this from the supervisor's office:

Hello,
On January 19th, 2006, the San Francisco Board of Education (BOE) made the
decision to "merge" John Swett Alternative Elementary School in the
Western Addition with John Muir Elementary School in the Lower Haight.
There has been an ongoing effort to have this decision reversed by the
Board of Education.
Why save John Swett? Because John Swett did not meet the criteria set
forth by the BOE for closure or merger. John Swett is an alternative arts
school that serves mainly disadvantaged children in the Western Addition
and Tenderloin. It is enrolled at 81% capacity and had been generating
more interest from families before the decision to merge the school. It
is one of the very few schools in our entire city that had integrated the
arts into its curriculum. This kind of education and enrichment is not
likely to touch these children's lives outside of their education at John
Swett. Since the merger decision, it has come to light that the school
site of the merger, John Muir, can not integrate the arts and these
students will lose this valuable program.
Safety was another issue not taken into consideration. These families
face real dangers when crossing invisible turf boundaries to get their
children to a school that is more than a mile away. The children that
travel to school on their own now have to cross the Fell and Oak street
corridors alone.
In documents that were uncovered from a committee meeting of the BOE, the
initial use of the John Swett site was proposed as central district
offices for the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), located
directly across the street from Swett. Now we know why they chose to
close a school that did NOT meet the criteria! Since uncovering the
document and exposing it to the public, the BOE has backed off the idea of
using the building for office space, but refuses to admit a mistake
and let a healthy school remain in tact.
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Supervisor Chris Daly have drafted and
passed an ordinance that would appropriate $660,000 to the BOE to keep
John Swett open. This is an appropriation, not a loan. The BOE can
literally take this money with no strings attached - just use it to
operate John Swett! We are uniting once again to demand that the Board of Education take this money and support these children. This issue is being taken to the BOE meeting held at 555 Franklin St., this Tuesday April 25th . We will rally for a press conference with the supporting communities at 6:00PM on the front steps and then take our message into the Board meeting
at 7:00PM.
Supervisor Mirkarimi is asking for your support!
. We need to support this school and also send a message to the current
BOE that we will not let them make these kinds of irresponsible decisions
on the backs of our children! With more school closures looming in our
near future, this is the time to act!
Thanks in advance for your support!