User talk:2601:645:8300:C6D0:99F0:535B:CCB8:53D0

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@Twsabin I am really confused how the text I put up here also got taken down -- there was some real content there -- luckily I have it saved.

I looked over edit war and it says to keep editing your piece on a wikipedia page. I've used notes, but here's the substance available. Is this being looked into at all?

Copy to add back in
Body copy for when block ends: Accounting for inflation from the 1980s tuition of around $5,000, Burke's would be about 11,000 today. That's the cost of one competitor Notre Dame des Victoires[1] and other parochial schools that have also had a long history in San Francisco. The other independent schools in the California Association of Independent Schools have increased more and are in the $40,000 to $50,000/annual tuition. Burke's gave out $1.9 million in financial aid in the last tax year.

Larger picture
[put towards the top with the inverted pyramid]

Burke’s was one of the first private schools in San Francisco and is known as a school for more traditional families than other more progressive schools. Yet, the head of the lower school is known as an exemplary progressive educator and has been at Burke’s for some time and sometimes welcomes students as they arrive and sings for the lower school. This year she picked a quote about courage by Brenee Brown for the lower school (k-5).

There is also notable movement of teachers within the independent schools (they don't offer pensions as rewards for staying like the public school).

Evolution of the school
[This under press coverage]

For many years, Burke's was considered a pre-eminent school. With the parochial schools, it and Hamin's school were two of the only private schools in San Francisco in the early twentieth century. The school was nestled in Pacific Heights and the classes were small from the start -- originally starting at the Burke family's house before eventually making it to the Jackson location.[1] The power structure of the school started with Katherine Delmar Burke's mother who was related to the Kennedy family and had run a school. The graduates of her school became part of the city's elite and formed a powerful network as would the Burke's alumnae in years to come.[2]

A writer of a definitive work on girls schools identified that Burke's started to shift around the start of the twenty-first century to not being considered as being as coveted a job for a Head of School. This was after the departure of Head of School Kim Wargo for an all-girls school in Houston that was larger and offered more opportunity. When the Head of School changed at the competitor Hamlin's School, Burke's began to take second place in the rankings on academics by reputation -- which was hard for a school that is competitive and cares about reputation.

In about 2010, the book "Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls" by Leonard Sax delved into the areas of sexual identity, the cyberbubble, obsessions, and environmental toxins and used Burke's students and their families as interviews.[3] This shows the changing world for girls and by 2015 a climate survey at Burke's would reveal an underlying stress. The head of school wanted to "do it right" and started a school-wide mindfulness program that's been in effect to date.[4]

The board of trustees and head of school role is critical to a functioning school, and the board takes an “oath of loyalty” to the head that can lead to a situation where no one is in charge with the head differing to wealthy donors (who may be on the board) — this criticism is mentioned by a parent of the current Burke’s head on greatschools.net—and then the board pledging an unwaivering loyalty to the head. The national organization has started to look at if this one leader head of school position as old-fashioned these days.

Common issues in private schools
Recently the lawyer for the NAIS moved to a new accrediting agency where she is the president (Debra Wilson) and they held a series of webinars in December 2021 about the main issues in indepdent schools, and one was responding to student abuse concerns.

The webinar shows how the schools are interconnected and there will often be overlapping investigations since teachers are known move around. With Title IX being revised, many issues such as sexual harassment are now taken more seriously and cannot be ignored if the school recieved federal money. Wilson noted that was a lesser concern in her webinar but provided guidance and materials that were created during her time at Burke’s oversight organization National Association of Independent Schools that in 2018 crated a task force for prevention and response to these issues.

Alumnae reviews on social media
An alumna who provided enough identiftying information that others will recognize her as a local author wrote across several social media platforms with her reviews of Burke’s and got backlash from the current parents. In 2012, she stated: "When someone loves a book, they will often write that they 'love love love' the book. Well I hate hate hated Burkes. Like a few others here, I did not have a remotely positive experience there. Talk about mean girls! I've never been in a world where money and status mattered so much, and I think it's pretty sad that this should be true in elementary school. I have spoken with many successful grads who unanimously agree that we'd never in a million years subject a daughter to this place.”

