Guest Column
UESF does not make a practice of
publishing Board of Education members' speeches. However, this speech of January 4, 2001, on the induction of the newly
elected commissioners, is different. We believe that Jill Wynns has laid out
an inspirational map of the future and given a clear explanation of why we engage in political action.
A long road to this new day
Thank you all for being here tonight to help to celebrate our election. I
want to express my thanks to all of you and to the citizens of San Francisco
for giving me the opportunity to serve as a member of the Board of Education
for four more years. I consider it a privilege to represent the people of
our city and county and I welcome the responsibility of working for all the
children of our community.
My special thanks to Assemblyman Kevin Shelley for his support and for being
here tonight to swear me in. We met when we were campaigning together in 1990
and have worked together ever since.
by Jill Wynns, President of the SFUSD Board of Education
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Our city is lucky to have a strong advocate for public education representing us in a key role in Sacramento. I also want to thank Mayor Brown and all the other officials who have come here tonight. We are honored by your presence. I need to give a special note of thanks to Esther Casco and the other staff members who planned this event for us this evening. She makes it possible for us to do ur jobs; she takes care of us. She worked very hard tomake this evening a special time for us. My most hearfelt thanks to Esther.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my family--my children, who, of course, have always been my inspiration, Emily and Evan, as well as their brother Justin who was here for the holidays but is now back at work in New York. They all went to San Francisco public schools. I would also like to introduce Masatsugu Morikawa, our Japanese exchange student who is living with us this year. And, of course, my husband, George Wynns, who has always supported my commitment to the children and schools of San Francisco. This has meant taking up the slack for long hours and days away from home and the willingness to listen to my frustrations and venting, often an absolute necessity to remain focused and effective in this job. I thank him for his understanding and his patience. Thank you all for your love and support.
An honor and responsibility
Among the supporters who did all the work to get me here again tonight, I
want to acknowledge especially a few individuals who were my partners in this
effort--Novella Smith who coordinated my campaign and kept us focused on what
this is all about, Margaret Kauffman, Susan Suval, Mary-Beth Wallace, Margaret
Brodkin, Tony Fazio, Julie Wang, Lorne Needle, Jennifer Black, Monty Worth,
Caroline Grannon and many others. I must also give sincere thanks to all the
contributors, volunteers, elected officials, political organizations, unions,
newspapers and individuals who endorsed me and, especially, the more than
105,000 voters who connected the arrows next to my name to put me here at
this new beginning. It is both an incredible honor and an awesome responsibility
to have that many votes cast for you.
I have saved for my final thank-yous for the teachers and their union, United Educators of San Francisco, who have always supported me and played a key role in this school board election. Actually, they are among a very few individuals who had the courage to take a strong stand against the insanity of the past few years in our school district. They were tough; they told the truth about what was happening.
It has been a long road to this new day for San Francisco schools. It was sometimes a very lonely road. The people who were there with me were willing to risk being treated as I was--(I had a ong list of negative adjectives here, but I won't read them), have my eternal respect and admiration. Four years ago I spoke at my swearing-in about my insistence on not allowing myself to be marginalized. It took courage and tenacity; it was a matter of "in-your-face" determination to those who were then in the majority; it took guts to keep on telling the truth and fighting the secrecy and mis-management of the previous aadministration. The leaders of UESF were my partners, they stood up for me and for the children of our school district. Thank you, Kent, Rudi, Peggy, Dennis, Steve and all the other teachers in San Francisco.
Coming together
Three years ago there was a catlytic event in San Francisco. It was the privatization
of a public school. As torturous as that process was for our community, it
did result in the formation of the Coalition for a Responsible School Board.
Parents, teachers, students and community members came together and formed
the coalition. It was actually a remarkably broad-based group who realized
that they had a common and compelling interest in creating a school board
whose members would actually listen to the community and act in the best interests
of the students. Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth played a critical
role in facilitating the coalition. They did what they do best-they brought
people together and taught them the skills they needed to get the job done.
This coalition has set the agenda for the last two school board elections. The parents and, especially, teachers have worked on the campaigns and taken up the mantle of the agenda. UESF even ran an independent campaign to elect a responsible school board.
This progressive coalition model is what I am looking forward to seeing operating in the school district. This is the way I want the school board to operate-we treat each other with respect, recognizing our individual interests and embracing our common goals.
We are at the dawn of a new day in the SFUSD. We have a wonderful, capable new superintendent. She is courageously embarking on a difficult but absolutely necessary re-organization. We will get absolutely everything out in the open.
A new pro-teacher, pro-labor, anti-privatization majority
We have a new majority on the Board. It is a pro-teacher, pro-labor, anti-privatization
majority. We will make clear that we are focused on students by working together
and actually talking to each other and to the public. Our commitment to our
common purpose will be clear to everyone. We will be about supporting schools
to provide the best possible eduaction to every child in San Francisco.
We, with our valued, treasured, collaborative partners will bring about a change in the culture of governance in San Francisco Unified School District. That is what we are asking schools to do, change their culture, and that is what we need at the district level. On this board we are all remarkably alike in our political positions, not just the new majority, but every member of the board. The political pendulum doesn't swing very far in San Francisco; we are all on the progressive end of the spectrum. It is the way we operate that needs to be changed. We are committed to doing that.
I hope you will all join us and help us. It will take all of us. I thank you again for your support and your help. Nothing is more important than the future of our children. Time now to start the discussion that will lead to the hard work of making their future bright. And we are about to begin the best four years that our school district has ever had. Thank you.
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