visitacion valley middle school principal

Very diverse community that is willing to go above and beyond to support students and their families. 379 Winding Way, San Francisco, CA 94112 | Compass Visitacion Valley Elementary School - San Francisco, California - CA Listed by Gaye Harrison DRE #01319223 World Premier Realty Redfin checked: just now (Mar 2, 2023 at 11:15pm) Source: BAREIS #422707922 Home Facts Status Active One teacher, Mary Chirichella added, Some teachers had the courage to approach others to have tough conversations about microaggressions. . Having served the past two years as Assistant Principal, VVMS is a community that I love and care for. White Supremacy Culture is the silent killer flowing throughout classrooms and school hallways, like carbon monoxide gas. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of education and student behavior in his school. Visitacion Valley Middle School | LinkedIn The middle school years are critical times of development for students and families, and I look forward to working with all of you to ensure our school helps students feel a sense of belonging and joy, as well as prepares them for high school, college, and beyond. Then, Dierke struck a bell and said, Okay, its quiet time.. Please read our Welcome Back letter. Get Well's Running email for practical tips, expert advice, exclusive content and a bit of motivation delivered to your inbox every week to help you on your running journey. This took the form of discussions, watching short video clips, annotating readings, and doing some deep personal introspection. Dont just throw it into 2,000 schools, he says. It is time that we detox and make the invisible visible. Young people are incredibly stressed, says Michael Matania who teaches mindfulness meditation to young people in London through a programme called Mindkit. As a leader, it is easy to hoard power, claim objectivity in decision making, or believe that there is only one way to fix education. But to start, we must go inward. With respect to race, the foundational issue is White Supremacy Culture, and we must attack the problem head on. Anecdotally, favorable feedback poured in from both students and staff members. With after-school programs at both Visitacion Valley Middle School and El Dorado Elementary School, R.O.C.K. We might get verbal disagreements, but the kids are able to talk through it and move on instead of punching each other, says ODriscoll, adding that the last fist fight at the school was three years ago. Visitacion Valley Middle School - Public School Review Now, When I first heard about it I thought it probably wasnt going to work, says ODriscoll. Every day before class, Visitacion Valley Middle School students pass an informal memorial known as the "R.I.P. As a leader, it is easy to hoard power, claim objectivity in decisionmaking, or believe that there is only one way to fix education. Here are two pitfalls to avoid. All school events, including athletic events, will be posted in this calendar. Due to stereotype threat, this is especially problematic when students of color are a numerical minority in a classroom or school. For instance, we might see folks making eye contact, leaning into conversations about racial identity, and asking probing questions. This prompts staff to reflect and ultimately declare, I want to be an anti-racist teacher, but I dont exactly know how. This has the power to unite folks at the foundational level, setting the stage for deeper commitments to learning new strategies, practices, and routines. For example, we looked at how our implicit bias when responding to student behavior leads to racially disproportionate discipline incidents and we organically identified restorative practices as a focus for the following year. Contact - Valley Middle School of STEM - District 196 This organizational structure reflects a "school-within-a-school" concept and is designed to help students make a successful transition from the self-contained elementary classroom to the fully departmentalized, comprehensive high school setting. 420 Harkness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134 | MLS #422713413 | Zillow By Owner New Construction These properties are currently listed for sale. Students, families, and school staff can email requests to sflink@sfusd.edu,call 415-340-1716(M-F, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m., closed from 12 to 1 p.m. every day), or complete an online request form. 379 Winding Way, San Francisco, CA 94112 is a single family home listed for sale at $1,280,000. One does not have to be a white supremacist to hold these beliefs, because we have all been conditioned through exposure to media, parenting, schooling, and our interactions with power structures. Visitacion Valley Elementary School parents call for removal of An assistant principal suggested the idea for quiet time after she saw Hollywood director David Lynch speak