Alisa Chriss-Price of Dr. Charles R. Drew Alternative Elementary School
Tell me about growing up in The City.
I mean it was great growing up in Bernal Heights, you know. I mean, everything was there. I mean, totally different now. OK, but there’s a library. There was the, the pet store. I mean there was, I mean it was like two grocery stores. I mean I even took piano lessons on Andover street and I would ride my bike. Now, I loved growing up here. I mean it was great. I lived, you know, there was a whole bunch of kids in the neighborhood. It was all you know families working and had kids so it was, it was different than it is now. I mean as a kid we go trick or treating my siblings and I and we would just go all up and down the street and it was like is not a problem. You know what I’m saying and all the neighborhood kids would just, we would all play together, stay at each other’s house. We had a cookie lady in the neighborhood. You know it was like, it was...you know safer back in the day. I mean everything’s changing but it’s like Bernal Heights is what I call more yuppifed now.
I mean it’s, what they got Sushi and organic. I mean it’s just all healthy, which is great, but you got when, when I grew up there was no restaurants. There was, it was just you know it was just businesses but they were regular businesses and homes.
My grandmother, lived on Bryant Street for years. I used to love going there and going to the bakery. It’s totally diferent now...when I drive over there I see nothing but just rich people is what I consider it now and that’s the sad part about the community.
What schools did you go to as a child?
I went to I went to Cathedral High School, I went to Immaculate Conception Elementary School....Back in the day my mother, it was totally different, she kept us sheltered. I mean my, at Immaculate Conception it was just me and my sister were the only Black kids in the whole school. And then when I went to Cathedral High School, I was like, “wow, there’s a whole bunch of Black kids here”. You know, but my whole K through 8 all, I mean I think that maybe by time I got ready to graduate from eighth grade after my sister left it was just me. And then two other kids came. But the sad part about it is I didn’t. That’s why you know children are taught about racism and feeling funny, cause I didn’t even feel funny. I didn’t feel awkward at all, as it, as I’m growing up as an adult and I’m looking at all my pictures I was like “Jesus, I was the only...”
Now, my daughter on the other hand went to Harvey Milk with me...I moved her when she graduated from my school I moved her to Rooftop...Then after my daughter lef Rooftop, great, then she got to Lowell. It’s a whole different ball game. it was hard for her, you know, because she graduated 4.0 at Rooftop, but... there was a lot of racism. There was stuff they weren’t addressing because there aren’t a lot of African-Americans up in Lowell and there still isn’t. And they didn’t know how to address the issues that come up for students, you know what I’m saying. And so she got more politically involved than I would ever imagine her. But she advocated for her own rights. And I think I had to go up to the school one time to speak to a teacher because sometimes teachers make assumptions about African-American students.
How long have you been at Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary?
When the opportunity came back for me to return [to Dr. Drew Elementary School in BVHP], I was like this would be nice, it’d be like returning home. And then it’s different. I worked in Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy for years and it’s predominantly white. I mean it was a lot, it was a little mixture, but it was, it was predominantly, you know I had, maybe, it was predominantly white, Asian. So I would, I wanted to come back to this community because I wanted to work with children who, who look like me, or I want children to see that they could... do this too. It’s nice for children to see that. “OK. Look I can I can grow up and I can do this too. I can run an office. I can do that. I can do a what Ms. Alisa does”. That’s what they call me.
So it was like giving back to my own community and just being around African Americans is why I came back to this full circle because I wanted to get back to my own community. I’m more helpful here in this community than I was at Harvey Milk. I wouldn’t go. You know I would go back to Harvey Milk if, if I wanted to. But I think I like it here. I like the young ones. Te little pre-K’s. When they say sorry they really mean it you know. And if I’m having a bad day. If it’s stressful for me. I go into one of the rooms and then hang out with the kids.
How has the affordability crisis affected the school and the families?
Teachers cannot afford to live here. I mean, all their money, their paycheck is going to rent. So what kind of life there. And not to mention, you know teachers buy a whole bunch of stuff out of their own pocket. And you know I’m like my. Like I said I had my. She was just a great teacher. We started here together. She was pre-K. Just loved her. You know she, she moved, she lived in. I mean her, she had a roommate. It’s just like, she couldn’t afford it. Now she’s living, I think East Coast somewhere, and I’m still in communication with her, but she has a life. You know. Another teacher moved away to Tracy. They got a life. When you got all your money. Teacher’s don’t make that much money as is. So when you got, when your, when your rent is two thousand dollars a month and you’re making twenty five hundred dollars a month, you can’t live that way. You know what I’m saying, you know, just can’t. It’s just not humanly possible. So we’re losing a lot of teachers. My thing is that if I was to win the Lotto my whole thing would buy two huge apartments, but it would only be houses for teachers. You see what I’m saying. Tat is, cause, I mean it’s, it’s crazy. But I, I’ve seen too many good teachers leave.
Families can’t, they can’t survive. Since I’ve been here I’ve lost like 10 families and they’ve moved to San Leandro. They moved out of San Francisco because they can’t afford it.
And I mean that’s just ten that I can remember offhand. If I looked in my file folders there’s probably tons more. You know, moving to Antioch...You know I’m not talking about moving from from Bayview to Ingleside. No, I’m talking about moving out of San Francisco.
So people are moving out because they can’t afford to live here. So they can’t afford and then they don’t want to. If they’re, and they, usually they can’t afford to find jobs here either, so they move out. And therefore, we’re losing a lot of kids. Like I say, my, three of my Pre-K’s are not full and I know it’s because people are moving out of this city.
Is there still school busing in the Bayview?
The busing is funny because like you see there’s a bus, like, like see Rooftop is a school that we bus to from this school site, so a child can go upstairs in front of the school and wait for a bus to pick them up and bus them to Rooftop. It can bus them to Alice Fang Yu. They have that kind of busing to get the children who maybe parents want them out of this district to go to school somewhere else... You know there’s that gated community up the street here. I don’t know what it is, but I know that there’s kids that come down here and they go to Rooffop and they catch the bus out in front and then they come back and in, in the afternoon, when we get out, maybe about 2:30, you know they get out, they get out a little later and then they, then they, you know they live over here in this neighborhood but they go to school somewhere else.
Interview by Alexandra Lacey and Bean Crane Edited by Alexandra Lacey and Wynn Newberry