535 San Francisco Unified School District teachers will receive layoff notices this morning due to state cuts in education funding. Today's pink slip handouts stem from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget '09, which will see San Francisco schools losing around $40 million. According to CBS 5, Mayor Newsom is doing what he can, even if it's a Band-Aid solution to a longterm problem. Mayor Gavin Newsom has said he plans to ask the Board of......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond says the Navy is the gayest armed services branch. Well, sure. Cars are worse than homeless people, says a letter writer. Halloween will suuuuuck. A former director of Intersection for the Arts died in a car crash. The new crackdown on homelessness, and why aren't people more upset? Cover article: Our pals at SwapSF make the cover! About the whole freetail trend! Yay SwapSF! (and other freegans!)......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly! Letters from people who say they are not in a cult. An article about former SFist editor Eve Batey's promotion at the Chron! Go Eve! Also, they called us a "sassy" local blog. We loved Sassy! Cover article: A guy who makes money suing small businesses under the ADA. A review of the Kiki & Herb show. The Simpsons movie is okay. Meredith didn't much like her North Beach......

The problems with Oakland's University Preparatory Charter Academy (or "Uprep") are mounting, with an anonymous teacher leaking papers to the Chron today that indicated possible grade-changing on official transcripts sent with college application papers. For instance, the teacher gave one student Fs and Ds on his/her work, the report card that went home had Ds and Cs, and the transcript that went to the colleges showed only As and Bs. Teachers also noticed that the......

According to a press release put out on PR Newswire by her attorney, Dr. Arlene Ackerman has filed suit against the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco Superior Court....

Well, some pretty good news for teachers in Ravenswood City School District: their union has managed to get them a little more scratch. ...

-Thanks for coming, Queen Mary 2. -Santa Clara City Council is expected to vote for a study, just a study, on a new stadium for the Niners. ...

-The San Francisco Unified School District is still trying to figure out what to do -Here's a really sad story about a funeral director who's presided over forty funerals this year -In the BALCO case, the Chron argued in papers filed with a Federal Appeals Court that protecting confidential sources is essential for the public interest. -Somebody on Death Row in San Quentin commited suicide -Fog City Journal says watch out for this dude. -Pelosi......

-Veterans Day celebrated with parades and a memorial featuring boots. -Scientists head up to the Sierras to try and track Global Warming. ...

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian: Mocking Dede Wilsey and Newsom about the DeYoung parking situation. The Guardian gets distracted from its single-minded focus on Village Voice LLC to decry MediaNews's purchase of the San Jose Merc News. Letter from a Peoples Temple survivor asking for further investigations into a CIA conspiracy. Hipsters worry that they're accidentally causing gentrification in Oakland. Sonic Reducer reviews an album of songs sung by actors. You know, we may have to download the version of Ewan McGregor singing Sade (or Jennifer Garner singing a show tune. It's totally awesome to work out to!!!!!.) A review of the Flipper reunion show from April 8. It took them a month to get that up? New brunch place in Noe Valley, Shanghai soup dumplings in the Sunset. Cover: Daniel Clowes. And SFist Eve's horoscope: be more confrontational. Watch out, crazy commenters! The SF Weekly: Nate Cavallieri, ex-Weekly writer, won a journalism award for his cover article about a guy who works with gang members. Congratulations, Nate! Matt Smith on Chris Daly, Mission Housing, and someone saying that Daly speaks with a "forked tongue" -- outraged Matt Smith spittle flying everywhere! N.B.: Matt Smith reports that Chris Daly has adopted a policy of "not speaking to me." Gay cop sues. Orphan pigeon rescue. Cover article: why won't the SF Unified School District back smaller schools? Meredith goes BBQ, while SFist Ced roasts some ribs of his own! And Savage Love: do any fetishists want to buy a letter-writer's breast milk? Direct all responses to Dan Savage, not us. The EBX's Best Of issue, and the Metro -- after the jump....

When the Mayor's Office of Communications announced that the city was going to start offering podcasts of meetings, we were all, "AWESOME!" and then we were all, "wait ... where are they?" It takes some probing of the SF Gov TV website to find them, but fear not, citizens, the podcasts are there. Yay! If it's the Board of Supes you're looking to subscribe to, you've got to navigate through "Video on Demand" (even if......

