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This par:/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL</div> <div id="omni_article_title" style="display: none;">Article:Planning to leave town because of the schools? 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This parent didn't, and couldn't be happier</h1> </div> <p class="byline"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101/mailto:feedback@sfgate.com">Leslie Kirk Campbell, special to SF Gate</a></p> <p class="date">Thursday, September 5, 2008</p> </div>  <div class="tools tools_top"> <div class="hr"><hr/></div> <table> <tr> <td class="print"><a onmouseover="document.getElementById('printlink').style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="document.getElementById('printlink').style.textDecoration='none';" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=printable"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/article/tools/print.gif" alt=""/></a><a id="printlink" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=printable" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none';">Print</a></td> <td class="email"><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=friend&emailcolor=%23339511&origin=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fg%2Fa%2F2008%2F09%2F05%2Flessonplan.DTL" onmouseover="document.getElementById('emaillink').style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="document.getElementById('emaillink').style.textDecoration='none';"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/article/tools/mail.gif" alt=""/></a><a id="emaillink" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=friend&emailcolor=%23339511&origin=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fg%2Fa%2F2008%2F09%2F05%2Flessonplan.DTL" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none';">E-mail</a></td> <td class="share"><div id="sharepop1mask" onmouseover="document.getElementById('sharepop1box').style.display='none'; 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} //]]> </script></div>  </td>  </tr> </table> <div class="hr"><hr/></div> </div>  <div id="articlecontent"> <div id="bodytext_top" class="bodytext bodytext_top"><div id="fontprefs_top" class="georgia md"><p> <strong>Landing Near the Bottom</strong> </div></div> <div id="articlebox"> <div class="hr"><hr/></div>   <div class="sfg_art001"> <h2>Images</h2> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&o=0" target=""><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/04_t/ba-M_Aff.08_1_pa_0499083707_t.gif" alt="Parents Angie Doctor, Heidi Edwards, Laurrie Petrelli sha..."/></a><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&o=1" target=""><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/04_t/ba-M_Aff.41_kids_0499083755_t.gif" alt="Recent Miraloma graduates Alvianne Bautista, Trishcia Bau..."/></a><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&o=2" target=""><img class="last-thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/05_t/ga_assembly06_t.gif" alt="Miraloma School teachers help 3rd-5th grade students sett..."/></a> <a class="view" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&o=" target=""><img class="plus" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/plus-green.gif"/> View More Images</a> </div> <div class="hr"><hr/></div> </div> <div id="bodytext_bottom" class="bodytext bodytext_bottom"><div id="fontprefs_bottom" class="georgia md"><p>I never intended to be a pioneer in the trenches of San Francisco's beleaguered and maligned public school system. Back in 1993, when my first child started kindergarten, I'd been lucky. At the time, there were five public elementary schools out of seventy-three that anyone I knew would risk putting their children into. My son was assigned to one of them. As a result, the question of whether to pay an arm and a leg to set the kid squarely on the private school track or to sacrifice him to the maws of our state's notoriously under-funded public schools did not keep me up at night. <p>But then, a decade later, my second child was about to graduate from pre-school. I was faced with the dreaded decision once again. As far as I'd heard, the San Francisco Unified School District had only gotten worse. Even my elder son's "rock star" public school's reputation was on the rocks. Its principal, a leader par excellence, had retired after 16 years, and was followed by a parade of ineffective principals; and that great ship, national recognized in the '90s for its achievements, had slowly begun to sink. <p>Could my husband and I inveigle our way into one of the Bay Area's prestigious private schools? Unfortunately, with our dearth of savings, we felt we could not. Relying solely on scuttlebutt, we toured the same five reputable public schools I'd seen in 1993, debated endlessly about which one would be our first choice, wrote all five down on our enrollment form, and did not get into any of them. To this day, these schools get as many as 1,000 requests for a meager 60 spaces. Instead, we ended up at an unknown, under-enrolled elementary school called Miraloma that was tucked away in a neighborhood no one I knew had ever heard of. <p>A sensible person might have bolted in the opposite direction based on the school's test scores alone. The year my son was to enter kindergarten, 47 elementary schools in the district claimed a shameful 35% (or less) of their fourth grade students were even proficient