Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SFUSD board votes to require elementary fire-safety education starting 2016–17
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Education approved a resolution asking the superintendent to require fire-safety education for all elementary students beginning in the 2016–17 school year and to report compliance at each school site. The measure passed unanimously after firefighters and community partners outlined the program’s reach and impact.
The San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously on Sept. 29, 2015, to ask the superintendent to require fire-safety education for every elementary-school student beginning in the 2016–17 school year and to report compliance on a school-site basis.
Deputy Superintendent Surajana Guerrero, who presented the item while the superintendent was at a conference, and student delegates coauthored the substitute resolution, which cited local fire statistics and research showing the effectiveness of school-based fire-safety programs. Student Delegate Chan read the resolution on the board floor and recited figures included in the text: the presentation referenced thousands of residential and container fires in recent years and dozens of injuries and fatalities citywide.
The board heard supporting testimony from Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White, who described long-standing collaboration between the district and the San Francisco Fire Department, and from firefighter Dwayne Eckert and Dan Chacon of the Lisa Ann Roosch Burn Foundation. Eckert, who oversees the volunteer firefighter and safety-education program, told the board the department already reaches roughly half of the city’s elementary schools and urged expansion to every school. Chacon and other partners described an established training module of about 30 minutes that covers stop, drop, and roll, how to dial 911 and how to develop home escape plans.
Board members asked staff whether the resolution made the program mandatory for schools and whether there would be any budget impact. Staff and the board clarified that the resolution is a request to the superintendent to require the instruction districtwide; staff reported the program can be delivered without additional local school funding because fire-department presenters and partner foundations provide the instruction and some supports. A roll-call vote followed; the resolution passed with seven ayes.
The resolution directs district staff to identify resources for fire-safety education at all grade levels, to make materials (including the San Francisco Firefighters and Safety Program) available to school administrators, and to develop a system for school-site reporting of compliance. The board did not adopt a new ordinance or appropriate funds during the meeting; implementation specifics and timelines remain with the superintendent’s office.
Next steps include district staff identifying implementation leads and reporting back on how the program will be scheduled, tracked and translated for multilingual school communities. Fire-department volunteers and partner foundations are expected to continue serving as the primary presenters under the plan discussed at the meeting.
