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• 1 2019-09-28T19:03:00-07:00 Eric Guthertz Mission High Principal 20 plain 2019-09-29T21:26:20-07:00
  
  Where, originally, are you from in San Francisco?
  
  I was born in The City at Presbyterian Hospital, however I was born in 1963 and my Grandma, who actually was
  born in this city as well and went to Girls High School as well which doesn’t even exist anymore, and lived in Hayes Valley, and then my Father as well, born and raised in The City and went to Lowell. In the 60’s, a lot of families had moved, so I actually, my family moved to Marin County. So I was born in The City, raised in Marin county, but my Grandmother lived at 29th and Cambria, so I spent many, many, many, many weekends and nights with my Grandma and Grandpa over here in Te Richmond. After I grew up, graduated in 82 from high school, I lived in LA for ten years. I went to UCLA and I studied education, taught, and then I moved back. When I moved back, I moved back essentially to San Francisco, and I’ve been here now for about 25 years.
  
  [I live in] The Mission, I lived on Caesar Chavez and Guerrero Street. for 25 years. It’s where I raised my children, my daughter goes here to Mission High School... they grew up in The Mission. Yeah, it’s our home.
  
  My entire 16 years in SF Unified has been here in Mission High School. I started here as an English teacher, then I was an English Department Chair, then I was Assistant Principal for one year and then for the last nine years I’ve been the Principal here.
  
  I enjoy it enough that I have a Mission High School tattoo on my arm. Tat was a dare a few years ago, if students test scores would raise I dared them that I would get a tattoo, and I did. But I really did it because I love this school.
  
  I’m very, very proud of this school. We are deeply focused on social justice, and anti-racist teaching, particularly as it impacts our students lives academically, and psychosocially, socially and emotionally, and just in their general well being.
  
  

  What are the demographics of the student population?

  We’re about 1,150 students. We are 50% Latino, 15% African-American, 10% Chinese, just under 10% white/Caucasian, and then literally the world. So, we’re one of the five dedicated newcomer pathways for newly immigrated students to San Francisco, well, to the country. In that pathway, the population makes up over 52 countries, virtually every continent you can think of. So, students from Yemen, and Syria, and Guatemala, and Nigeria, and Germany.

  I mean literally, the whole world. We see students coming to us with about 22 different languages, at least. So extraordinarily diverse demographically in that way.

  As this community in this corner has gentrified. 18th Street and all the food businesses and chichi stores on Valencia and what not, the number of free and reduced lunch students, the number of students of that have been in poverty hasn’t decreased here, it’s actually increased. The number of Latino students hasn’t decreased, it’s actually increased.

  And interestingly, while San Francisco has had a huge loss of African-Americans families—I think somewhere from 20 to 6%—we’re at 15% which is actually significantly higher than The City population. Last time I checked we actually had the highest actual number of African-American students of any high school in The City. It’s interesting, given the corner that we’re on, with all of the Google buses, and Salesforce buses and all that, this community, this school itself hasn’t gentrified particularly.

  
  I think partly it’s because there are just so many students that have been displaced and are moving around
  that have still always seen Mission as a site for support.

  Historically, Mission has been an activist school for many, many years. Howard Zinn captured us in the 60’s. We’ve always been a port of entry for
  immigrants. I think that because of some of our social justice, and anti-racist teaching work we’ve attracted some populations as well.

  Do you think that maybe other schools like Lowell attracts a different demographics of students because it’s seen as a more desirable location for their students to go to?
  
  I think, race plays a big factor in all of this. It’s a huge conversation, I think, at the end of the day around what’s the perception of each school by East side, West side, South side, North side. Who goes to those schools? How families view that, right? So that’s all there. Lowell’s is separate, and very problematic, in how they enroll students. But they’re separate because they’re not part of the choice system. They are an apply only, an application school where they only take 4.0 essentially students, and then they have to do an interview, and essay, and then take a standardized test and all of these pieces. That’s separate from the lottery choice of the rest of the district. Certainly, in terms of race, there’s a massive issue where you’ve got a school like Lowell, which has 3,000 and something students...and less than a percentage point are African-American. It’s actually unconscionable if you ask me.

  One of the interesting things about Mission is...we’ve really shifted the way that people view this school over the course of ten years. I mean, 15 years ago when I first came to Mission, people were talking, or 16 years ago, that this was a dangerous school, a terrible school, I would never send my child here. Not, that’s what people would say. And that is radically shifted, where we now have waiting lists at every grade level. We are a highly desired school.

  But we’ve worked really hard to make sure we’re targeting and outreach- ing our historically served populations of African-American, Latino, and second language learners.

