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Union and parents raise concerns about contracting, special education services and transitional-kindergarten options
Summary
Public commenters and board members pressed the district on whether services for students are being contracted out to providers such as Edgewood and Bacar, and the union and others urged the board to adopt stand-alone transitional-kindergarten classrooms rather than blended models.
Several public speakers and union representatives used the meeting's public-comment periods to press the board on outsourcing and early-childhood program design.
Kevin Kelly, introduced in the meeting as president of United Educators (SEG 883), asked whether multiple consent items would effectively contract out paraprofessional work to outside providers. "Are you essentially contracting out paraprofessional work to Edgewood?" Kelly asked, noting inconsistent evaluation requirements across related contracts and urging the board to ensure the district does not displace existing paraprofessionals.
An Edgewood employee, Jeff Dubois, said he has worked for Edgewood for 10 years and praised principals and district partners but said legal delays were holding up services in some cases (SEG 1090-1094). Kelly and Dubois's remarks came during the public comment period for consent items, where several contracts involving external providers were on the agenda.
Linda Plack, Executive Vice President of United Educators of San Francisco (SEG 1105), spoke during general public comment about transitional kindergarten (TK). She described two implementation options the district is considering: Option 1 would place TK students in blended classrooms with older students; Option 2 would create stand-alone TK classrooms with teachers who receive specialized training. "The union prefers option 2, the stand alone classroom model," Plack said, arguing that TK should provide a unique, developmentally appropriate year for young children rather than a second year of kindergarten.
Board members and staff acknowledged the comments. Several commissioners severed or pulled consent items for additional review (items K3, K5, K11 and K22 were discussed), and Commissioner Feuer asked staff to respond to the concerns about incidents in special education classrooms and to include incident reports in the December redesign update. The board approved the severed K22 item but directed the parent engagement office to review curricula and evaluation for parent trainings.
Next steps: Staff agreed to follow up on contract and service questions, provide incident data for special education classrooms, and continue deliberations on TK options at the curriculum committee and future board meetings.