in math, English, or both. Miraloma was one of them. Meanwhile, at the rock star schools, 65-80% of the 4th grade kids tested proficient or above in these same subjects. <p>Miraloma's student demographics, a microcosm of the district as a whole, seemed challenging at best. In 2002, the year my son enrolled, 35% of the students were English Language Learners; 16% were in special education, the majority with behavioral problems; 65% qualified for a free or reduced cost lunch; and 36% were labeled EDY, educationally disadvantaged youth. Buses crammed with children chugged up the hills to Miraloma from Ingleside, Diamond Heights, and as far away as Hunter's Point. <p>The Miraloma Park neighborhood, a wide swath of more than 2,000 well-kept single family homes built along the eastern slopes of Mt. Davidson in the 1930s, had all but given up on the state-of-the-art elementary school built for them 50 years before. The neighborhood children were commuting to distant public schools or going to private ones. After a week at the school, I understood why. <p>Like quicksilver, the majesty of Miraloma's spacious campus with its million-dollar view, and my confidence in its valiant principal, fell away. I saw large fourth- and fifth-graders barreling down the hall to get to recess. The expansive blacktop seemed boisterous and dangerous, kids limping into the main office for ice packs, of which there seemed to be an endless supply. Restrooms reeked of urine. Hallways seemed cavernous and barren with few displays of student work. I watched the kindergarten kids, including my son, straggle and chatter down the hall, some pushing and kicking, devoid of respect for their shushing teacher. <p>In those first two years at Miraloma, I volunteered in the classroom, initiated school-wide programs and attended countless meetings, but at the end of the day, I would go home and weep. There was no P.E. teacher and no librarian. Hardscrabble class management rarely seemed to result in an environment conducive to learning. The principal, a tall, large-boned woman, was constantly tilting down the hall like Mother Superior in the "Madeline" stories to quell some new trouble. <p>It is at this critical juncture, if not before, that many college-educated urbanites escape to the suburbs or hock everything they own to put their children in private schools. But there is another, crazier idea: stay. My husband and I had no desire to abandon the city we love or its diverse population. Together with parents like ourselves who had multiple skills and flexible work schedules, we dug in our heels. I kept my job but I chose to give up much of the rest of my life - a labor of love that may not be for everyone. I made a commitment to changing Miraloma into the school I wanted it to be, a school where my child - and every child - might flourish. <p><strong>Coming Out on Top</strong> <p> <p>Fast-forward to this past December: my goofy, inquisitive kindergartener now a high-achieving, happy-go-lucky fifth grader about to graduate. <p>I am chatting, as usual, with a couple of Miraloma moms and dads in the entrance hall as our new 32-year-old principal laughs and twirls a giggling toddler in the air. We are surrounded by watercolor signs of welcome in 13 languages, a row of tiny bedroom slippers lined up tidily outside a first-grade classroom, brightly-colored tissue-paper replicas of rocky shores spilling off a display table, a huge bulletin board quilted with our children's poems, and the joyful sound of children singing. <p>Suddenly, as if on cue, more than 60 parents trample through the glass front doors for a school tour. Back in 2002, you could walk in the day before school began, as I had, and cinch a spot in any of the three kindergarten classes with room to spare. But this year, 500 prospective parents visited our school, disrupting classrooms with their fervor. Miraloma miraculously skyrocketed from being near the bottom of the pile to being the 11th most requested elementary school in San Francisco; number nine in first-choice requests. It has even surpassed one of the rock star schools in popularity. <p><strong>Playing Detective</strong> <p>How in the world had this happened? How had our struggling school somehow managed to fashion an educational system and culture that could guarantee the academic, emotional, and social success of any child? And in just a few high-octane years? And were there other San Francisco schools that were doing this, too? <p>There were the obvious things: the infusion of resources, skills, and funding that had come with an increase in middle-class and college-educated families such as my own, a trickle at first and then a torrent. PTA membership jumped from six parents in 2002 to 190 today, while its budget zoomed from $5,000 to $135,000. An additional $250,000 flowed in from parent-driven grants. All this funding paid for a flurry of new high-caliber arts, sports, and gardening programs. Meanwhile, parent involvement grew steadily. During this past year, 150 parents volunteered more than 17,000 hours, the equivalent, at a modest $15 an hour, of $255,000 worth of free labor, or 15% of the total school budget. This enrichment has benefited every child at every grade level at our school. <p>Then there was that 67 point jump in the school's standardized test scores the year my son was in fourth grade, which had, on a bet, obligated our new principal, Ron Machado, to get his head shaved into a