San Francisco school board to vote on making school of arts less open to out-of-towners

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The school board in San Francisco will vote next Tuesday to make it harder for an out-of-town student to attend the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. This comes after it was revealed that nearly 14 percent of students there don't live in San Francisco.

The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts is a highly competitive school, which draws students from all over the Bay Area. It admits up to 10 percent of students who don't live in San Francisco. And at times it's been much higher.

"It has been as high as 25 percent," school board member Rachel Norton said.

This year, that number is nearly 14 percent. In other words, 84 slots that could have gone to local San Francisco kids.

Norton wants to put an end to that and most parents agree.

"We need to deal with the kids who are here instead of going outside," Pamela Body said. "It's just not fair to give the slots away."

Linda Hershenson disagrees. She drives her son from Pacifica to the school of the arts where he has thrived.

"He would not have done well at a traditional school," Hershenson said. "If they want high level, professional pool of kids to draw from, then they need to keep the pool open and not close it," Hershenson said.

Norton is proposing the formation of a task force to study how the selection process is handled and if there are any conflicts.

For example, ABC7 News found out that the director of the Technical Theatre at the school, also teaches summer courses at the Spindrift School of Performing Arts in Pacifica. It's been known that he has brought some of that talent to San Francisco. In fact, Pacifica has the largest number of out-of town students at the art school with 26.

"Just from a best practice stand point, it's best to have audition panels and have people from inside the school and outside the school making the decision about what kids deserve admission," Norton added.

The board will vote Tuesday.