Keep Newcomer High Where It Is
By Samson Wong

The Sales Job

At the May 22 community meeting at Newcomer High School Auditorium, you could hear some audience members whispering “sales pitch,” as the associate superintendent and a principal spoke in English with closed circuit Chinese and Spanish translations.

The purpose of the community meeting was to allay the fears of the forty students in attendance and their parents, who had 15 minutes to talk about Newcomer’s fate. The school helps new immigrants, who speak little or no English, transition to regular high schools. Now, the district is proposing the campus move to Mission High School. Many students and parents, however, want Newcomer High School to stay where it is.

On June 6, Mary Hernandez, Juanita Owens and Jill Wynns—members of the school board’s curriculum committee—will take up the second proposal in two years to close the high school campus, which sits on prime Pacific Heights property. If the move is recommended, the full seven-member school board will take a formal vote. If the plan wins approval there, the administration will take over the Jackson and Webster Street property.

At the committee level, speculation is that Hernandez will support the plan, while Wynns will vote against it. That leaves committee chair Owens as the swing vote.

If the proposal reaches the full board, Eddie Chin and Frank Chong are expected to be opposed.

Even before the school board has expressed itself, the administration is already making the move a fait accompli, as it has decided to relocate summer session classes to Mission High.

At the forum, Sally Chou, Associate Superintendent for Student Support Services said that the Newcomer move coincides with a number of district moves, including that of the central office to 555 Franklin Street. “It would be great if we could anticipate [two or three years ahead],” she said, “But we move fast.”

The district is moving so fast, in fact, that it couldn’t delay the community meeting until after final exams. John Quinn, Associate Superintendent of High School Instructional Support and Operations mistakenly said, “We scheduled it this week” before final exams. Not true.

Furthermore, if the plan moves to the full board, that vote would take place when opposing students and faculty are gone for summer vacation.

What was on the mind of parents at the May 22 meeting was the safety of Mission High School and the safety of the neighborhood.

“I think the children who are here are scared,” remarked one parent.

Another said, “It’s not the school I’m afraid of, it’s the neighborhood.”

Mission High School principal Ted Alvaro has offered tours of the school and stressed that “It’s a very safe school” that enrolls over 800 day students along with 800 teens and adults for night school. The security guards stationed at the school, he reassured parents, ensure students would be safe.

But according to the latest School Accountability Report Card, the school’s suspension rate has ranged from 4.5 percent to 9 percent in the last three years. Dropouts last academic year were 11 percent compared to the district-wide rate of 4 percent.

Moreover, the school was recently “reconstituted,” which is district jargon for “academic martial law.” The original faculty and administration were reassigned and Alvaro was brought in to administer students.

To boost the school’s reputation, handouts were distributed which showed that compared to Mission, Newcomer offered fewer courses to fulfill graduation requirements. Newcomer, however, is not a full-curriculum school. Rather, it’s a two-year program that helps students keep up with the basics while learning English before fulfilling these graduation requirements. As school board member Eddie Chin said, comparing the two schools is like comparing “apples and oranges.”

Proponents say the Newcomer High School program builds self-confidence in students.

Noteworthy at the meeting: One Mission High faculty member brought along two Asian American school kids to say what a great school it was. The kids didn’t speak, though. Their Mission escort excused them as being “shy.”

Predictions

For those who missed Warren Hinckle’s column in Saturday’s Independent, he suggested that Chuck Quackenbush might be a dead duck as insurance commissioner. Quackenbush, in a shakedown, absolved insurance companies for some earthquake claims, and in return, the companies donated money to some non-profit foundations.

Åinckle suggested that Governor Gray Davis might appoint State Senator Jackie Speier as Quackenbush’s successor, and majority leader Kevin Shelley (who’s termed out in 2002) to Speier’s position. Supervisor Mabel Teng might then be appointed to Shelley’s vacant 12th Assembly District seat.

The scenario is very much plausible, although Quackenbush’s domino will have to fall first. It presents a unique opportunity to get an Asian American assembly member, it would create a safe Asian American assembly district, and it would give the Mayor the opportunity to appoint a supervisor.