pink Mohawk on the school black-top with the whole school watching. (Released yesterday: Miraloma leapt up another 53 points last year.) Some of this increase could, no doubt, be chalked up to the rising number of college-educated families at the school and their academically advantaged children. On the other hand, while an achievement gap stubbornly persisted - an intransigent challenge for the entire state of California - all student scores were slowly rising. <p>Miraloma families unquestionably had good cause to celebrate. <p>Yet there was something even more profound going on, I was certain of it; something that went beyond test scores (still barely above the district average), enrichment opportunities, and PTA fundraising; even beyond demographics. Something that had to do with the quality of life at the school: not just what we accomplished, but how we accomplished it. Something that made my son not want to come home from school each day because he felt well-nourished here, and which rewarded me with numerous friendships, a deeply satisfying sense of belonging, and far more appreciation than I could possibly deserve. <p>I decided to speak to the wizards behind the curtain, the principal and teachers; to elicit confessions from staff who had been on board since the '80s; to listen to the perspective of parents who'd come before me, and to the newcomers fresh out of pre-school. <p>Through their stories, I learned that the success of a school results from the dynamic interweaving of three equally important forces: an empowered principal, a faculty of empowered teachers, and empowered parents. If any one of these groups is weak or disengaged, the school will falter. A lackluster principal, for example, will disenchant the teachers and parents, and ultimately the students, dooming the school. The quality of a school is contingent upon the personal and professional relationships between its many stakeholders. It is a precarious balance. <p><strong>The Difference a Principal Can Make</strong> <p>My son's school's most recent transformation began with a bold and visionary principal, Marcia Parrott. When Marcia arrived in 1999, she encountered a hierarchical and compartmentalized culture. Teacher independence and isolation were the rule. Children, she felt, were too often being blamed for the failures of adults. "Miraloma," she told me, "needed a paradigm shift." <p>Her mission was to create a vibrant learning community for teachers, students, and parents based on high expectations, teamwork, and collaborative decision-making. Everyone was welcome at the table. Blame and failure would not be part of the equation. Instead, the question she would ask her teaching staff would be: What can we do to help this child? Followed by, what do we need to learn - or what resources do we need to acquire or hire - in order to give this child the help she or he needs? <p>To keep the ailing school vital, she made quality professional development and collaboration time abundantly available to teachers. "Learning something new motivates them," she explained to me. "When the teachers get excited, the students get excited." Teachers I spoke to agreed. <p>"Everyone had a learning curve, " said Marcia, recalling her first years at the school, "and with the paradigm shift, transition came." <p>And it came fast. Half the original faculty was gone by the time my son was in the second grade. A school's growth, as well as its demise, I learned, is circular. Teachers who no longer fit in choose to retire, leave, or change and join in. New teachers, attracted by the school's philosophy, tend to deepen and expand that philosophy once they are fully engaged in the life of the school. "It was like night and day," said a third-grade teacher, the only pre-Marcia classroom teacher who is still on the premises Marcia's style of leadership was a stretch, she acknowledged, but now she thrives in the school's collaborative environment. "When the teachers are supported," she said, "the whole school gets happier." <p>Statistics show that after five years, public school teachers tend to move on. But the teachers I spoke to are adamant. "Why would I leave?" said one. "I feel like I'm part of a community here. Next year I have 10 siblings coming into my class." Teachers value their regular grade-level meetings. They benefit from teacher mentors. When a teacher's car was stolen last year, the others raised money to help her out. When the faculty plans a picnic at Dolores Park or goes out for TGIF, participation is typically 100 percent. "Teachers here have passion," said one fifth-grade teacher. <p>This was the professional environment that our current principal, Ron Machado, walked into two years ago when Marcia retired. "It's amazing how close and tight the staff is," he told me. He noted how reflective the teachers are about what they do. "They're not afraid to ask for help or to re-examine their own work regardless of how experienced they are." These are the qualities parents rarely get to know about or see. But the surge of creativity and excitement was contagious. Let's figure this out together, was Marcia's motto, breaking with the isolation of the past. When a parent had an idea - and ideas were coming a mile a minute - her mantra would be, "Let's try it and see how it works!" <p><strong>Inviting Parents into the Fold</strong> <p>With Marcia at the helm, parents felt welcome. We knew we could have an impact. In