SFist Interview: Jane Kim

Name: Jane Kim

Introduce yourself in one sentence: I am passionate about developing youth voice and leadership, supporting the local arts and music scene, and making real, long-term change that benefits everyone.

Age and occupation: 27, Youth Programs Director

Home town: born in NYC

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and where: I have lived in the Bay Area for 9 years. I went to Stanford for 4 years and lived in SF ever since in the Sunset, Polk Gulch and Richmond districts.

Favorite dot com or local business: hmm… none really. Well, unless they sell good food! Look below to favorite restaurants for answer.

What I'm currently Reading: The Oral History of Hip Hop’s First Decade by Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn and Sexile (graphic novel) by Jamie Cortez

Favorite website: www.locusarts.org, www.janekim.org, www.manja.org

Best Deal in San Francisco: $2 Pints of Guiness at Kennedy’s Irish Pub and Curry House in North Beach. Plus they sell Indian food!

Favorite mode of transportation: MUNI, especially if I listening to my favorite MD mixes. I am deprived city kid, I never learned how to bike.

Best band or musician to come out of the Bay Area: Scrabble, The Skyflakes (www.theskyflakes.com), Quannam Collective (includes artists Lyrics Born, Blackalicious)

Favorite local hangout: Locus Arts, Bindlestiff, Intersection for the Arts

SF has the BEST: views

Favorite Bay Area politician of past or present: Matt Gonzalez and Jeff Adachi

SF would be soooo much better if only: we had a REAL summer(!!!!) and more parking.

Best restaurant: Café Mums in J-Town for “all you can eat shabu shabu” or PPQ’s in the Sunset for their curry chicken vermicelli

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview: “BEST SHOWS I have seen in SF” or “Top 5 albums”

You make very clear on your site that one of the chief issues facing the our schools is teacher retention. I know that as a working teacher you must be aware of the challenges teachers face, as well.

However, many qualified and passionate teachers we personally know are having a very difficult time finding jobs, as they go on endless interviews and never receive even a courtesy call back. How can it be that we have this shortage of teachers, yet good teachers can't even get in the door? Is this something you've witnessed?

Actually, there is a shortage of jobs for teachers, and learning support staff such as librarians, counselors, and teacher’s aides. This year, we laid off 46 learning support staff. In over 70 elementary schools, there are only 1.5 librarians.

In addition, there is a problem of teacher retention in our lowest performing schools. Many teachers transfer to other schools in the district or leave SF. I would like to advocate for paying bonuses to teachers that choose to stay at our lowest-performing schools. In addition, we also need to respect our teachers more. One of the largest complaints I hear from teachers is the lack of respect that they get from the District. They want more academic freedom in the classroom, more say in the hiring of principals, and more support (meaning we don’t lay off nurses, counselors and librarians because then they have to fill in those roles on top of teaching).

You also note the importance of nurturing creativity in our students. How do you propose to do this, given that funding for music, arts, and library activities seems to be dropping, and teachers in those subject areas are the first to be laid off?

A central part of my platform is increasing and establishing partnerships with schools and local community-based organizations to provide after-school programs, curriculums and expertise to SFUSD. CBO’s are an incredible resource in San Francisco and have expertise and existing curriculum and programs in the arts, mental health and counseling, anti-violence, leadership development that they can bring to schools, both after-school and into the classrooms.

As a youth service provider, I know the map of already funded youth resources in San Francisco and personally have relationships with many Executive Directors and youth workers to facilitate these partnerships between CBO’s and schools.

We need to create a better resource map for teachers, principles and staff on the internet and books distributed to schools with contacts, expertise of organization and what they could offer teachers and schools. Examples are also increasing and funding project-based learning arts classes, such as the one that Youth Map provides to Downtown High School, a filmmaking and media literacy class. In addition, we need to keep all schools open later and give students the option to stay. Various CBO’s could share sites on school to provide services and programs to these students.

We need to continue private fundraising for our schools. However, we also need to be advocating for more progressive taxes in San Francisco and California to bring in more funding for our schools district-wide. This includes split-rolling Proposition 13, which took out 1/3 of funding for our public schools in 1978.

In addition, locally, we should be advocating for more city funding for our schools and programs for youth. For example, the police department gets funding to do “anti-gang” workshops and work in schools. This money could be more appropriately assigned to youth service organizations and after-school programs that can really provide viable alternatives to youth. The money could also be used to hire more counselors in schools.

I am also currently serving on the Proposition H Community Advisory committee, appointed by the school board and Superintendent. I was asked due to my work experience in both the youth development and arts world, and knowledge of the resource map of arts organizations in the city that SFUSD could potentially partner with.

Party: Green

Challenger: 11 other candidates (but there are four spots!)

Number of terms served: 0

What do you see as the biggest issue in your district this election cycle? How to increase student retention in the school district, raise equity between schools and include community input in every decision making process.

What do you think makes you the most qualified candidate for the position? As the Youth Education Director at Chinatown Community Development Center, I educate students attending 11 San Francisco public high schools. I have developed nationally recognized after-school programs that have served hundreds of youth. During this time, I have developed relationships with countless families, schools, social service organizations and community groups. In my current work with SFUSD students, I visit different schools and am continually engaged in outreach to teachers, parents and the community. My experience as a youth service provider allows me to understand the challenges and priorities facing our students today.

I feel that we need a board that is actually representative of the communities that attend SFSUD – 91% of students in San Francisco public schools are students of color. It is primarily immigrant and low-income. I work in these communities and I come from a family of immigrants. I believe we need at least one voice on the school board who can bring that perspective. I don't feel that the current board is reflective or relevant or even always accountable to current San Francisco students and famlies.

I’ve been a community organizer since high school. The decision to run for school board was a difficult one because I love working directly in the community. However I’ve become convinced of the necessity of getting involved in electoral politics, especially on the local level.

Although many of us active in the community are politically conscious, many of my peers don’t see electoral politics as a means to make change. We need to change what it means to run for office, who runs for office and how campaigns are run in San Francisco.

My campaign is specifically recruiting young people, people of color, and women. We have many volunteers and leaders in the campaign that are between 18-30. We have had close to 200 volunteers come out for this campaign in the past month, mainly young people, the very demographic that is least likely to vote. Win or lose, we are trying to promote long-term progressive leadership in SF electoral politics and train different people to get involved in electoral politics.