In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed

[David Lockmiller]

(11-15-2020 12:32 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  So, when the Board of Education in the city where I live, San Francisco, makes the decision to dishonor the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln by renaming the high school that had been named in his honor, I am personally deeply offended.

And, when I then learn that this decision has been made on the basis of President Lincoln’s alleged misconduct in the “Dakota 38” Native Indians issue, I am genuinely perplexed as to how this possibly could have happened. Based upon the important relevant evidence to the contrary that I have already presented on this thread, such a decision that has already been made by the Board would be impossible to make in terms of fairness and justice.

That is all that know about the situation here in San Francisco at this point. My next step is discovery, if possible, of the relevant evidence presented to the Board on this particular subject in reaching their highly questionable decision.

I have begun my "discovery" research.

In accordance with the Brown Act, Boards of Education in California are required to inform the public of their machinations. Anyone can engage in their own research by going to School Renaming Advisory Committee.
Then, scroll down a little to "Agendas and Minutes for Committee Meetings" for hyperlinks to the various Zoom Meetings of the San Francisco School Renaming Committees.

About the School Renaming Advisory Committee:

On May 22, 2018, the SFUSD Board of Education passed Resolution No. 184-10A1 to establish a blue ribbon panel to oversee a formalized process that reviews San Francisco public school names. This panel will be responsible for considering the relevance of schools names and appropriateness of these names when they honor historical figures and making recommendations to the Board of Education for further action.

SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee
Minutes - 1/30/2020

• Brown Act orientation - Under The Brown Act, a meeting is defined as any occasion in which a majority of the voting members of the board come together at the same time and location to “hear, discuss, deliberate or take action on any matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body.”

• Review of Leadership Roles, membership composition, and decision making processes. Committee approved the following framework:
o Use Modified Consensus Model for decisions
o Limit committee to 17 members maximum (with consideration to include youth or transitional age youth)
o Committee recognized a need to have representation of the indiginous community as a voice on this committee and particularly advocated for the Superintendent and Board of Education to recruit Gregg Castro - an exemplary candidate and representative of inidiginous people - to serve on this body.

Approval of Minutes from 1/30/2020
• Minutes not approved - requested to add following
o Label document as “Minutes”
o Add text “Committee recognized a need to have representation of the indiginous community as a voice on this committee and particularly advocated for the Superintendent and Board of Education to recruit Gregg Castro - an exemplary candidate and representative of inidiginous people - to serve on this body.”

Agenda Review for 2/27/2020 meeting

Review of Governance and Officer Roles

Committee agreed by consensus on the following for ensuring effective meeting management and for specific roles inside and outside meetings
• School Names Committee will operate using the Model for Modified Consensus Decision Making
• 3 committee members serving as co-convener/facilitator
• 2 committee members serving as notetakers
• Staff to continue managing administrative tasks


Planning and Review

• Staff provided update on ongoing collection of inventory of schools and preparation of spreadsheet
• Staff promised to provide electronic copy of SFUSD school history
• Discussion on alumni associations and restrictions - acknowledgement of groups as private entities without jurisdiction (emphasis added) under Ed Code
• Consensus on beginning discussion of school criteria at earlier date

Thursday, June 25, 2020
9:30 am to 10:40 am
Conducted Via Zoom

The password for the first Zoom meeting held on June 25, 2020 was “heroes.”


I. Review of School Names
Discussion by committee on the review / renaming process - Key points raised:
• Committee desires a public spreadsheet of school names to reflect analysis of school names
• Committee’s mission is to identify school’s with problematic names and recommend alternatives; this process can also occur in parallel by a school committee
• Committee will prioritize school sites where the name has recognized history of oppression of human beings in the U.S. and/or around the globe [In the end, President Abraham Lincoln apparently qualified for this distinction.]

Guiding Principles for SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee
Approved by Committee on July 17, 2020

Guiding Principles:
For identifying school names to be changed, the committee will use any of the following criteria:
We will seek to change the names of schools that are named for:

• Anyone directly involved in the colonization of people
• Slave owners or participants in enslavement
• Perpetuators of genocide or slavery
• Those who exploit workers/people
• Those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people
• Those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses
• Those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs

Somehow, the San Francisco Board of Education - School Renaming Advisory Committee has made the determination that President Abraham Lincoln has violated one or more these criteria for renaming schools in San Francisco .

It would appear thus far that there is a very different "renaming of schools" standard on the East Coast according to my previous post on this thread of a prior Laurie Verge post:

RE: I’m not offended!

(07-07-2019 07:47 PM)L Verge Wrote: And then we have two politicians in my area over the past decade: One who was killed while driving intoxicated with a woman other than his wife -- and ended up having a school re-named for him (it used to be named Lord Baltimore for the founder of Maryland). And just recently, another local politician was driving while intoxicated and doing well over the speed limit until he crashed, jumped out of his government car, and ran. And, he got re-elected...

In terms of fairness and justice, the evidence considered by the San Francisco Board of Education - School Renaming Committee must be considered. And, in accordance with provisions of the Brown Act, that due consideration of all relevant evidence regarding President Abraham Lincoln took place in the subsequent Committee Zoom meetings available to the Public on the internet.