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As San Francisco teachers take to the picket lines, parents are scrambling to fill the gaps left by shuttered schools.
While educators say the walkout is necessary to secure better pay and classroom conditions, families are being forced into an immediate rewrite of daily life — balancing work, child care, and at-home lessons.
From cramped apartments to community centers to workplaces, education has gone makeshift.
During a press conference, SFUSD spokesperson Laura Dudnick said on the first day of the strike, the district distributed more than 2,600 independent instruction packets, the Department of Children, Youth and their Families provided meals to 2,350 youth, and 1,000 students took up childcare slots at city provided sites and after-school programs.
School in an SRO
An extremely tight living space for a family of four in Chinatown has been transformed into a quasi-classroom.
The single-room occupancy unit where Lucky Li and David Chen live with their two kids is adorned with dolls, photos, and stickers of cute characters. On Monday, desks were arrayed with workbooks as Li and Chen took on the role of tutors.
“We don’t want our children’s learning to be affected,” Li said in Mandarin. “If it’s only a day or two, we can manage. But children need to go to school, because many things can only be taught there.”
Lucky Li and David Chen tutor their daughters from their SRO residence in Chinatown. | Source: Han Li/The Standard
Their daughters, third grader Linda and first grader Lisa, are students at John Yehall Chin Elementary School and Jean Parker Elementary School, respectively. The kids were working on math and English homework and practicing writing Chinese characters.
Li said some neighboring families have sent their children to YMCA daytime programs, but she was unable to secure a spot.
At night, the four family members sleep in two bunk beds. During the day, the lower bed converts into a chair, with two foldable desks where the children study. Li is a stay-at-home mom, while Chen leaves for work in the late morning. They said other neighborhood children might stop by in the afternoon so the kids can play together.
“What are you two talking about?” Lisa asked her mother as Li discussed the strike with The Standard. “Of course, she doesn’t know what’s going on,” Li said.
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Parachutes in place of science
The after-school program for the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center is providing space for K-12 students at its off-site location in the Bayview.
The center is offering a mix of recreational and educational activities for as long as the strike continues. Ed Cheveres, director of youth services, said there were 20 students Monday, and he expects the number to grow if the strike continues.
The program focuses on “playing and learning” by linking Common Core standards to play-based activities or lessons.
For the younger students, a game with a giant parachute doubled as a science lesson on wind resistance and air flow.
See you at Stonestown
Two preteens sat snacking on Chipotle tacos and scrolling their phones outside the Peet’s at the Stonestown Galleria.
The 11- and 12-year-old had the day off from Denman and Aptos middle schools and had just arrived at the mall on an Actbest e-bike and a Hiboy electric scooter.
Parked barely 50 feet away was a San Francisco Police Department SUV; an officer said he’d seen more youths at the mall than usual.
Neither kid appeared bothered about the strike. But when shown an announcement from the district about the continued closure of schools Tuesday, the 12-year-old flinched slightly. “I hope it ends soon,” he said. “I kind of miss class.”
Turning after-school into school
Family Connections Centers, which provides after-school services for K-5 students, is offering an extended-care program for 56 currently enrolled youth at no additional cost at the 2565 San Bruno Ave. location in Portola Valley, according to lead teacher Susana Mariscal.
The site moved up its start time from 2 to 12:30 p.m. and hosted 10 students Monday.
For the kindergarten and first-grade students who participated Monday, staff provided snacks, lunch, enrichment activities, and support for those who brought schoolwork with them.
Kids hit the picket lines
Laila Oboyle and her daughter, center, join the picket line at Lakeshore Alternative Elementary. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard
Kids were in attendance on the picket lines at Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission. Armed with chalk, they drew colorful messages on the sidewalk featuring slogans like “Invest in the schools our students deserve” and “We can’t wait.”
At Gordon J. Lau Elementary School in Chinatown, a handful of students joined the picket line. Caleb Douville, a fourth grader, stood alongside his mother, an SFUSD educator.
“We’re out here protesting for teachers’ fair rights and fair pay,” he said. “I feel like I can contribute a lot to the protest by being the only kid here.”
Cody Tse, 16, a junior at Washington High School who graduated from Lau, said he planned to visit multiple locations throughout the day to support the strike.
“It’s really a group effort,” Tse said. “A lot of students have been going around telling classmates not to go to school even if schools open, just to support teachers, in spirit. If you go to school, it shows the higher-ups that schools can run without teachers, which they really can’t.”
Food for those in need
In preparation for the strike, city agencies opened a network of 40 food distribution sites across San Francisco, offering free breakfast and lunch.
At noon in Chinatown’s Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground, community groups were offering lunch bags for SFUSD families, but there were few people lined up. Each bag had a box of milk, an apple, sunflower seeds, carrots, bread, and beef jerky.
“Can I tell you the truth? I’m not very impressed by the food,” Yvette Dai said in Mandarin as she picked up a bag with her son, a student at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School. “I want more vegetables.”
Dai said she had to adjust her work schedule to take care of her son.
“I fully understand the teachers’ needs, but it also has a big impact on us,” she said.
At the Mission Language and Vocational School, the Latino Task Force was caring for about 70 kids from public schools across the district.
Yvette Dai looks through a bag of food given to her son as part of a free-lunch program for SFUSD families. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard
Shalom Bandi, the site health coordinator who is running the food distribution and child-care operation, said the district was supposed to provide lunch at 11 a.m. It arrived just after noon.
Jane Carter, who has a daughter in pre-K, swung by to grab a lunch around 11:45 but found that there were none. Latino Task Force employees provided her with a bag of snacks.
Bandi said she and her colleagues would distribute 100 bagged lunches, which include an apple, baby carrots, seeds, a beef stick, and a muffin. Each family can grab up to four baggies.
