Darcie Bell, a queer woman, asked where the safest place to send her child would be in San Francisco after experiencing bullying behavior elsewhere in the district.
She was told the best place would be Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood.
Thus, Bell enrolled her child in the K-5 school named after the gay civil rights icon. While they are now in the seventh grade, Bell's younger child is currently a fourth grader at the school.
So the news last week that the Milk school in the city's Castro neighborhood was on a list of schools being eyed for closure next year came as a gut punch for Bell. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the elementary school is one of 11 campuses that may be closed as the district grapples with its need to slash $100 million from its budget.
All the schools facing closure have fewer than 300 students. The Milk school has 133 pupils who would be merged with those at Sanchez Elementary School, a few blocks away at 325 Sanchez Street.
The district is also aiming to cut 500 positions from its payroll; the campus closings are expected to result in $22 million in cost savings for the district, which is struggling with declining enrollment. The final list of schools will be announced at the November 12 meeting of the school board and there will be a December 10 vote for the closings to be implemented in fall 2025.
Bell, 49, who lives in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood adjacent to the Castro, isn't the only parent voicing opposition. David Gordon, a straight ally who lives in the nearby Twin Peaks neighborhood, sends his kindergartener and second grader to the Milk school. The two both claim the school has been targeted and are among the parents speaking out, asking the school board not to follow through on the closure.
"To be honest, I was shocked and overall devastated, to be blunt," Gordon, 45, said. "I love the school, the community, everything they support. I love that the curriculum is intertwined with Harvey Milk and civil rights — it's interwoven with what the kids learn on a daily basis, and I love it's a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the heart of the Castro."
Milk was the first openly gay person elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Tragically, he and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall in 1978 by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White. The school was named for Milk 18 years later, in 1996.
Gordon said that "many kids and families transfer into Milk because they are being bullied for being different — having two moms, having two dads."
Bell said her family found safety there after a less welcoming experience elsewhere.
Gordon said that "there's no reason to close these schools," claiming that the district has spent more on fixing the EMPower payroll system ($40 million, according to Mission Local than would be saved by the proposed closures. The district's payroll snafus have been a contentious issue for months.
Gordon and Bell appear to have a new ally in their fight — San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who is embattled in her fight for reelection. She came out Tuesday, October 15, against the school closures as currently proposed.
"Over the last week since the school closures/merger list was released, I've spoken to parents, educators, and staff, and so many in our city who care deeply about our public schools. What I've heard over and over is confusion and concern around the proposed school closures/merger list and how it has been communicated and managed," Breed stated. "This cannot continue."
Breed stated that "whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost" and that she has "lost confidence in the superintendent's ability to manage the current process and do not believe this current plan will lead to an outcome that will benefit students and the school district in the long-term."
Breed added that staff at the district office are "doing incredibly difficult work to avoid a state takeover." That might happen if the district doesn't get its financial house in order, as media outlets have reported.
"That work requires balancing the district's budget by December," Breed stated.
The city's School Stabilization Team, a group of high-level city officials that Breed sent to the district office a few weeks ago, is working alongside district staff on critical operational issues, including expediting teacher credentialing, providing oversight to special education budget and programs, and auditing internal procedures to restore system health, the mayor stated.
"But they cannot do this under the chaos of this mismanaged school closure process," Breed added.
The San Francisco Unified School District has not returned multiple requests for comment for this report.
Gay school board commissioner Phil Kim, whom Breed appointed in late August to fill the unexpected vacancy caused by the resignation of former board president Lainie Motamedi, did tell the B.A.R. that Milk's name needs to be recognized in some fashion if the school is merged with Sanchez.
"I have made it clear the district has a responsibility to make sure Harvey Milk's name must be respected in our portfolio planning," Kim said in an October 8 phone interview.
Bell said that she believes the school closures are a way to usher in charter schools.
"San Francisco has held off charters more than any other major city," she said. "It's been a target for a long time. ... This is where we're going, the writing's on the wall."
She specifically called out Superintendent Matt Wayne, doctorate in educational leadership, and recent school board appointee Kim. Bell claimed Wayne was hired to preside over school closures and pointed toward Kim's previous work as senior director of STEM education at KIPP charter schools as evidence he supports that effort, comparing him to a "fox watching the henhouse." (When Kim was tapped for the school board post, he had been working for the school district. He resigned that position to serve on the board.)
Kim gave the B.A.R. a response to the assertion.
"I have worked at the school, district, and national levels in education, centered on high quality curriculum and instruction," Kim stated. "My focus has always been to create the best possible learning experiences for young people. I am grateful for the opportunity to step into the governance role. As commissioner, my focus is centered on student outcomes and experience especially as the district faces difficult but necessary decisions ahead. I am leveraging my leadership experience in the district to inform the hard work we have in front of us to stabilize our district, end our fiscal crisis, and maintain local control."
Last week, Kim said, "I hope our families and community engage in staff to work toward a solution and I look forward to hearing that recommendation. As a board [member] my job is to listen for that recommendation and take action."
Gordon claimed that the district was keeping the numbers of students at the Milk school low so that it could close it.
"The district has been handicapping us and punishing us for their decision," he said, suggesting the district "open up enrollment so we can prove we can meet the magic number of 260 [students]."
Bell said that the district should stop making schools compete against one another for resources.
"Basically, our entire system is so God awful," she said. "What it does is it pits the schools against each other."
Ultimately, what they'd both like to see is for the district to renege on its plans.
"It makes me sad because we are one SFUSD community," Bell said.
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