Mike from Potrero Hill SF writes to let us know that the educational is getting personal for their community, as one of the schools in Potrero Hill, Daniel Webster Elementary, has been slated for possible closure by the beleaguered SF Unified School District. They've started a blog, called Save Webster, with information about the school's status and tips on how you can help (for example, you could buy a baby t from cafepress, or write a letter to the school board). Webster was previously considered a troubled school, with low attendance and low test scores, but the influx of committed parents in the area, along with a new principal who's pledged to improve performance and increase school integration, are hoping they can sway the board to spare the school. Other neighborhoods are banding together too -- Left in SF reports that District 5 is rallying to save its schools as well, and the SFUSD is in the middle of holding four meetings throughout the city for community groups to speak their piece. The school board will vote on Jan. 12 about which schools to close (if any). Adorable montage of children from PotreroHillSF's flickr...

Give Gavin Newsom a shiny red apple! In an interview with this month's San Francisco Magazine (in blatant disregard of another interview with the Gavman in 7x7, which was optimistically labeled "exclusive"), the mayor told the reporter, "You know, five years in a row I have increased test scores. No. 1 urban school district in the state of California." As the wags at the Chron have pointed out, was Gavin sneaking into classrooms to go over the times-7 tables when no one was looking? And how exactly was he increasing test scores in those first three years when he was serving on the Board of Supes? Folks at the SF Unified School District (which runs the schools and is independent of City Hall) are all agiggle over the statement, with the president of the teacher's union saying, "I'm glad that he wants to take credit for the work that the teachers and paraprofessionals (classroom aides) have done," and saying that they'll be sure to charge Newsom union dues next year. Superintendant Arlene Ackerman, who really was running the schools, said the comment seemed strange. And in any event, Eric Mar on the school board says that Newsom shouldn't be bragging about the schools in any event, given that Latino and African-American kids seem to be falling behind, and the trend of resegregation within the district. To be fair, everyone in the district did say that Newsom really has done a lot for the schools since taking office, and the test scores in SF are rising steadily -- in fact, the SF average score is now 745 (with 800 considered excellent), outscoring LA (649), Sacto (688), and San Diego (726). Still, though -- we totally want to be in Mr. Newsom's homeroom class! Okay, the picture has nothing to do with schools, but look at Gavin with Mario! We found the picture on a blog....

Members of SEIU Local 790 employed by the San Francisco Unified School District plan to announce their strike as early as Wednesday. We confirmed information posted on Indybay with a representative from the union yesterday. According to the Chronicle, the strike will not be legal under state law until ten days after a recommendation from a fact-finding panel is issued and considered by both the union and the district, which at the earliest would......

Amazing what a difference two days makes, huh? After the unions triumphed in their combined opposition to Arnold's Very Special Election -- well, would you look at that? Sutter is settling with the healthcare workers and the state's decided not to try and increase nurse-to-patient ratios after all. To the victors go the spoils! (And here's Arnold: "Oh, if I could go back in time like the Terminator, I would have listened to Maria and not had this election in the first place." He has got to cut it out with these lame references to his movies and the Kennedy family.) Emboldened by Nov. 8? Or maybe just sick and tired of being sick and tired? Well, the San Francisco Unified School District has called for a strike vote next. Even that offer from Arlene Ackerman to resign if they'd agree to settle didn't sweeten the pot enough for them? That must be some baaaaad contract they got. ...

Good morning, class! Today's the first day of the school year for the San Francisco public schools. Mmmm, smell the chalk in the air! Test scores are up, Ackerman's raise was approved by a trial court, things are good over at the SFUSD. One problem, though -- some union workers are staging a one-day sickout over their labor negotiations for raises. The school district wouldn't say how many people were out today, but volunteers will be staffing the principal's office at Malcolm X Elementary and there may not be hot lunches today if enough people are out (though the schools will give out sandwiches). This is not an officially union-sanctioned action, though the union is taking the position that if people are sick, they're sick. Also in honor of today, the Chron's got an article that follows three kids who went to the same preschool, didn't do so well in the school lottery system, and are now at three different elementary schools -- a public school teacher who's sending her child to an expensive private school, the Protestant family who's enrolled at a Catholic school after they decided the public school wasn't working for their child, and one who's thrilled with their public school despite its middling-level test scores. The article's fascinating -- we hope the Chron keeps following these kids throughout the year. How'd you take the first day of school as a kid? What's your thoughts about the SFUSD? Share with the class! ...