about the program and the accompanying benefits of transcendental meditation. Now that the shock of reading these words has worn off, let's explore what it is and why we need to dedicate more time to exploring its dehumanizing effect in our schools. The school has something to offer everyone, from new programs of study and a variety of clubs to join. Nearby Public Schools The nearest high school to Visitacion Valley Middle School is Burton (Phillip And Sala) Academic High School(0.6 miles away) The nearest middle school is Bayshore(0.6 miles away) Principal & interest $1,163. One of San Francisco's toughest schools transformed by the power of If I can be vulnerable and honest, white educators can and must do the same. Our school commits to delivering high quality educational program that addresses individual needs. What Happened When My School Started to Dismantle White Supremacy Culture, The Standing Up for Racial Justice coalition, http://culturallyresponsiveleadership.com/. At Visitacion Valley Middle School (VVMS), in the San Francisco Unified school district, our brave staff spent a majority of the 2018-19 school year unpacking White Supremacy Culture (WSC). A restless din filled the large room. The social-emotional learning of students in grades 4-12 is also assessed. This school used to be known as the fight school, he said. He partnered with the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education to develop a Quiet Time Program for his school. $93. When the bells sound twice a day at Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco, students who used to be too rowdy to even sit still close their eyes and spend 15 minutes clearing their minds. Principals Page / Principal Bio - Seneca Valley School District Once white fragility is defined and debriefed amongst a team, we can begin to talk about racism, anti-racism, and White Supremacy Culture. Nearby schools include Cleveland Elementary School, Visitacion Valley Middle School and Jordan (June) School For Equity. Thats amazing for an urban middle school, he said. Visitacion Valley Middle School - Public School Review Visitacion Valley still struggles with significant challenges. It has 358 students in grades 6-8 with a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. Meditation, which is taught as part of the program, or engage in other quiet activities like silent reading. Nearly 90 percent of Visitacion Valleys students are classified by the district as socioeconomically disadvantaged and more than 40 percent are English Language Learners. Quiet Time is just like an umbrella. Visitacion Valley Middle - School Directory Details (CA Dept of Education) When Dierke took the helm of Visitacion Valley in 1999, it was the lowest-performing of San Francisco's 18 public middle schools on the state's Academic Performance Index; now the school ranks 10th. The work to address racism in schools has been called cultural competency, diversity training, and equity. provides quality after-school programming to children in the area. Mr. Dierke wondered whether meditation might reduce students stress levels and help them learn. and our Visitacion Valley Middle School Spark Program site. Distance: 1.7 mi. Visitacion Valley Middle School Informacin detallada del sitio web y la empresa: cd77petanque.com Comit de seine et marne de ptanque $1,150,000 Last Sold Price. Most of the students seemed disinterested in Dierkes announcements about the springs impending graduation, upcoming field trips, and recent birthdays. ODriscoll also says that leadership buy-in is essential for the programme to work as there needs to be support in terms of time and resourcing. White Supremacy Culture. And our teacher turnover and absenteeism is almost zero.. One seventh grader at Visitacion Valley said, I used to be really fidgety, couldnt stay in my seat for very long. Down Payment . Discussing WSC gave us more impetus to make changes, because we now knew what was happening if we refused: microaggressions, dehumanization, widening the opportunity gap, and producing disproportionate outcomes. For students of color, characteristics of White Supremacy Culture similar to microaggressions hijack the amygdala. Before becoming the Assistant Principal at VVMS, I served as an Assistant Principal at two different elementary schools in Richmond, CA. 132 Britton St, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134 - Redfin The second pitfall I will offer is avoiding the tendency to externalize the work of dismantling White Supremacy Culture. Visitacion Valley Middle School, Public District Grades 6-8; Revere (Paul) Elementary School, Public District Grades KG-8; . School communities gather twice a year to review data and previous actions in order to intentionally plan for the coming months. They are owned by a bank or a lender who took ownership through foreclosure proceedings. School Profile: Visitacion Valley Middle (CA Dept of Education) To do it properly Visitacion Valley middle school made the day 30 minutes longer. Use the arrows to change between different dates on the calendar. Property Taxes. 