every cranny of the school, we experienced potential. And so we created partnerships with teachers, the principal, the numerous specialists, and with each other. We elected a dedicated and diverse School Site Council to make decisions about school policy; established a strong PTA to work in concert with the Site Council; and launched a panoply of new programs - a room-parent program, a parent-tutoring program, after-school Mandarin, a school newspaper - and committee after committee: art, grounds, technology and community service. When volunteers invited other parents to get involved, we invited them personally so they would know they were valued. We worked long hours to ensure that every family felt empowered to have a voice. "Being at the ground floor of something like this has been very rewarding, " said one parent whose first Miraloma child graduated last year, and who has a son in fourth grade. "The ability to hope is infectious." <p>Active parent involvement, I discovered, is the third essential ingredient for success at a public school. Every day I witnessed the astronomical things parents can accomplish when invited, encouraged and given the chance. Where there is lack, they step in. Where there is no lack, they embellish. Marcia was masterful at channeling this boundless energy into an established, democratic structure. She also understood the power of food to attract. She never arrived at a meeting without her creaky wheely-cart stocked with drinks and fresh-baked cookies. The healthy partnership with parents that she forged during her tenure endures to this day. <p>This was, for me, the biggest lesson. A principal's unfailing confidence that anything is possible, that staff and parents together can solve any problem and be respectful of each other while doing it, will provide both the foundation and the catalyst for any struggling school's meteoric rise. Marcia established the collaborative spirit that is at the heart of Miraloma's extraordinary community today, the community that Ron had the fortune of inheriting two years ago and which he continues to support and expand. <p>"From this open approach, " Marcia said, "leaders always emerge." <p><strong>Marketing the School the Old-Fashioned Way: Word of Mouth</strong> <p>One early leader was parent Elizabeth Halperin, who, when she arrived in 1998, was the only volunteer she ever saw on campus during the school day. While one grandmother from Miraloma Park would roast Thanksgiving turkey for the whole school, most parents did not have flex-time or lived far away. So while Marcia was busy changing paradigms and supporting teachers, Elizabeth started marketing the school. She coordinated with the newly formed advocacy group, Parents for Public Schools, to have an orientation for pre-K families at Miraloma. This turned out to be a brilliant strategy. It got parents through the door that had never heard of the school. Once there, Parrott was charming, and people started to come. One parent brought another. <p>The year before my son entered kindergarten, a handful of neighborhood co-op pre-school families chose to give the "disreputable" school a try. They lived nearby, which made their habit of volunteering all the more convenient. The following year these same families persuaded other co-op families to take the plunge. Meanwhile, the Miraloma neighborhood was changing. The original homeowners, now seniors, were moving out, replaced by families looking for affordable housing and a decent public school. Slowly but surely, the school began to fill with new kindergarteners and transferring families. <p><strong>I Had Dreams, Too</strong> <p> <p>In such a climate, I soon learned to keep my eye on the prize rather than on perceived deprivations. During my son's first year, I taught poetry in every classroom, and got to know, through their poems, every student at the school. I shocked my son's kindergarten teacher by asking her to dream about what she would like to happen in her classroom - a first for her - and what parents could do to help. Room parenting, I felt, could be a strategy for grass-roots community building, so I phoned each family. I didn't settle for speaking to just the mothers. I spoke to the fathers, too. If parents felt valued as volunteers their first year at the school, I theorized, they would form a habit and a desire that would last for years - and they did. <p>I was tactful but persistent. I asked them about themselves. I explained to them the ways they could help in the classroom and asked them how I could help them contribute. Every one of them wanted to assist in whatever way they could. There was not one exception. We had a restaurant cook, a physicist, an airport guard, a publicist, a house cleaner, an architect, a nursing student, a carpenter, and stay-at-home moms. A handful of them spoke little English, but I spoke some Spanish and sought help from our school's Chinese liaison. <p>I learned lesson after lesson while volunteering alongside parents, uncles, and grandparents at Miraloma and the linchpin was this: my son learned right along with me. This was the "good" education that I had never imagined and didn't expect. For years, I went to every PTA meeting, every Site Council meeting, every art committee meeting, every multi-cultural group meeting, and I would always give my son his choice: Do you want to stay, or go home? He chose the meeting every time. The dynamism of change is like an