For Immediate Release: December 12, 2001

San Francisco, CA—After San Francisco Superintendent Arlene Ackerman excluded charter schools from participating in the district’s annual public school symposium last month, concerned parents and charter school supporters took matters into their own hands. They organized the first San Francisco Public Charter School Symposium, to be held Wednesday, December 12, 2001, at the Delancey Street Foundation, 600 Embarcadero Street, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown will be the keynote speaker, and Reed Hastings, president of the California State Board of Education, will also address parents and educators.

Bay Area parents see Brown as a charter school pioneer after he won a long-fought battle to open a military-style charter school in Oakland. After the charter was rejected by the Oakland and Alameda County boards of education, the Oakland Military Institute (OMI) finally gained approval from California’s state board of education and opened in August. Parent satisfaction is high.

The charter symposium is the first of its kind in the Bay Area and seeks to introduce parents to the success of charter schools. Parents will have the opportunity to meet local charter school principals and staff from all of the city’s charter schools, including Creative Arts Charter Academy, Edison Charter Academy, Gateway High School, Leadership High School Life Learning Academy, J.U.M.P. Academy, and Urban Pioneer Experimental Academy, San Francisco’s newest public charter school.

The event was organized by the California Association of Educational Charters (CANEC), and is also made possible by support from KIPP: Life.Lesson. (Knowledge Is Power Program), CharterTeach, greatschools, the Full Circle Fund, and the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for School Reform.

“The charter school symposium is important because it lets San Francisco parents know that there are other public school options besides the city’s government run public schools,” said Diallo Dphrepaulezz, assistant director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for School Reform.

According to Dphrepaulezz (pronounced De-fra-pole-ehz), San Francisco has been surprisingly hostile to charters, despite the fact that the city’s schools are in fiscal and physical shambles.

“This summer, the school board tried to revoke Edison’s charter, despite the school’s success and parent protests, then Superintendent Ackerman shut charters out of the annual public school symposium,” said Dphrepaulezz. “Parents aren’t willing to stand for it. They want options and they want a better education for their kids, which is just what these charters have to offer,” he said.

For information or to interview Diallo Dphrepaulezz, contact Dawn Collier at 415-955-6136.

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