2. The work of exploring White Supremacy Culture gave our staff a new framework to define our North Star, being an anti-racist school. We might also see students connecting their identities to their learning and applying it back to their communities to manifest social justice. We are the operators of some piece of the education machine, and therefore, if we change our actions, we can change the larger system. We should be planning for the righteous rage of IBPOC (Indigenous Black People of Color), but 82 percent of our teaching force is white, so we will also plan for white fragility. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me for anything (. 375. Service Learning This week's important updates are available! With the help of the David Lynch Foundation and the San Francisco-based Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE), Visitacion Valley trained teachers on how to conduct Quiet Time sessions in their class. You can see past weeks' newsletters as well. Specifically, this pushed on us to think about and change how we work together: We worked to create norms that encourage people of color and women to contribute, we shifted the relationship between teachers and administration so that teachers had more input in budget and hiring decisions, and finally, we adjusted the pace of our professional-development plans to emphasize quality over quantity. Letter from the Principal | SFUSD Visitacion Valley Middle is a public school located in San Francisco, CA, which is in a large city setting. Its much cheaper to focus on prevention and building resilience, and mindfulness is the single best tool that you could possibly give them., As for Visitacion Valley middle school, the area around it is still violent, but now the children are not as affected by it. Teacher Phil Yordy, left, works with freshman Derek Shallow, 15, right, during an after school mentoring program at Oregon High School in Oregon, Ill., in February. Visitacion Valley Middle School - find test scores, ratings, reviews, and 36 nearby homes for sale at realtor.com. The entire schoolfaculty, staff, and studentsspend the first and last 15 minutes of every day in silence. But this messy middle is precisely when we need to stay curious, be vulnerable, and innovative. Over the next three years, Visitacion Valleys suspensions dropped by 79 percent, attendance rose to 98 percent, It is invisible and it is toxic. Once white fragility is defined and debriefed amongst a team, we can begin to talk about racism, anti-racism, and White Supremacy Culture. We can have equity missions plastered on walls and front that we are about closing the opportunity gap, but we don't go deeper than diversity trainings. A lot has changed over this period, including three principals coming and going, but ODriscoll puts the turnaround down to the one constant: the calming influence of the meditation programme. This is a 4-bed, 3-bath, 1,597 sqft property. I like to think of myself as a recovering perpetrator of WSC. In my dream, I imagine that Culturally Responsive Teaching, restorative practices, and deeper learning are all alive in classrooms across the United States. It is time that we detox and make the invisible visible. In my spare time, I enjoy camping and traveling. Why shouldnt all our students have access He blogs at culturallyresponsiveleadership.com and is a racial equity leadership coach. Theres an App for That. 336 Wilde Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134 | MLS #423724059 | Zillow What Happened When My School Started to Dismantle White Supremacy Culture, The Standing Up for Racial Justice coalition. Apply for Educational Benefits for the 2022-23 school year . Select Week, Month, or Agenda to see different views of the calendar. San Francisco Superintendent Carlos Garcia told Dierke's students Friday that their principal was chosen from among the thousands of middle school principals across the country. Our teachers use Community Building and Restorative Practices. The student population of Visitacion Valley Middle is 358 and the school serves. When they started everyone said it would be impossible to get 12-year-olds to sit for even a minute, but through transcendental meditation (TM) they proved critics wrong. Just as long as they are quiet. Visitors are always amazed, Dierke said afterwards, but it works. In Violent Neighborhood, 15 Minutes of Meditation Calms Students Please refer to legal details concerning copyright and trademark protection. