San Francisco Unified School District The 1998-1999 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury noted that in June of 1998 the

Recommendations 10

• R1
  Interview the District controller and chief financial officer.
• R2
  Interview members of the School Board.
• R3
  Analyze in depth the various statistics on language programs conducted by the District.
• R4
  Look into the allegation that the District discriminates against Chinese students.
• R5
  Review the consents of parents to have their children taught in a language other than English.
• R6
  The SFUSD should keep track of the attrition rates as well as their presently defined dropout rates. The SFUSD should determine how many of the attritions between eleventh and twelfth grades are attending continuation high schools. These statistics would be useful in assessing the utility of the education they have received.
• R7
  Determine what the requirements are for language programs being offered by the District, with the end in mind of determining if there is compliance.
• R8
  The Grand Jury should be authorized to retain its own independent counsel. The excuse given by the City Attorney for not providing the Grand Jury with legal representation was that the City Attorney represents the District. This would apply to any legal issues raised by any other department of city government. The City Attorney purports to represent all of City and County Government. The stance taken by the City Attorney leaves the Grand Jury with no legal representation in its investigation of City and County Government.
• R9
  The issue of social promotion and the use of the schools in summer rather than blindly promote, should be reviewed.
• R10
  Visit at least a dozen additional schools including those that teach in a language other than English as well as those that teach partially in English. 11.Subpoena all SFUSD administrators to be interviewed instead of running the risk of failure to appear in response to an informal request.