If our demographic oracles are correct, hardly any of you have children. But for those who do, and whose kids go to public school and might need a little extra help, listen up: The SF School Board is voting at its regular meeting tonight whether or not to cut all summer school programs except those for high school seniors who need to fulfill a few last requirements to graduate. They've got a $113 million budget problem to deal with, and summer school's going to be the first to get cut (besides, like, arts education and theater and all that we hold dear). This is bad news for some parents, but excellent news for most kids, we suspect. The agenda is here and the meeting's at 6 p.m. at 555 Franklin Street. more ›

After a weary battle to permanently remove Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) from San Francisco schools, the school board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to reinstate the program. If you recall, the army training service was supposed to be phased out in less than a month at all SF public schools. Many argued that the 90-year-old military recruiting program shouldn't be allowed in public schools. "The kind of leadership it teaches is classic military leadership ... It's intended for war, not for civilian life," said Michael Wong, who graduated from Galileo High as a first Lt. in the JROTC. Getting rid of JROTC would have made San Francisco the country's only school district to ban the program based on political bias. more ›

Students at Encinal High School walked out of their classrooms today in response to proposed budget cuts. Last night the school board held a tense meeting that went well into the wee hours of the morning, voting to increase class sizes by cutting advanced placement classes, most high school sports, music in the elementary schools, and counselors in the middle schools, reports NBC 11. Students walked out today, marching straight over to the school district's headquarters. They carried signs reading "No Us No Future," "No Sports No School" and "You're Tearing Down Our Future." According to the high school principal: more ›

In response to allegations by deceased Stanford engineering grad student May Zhou's father earlier this week that his daughter's death was a homicide and not self-inflicted, the Santa Rosa police released additional information from their investigation. Namely, they said they have videotape and receipts of her buying four bottles of sleeping pills from local drugstores in two days, and they have an email she sent to her younger sister a few days before she disappeared that reads like a suicide note. Three of the bottles were found in the trunk along with her body. more ›

Well, just to follow up on yesterday's day of violence, we can't find anything about the late-afternoon incident on Ellis Street that a couple of you guys saw, but there was another shooting around 11:50 p.m. in Visitacion Valley. That one was fatal. (The Examiner also has a list of other recent daytime shootings in SF, if you're interested.) more ›

--Michael Moore loves Gavin Newsom. more ›

--Ha! The guy to your right ran for mayor of Barcelona, and doesn't he look like Matt Gonzalez? By copatbark from the SFist Flickr stream. more ›

Lotta activity on Capp Street lately: not only was a man caught beating and trying to strangle a woman around 15th and Capp, but a few weeks earlier, the SFFD found a pot farm on fire two blocks down, in the same building as the Space 180/Locus Arts gallery (where Kim-Shree Maufas and Jane Kim had their school board election party.) more ›

-In a poll, local residents say their biggest pet peeve is traffic. -San Francisco school board wants to go small. more ›

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So the blog LA Observed ran a caption contest for the picture you see at your left, of Paris Hilton with their mayor-about-town Antonio Villaraigosa. more ›

-Republicans whine that Pelosi isn't being very nice to them. That sound you hear is the playing of the world's smallest violin. more ›

Good news! San Francisco school board vice president Norman Yee is recovering nicely after being hit by a car the day after Christmas. The accident shattered his spine and crushed an artery in his neck. more ›

San Francisco school board president Norman Yee remains in intensive care after being hit by a car on 4th and Bryant the day after Christmas. However, he's in stable condition after undergoing two spinal surgeries, and in a statement (.pdf) released by the school district, he says he intends to stay on the board and resume attending meetings as soon as he's physically able. more ›

While most of the 2006 elections are over, there's still a bit of a contention coming from, where else, Florida. In the Sarasota congressional race, a recount was held and 18,000 under votes were discovered. That meant those people voted for everything else but not for congress. This drew alarm bells from people because the percentage of under votes was higher than anywhere else. And, you'd have to figure that the one race people would vote on would be for congress instead of the school board or bond measures or a Sarasota style Question Time. Voters also complained that the machines garbled everything up and they never got a chance to vote. more ›

An event will be held today in yet another effort to Free Josh Wolf. Wolf, of course, is the video blogger/journalist being held in jail for contempt of court for not releasing the hottest video out there that doesn't involve a celebrity having sex with somebody else. And thank God for that but we'd love to see the alleged video of Britney and K-Fed playing chess. more ›

Because we've started the column "Who's Attacking Newsom Now!", we figure it's only right to start the counterpoint column next: Who's Defending Newsom Now!. So who's Mayor McDreamy got on his side? (beside these young ladies in the picture above, that is!): more ›

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--Children meet cows. more ›

-Berkeley joins in on the Stadium fun. -Dems already start in with in-fighting: Pelosi backs John Murtha over Steny Hoyer. What kind of name is Steny anyways? more ›

SFPD not surprised that a member was off doing kiddy sex junkets in Asia as they sort of knew it for years. -Caltrain board approves plan for Wi-FI on Caltrains. Thousands of commuters jump for joy. more ›

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-Three fires raged in Rockridge last night and police think it's all due to arson. What the hell is going on in Oakland these days? -Former HP head honcho, CEO Carly Fiorina, can't understand why she was fired and replaced by a bunch of people who just got indicted. We would imagine that would kind of hurt, but we're also pretty sure all the millions she got as a buy out would probably ease some of that pain. more ›

Next up in our SF school board candidates interview series -- Mr. Omar Khalif! Omar's got a MySpace page, and he's a Scorpio. Khalif's also been endorsed by Gavin Newsom, and is running on a platform promoting neighborhood schools in the Bayview-Hunters Point, and charter schools. more ›

We here in the Bay Area may not agree on many things, but the one thing we do agree on is that MUNI sucks. Hell, even the Mayor realized this as he went all Grampa Simpson on us and whined about it. Whether it's litter or bad drivers or super-crowded busses, the week was nothing but one big huge MUNI kvetch. more ›

And the second in our school board interviews -- Kim Knox! Knox is currently a member of the local SF Green Party County Council, and blogs with Robert Haaland and Sasha Magee at Left in SF. more ›

Did you know there's fifteen people running for three seats on the school board this election cycle? That's almost like a District 5 election! more ›

--We missed this yesterday, but it's still awesome. Who's put security cameras in Chris Daly's office? more ›

--Chemo the cancer dog was returned! As was Dixie, the other stolen dog of a sick child. more ›

You know, we're kind of getting into the week-long series that the Chron's doing on the San Francisco school system. It's a comprehensive look at all the various factors affecting the perception of our local schools: segregation controversies; why people flee to the East Bay once their kids hit school age; how the school system is actually doing much better than everyone thinks it is; and how the lottery actually works. Tomorrow they're discussing private schools in the area, and then funding, and then (what we're definitely looking forward to), "the politics." Switchblades out, school board! (hey, whatever happened to Heather Hiles, anyways?) more ›