So Matt Gonzalez's new law firm has sued the San Francisco School District for approving Superintendant Arlene Ackerman's "platinum parachute" contract without proper notice. This post isn't really about that (and SFist will probably be covering this more in depth later), but please make a note of this for background. The lead plaintiff in the case is a recently graduated high school senior named Alan Wong. Wong serves on the school board's Student Advisory Counsel, which makes recommendations on what it thinks the school should be doing. The counsel tried to bring up the contract issue with Ackerman, but were rebuffed. So Wong went to the board meeting last week, and gave a fiery speech about how the school district is a "totalitarian state." (Whaddya want, he's 18 years old!) Wong gets a standing ovation from the crowd. In the middle of the applauding, Wong says that school board commissioner Dr. Dan Kelly (an Ackerman supporter) leans over, and whispers to him, "You're an egotistical idiot and that was the stupidest speech I've ever heard." When asked for comment, Kelly responded, "um.... those comments weren't supposed to be public, and I was misquoted." Oh, that's awesome, a 50-something guy (who spent two years in jail for resisting the Vietnam War) bullying a high school senior. Why don't you just give Wong a wedgie and hang him up by his underwear in his locker next too, Dr. Kelly? ...

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: the "winner" for the female synonym for cock-block is "clitoris-no-more-us." SFist Jackson's snatch-latch was so much better! Matt Smith hates the Chron (Laguna Honda overrun edition). Cover article: Roller derby girls. Meredith Brody goes back to the Ferry Building, and the vegan also goes to Cafe Gratitude. Music: Sleater-Kinney, one week late. And Savage Love: politics. The Bay Guardian: Dude, you gotta check out the letters! dreamy Matt Gonzalez on his commitment to gay rights, the phrase "punk Chris Daly school-yard bullies," and high dudgeon at the SF School District! Plus: editorial by the original punk school-yard bully himself, on homelessness! And a dude in Berkeley almost-just-quite managed to squat his way to full-out home ownership! Man, what have we done this week? Nothing. Also, there's lead-tainted candy in the Mission. Annalee Newitz loves Vader, J-town hates Starbucks. Cover article: Mission Creek Music/Arts Fest! Chocolate in the East Bay and the pick of the week after the jump....

Jefferson Elementary in West Berkeley will get a chance to choose between keeping the original name, which honors the third president of the United States, or changing it to that of an American Indian scholar, Sequoia. At issue is Thomas Jefferson's ownership of slaves, which is a decidedly touchy subject in a district with a large african-american population. The issue was brought to the school's attention by parents and community activists. In an uncredited......

There were elections yesterday? We had no idea! Well, we don't live in Marin, Contra Costa, Sonoma, or San Mateo County, but apparently pretty much everyone loves to Save The Music (That ad with the little kids disappearing from the school band -- hits ya right there). And CoCo's Acalanes Union School District managed to convince voters to fund up a seventh period of classes for AP and honors-track students. 'Cause nothing says fun like Calculus BC at 4 p.m.! However, voters in Ross decided to keep letting their school's roofs leak, Milpitas wants to have extra-crowded kindergarten classes, and Belmont is no longer funding their shuttle bus service. In other sort-of local election news, Doris Matsui, widow of Robert Matsui, was overwhelmingly elected (with 71% of the vote!) to her late husband's House of Representatives seat. She's the 46th widow to be elected to finish a husband's Congressional term. (Don't think any husbands have yet to be elected to finish out their wives', though don't think Bill Clinton's not thinking about it!). Picture by John Moore from the AP, off the State Department website...

Valentine's Day is upon us, which means it's time to separate the lovers from the haters. Are those tiny red hearts shooting from your eyes, or little sharpened daggers? It's no matter, SFist promises to love you either way. Here are our picks for the this week's bay area music offerings. If you're aware that umlauts are the universal symbol for rock, you might already have your tickets for Thursday night's Queensrÿche show at......

We just received a press release from the Northern California chapter of the ACLU via our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Seems Brittan School District of Sutter, California (about an hour north of Sacramento) has started requiring that their students wear identity badges prominently around their neck at all times during the school day. The new badges are also enabled with a Radio Frequency Identifier Device, or RFID chip, so that the children's......

The SF School District wants to improve, and it wants your opinions. Go give 'em a piece of your mind this week at meetings around the city....