School Board Discusses When to Promote Struggling Students

Teachers, administrators and school board members discussed the question of whether to promote or hold back struggling students at Thursday's school board meeting.

Current board policy states that if students who don't pass middle school requirements are identified as “at risk” of not being promoted. This use to be the status quo, but the school district has decided it does not work.            

Acting Superintendent’s Adolfo Melara said that right now, the district has decided that it will not hold students back if they don't pass eighth grade. He said research shows that if you keep a student in eighth grade for a second year, it will decrease their chances of graduating high school and becoming employed citizens.

But counselors Angelica Garduno and Matthew Ledesma disagreed with the policy. They said they didn't feel it was beneficial for a student to be promoted to the ninth grade if they have failed eighth grade. Garduno brought up the fact that some students cannot make it to the supplement programs that will help them past eighth grade due to numerous reasons.

“Parents want their kids home. Some of these programs run until 5 pm and it tends to get dark and parents want their kids home,” Garduno said. Garduno suggested that summer school should be available for the students who did not pass their eighth grade year. Last year there was no summer school for the students.

Ledesma who is not only a school counselor at Parkway but also the ninth grade counselor at . He said he notices that the same students that had all Fs in eighth grade are the same ones that have all Fs in ninth grade.

“Without some sort of bridge, like summer school or retaining the student, the students are being condition to have an academic apathy,” Ledesma said. He told the board that his students knew they were going to pass without doing any other work. He has a caseload of 14 students that have straight F’s and he is worried they will drop out.

Eighth grade Westborough Middle School teacher Danny Yanow agreed with the two counselors.

“What’s the point of passing a kid, instead of hitting the wall at eighth grade and retaining them then, letting them hit the wall at tenth grade?” Yanow said.

The district is still working on the issue and will consider establishing a summer program for struggling eighth graders.

Here’s a summary of other discussion items from Thursday’s meeting:

• Councilmember Pedro Gonzales brought up school uniforms. Some school uniforms have similar colors to gangs. Acting Superintendent Adolfo Melara stated that once a school uniform is in place and voted on by parents, the color of the uniforms can be changed by administration. The school district knows that gang colors and styles change and therefore try to update their uniform colors when necessary.  At Parkway there has been an issue with a specific black sweater that has a red logo on the hood and on the side, which has been a concern in the community.

• On March 9, some members of the California State Employees Association will protest the establishment of a medical marijuana facility at the city council meeting.
• Hats Off To Education will take place on April 1 at the South San Francisco Conference Center. The dinner/dance/auction fundraiser will generate funds for the schools. The cost is  $44 per person; interested parties can e-mail Board Vice President Judith M. Bush at jbush@ssfusd.org for more information.