addiction. He, too, has wanted to be part of it. This past year, he was the student body president, running meetings and collaborating with his student council to fire up school spirit and spur change. <p><strong>Making the Right Choice for Your Child</strong> <p> <p>It is this culture of optimism and trust, not the mediocre test scores or even the plethora of enrichment programs that continues to attract families to Miraloma today. The quality of the school "far exceeded our expectations," these newcomers tell me. The word "expectations" is significant, because it is often our assumptions about public education in general and about certain schools in particular that keep us from even setting foot in a school. Many of us still make our choices based on rumor rather than on actual experience. The same negative assumptions that had families looking into Portland real estate back in 1993, when my first son entered kindergarten, and again in 2002 when my second son arrived, continue to run rampant in pre-schools today. The newcomers I spoke to admitted feeling intense pressure from other families in their pre-schools to go private. <p>On the other hand, these same parents had a totally different experience when they actually came to our school. "I visited many schools but I loved yours the most," one told me, "You feel it when you walk in." <p>Some were surprised to realize that they actually preferred the parvenu Miraloma to the tried and true rock-star public schools and private schools. One parent, who transferred her children from an expensive private school, explained that while her son's previous school had more resources and a better adult-child ratio, his academic and emotional needs were not being met. Despite her concerns, she found the school to be unresponsive. "The attitude was: 'There's no problem. We know what we're doing. Trust us'," she told me, adding that she had not been allowed into her son's classroom the entire three years he was there. "At Miraloma the attitude has been, 'What can we do to fix it?'" she said. "At public school I feel like an owner. I can be an advocate for my children." <p>Another parent transferred to public from a fast-track private school where over 50% of the kids get outside tutoring just to keep up. When her own daughter fell behind in first grade, her self-esteem plummeted. "Miraloma encourages her ability to be creative, as opposed to having a curriculum shoved down her throat," this mother told me. " There is an acceptance here that people dance to different drummers. As a school culture, the kids are learning this." <p><strong>The Bane of Celebrity</strong> <p>San Francisco families, as well as families-to-be, are starving for good news about our public schools. They swarm when they get the word: Another phoenix is rising. Not surprisingly, the majority of the families coming to tour our school are middle-class parents (who else can afford to tour schools on weekday mornings?). Most are white, including many from the Miraloma Park neighborhood, relieved to hear their local school is flourishing. <p>On the other hand, my son's classmates, together with the students in the grades above and below his - the kids he's hung out with since kindergarten - are 19% Black, 14% Latino, 23% Chinese, 6% Filipino, 10% Other - Palestinian, Indian, Thai, Brazilian, Ethiopian - and 17% white. Fifty-three percent qualified for free or reduced lunch. Nearly all of these families pitched in to improve the school and everyone reaped the benefits. Yet as Chinese, Black, and low-income families graduate, new families from these same groups are not enrolling. The demographics of the school are shifting. The middle class, many of whom worked hard to improve Miraloma alongside others, have rushed in to take advantage of these changes, leaving little room for groups who have been - for a variety of reasons - less proactive about enrolling. I tried tirelessly to stem the tide, but ultimately, I could not. <p>Families such as my own that want San Francisco's ethnic and economic diversity to be an essential part of their child's educational experience may have to consider a broader range of schools than the classic rock-star schools, or even the new ones, like Miraloma. On the other hand, the rich diversity of a school totally depends on which families request that school during the enrollment process. The only antidote to a school having a single-race majority is for multicultural families to apply. <p>Popular schools have other minefields to watch out for. Newcomers, relieved to find a school that is already what they want it to be, may tend toward complacency and be less actively involved in the school or neglect to reach out to their hardest-to-reach members. The principal, teachers, or parents may naively sacrifice an extraordinary culture of collaboration for the sake of efficiency or convenience. The needs of low-performing students and their families may not be given sufficient support - possibly solidifying or even worsening the academic achievement gap and attracting fewer of these families to the school. <p>An important lesson I learned at Miraloma is this: Unless all families are authentically valued as significant stakeholders in a school, regardless of race, ethnicity, education, and income, these same families may feel unintentionally excluded, resulting in a school culture that is segregated or even divisive. Parrott aptly compared Miraloma's growth