  Regardless of how the shift in the cities happened, we continue to prioritize, making sure the populations I just mentioned feel welcomed and supported and nurtured here at Mission High School.

  What measures do you take to emphasize diversity?

  There’s a lot of measures. One is, the first thing, it starts at the community, and particularly the teachers. We have this philosophy of anti-racist teaching, and we’ve been developing and working on it for many, many years. That looks at how do we, as teachers, think about both our own, the skin we’re in, who we are as educators. Whether we’re white educators, Chinese-American educators, Latino educators .... One is around relationship. So how are we building non-racist relationships, supportive nurturing relationship with our students, regardless of difference or cross-difference?

  The second area is around curriculum. Are we teaching, what is it? Is it relevant? Does it connect you to these kids lives? Are we just teaching in English? I was an English teacher here, and you know, the dead white guys ... Are we actually teaching a literature that speaks to and looks at and looks like the students that are reading that literature?

  The third is around pedagogy, how you deliver the instruction, right? ... For most students, particularly with a range of cultures, you really have to think about different modes of modalities. Whether it’s students that are kinesthetic learners, whether they’re audio learners, visual learners, there’s range, right?

  Those are some of the areas. We also make sure that our teachers are well aware of this notion of anti-racist teaching in terms of how they’re grading and assessing. We hire for it. It’s actually a question in the interview, and if you don’t, are you not interested in teaching at a school that says it’s anti-racist, then this school’s probably not for you.

  We also message that to the students as well. We really, Mission, our spirit here comes from our diversity. One of the beautiful things at Mission is throughout the year we run tons and tons Of assemblies for the entire school based on culture. We did our Lunar New Year assembly a few months ago, our African- American history month assembly. Just last week we did our annual drag show, where it’s for our queer-straight alliance. Really supporting anti-bullying and supporting trans students, and gay and questioning students, and everybody, including myself, dresses in drag and we have this amazing celebratory show with a group called The Queens of the Castro. We do that for as many groups as we possibly can. Those assemblies, and those clubs that we run, really are the backbone of this school.

  Historically the district and very much Mission High School has had teachers from The City. That has changed radically in the last five years because of gentrification. And because of the rise in costs, and the fact that teacher pay is not commensurate with the rise in rent and buying a house, right?

  It’s true that younger teachers and younger teachers of color just starting out in education are struggling to make it in San Francisco. 

  So, trying to figure out how to stop that ... How to maintain a stronger rate of retention, which is something we had been doing for a long time, and we’re very proud of. I think it’s something we’re grappling with.

  What’s been keeping you in The City, as opposed to moving out, maybe somewhere easier to live?
  
  My wife’s also in San Francisco and born and raised in The City... I think, for both of us it was really important that we raise children in a city that was vibrant and that was diverse. And I think that our kids grew up looking around, and not just seeing a bunch of white kids. That they saw a range of kids with a range of experiences, and a range of cultures, that they understood that. That they thought ... Anti-racist teaching is a philosophy of the school, but I think it’s also the way we’ve tried to live our lives as best we can, too. We’re kind of hippies in a certain odd way, I have to say. So that was important to us. I think the culture of The City is important, in terms of even just things like food, and movies and music, and all of that, that we love.

  Now we found an apartment years ago that we’ve been living for many years, that’s like a two and a half bedroom flat in the Mission, but with the rent control that saves us. If our rent was...the market rate...I don’t know if we could maintain it, and I know that we’d struggle to maintain a mortgage at this point.

  Are there any district-wide or school-wide issues like, specifically that Black students Face?
  
  Oh my God, of course. And those are legendary, I think. For one, I think there has been a historic, I mean ... San Francisco seems liberal as it can be, but historically has been racist against African-American community in The City.

  No question. You can see that from redlining in the 60’s and 70’s. You can see that from the way that housing developments work. You can see that from who gets hired for jobs and who doesn’t get hired for jobs. You can see that from the mass exodus, the lack of resources for African-American families in The City, lack of activities and programs. I think that’s starting to change. I know the Mayor’s office is starting to shift that. I know the Board of Ed has done a lot of work around that. There’s now an African-American leadership initiative in the district.
  
  Mission High School is a school that was able to pilot for the first time, the first high school to do it, African-American male identity course. And we have one for female identity course that we were able to find money for as well. So I think we are building more and more programs, but I think it’s been years and years of neglect for whatever reason, city-wide.

  People don’t just move. Obviously there’s economic reasons as well, but if you feel disconnected from a community, at some point you don’t stay.

  Interview by Bryce Lennan Edited by Alexandra Lacey and Wynn Newberry