This was echoed on social media in 2019 when a forner student who left their full name wrote a review that stated:, "Absolutely the worst school. Bullied and picked on by teachers. Learning disabilities are HEAVILY frowned upon. Ended up being removed from the school in second grade because the bullying was so excessive. It has an extreme 'rich kids are always right' mentality."

When these are posted on social media, some other schools (such as Caitlin Gabel that has had huge controversy recently) reach back out and talk to the alum on social media. The response to this student review by Burke’s communication’s was silence.

Race to Nowhere
The pressure of private school parents has grown as the tuition has increased as shown in the grassroots hit, “A Race to Nowhere” 2011 that featured the filmmakers students at the competition Hamlin’s. This film caused grassroots discussion by teachers in private and public schools. The parents in San Francisco at the same time were agonizing over schools choices. As part of the concern about student well being, Hamlin’s stopped having excessive homework.

Here is the summary of the film that caused a stir in 2011, a few years before Burke’s students climate survey showed higher than reasonable levels of stress 2015 as shown in the book "Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy Successful Kids” that uses Burke’s students and families in the research.

"A concerned mother [from a competitor school (Hamlin’s]) turned filmmaker aims her camera at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that has invaded our schools and our children’s lives. Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace; students are disengaged; stress-related illness and depression are rampant; and many young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired,” says the Race to Nowhere materials about Vicki Ables who turned this into a grassroots movement.

That students are now reporting lower levels of life satisfaction in independent schools was a recent piece in Independent School Magazine, showing that these issues are not yet resolved.

Friendships in girls’ school
Another one of the competitor schools is Sacred Heart Convent school for girls whose student high school newspaper recently had a piece on toxic friendships in the small, elite girls' school environment, "Toxic Friendships diminish self esteem."[5] These issues are similar to Burke's that hosts many speakers in to discuss friendships of the issues around privilege (such as Madeline Levine).

Burke’s hosts a speaker series called, "Great Girls Deserve Great Schools Symposium” that was started by Burke's alumna Doris Fisher '49 in the "early 2000s to bring prominent educators from around the United States to campus to speak about the challenges of teaching girls in our modern society.” These guests included Madeline Levine, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Price of Privilege.

Burke’s and high society
The social milieu of Burke's is also described in the book "Oh the Glory of it All," by Sean Wilsey. When the books was published in 2005 Armistead Maupin, the famed writer of Tales from the City, said there was it was like a dark cloud hung over Pacific Heights.[1]

The book features the Mid-Weeklies and Wilsey dances with a Burke's girl from an old San Francisco family with a brand name (Folger) at one point. His stepmother Dede Wilsey's lawyers put a claim in to the publisher but the book went ahead and was published anyways, and was one of the first non-fiction books about this part of San Francisco society. (Dede Wilsey is in leadership of grandparents at Burke's.)

Girls’ schools
The 2004 Mean Girls film popularized a notion that most alumnae of all-girls schools know too well: girl-based bullying. Since then the phrase has been part of the discussion around Burke's as shown in the alumnae reviews posted online as well as in novels. This bullying as described in the parent training can also become part of the parent culture, and in some cases the alumnae parents, as well as the students. On Facebook in 2019 a student who signed their name said that they were bullied out of the school and there was an extreme “rich kids are always right” mentality.

