definitely enter our feathered hair contest.

John O'Hara/Chronicle 1984

Sept. 5, 1984: These girls are actually first graders, and I'm pretty sure they're not from San Francisco. But I like the photo. J.C. Penney could spend an hour with professional models and not get a shot that says "first day of school" like this one. Dana and Tamara were first graders at Hollenbeck School, which I believe was in Sunnyvale.

Aaron Rubino/Chronicle 1950

April 24, 1950: Another photo that has nothing to do with kindergarten, but I had to share. As a person born in 1970, I thought the whole dunce cap thing was something overblown by the media -- found in Bugs Bunny cartoons and comic strips, but not in real life. So I was surprised to discover this. The photo was taken at Douglass School on 19th and Collingwood, which is now the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy. According to the caption, this was the first school house in San Francisco, which explains why these kids look like they're going to school in "Little House on the Prairie."

I hope you enjoyed the photos. Remember, you can watch these on our iPad app with the bonus video. If you have a request for a future archive search, please send it to me on a postcard at:

Let's Go to the Morgue!

C/O Peter Hartlaub

San Francisco Chronicle

901 Mission St.

San Francisco, CA 94103.

Include your city of residence, plus your first name and last initial -- or full name if you're comfortable with that. Make sure my name is on the postcard, otherwise it will never get to me.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes often has nothing to do with parenting. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Your questions answered on VYou at www.vyou.com/peterhartlaub.

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August 23rd, 2011

High School Renamed After Japanese-American Artist

By Andy Wright

On September 14, the San Francisco School for the Arts will unveil a new marquee and celebrate its new name: The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

Born in California in 1926, Asawa, along with her family, was a resident of Japanese internment camps for much of World War II. Following her internment, she studied to become an art teacher, but was unable to finish her degree due to lingering predjudices. Teaching plans thwarted, she made her way to the short-lived but legendary Black Mountain College in North Carolina where creative innovators of the day were partaking of the arts focused curriculum.

Asawa eventually became a wildly successful sculptor, with shows at prominent arts institutions like the Whitney. A longtime San Francsico resident, she went on to craft well-known fountains around the city.

Asawa is responsible for the Mermaid Fountain in Ghirardelli Square, the Nihonmichi fountain at Buchanan Mall in Japantown, the Aurora fountain on the Embarcadero and the Hyatt fountain on Union Square. She was also commissed to create the Japanese American Internment Memorial Sculpture for the San Jose Federal Building.

Asawa has been a champion for arts education throughout her career. In 1982, along with others, she helped to found the arts-focused public high school that will now bear her name.

The dedication ceremony will include speakers Peter Coyote, Mark Leno, Carlos Garcia, Emily Murase, Carmelo Sgarlato, Jill Wynns and others.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/135W0)