Board Meeting 5/22: Staff Testimonials
Staff members shared testimonials on behalf of themselves and their colleagues at today’s board meeting. Read two of them below.
If you haven’t already, please sign the petition to the board demanding no layoffs.
I am a success story of the Planetarium’s impact on visitors to the Academy. I first visited in the summer of 2018, when I was struggling with realizing that, three years into a physics degree, I did not want to get into research. Watching the presenter speak so passionately inspired me to enter museum education, and, through a twist of fate, work here myself.
We presenters are a key part of the Academy’s mission. The connections we forge enable our guests to learn about science together, collaboratively. We provide opportunities many of our guests would never otherwise experience, whether it is being able to view the moons of Jupiter through a telescope or simply touch a meteorite. These experiences, which cannot be automated, and do not exist at many planetaria, develop curiosity and inspire the kind of awe which they will share with countless others.
The live presentations we deliver in Hohfeld Hall allow us to cater to a wide range of audiences. We are able to update the programming more frequently than in the full dome, because a new feature presentation requires two years to produce, allowing us to keep the Academy’s astronomy content fresh for our members. We are also able to cater to young learners and their families as it is open to all ages, unlike the Planetarium. Our show designed for preschoolers, shown in Hohfeld Hall, has, in the past week, attracted an audience of 200 on one day and 155 on another.
On a final note, I want to share a pair of comments from guests. This past Friday, a guest approached me after viewing our multiple-award-winning program Spark: The Universe in Us. She had seen it before without the live science update we perform in nearly all presentations of Spark, and expressed that the additional information added a lot to the experience. And, I think most importantly, this past Sunday, a guest remarked that my presence added a soul not found in other Planetariums he had visited.
By ending the work my colleagues and I do, the Academy loses that soul, and everything that comes with it.
— Teddy Vollman
Planetarium Presenter
Speaking on behalf of education programs: Our ask is that you delay voting on a budget that cuts Teacher Professional Development and Science Action Club. We want to share data and other considerations that may not have been shared with you.
For over 25 years, the Academy’s teacher programs have provided educators with transformative professional development that increases the quality and quantity of science taught in PreK-12 classrooms.
Over the past decade Teacher Professional Development programs have impacted more than 8,000 teachers and one million students, primarily in the Bay Area. Much of this work aims to increase access to high quality science learning for students and teachers in systematically excluded groups, such as Black and Latine students and English Language Learners.
Students from systematically excluded groups are also more likely to attend after-school and out-of-school-time programs. This is the community Science Action Club serves. Just this last quarter of FY24, Science Action Club trained 65 Educators, and engaged with over 2000 youth in 100 clubs in California and beyond.
Finally, the Bayview Science Institute or BSI has a mission focused on environmental, place-based learning and building trust and community through science. The Bayview Science Institute serves teachers at 14 schools in Bayview Hunters Point and the Southeast corner of San Francisco. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has been funding BSI since the program began in 2017.
When we asked teachers about their main Bayview Science Institute takeaway, a third grade teacher at Bret Harte Elementary shared:
“Place-based learning is so important if we are serious about mentoring this next generation of environmental stewards in the Bayview. They need to know about the problematic history and be connected enough to the environment to want to do something about it.”
Some questions we have at this point that we hope you’ll also be curious about:
The Academy has core values that include advocacy, collaboration, and diversity & equity. What will it mean to the Bayview Hunters Point community when they hear we are abruptly abandoning teacher support?
Given that the BSI program is funded through SFPUC, would ending this program put our relationship with SFPUC at risk, as well as any other funding opportunities from them in the future?
Will these decisions impact our relationships and image with the many funders and communities who are interested in environmental justice work?
Since the Teacher Professional Development programs are earmarked in the Thriving California grant from the state, could eliminating these programs put the larger 2.1 million grant at risk?
These cuts would create both instability and drastically reduce our scope of work in education. How will this impact the ability of Development and Govt Affairs to generate funding under those conditions?
Our education programs are intrinsically tied to the mission of the Academy. We urge you to get some of the answers to the questions we’ve shared today, and delay the budget vote until you have all the information.
— Larissa Walder
Senior Associate, Teacher Professional Development
Teacher and Student Engagement
