Dear Dr. Wayne:

We represent the families of San Francisco Public Montessori Elementary School (“SFPM”) and the SFPM PTA. Our goal is simple: We believe that public school students in San Francisco deserve to continue to have access to a Montessori program, and do not want this program to be eliminated. We are open to continuing at the current campus, continuing as an optional and parallel program in a merged campus, or merging with another school and converting the entire school into a public Montessori program. However, we strongly believe that siloing access to a Montessori education solely to families that can afford private school is a disservice to the families of SFUSD and public education at large. Once the program is destroyed, it will be nearly impossible to bring it back in any meaningful way.
SFUSD’s criteria for school closure, aside from low enrollment/use of resources (which can fall under the general category of costs), are centered around equity and excellence. SFPM is a shining example of both equity and excellence. SFUSD’s recommendation to eliminate a fully-funded and successful program is shortsighted and will ultimately damage access to a quality public education in San Francisco.
SFPM is a real, effective and ideal example of equity.

SFPM has a vastly diverse student and parent population, and through that has developed a truly unique and vibrant community. The School Accountability Report Card from 2023 (“2023 SARC”) shows that the student population is 13% multi-racial, 15% African-American, 28% white, 15% Latino, and 8% AAPI. Across the district, this distribution is highly uncommon in elementary schools.

The 2023 SARC also reports that the school enrollment is 49% economically disadvantaged.

Anecdotally, parents are not segmented to certain jobs or socioeconomic status. At the various school events we have throughout the year (Welcome Event, Winter Fest, Spring Fest, Movie Nights, PTA Coffee mornings, etc.) we see tech executives rubbing shoulders with nannies, venture capitalists hanging out with Muni drivers and all sorts of similar interactions unbound by “normal” socioeconomic barriers. This school is the best of San Francisco, the ideal.

The SFPM community is an extremely unique one, even amongst SFUSD. SFUSD has an amazing setup that allows families from any neighborhood the chance to attend any school in the city. Unlike virtually all other school districts in the nation, students at SFUSD are not confined to their neighborhood.

However, sadly, even with the option of attending any school in the city, we find that the majority of SFUSD elementary schools are self-segregated by race and/or economic status. And wealthy families mostly opt out of SFUSD and send their children to private schools. This has resulted in a severe lack of equity across the district. Schools are not on equal footing and there are historically underserved student populations. SFPM is a compelling counter-example to this discouraging and ugly trend in SFUSD, serving all student populations at a high level.

SFPM serves children across all neighborhoods. As noted above, half the children come from economically disadvantaged households. Families are located all across the city, from the Tenderloin to the Fillmore to the Bayview. These families are specifically coming here for a Montessori program, which would be otherwise inaccessible to them. The school is an opportunity for kids across the city to enjoy a safe and beautiful environment in Pacific Heights; for all kids and their families to be engaged in a part of the city typically reserved for the ultra-wealthy. In the midst of blocks cluttered with billionaires’ mansions and affluent private schools, SFPM brings a Montessori education to students of all economic strata.

Excellence

The 2023 SARC also illustrates the objective excellence of the outcomes at SFPM. Having come out of the pandemic with instability and teacher turnover like many schools, SFPM has found its footing with a dedicated and driven principal, administrator, teaching staff and parent community.

The results are astounding. SFPM improved dramatically in math and English proficiency, and in 2022-23 60% of grades 3-5 met or exceeded state standards in literacy and 50% in math. Obviously there is room to improve, but this is a vast improvement over the district average of 53% and 44%, respectively (and the woeful 46%/34% at the State level).

While test scores are not the end-all-be-all, what we are seeing is an extremely diverse population, where half of the families are categorized as economically disadvantaged, OVERACHIEVING versus the district and the state. Why is this the type of school being selected to shut down?

The Montessori Program is a key factor in bringing equity and excellence to the teachers and students

It's not a coincidence that the Montessori program is what brings such diverse populations together to achieve equity and excellence. Families choose this school in particular, because they value the tenets of the Montessori program, teaching the whole child and not just academics. The curriculum is centered around not only state standards, but also teaching kindness, courtesy, and service. Kids are encouraged to try various methods of hands-on learning, given freedom to discover for themselves, and allowed to achieve and take pride in their achievements.
The Montessori program is particularly relevant in the conversation of equity, as it was developed to teach those children who were unfairly deemed “unteachable” due to poverty, neurodivergence, and other circumstances outside their control. While Montessori education was developed first to help less fortunate children, it’s now out of reach to most families, except through SFPM. Private Montessori elementary schools in San Francisco charge between $30,000 and $40,000 for annual tuition.
At SFPM, teachers are given access by the school and the PTA to any resources they need, and are given opportunities to advance their own education and career with ongoing Montessori training funded by the PTA.