over these last few years to that of a company's. The start-up, she said, is thrilling. But the company is a living organism, shesaid, and needs to remain relevant to the needs of its changing population. "A school must remain dynamic and responsive," she told me, "in order to flourish and thrive through the years." <p><strong>Applying the Lessons</strong> <p>Now that my son has graduated and is moving on to middle school, we take with us the many lessons Miraloma has taught us. A school's excellence, we now know, has less to do with test scores, new playground structures, arts enrichments or demographics, than it has to do with vision and valuing, collaboration and trust, things I'd never realized were the foundation of a quality education. <p>This wisdom recently guided us in our search for middle school - often a frightening prospect for parents of 10-year-olds, many of whom would just as soon keep their kids one more year in elementary. After touring eight schools, my son was accepted at his first-choice public school and at a private school with a scholarship offer. We wrung our hands -- the gated community with all its reliable quality and comfort, or the world: dynamic, multi-faceted, less safe and less predictable? <p>In the end, we chose the public school. After Miraloma, we were hooked. I'm already scheming. Let's see. At my son's public middle school there will be 1,200 students. How many days will it take me, I wonder, to teach them all to write a poem? <p><em>San Francisco Unified School District is the highest performing large urban school district in California. While the state has no bragging rights nationally, many San Francisco public elementary schools are on the rise and offering enormous benefits: language immersion programs, steady test score increases, and lively multi-cultural communities. So when it comes time to sign your child up for kindergarten (or middle or high school), I exhort you: be a pioneer. <p>Close your eyes and spin the SFUSD globe. See where your finger lands. Junipero Serra Elementary. Jose Ortega. Visitacion Valley. Monroe. Go to the school before rejecting it outright. See how it feels. Interview the principal. Is he dynamic and collaborative? Is she accessible, innovative, and knowledgeable? Do the teachers look happy? Are there at least a handful of parents involved? If at least two of the three required ingredients for success are in place, gather a couple of friends and enroll. Since your chosen school is truly a hidden gem, you will get your first choice. <p>Help shape a school into the school you want to have for your child and every other San Franciscan. Plan to give up bowling and your favorite TV shows for a few years (you'll be painting a gymnasium or writing an academic plan for your child's school). But think of it. You are at a start-up, riding the bucking bronco. Feel the drama and the exhilaration! <p>Leslie Kirk Campbell is the author of "Journey Into Motherhood" (Riverhead Books), and the founder of Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101/http://www.ripefruitwriting.com/">www.ripefruitwriting.com</a>. She lives with her two sons and her husband in San Francisco. Email her at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101/mailto:lesliekirkcampbell@mac.com">lesliekirkcampbell@mac.com</a></em> </div></div> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> sfgate_get_fprefs(); </script> </div> <div class="tools tools_bot"> <div class="hr"><hr/></div> <table> <tr> <td class="print"><a onmouseover="document.getElementById('printlink').style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="document.getElementById('printlink').style.textDecoration='none';" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=printable"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/article/tools/print.gif" alt=""/></a><a id="printlink" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=printable" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none';">Print</a></td> <td class="email"><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=friend&emailcolor=%23339511&origin=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fg%2Fa%2F2008%2F09%2F05%2Flessonplan.DTL" onmouseover="document.getElementById('emaillink').style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="document.getElementById('emaillink').style.textDecoration='none';"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/article/tools/mail.gif" alt=""/></a><a id="emaillink" href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/lessonplan.DTL&type=friend&emailcolor=%23339511&origin=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fg%2Fa%2F2008%2F09%2F05%2Flessonplan.DTL" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline';" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none';">E-mail</a></td> <td class="share"><div id="sharepop2mask" onmouseover="document.getElementById('sharepop2box').style.display='none'; 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Johnson. </div></div> <div class="item" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate5" style="display:none"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexd?blogid=7"><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/04_t/dd-spiderman29_p_0496871963_t.gif"></a> <div class="desc"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexd?blogid=7"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/featured_brands/120x25/dailydish.gif" alt="Today's