There is a major teacher shortage in San Fran schools. Students are fleeing and about 30% do not show up on any given day. Test scores are down. But the school board wants a one billion bond (two billion when you include interest), so they can, at the top of their list—redesign bathrooms.
No, this is not a Babylon Bee joke—the school board is the joke.
“The school district also wants to add more gender-neutral bathrooms, Kamalanathan said. In 2016, district leaders launched an effort to open at least one single-stall all-gender bathroom at each school site. But the cost has hindered the district’s ability to expand the effort, KQED reported.
A billion-dollar bond could help on that front. “I am taking student voices very seriously in this, and there is a real opportunity to think about a different kind of standard and the way we engage and design on them,” Kamalanathan said.
Will they provide a security guard in each bathroom to prevent rapes and sexual assaults?
Bathrooms at the top of the fix-it list for SF public schools
By Allyson Aleksey,| Examiner, 5/10/23 https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/bathrooms-at-the-top-of-the-fix-it-list-for-sf-public-schools/article_210dca6a-ef68-11ed-aa7f-37a939e6310d.html
Fixing school’s decaying bathrooms is at the top of the priority list on the final facilities master plan, which was approved unanimously by the board of education Tuesday.
A premier problem for San Francisco public schools is of the porcelain variety.
Fixing school bathrooms is a key priority for the San Francisco Unified School District, topping the list of a 10-year master plan unanimously approved by the Board of Education Tuesday.
The facilities master plan will dictate the cost of a future general obligation bond, tentatively set for 2024 and priced at $1 billion.
The district found poor bathroom conditions to be a common concern for students, parents and staff alike. “My daughter is afraid to use the toilet because there are giant holes where the toilets used to be,” an anonymous respondent said in a districtwide survey.
Another survey respondent said, “Many of the bathrooms in district buildings are very cold, have old fixtures, and are out of date.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Alida Fisher said she was happy to see the district’s derelict restrooms prioritized, because the poorly-maintained bathrooms are “distracting from learning.”
“I am personally saddened and tired of hearing stories from families about how kids won’t go to the bathroom during the day because of the condition of the bathroom,” said SFUSD Head of Facilities Dawn Kamalanathan. “That is unacceptable.”
Another challenge in addressing bathroom maintenance is the lack of custodial staff. Members of SEIU 1021, the union representing SFUSD’s custodians, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, demanding fair wages and benefits.
“Our custodians are working to the bone because they are so short staffed,” President Rafael Picazo said. “(They) work hard; their rents are extreme, inflation is high. We saw raises in 2020, but nothing since.”
Picazo added that a custodian requested vacation time last year to take time off in June. That request is still pending. He also noted that custodians’ hours are being cut without notice, barring them from benefits such as vacation time and healthcare.
If left unaddressed, the district’s bathrooms could lead to legal action.
Poor bathroom conditions can lead to Williams complaints, which are based on a class-action lawsuit filed against the state in 2000 over poor conditions in public schools, including poor bathroom conditions, rampant vermin and falling ceilings.
The case is named after Eliezer Williams, a middle-school student at The City’s Luther Burbank Middle School and lead plaintiff in the case. The lawsuit accused the state of denying children access to textbooks, trained teachers and safe classrooms.
Beyond the health hazards posed by these run-down facilities, school bathrooms are a place where students often congregate when not in the classroom.
“(We) need to think about the design of our restrooms not just as meeting a series of codes, but as an important place to communicate student dignity,” Kamalanathan said.
“When I worked for (San Francisco) Rec and Parks, our free-standing restrooms were frequently a site of … undesirable criminal behavior.”
After considering community input, Rec and Park then designed bathrooms with shorter doors “so you could always see someone (in there),” she said. The bathrooms were also designed to be easier to clean — for example, bathrooms at the Panhandle in Golden Gate Park.
The school district also wants to add more gender-neutral bathrooms, Kamalanathan said. In 2016, district leaders launched an effort to open at least one single-stall all-gender bathroom at each school site. But the cost has hindered the district’s ability to expand the effort, KQED reported.
A billion-dollar bond could help on that front. “I am taking student voices very seriously in this, and there is a real opportunity to think about a different kind of standard and the way we engage and design on them,” Kamalanathan said.