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of education and. This can create power struggles, a learning opportunity gap, and as the scholar Monique Morris writes, students being pushed out of schools. As for getting the children to start meditating, ODriscoll says the biggest hurdle was getting them to feel comfortable with their eyes closed. At VVMS, we were able to get past defensiveness and excuses and get to the heart of the matter. An all-party parliamentary group has also recommended the Department for Education designate three schools to pioneer mindfulness teaching, and set up a 1m fund to allow more schools to benefit from support in the practice. Visitacion Valley Middle School prides itself in its active role in the community by welcoming parents, families, and community partners to participate on all levels of creating a culturally responsive 21st Century Middle School. Rice says they use TM because it takes those who do it to a deep level of relaxation, and its easy for children to learn. School attendance zone boundaries are provided by a third party and are subject to change. Visitacion Valley Elementary School - San Francisco, CA This content is provided by our sponsor. They simultaneously tell us that we are not good enough and keep us to the bottom rungs of racial hierarchy if we do not assimilate. As for getting the children to start. Consequently, "all other cognitive functions such as learning, problem solving, or creative thinking stop," (Hammond, 2015) activating our fight, flight, or freeze response. This is because we are starting with the branches of the tree instead of the roots. Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org I think of my mantra, and it helps me calm down., Bob Roth, Executive Director for the David Lynch Foundation, said meditation is not just a way for students to relax but has real cognitive benefits. Our attendance is trending up significantly We used to have one of the highest suspension rates, now we have one of the lowest among all middle schools. We are the operators of some piece of the education machine, and therefore, if we change our actions, we can change the larger system. were the happiest in the whole of San Francisco, to more schools in the city introducing the programme, Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education, recommended the Department for Education designate three schools to pioneer mindfulness teaching, international lessons in education series. This listing's school district is San Francisco Unified School District. There was a time when Visitacion Valley middle school in San Francisco could have featured in a gritty US crime drama. It serves 358 studentsin 6 - 8 with a student/teacher ratio of 14.3:1.Its teachers have had 79 projects funded on DonorsChoose. As a result, staff were curious to take action to be anti-racist and promote a learning community that did the same. Sometimes the whole school meets to meditate in assemblies. It really is quiet time.. and students grade point averages rose each year. We must name, define, and plan for white fragility, the defensive response by whites when discussing racism. Please refer to legal details concerning copyright and trademark protection. Property Taxes. Visitacion Valley Middle School is part of San Francisco Unified School District. increased attendance and increased academic performance. visitacion valley middle School students 14The QuieT Time Program DaviD Lynch FounDaTion 1 5 7. Teachers. By Kyle Palmer On a recent morning at Visitacion Valley Middle School in South San Francisco, Principal James Dierke looked out over the school's auditorium at more than 100 eighth graders. Even I, a black educator who has studied ethnic studies and critical race theory, still perpetuate tenets of White Supremacy Culture. School: Visitacion Valley Middle: District: San Francisco Unified (District Profile) County: San Francisco: Address: 1971 Visitacion Ave. San Francisco 94134-2700: Phone (415) 469-4590: Web site* CDS Code: 38 68478 6059919: School Type: Intermediate/Middle Schools (Public) Charter School: No: Principal/Administrator: Courtney Harris, Principal . Racial-equity leaders must be both intentional and responsive when doing this anti-racist work. 325 Harkness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134 - Redfin That kind of stuff makes it hard to focus on algebra, he said. She is a frequent guest on KQED's "Newroom" television show and "Forum" radio show. We must name, define, and plan for white fragility, the defensive response by whites when discussing racism. . Muni Routes to City Schools | SFMTA It's important to note that these responses work to maintain current consciousness and white supremacy. This work has gotten co-opted and watered down, leading to many people talking the talk, without much walk. . I saw this personally at VVMS, as situations got awkward, uncomfortable, and uncertain. A major factor preventing underserved children from learning is the stress they encounter on a daily basis from factors like poverty, deprivation, lack of steady parental input, physical danger and constant Entire contents copyright 2023 Maharishi Foundation USA, a non-profit educational organization.