Doin' it south of I-8"
By Camille Zombro, SDEA President
and Marc Capitelli, SDEA Vice President

What will it take to attract the "best and brightest" teachers to our "south of I-8" schools? It seems to be a mantra of some in District leadership that if it were possible to find that answer, all our problems would be fixed. It's also said that somehow our, SDEA's and SDUSD's, Collective Negotiations Contract is stopping this magic solution.

Let's disabuse ourselves of a few notions:

1. Moving the wonderful, hard working, north of I-8 teachers south of I-8, and moving the wonderful, hard working, south of I-8 teachers north of I-8 is not going to "fix" our schools' problems.

2. Our JOINT contract, SDEA/SDUSD, is not and has not been an obstacle to reforming schools.

3. Ribbons of concrete do not contain whatever "afflicts" the schools south of I-8. Poverty is spreading in San Diego.

Now that we've set aside those simplistic notions, let's take a look at reality.

Our working conditions are our students' learning environment. Our members have clearly told us the factors that make them want to move to high poverty schools in surveys and polls across SDEA, CTA and NEA. Money does not make the list until at least number five, and sometimes it does not make the list at all. The top factors include:

• A respected, experienced, high-quality principal;
  
• Smaller class sizes;
  
• A clean, safe and well-equipped school;
  
• A commitment from leadership to support their staff through real collaboration and shared decision-making;

We argue that these conditions will make schools the kind of magnets for teachers that SDUSD desires. We continue to contend that if the contract is "fixed" so that it is easier for teachers to voluntarily move, there will not be a mass migration from north to south. But the conditions listed above do not exist at most of our schools.

We do need to wake up to the changes in SUDSD over the last forty years. SDUSD is a richly diverse district, and our schools are predominantly high-poverty. We face more challenges than we did forty years ago. We, teachers and administrators, need to learn how to best help our students to achieve-regardless of their economic conditions. Our students' challenges cannot be our excuses, but the District must recognize that schools that work are schools that have buy-in, participation and guidance from all stakeholders.

The nationwide accountability frenzy has only served to narrow our curriculum and inhibit our ability to face our challenges effectively. Add the new layers upon layers of assessments and requirements, "good ideas" like standards-based report cards and Units of Inquiry, and our time with students continues to decline.

Six years ago the eight Focus Schools worked together to present to then Superintendent Alan Bersin our top five ideas of what it would really take to "reform" our schools, which were among the lowest achieving schools at that time. Our ideas were captured in the acronym for "Blueprint BLUES":

• Balanced curriculum;
  
• Listening to teachers;
  
• Untying the purse strings (so that site and District budgetsprioritized direct services to children);
  
• Evaluating the "Focus Days" (our extra 24 days of instruction and Professional Development); and
  
• School Safety

Hundreds of teachers mobilized to support our agenda for meaningful change, but our words fell on deaf ears.

Six years later SDEA continues, as always, to stand ready to work with the District to find solutions that work for our students. But we are wondering if anyone is listening at Normal Street. Teachers continue to be left out of planning in new schools and old.

If the District really wants to be, "doin' it south of I-8," then provide us leaders with vision, reduce our class size, recognize teachers as partners, provide the training we need to do our work effectively, lighten our load so that we can focus on instruction, and support us in doing our important work.

Wouldn't you want to work at a school with so much going for it?