School closing list gets mixed reaction
Hunters Point fights for Malcolm X; De Avila is resigned
- Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 11, 2005

One school borders decrepit Hunters Point public housing projects. The other sits near the stately homes lining Buena Vista Park in the Upper Haight.

One thing Malcolm X and De Avila elementary schools have in common, however, is the grim fate of being placed on a shortlist for closure by the San Francisco Unified School District to help bridge a $10 million budget gap for the coming academic year.

But, like the contrast between the real estate the two schools occupy, the differences between how the two school communities are reacting to their potential demise couldn't be more different.

One is desperately fighting for its life, while the other doesn't much care if it survives. And, perhaps surprisingly, it is the Hunters Point school -- surrounded by dangerous, run-down public housing in the middle of violent gang turf -- that has families, teachers and its principal rallying to stay open.

"These children are our children, and they want to take that away," said Gina Bissell, a first-grade teacher at Malcolm X Academy Elementary School who has worked there for 18 years. "This community has been hurt so much -- they don't need this."

In the Haight, it's a far different story. A teacher at De Avila Elementary, who refused to be identified, said most members of the staff have long been ready to throw in the towel, in part because dwindling resources have made it more and more difficult to reach what has become a more and more challenging student population.

"It's really bad, and we're all really hoping that it closes," the De Avila teacher said.