This is backed up by books such as “Girls on the Verge” by Vendela Vida that discusses what makes a “good family” in these circles as well as literature about elite private schools — and girls’ school in particular for relational aggression as shown in the book “Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls” by Rachel Simmons as well as “Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the Realities of the New Girl World” by Rosalind Wiseman. Both are used in the anti-bullying training for parents at Burke’s and writers on this topic spoken at Burke’s, Wiseman as recently as September 2020 on pandemic parenting

At a Burke’s alumnae luncheon in 2012, the distinguished alumna educator Pauline Moffit Watts’66 recieved her award and then gave a speech almost entirely about how mean her class had been k-12 and how she wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

As the damage of bullying in childhood gets understood more (long-term chronic damage), there's also attention on how parents can do the same things within independent schools and that's what can keep bullying so cyclical in a school environment -- it's being reinforced by parents. . Miss Porter's school was infamous when there was a "mean girls lawsuit" covered in Vanity Fair and the key aspect is that alumnae moms would encourage the bullying on campus by a sanctioned group. / This points to a code that schools will share—often unspoken— and the price of complaining about it is total exclusion. This code passes on to alumnae as well who reinforce it in the next generation.

The Mean Girls film was also planned to be made into a sequel around 2015 called Mean Moms that would have starred Jennifer Aniston that is an adaption of Rosalind Wiseman’s advice book in 2005, "Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads” as well as possibly her book on teenage girls.

Parents who bully
A 2016 article "Parents Who Bully" by the National Association of Independent School's Independent Magazine describes how frustrated or entitled parents can create issues in a school environment. This describes the parents as three types that can cause victimization in teachers. The types are called: The Righteous Crusader, the Entitled Intimidator, and the Vicious Gossip.

A Harvard professor of education termed the phrase "Volvo Caucus" for the area that the gossiping will occur and the malice of the rumors will become bullying by adults. Parents lobbying like this for changes in independent schools is now against the National Association Independent School principles of good practice — this organization that oversees Burke's accreditation and aims to be the voice of independent schools nationwide.

The San Francisco independent schools will have events together often Burke's-Town School for Boys (sister-brother schools) or Burke's-Town-Hamlin's-Stuart Hall. In the 1980s, these schools had four school play days at the Burke's campus with its sports equipment. Now the alumnae clubs will hold multiple-school events such as a coctail party that keep a small circle of people in contact over the decades.

Another similarity of many small independent schools is they share the same attorney at Folger Levin firm in San Francisco.[3] The school list includes Burke's, Hamlin's, University High School, Branson High School, and also recently an attorney of theirs was quoted for Sonoma Academy.[4]

This points to the insularity of the upper crust in San Francisco, also noted by Vanity Fair in a story that featured Wilsey's son Todd Traina prominently. This group of people -- Folger, Fleishhacker, Haas -- have also traditionally sent their girls to Burke's and some for generations.

The school's alumnae magazine often shows lineages and is proud of that traditional aspect of the school.

An old-fashioned structure at a traditional school
Since the head of school position is also tasked with crisis and managing parents, the skills to push back can become essential in this environment. Otherwise the balance of power is off for the head of school as has been shown during the COVID19 pandemic when private schools re-opened in many cases earlier than public schools because of demands of parents as covered in the October 2020 New York Times piece “Private School Hold New Attraction for Rich Parents" that stated, "Still, these parents are paying tens of thousands of dollars for private Zoom school, and not everyone is happy with that arrangement. In New York, parents at one of the city’s most elite private schools, the Dalton School, which remains remote even when competitors have in-person learning, have begun to complain.”

The question of to open or not during the coronavirus drew more national attention to the private-public school divide; and Burke's has represented private school in San Francisco for more than a century, so it's been in contrast with the nearby public schools like Alamo Elementary and Presidio Middle School. When Burke’s opened up again for upper school in April 2021, San Francisco public schools were in a bitter fight about re-opening as shown in the Chronicle coverage.

Shifts in alumnae relations
The recent job posting for a Associate Director of Advancement to handle alumnae affairs shows the shift in recent years towards fundraising. The last line in the job listing (oddly not found on the widely circulated on on Linked in) is "6) Manage a portfolio of donors”. More information on donations has always been made available and published in the Annual Report, so students and others are aware who gives how much to the school.

