Advocate for equality among all schools throughout San Francisco through adequate distribution of resources and support for schools and teachers.
SparkLearning Fundraising Campaign
Our office has taken the initiative in ensuring that schools on the west side of the city receive sufficient funding and resources. For the last three years, our office has provided $5,000 grants to every SFUSD school in our district for projects related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. Schools have shared with us that these grants have been instrumental in procuring equipment and programming for their students. In 2015, the funding was used as “challenge” grants for SFUSD’s SparkLearning Technology Fundraising Campaign. The campaign, a first of its kind effort for SFUSD, allows the community to invest in individual schools’ projects through a crowd-funding platform.
Proposition C – Children’s Fund & Public Education Enrichment Fund
In addition to district-specific support, our office has advocated for more funding and resources to support children, youth and teens on a citywide basis. In November 2014, we joined all of the members of the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor’s Office, city departments, and public and private partners in supporting Proposition C, which reauthorized funding for the Children and Youth Fund and Public Education Enrichment Fund. Both funds were previously passed by voters to support and strengthen the community-based service delivery system for children, youth and families with a focus on prevention and early intervention and to provide critical funding to improve education quality. The reauthorization of both funds was an important victory in supporting critical youth-serving programs.
School Supply Drive and Beyond
In addition to funding, our office is committed to supporting our schools through programming and events. We hold a School Supply Drive on a yearly basis in partnership with Walgreens to supplement supplies for students and teachers. More than 100 families have benefitted from the Drive each year. We also host a District 4 Principal/PTA Presidents field trip at the beginning of the school year to expose school leaders to educational opportunities for their students. In 2014, we explored The Garden Project as an opportunity for students to learn farm-to-table practices. We are also strong supporters of the Bike/Roll/Walk to School events. In 2014, Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School was added as a participatory school.
Affordable Housing Bond
Finally, we will continue to ensure that families and school staff can afford to live in the City through support of measures such as the 2015 Housing Bond sponsored by Mayor Edwin Lee and all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors. The bond measure, which will be before voters in November 2015, incorporates funding for the Teacher Next Door (TND) program, which assists teachers with the purchase of their first home in San Francisco. Our office advocated heavily for this bond measure to include additional funding for TND, as well as the Down Payment Assistance Loan Program (DALP) for first-time homebuyers.
Find out more:
For information on some of the programming PEEF supports:
http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/voter-initiatives/public-education-enrichment-fund.html
For information on the Children and Youth Fund:
http://www.dcyf.org/index.aspx?page=44
Learn about SFUSD’s SparkLearning campaign and view the Sunset District schools’ projects:
http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/invest-in-sfusd-schools.html
Find out more about the Teacher Next Door Program:
http://www.sf-moh.org/index.aspx?page=287
Find out more about the Affordable Housing Bond Measure:
http://sfgov2.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/elections/candidates/Nov2015/AffordableHousing_Text.pdf