Anecdotally we see that the mixed-grade classes have also had a positive effect. Fifth graders help younger kids rather than bully them. Most of the kids actually know each other, irrespective of age. Older students volunteer to do additional jobs like safety patrol at drop off and pick up, helping younger kids out of the car. Parents also know each other, and the principal knows every kid and virtually every parent. Even families that do walk-ins on the campus for speech therapy and other services remark about how different the school feels than other schools in the district. Many current SFPM parents specifically placed their kids in this school due to bullying and other bad experiences at other SFUSD schools.

SFPM is tied by a bond that crosses racial and economic lines. We want our children to be good people first and foremost. The integration of Montessori principles in a safe and uplifting environment serves to further that goal.

Low Enrollment is Not Our Fault

The one factor that parents, teachers, and administrators cannot control is enrollment. Unfortunately, coming out of the pandemic, SFUSD has intentionally curtailed our school’s enrollment year after year. In 2022-23 the school was under-enrolled with a waitlist, but the district prevented the school from admitting those children, only allowing 33 entering students, and then cutting it to a mere 22 students this school year. Since the district allowed only 33 incoming students to the school, leaving a huge waitlist representing demand that was not allowed to be met, the so-called low enrollment was engineered by SFUSD. Penalizing the school for low enrollment is unfair when enrollment is not allowed to expand to meet demand. It became apparent that SFUSD was selecting this school for closure prior to this school year.

Rather than expanding the teachers and allowing the families that wanted access to the Montessori education to be able to receive it, the district cut teachers and limited the classes to one class per grade for nearly all grades. Despite wanting to stay, some families already pulled their children out of the school prior to this year, expecting that SFPM would be selected for closure based on past district decisions.
SFUSD artificially lowered the enrollment for the school, and now is citing low enrollment as criteria for closure. This is unfair, and inequitable.

Cutting schools will not solve the SFUSD budget crisis

Cutting ALL the schools that SFUSD proposes to eliminate is estimated to save $20-22 million total. That is negligible compared to the entire $1.4 billion SFUSD budget. Compare that to the central district office budget, which comprises a whopping 22% of that same budget, over $300 million. Cutting half of the district office would actually balance the entire budget while reducing zero dollars from schools.
SFUSD is $148 million over budget, yet it deems cutting a Montessori program, that the district does not currently pay for (again -- all the Montessori training and tools are funded by the school’s PTA) as necessary to balance the budget. The reality is that cutting SFPM will not help the district’s budget issues whatsoever.

We are told district funding is based on enrollment, however you have never presented a single proposal to attempt to grow enrollment. A better solution would be to expand enrollment to popular, successful programs like SFPM, which would convince parents to keep their kids in SFUSD, thereby expanding the funding that SFUSD receives. To date, the district has not provided one proposal to attempt to expand and boost enrollment. Reducing and closing a highly in-demand school like SFPM that serves a diverse population, while maintaining a massive, nonsensical and bloated district office, is only destined to worsen the budget crisis.

The Montessori program should be allowed to continue in SFUSD

We understand that resources may need to be consolidated and aligned across the district, even if such alignment will not result in meaningful cost savings. However, great programs that are achieving the district’s goals of equity and excellence should not be simply eliminated. To that end, the parents and PTA of SFPM are proposing three options:

Keep SFPM as a school and, optionally, merge another school into SFPM. The SFPM campus has a beautiful auditorium, large play yard, access to nearby parks, and two classroom floors of its building currently unused.

Merge SFPM into another school but allow it to maintain its own programs. This would allow certain resources like Nurses and Social Workers potentially to be shared, while maintaining the opportunity for a Montessori school and education. Incidentally, this school started within Cobb Elementary as a separate program, so it can be done.

Merge SFPM into another school and convert the entire school into a public Montessori program school. This option allows the current community to be maintained while giving access to the Montessori program to a larger number of public school students and teachers.

The SFPM PTA currently has over $100,000 in its treasury which it planned to use to continue funding Montessori education and other programs for multiple years. This can be used, without a dime from the district, to give a new, combined and larger public Montessori school a great boost and head start.

As our school has already demonstrated: Parents, students, families, teachers and administrators from all walks of life would be highly attracted to join a vibrant, and rare, public Montessori community with the district’s support. We strongly urge you to take our recommendation seriously and keep the unique jewel of the public Montessori program as an active asset to the SFUSD portfolio of schools.

Sincerely,
San Francisco Public Montessori Parents and PTA
https://www.sfpublicmontessori.org/