This position as recently as 2016 was the Director of Annual Giving and Alumnae and wasn't directly in charge of a group of donors as the next position will be. These donors may also be part og the “Loyality Society” that includes many scions who have been wealthy or prominent for generations https://www.burkes.org/support/loyalty-society. This allows for a rich history with traditional families such as Folger, Fleishhacker, and Haas. For those of different backgrounds socio-economically, it can also make for an isolating experience as much modern literature has discussed such as “Privilege” by Shamus Rahman Khan.

The job posting on Linked in as well as the school site shows the Associate Director of Advancement will:

"*Work with Burke’s volunteers and Advancement staff to facilitate all meetings, call nights, communications, and stewardship events related to the Annual Fund


 * Identify, recruit, and train volunteers as solicitors for the Annual Fund


 * Oversee Loyals activities, tracking, stewardship and solicitation"

Parents and alumnae communities
The loyals referred to in the job description for advancement include tech titans, families that descended from founding fathers, families of beloved headmasters who also were well known in the city.

Burke's alumnae newsletter as far back as 2012 listed the number of students of alumnae who were at the school, and then the number was 15.

With the competition steep to get into kindergarten, alumnae advantage creates a system where some families favored in admissions.

One indepedent school system insurance United Educators points to instance where some student’s families become benefactors and the students can overpower the teacher.

Old San Francisco as kids
Since Burke's was one of the only private schools in early 1900s San Francisco, its graduates have formed a portion of the city's elite society since the start. There are pictures in the book about Pacific Heights of old families whose children (known as scions) are now students at Burke’s.

Many “Burke's girls" each year are debutantes and everyone is invited to learn to dance at the MidWeeklies (now in its sixtieth year) with the other private schools in the network. [1][2]

"This is the little-known world of the MidWeeklies, an invitation-only dance school for sixth- and seventh-graders. The event marks an important steppingstone in a San Francisco social education, the path to etiquette classes, the Cotillion and eventually to the exclusive Francisca and Pacific-Union clubs," states a San Francisco Chronicle piece from 2011.

Mid-weeklies are described as looking like this, from the article, "On a spring afternoon outside the California Club, San Francisco society arrives for an evening affair. Expensive cars pull up to the curb, releasing taffeta-clad ladies in 1-inch heels and white gloves, gentlemen in bow ties and cuff links. The oldest is 13."

This is a lesser-seen side of San Francisco, but Burke's girls have been part of it from the start and it's a way to socialize with boys from the "brother school" Town or the other boys schools.

Here is the background from the Chronicle story:

"The schools whose rosters are used as invitation mailing lists have denied any association with it. Yet for eight nights during the academic year, 400 private-school children in the sixth and seventh grades gather at San Francisco's California Club for the invitation-only dance classes.

Everything about the MidWeeklies - its exclusivity and 80-year history, its arcane dress code and wedding-style invitations, the way people shuffle and flinch when its name arises - seems from another era.”

Small world in San Francisco private schools (including Burke’s)
This forms a small world among the San Francisco private school graduates. Later these alumnae may meet again at the Olympic Club or the Metropolitan Club (the once women's equivalent of the Olympic Club when it was all male). The annual Burke's luncheon is at the Metropolitan Club and often there are lineages of women who have gone to the school through the decades as well as past teachers and staff.

The school's alumnae magazine also prominently features these alumnae and staff gatherings where there is a photographer known for society functions Drew Altizer — this change started in the last twenty years. . Matching the new branding of the school, the alumnae magazine is now called “Burke’s” where for many years it was “Kay De Bee” magazine

The school right now does not have a strategic plan, which is unusual for independent schools, and the Board recently announced it would be ready soon but it’s been absent for three years. The Board President wrote in the Board Updated letter that, "I am pleased to report that this March [2022] we will be proudly presenting the five-year Strategic Plan. This is the culmination of over three years of effort.”

In 2018, a parent who had worked at Burke’s for seven years, told the Chronicle that the public schools "didn’t look that different" than the private school in Sea Cliff that at that point was $30,000 a year, as stated in an opinion piece that shared these facts, “White parents need to take responsibility to integrate SF public school” by Gail Cornwall in the San Francisco Chronicle.