It has been a gratifying thirty-eight year career-journey to this position.
I am where I am today because of the public school education I received in
the San Francisco Unified School District. I was born in San Francisco’s
Chinatown. I did not speak English when I first started elementary school.
My father and mother were immigrants who came to the United States in 1921
and 1931 respectively. Like many immigrants they worked to provide for their
family in a difficult time in the US. It was also at a time when there was
much discrimination against Chinese immigrants.
It was my parents who instilled
in me the values of an education, the need to make sacrifices, and to work
hard to achieve success. They taught me to get along with people regardless
of race, background, or job status. Because of inspiring teachers, I decided
early on in Junior High School that I would some day be a teacher. Along the
way former principals and superintendents encouraged me to serve in higher
administrative positions. The only disappointment to me was that each step
took me further from the classroom. I am very proud of the accomplishments
of many of my former students, including many who have decided to go into the
field of education.
I have made it a point as I have started in my first two
weeks in this new position to visit schools. In the first ten days I visited
fifteen schools across the city to recognize administrators, teachers, and
support staff and to express my appreciation for their commitment to our students.
There truly is much good teaching and learning going on in our schools. I hope
to provide hands-on leadership by supporting our valued employees and visiting
them where they work whether it is at a school site or one of our central services
departments. In the last several days I have met with the United Administrators
of San Francisco, the United Educators of San Francisco, the Parent Teacher
Association (PTA), the Bilingual Advisory Council, the Mayor, and various citizen
and business groups who wish to support our schools. For this reason I am very
excited and optimistic about the future of our San Francisco public schools.
I wish to acknowledge Dr Arlene Ackerman for her leadership and contribution
to our school district.
My goals for the next year and a half include doing everything I can to insure
the fiscal stability of our district for the future. I also hope to continue
to strengthen our academic programs. I feel strongly that it is also important
to expand character education, provide more elective course offerings, more
extracurricular programs where possible, and to increase our after school programs.
This better prepares our students to be insightful critical thinkers who are
well-rounded citizens and can conduct themselves to be responsible, respectful,
and service oriented. In conclusion, I give thanks to the many colleagues,
past and present, parents, and former students for the congratulatory messages,
flowers, and stress-reduction books. I have been very touched indeed. Given
our present fiscal challenges I may have to recommend making some hard decisions
to the Board of Education, which at times may be unpopular. However, they will
always be based on what is my best judgment for the betterment of our students.
I look forward to continuing my work with a dedicated senior staff and with
members of the Board of Education.
Gwen Chan, Acting Superintendent
February 14, 2006