Daily Dish"/></a> Don't criticize Kirsten; DNA tests call a Spade a dad. </div></div> <div class="item" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate6" style="display:none"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BAUR12OAJT.DTL"><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/04_t/ba-cabs_0499083426_t.gif"></a> <div class="desc"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BAUR12OAJT.DTL">Bless This Taxi</a> S.F. cabbies flock to St. Boniface Church for a blessing and a free bite to eat. </div></div> <div class="item" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate7" style="display:none"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BA9C12O21K.DTL&o="><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/09/03_t/ba-symph05_sd_0499079782_t.gif"></a> <div class="desc"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BA9C12O21K.DTL&o=">One Glitzy Gala</a> There are fab gowns aplenty at the S.F. 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And on the stage. </div></div> <div class="item" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate9" style="display:none"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/04/petscol.DTL"><img class="thumb" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/columns/thumbs/keith_christie.jpg"></a> <div class="desc"> <a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/04/petscol.DTL">Foreclosure Pets</a> People lose homes and often leave critters behind. Your Whole Pet. </div></div> </div> <form action="javascript:void();"> <input type="hidden" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate_idi" value="1"/> <input type="hidden" id="sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate_pi" value="False"/> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ new sfgrot(9,3,'sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate',0,3); sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate.jumpto = function (cur) { this.showid(cur); this.setshowing(cur); this.setnextprev(cur); } sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate.setshowingimg = function (cur) { for (i=1; i <= this.numels; i += this.jump) { this.dotenids[i-1].blur(); this.dotdisids[i-1].blur(); if (cur >= i && cur <= i) { this.dotenids[i-1].style.display = 'inline'; this.dotdisids[i-1].style.display = 'none'; } else { this.dotenids[i-1].style.display = 'none'; this.dotdisids[i-1].style.display = 'inline'; } } } sfg_edi011_inside_sfgate.setup_img = function () { this.dotenids = new Array(); this.dotdisids = new Array(); var lastTest = 0; for ( i = 1; i <= this.numels && lastTest == 0 ; i += this.jump ) { var elen = this.getDomXEl('_img_en'+i); 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} //]]> </script></div>  </div></div> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2">   <div id="topmost"> <div class="tabs"><a href="#" onclick="this.blur();switchid('topstories', 'most_commented');return false;"><img alt="" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/contentmodules/topmost/cre/most_commented_on.gif" name="most_commented" id="most_commented"/></a><a href="#" onclick="this.blur();switchid('mostread','most_read');return false;"><img alt="" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/contentmodules/topmost/cre/most_read_off.gif" name="most_read" id="most_read"/></a><a href="#" onclick="this.blur();switchid('mostemailed','most_emailed');return false;"><img alt="" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080905151101im_/http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/contentmodules/topmost/cre/most_emailed_off.gif" name="most_emailed" id="most_emailed"/></a></div> <div class="content"> <div id="topstories"><ol> <li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/MNG412NHUE.DTL" title="Palin comes out swinging">Palin comes out swinging</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/04/violetblue.DTL" title="Bend Over Onstage, Boyfriend Violet Blue observes that the "pegging" adult entertainment (and sex-ed) trend is on the rise">Bend Over Onstage, Boyfriend Violet Blue observes that the "pegging" adult...</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/03/politics/p165654D60.DTL" title="McCain and Obama campaigns grapple for 'change'">McCain and Obama campaigns grapple for 'change'</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/05/MNMN12OFDR.DTL" title="'Change is coming,' McCain tells conventions">'Change is coming,' McCain tells conventions</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/04/national/w134513D36.DTL" title="Palin switched colleges 6 times in 6 years">Palin switched colleges 6 times in 6 years</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BAF512NI07.DTL" title="Glen Park at tipping point on violent crime">Glen Park at tipping point on violent crime</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/BAP812NFPK.DTL" title="Hells Angels leader in S.F. shot dead in fight">Hells Angels leader in S.F. shot dead in fight</a></li> </ol></div> <div id="mostread" style="display:none"><ol> <li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/05/BA8J12OOQC.DTL" title="Five people shot in San Francisco">Five people shot in San Francisco</a></li><li><a href="/web/20080905151101/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/05/notes090508.DTL" title="Greetings from "the angry left" Hey, peeved hippie! 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