Red for Ed

Red for Ed!  Today, Tuesday, January 28, 2020,  we had a rally for Schools and Communities First, the legislation that, if passed, would close the corporate loophole on Proposition 13 and restore $12 billion to our schools and communities.

Here I'm posing beside Marcos Cruz, a student who works with our AFT 2121 Teachers Union and answered my message asking for a student speaker for OWL's program on City College.  

I also posed beside a woman in red who had the red hat I was missing so I could benefit from that, and she could benefit from the red boots that she was missing

Later we went to the office of Aisha Safai to thank him for voting yes on the Bridge Funding Initiative.

What We Need to Know and Do for City College of San Francisco

Today, January 28, 2020, there will be a rally at City Hall  at 12:30 followed by lobbying of supervisors before the take a vote on the bridge funding ordinance between 2:00 and 4:00 PM. 

I want it known that when I contacted all of the trustees about being part of a February 22nd panel on CCSF for OWL, the Older but Wiser Women's League, only two bothered to respond at all.

I want it known that those two were Ivy Lee and John Rizzo.  Both declined because they said they had other commitments on February 22nd, but Ivy Lee made an effort to put me in charge with someone from Administrations (Leslie Milloy, who made an effort but found out no one from Administration was available), and John really addressed some of my questions that we hope to address on February 22nd. 

Here's my letter to John Rizzo this morning:

Hi, John!

I think everyone is interested in permanent funding, such as CHEF, but there's a feeling of urgency, and Leslie Simon made an analogy with "The Gift of the Magi," that once the gift comes, it will be useless because City College as we want it to be will no longer exist.

I heard both Mandelman and Walton talk at a recent (January 15)  supervisors' hearing on this, and they each had a different take on what the Board of Trustee members wanted or were willing to support.  Mandelman had talked to trustees who, like the chancellor, didn't want bridge funding, and Walton had talked to trustees who did.  (It was after that meeting that I asked Mandelman to be on our OWL CCSF  panel and he accepted.)  

I know that Leslie Simon has written to you as well as to Shanell and Brigitte in hopes that you could  reach out to Peskin. Shanell said she did and hopes he jumps on board. . 

I want to say that, while I support the bridge funding initiative and hope you do too, we OWL board members really do want diverse points of view on the panel.   Personally, I think we listen too little to people whose opinions don't match ours.  I'd really like to know how the Administration justifies making the cuts without even  advising the department heads in advance.  I'd really like to know the answers to these questions:

Who makes the decisions about how city college is run and what courses are offered?  For example, if San Francisco wants it to be a community college, and Sacramento wants it to be a junior college, who makes the final decision?

 

 Many cuts and changes appear to be “top down” decisions.  What efforts are underway to create a more inclusive decision making process?  (Whatever happened to shared governess?)

How is City College financed?  What percent of the money comes from the state?  The city?  The county?

Why did City College cut almost 300 classes for the current semester, and why was this done without consulting the department heads and others?

Why did the chancellor say it wasn't an emergency situation and refuse the money that Supervisor Walton and some other supervisors were trying to make available to restore the classes that were cut?

Why is City College always in the red?

Is City College vulnerable to real estate speculation?  For example, what property does CCSF own?  Is it tempted to sell any of this property? 

What's the background and what's the latest on the Performing Arts and Education Center at City College?  How is this affected by the Balboa Reservoir?

 Please understand that I'm not expecting you to answer these questions at the moment.  Will you be at the rally, lobbying, and hearing this afternoon?

Thanks again for being responsive.  I've let others know.

Tina

In Praise of Marcos Cruz

Even though not one of the trustees from the Board of Trustees at CCSF has responded to my plea sent mid-day this past Monday, I have gotten a response from Marcos Cruz, whose name and email address I got from Leslie Simon, who told me he heads up the Student Asembly and is a paid intern at the Union.

.  I sent him a message on Tuesday evening and got a response within two hours.  What a contrast!

He said he would love to be on the panel but will be out of town from February 20th through 25th.  He offered to help us find another student speaker and asked to be kept in the loop.

For the record, here's the message I sent to him.

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 5:34 PM Tina Martin <tina_martin@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Dear Marcos, 

I got your name from Leslie Simon, who told me that you head up the Student Assembly and are the paid intern at the union.

I would  like  to invite you to be part of a panel for an OWL program about City College on Saturday, February 22, from 10:00 to noon.

OWL stands for Older Women's League, but if you have a stereotype of old women, I don't think we fit it.  Our president has gotten city-wide recognition for the  work she did for forty years in the Tenderloin, and another board member just got written up in a feature story in Forbes Magazine because of the film festival she founded and runs.  When I first met these women at the SF Public Library, I was really impressed by them as I have been by their (now our) programs.  I'm telling you this in hopes of making your want to speak to our group.

We also foster inter-generational connections.

We want to have a program on City College because so many of us are impacted by what happens there.  

Could you make up part of our panel?  Jenny  Worley, the president of AFT 2121, will  be on the panel, and so will Rafael Mandelman, who was a CCSF trustee for six years  and has been a SF supervisor for a couple of years.  We've heard that no one from the administration is available that day, which is too bad because we really wanted to hear from people with divergent points of view.

With thanks and hope of hearing from you soon,

Tina Martin, retired CCSF Instructor & member of OWL's Board 

Why No Response from the CCSF Administration?

Here's a plea I sent to the Board of Trustees at CCSF on Monday at noon--right after the MLK Jr. Day march.  Not one person has responded so far.

• Dear Board of Trustees,

 

Both Ivy Lee and Leslie Milloy made an effort to help OWL, Older Women's League, to find a speaker to represent the administration on a panel our organization is having on Saturday, February 22, from 10:00 am to noon to help us understand better how City College is funded, how decisions are made, and why trustees supported the recent class cuts.  We got word that no one from the administration was available.

Today, like hundreds of San Franciscans, I read the editorial in the SF Chronicle reluctantly supporting Proposition A, and of course we know City College desperately needs improvement of its facilities.  When I interviewed Dr. Philip Day for a newsletter when he had just arrived in 1998, I asked him what, if anything, alarmed him about City College when he first saw the Ocean Campus, and he said, "The facilities.  I'd never seen a first-grade institution with such poor facilities."  On the occasions when I had a group of teachers from Korea and China, they commented, as politely as they could, on how much better their facilities were than ours.  

So, at the risk of appearing relentless, I'm going to make one more appeal for someone from the administration to appear on our panel, which will give you a chance to state your case.  At this point, we have a commitment from Jenny Worley, President of AFT 2121, and of Rafael Mandelman, who was a trustee for 6 years and is now a San Francisco Supervisor.

We would like to have a trustee and a CCSF student, and I have sent a couple of messages to Bryan Daley, but so far I've gotten no response. 

I remember when Shanell Williams was a student trustee.  I went to a fund-raiser for her.  I've done that, in fact, for others of you. I've worked beside Thea Selby on outreach for CCSF at Sunday Streets and marched with John Rizzo.

I really think it would help your cause if you found someone to represent the administration on our panel.  

In hopes of getting an affirmative response, for which we'd be very grateful,

Tina Martin, OWL board member and instructor at CCSF from 1982-2014