File No. 0004-2004 -Resolution No. IRC-071204

[RESOLUTION CONCERNING NEWCOMER HIGH SCHOOL]

            Whereas, Newcomer High School is an historic, unique, and internationally recognized program that, since 1979, has provided critical transitional, educational, and support services to some of the neediest and most vulnerable students in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD): the newly arrived immigrant and refugee youths of high school age;

            Whereas, Newcomer High School is the only high school in the SFUSD with 100% enrollment of students identified as Limited English Proficient (LEP) or English Language Learners (ELL);

            Whereas, LEP and ELL students are entitled under both state and federal law to educational programs that address their unique needs, to learn academic English and to have equal access to the same academic curriculum that is provided to all other students;

            Whereas, for many reasons, newly arrived immigrant youths may come from all races and nationality and they are subject to physical, psychological, social and economic pressures that add to and even multiply the effects of the normal stresses of adolescence.  Many of the students come from countries with acute poverty and turbulent political environments.  They come with little or no English—often under educated, living with one or no parent in an unfamiliar environment;

            Whereas, these newly arrived immigrant students must learn academic English in a short amount of time, continue their academic studies, progress toward graduation, and adapt to a new social and cultural environment; 

            Whereas, Newcomer High School is the only high school in the SFUSD that offers a comprehensive set of services specifically to help ELL immigrant students adjust, transition, and achieve the aforementioned goals.  The services include:

1. an especially nurturing and secure small-school environment
2. an experienced staff base that is familiar with and trained to meet the needs of new immigrant youths
3. supportive and understanding peers
4. three hours of English Language Development classes
5. three core academic classes in the students’ primary language (in Chinese or Spanish) or in Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) content area classes with credits going towards high school graduation
6. on-site counseling and community services that help immigrant students adjust: they include Horizons Unlimited, Community Youth Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Inc., Charity Cultural Center of Chinatown, Migrant Ed, CARACEN, International Institute/Partners in Learning, and Red Cross.
   Whereas, approximately nine weeks ago, the administration of the SFUSD offered a charter school the third floor of the Newcomer High School building:

            Whereas, Newcomer parents, students, and staff have raised serious concerns that even a temporary installation of a charter school, which will occupy 40% of the instructional classrooms of the Newcomer building, will substantially reduce in quality and quantity the services offered to the newly arrived immigrant youths of San Francisco in ways not limited to the following:

• Anywhere from 130 to 200 new immigrant students who would have chosen Newcomer as their first school in this country may be denied the services of Newcomer High School because of the lack of building capacity;
• It is doubtful that, by the Fall of 2004, other high schools, without the specific, unique, and comprehensive services offered at Newcomer, can be readied to properly service newly arrived immigrant students;
• Any diversion of human and material resources away from the Newcomer site may irrevocably disable and negatively affect the Newcomer High School program;
• Energy spent in the redirection of human and material resources within or off the Newcomer site will be energy that could have gone to direct services to the students at Newcomer;
• The crowded conditions of placing a charter school into the Newcomer building will severely alter the measure of tranquility and security that is traditionally enjoyed at Newcomer;

            Whereas, parents of at least 327 Newcomer students have signed copies of a petition letter that clearly states that they do not wish to see two schools placed in the Newcomer building, and over 400 community members have signed a petition that supports Newcomer High School retaining full use of its building;

            Whereas, members of the Newcomer community and of the community at large have contacted the superintendent and the SFUSD Board of Education and spoken at two school board meetings to express their concerns for the welfare of all the students involved in this plan to put two schools into the Newcomer building;

            Whereas the views and opinions of immigrant parents should be given the same respect and attention by the administration of the SFUSD as any other parent;

            Whereas it is improper for the superintendent of schools to publicly rebuke, defame, and accuse of racism persons, including children, who are merely expressing, before elected officials, their legitimate and urgent concerns for the welfare of any or all of the students of the SFUSD;

            Whereas, the school district’s reliance on the charter school provisions found in the Education Code to justify the decision to install a charter school at Newcomer is unfounded and lacks merit.  The SFUSD is subject to possible legal challenges if the placement of the charter school at the Newcomer site interferes with Newcomer High School’s ability to provide the educational and social services to which LEP students are entitled;

            And whereas, the Charter School provisions found in the Education Code must be applied so that they are consistent with the provisions and rights guaranteed to LEP students under federal and state civil rights statutes.  (Equal Educational Opportunities Act (20 U.S.C. 1703(f); the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000(d) and Government Code Section 11135.) The enforcement of those rights takes precedence over any provision of the Charter School statute.  The district cannot credibly rely on the charter school provisions of the Education Code to justify or condone a policy that would discriminate against language minority students.

            Be it resolved that the Immigrant Rights Commission strongly opposes the unilateral decision on the part of the SFUSD Administration to move a charter school to the Newcomer High School site.  The Commission finds it especially offensive that the immigrant students enrolled at Newcomer, their parents, and the Newcomer staff were completely excluded from a decision process that so profoundly impacts the educational future of Newcomer’s immigrant students. 

            Be it further resolved that the Immigrant Rights Commission strongly urges the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor to investigate the manner in which this decision was unilaterally made and that the SFUSD be encouraged to rescind this decision as soon as possible and offer alternative sites to the charter school.

            Be it further resolved that if this decision is not rescinded, the Immigrant Rights Commission strongly urges the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor and San Francisco Unified School Board to carefully monitor the SFUSD Administration with respect to the assertion that the charter school in question shall not occupy the Newcomer building for more than one year.

            And be it further resolved that such monitoring should include the following, so that this decision will have the least amount of adverse impact on the students enrolled at Newcomer:           

•       The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should verify formally in writing that the charter school’s placement will be for one year only, and that no students or teachers at Newcomer will be displaced, and that Newcomer High School will regain full use of the current site the following 2005-2006 school year;
•        The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should           verify formally in writing that the district will not try to place a cap on student enrollment at Newcomer during the 2004-2005 school year and attempt to send newly arrived immigrant students to other high schools which are not equipped to meet their needs.  
•         The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should           verify formally in writing that the district’s Educational Placement Center (EPC) will make available a monthly report on the number of immigrant students entering the district, their California English Language Development Test (CELDT) test scores, and where they are being placed. The report should also explain that if students are not being sent to Newcomer High, why and which schools are being made available to these new arrivals.  This monthly report should be submitted to the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the Immigrant Rights Commission.
•          The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should verify formally in writing that there will be no decrease in the current allocation of teachers (20) to Newcomer for a projected 480 students for  the next academic school year as specified in Newcomer’s approved school site plan for the 2004-2005 school year.
•          The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should verify formally in writing that the numerous social, counseling, tutoring/support services at Newcomer will not be affected for lack of empty rooms during lunch or any other time.  All efforts should be made to return three classrooms back to Newcomer for this upcoming school year so that these critical services will not be affected.
•           The Superintendent and the San Francisco Unified School Board should verify formally in writing that, in the future, immigrant parents and students at Newcomer and throughout the school district will no longer be excluded from the policy and decision making processes that impact their educational future.