By love-89.com On October 11, officials from the San Francisco Unified School District acknowledged that they had released incorrect data in their recent proposal for school closures. This misstep has further undermined the district’s efforts to rebuild trust with the public.
Matt Wayne, the Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, announced a list of schools that could be closed by the end of the current academic year on October 8. In his announcement, he also shared a schedule for community meetings and the overall scores for the affected schools. These scores are a key factor in determining whether a school will be closed.
However, just hours after the scores were released, the district realized there was an error in the data. While they corrected the mistake, they failed to notify the school board, the community, and parents. Board President Matt Alexander stated on October 11, “I only learned about this late on the evening of the 10th.”
Many parents, like Alexander, also noticed the discrepancies in the school scores around the same time.
District officials assured on October 11 that the list of proposed school closures would not be affected by the changes in scores. However, the prioritization of which schools are most or least likely to close has indeed been updated.
District spokesperson Laura Dudnick commented, “We published incorrect overall scores for the schools on October 8. Once we discovered the error, we corrected it and verified the information with a third-party researcher. We apologize for the release of inaccurate data and assure everyone that the list of proposed closures or merges from October 8 remains unchanged.”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, sources indicate that the scoring errors were a result of the list being leaked prior to its official release. The leak forced the district to unveil the list two hours earlier than planned, even before all the school scores had been fully verified.
The incident has raised questions about the effectiveness of the school’s selection process and whether school scores were manipulated.
Tiffany Furrell, a parent and data analyst, revealed that her husband noticed discrepancies in the scores for Harvey Milk Elementary, which was listed for closure, during his review of the closure documents on October 8. She expressed frustration that the district had not provided any explanations for the changes.
“If there’s a legitimate reason, they should annotate it, but nobody was aware of this assumption. We don’t know what data was actually included, and that’s infuriating and disheartening,” Furrell explained.
Even parents whose children attend schools not on the closure list expressed their astonishment over the district’s recent troubles.
When discussing issues around staffing and budget cuts, Rasheq Zarif, a parent from McKinley Elementary, remarked, “This isn’t just about closing schools. I have no confidence that they can achieve the necessary goals.”