Schools’ plea: skip the Giants parade and come to class

San Francisco school officials are begging students — and teachers — to skip the Giants parade rather than skip school Friday.

Two years ago, some 4,200 kids came down with Giants fever and failed to show up for school the day of the World Series parade. There were in fact, many feverishly excited small faces among the crowd during the 2012 victory parade down Market Street.

It was an expensive parade for the school district. At about $38.27 in lost state funding per kid, the schools took a $161,000 hit to the checkbook. And that doesn't include the many teachers who called in sick, which required costly substitutes to take their place.

To prevent another mass day of hooky, Superintendent Richard Carranzatweeted a nice note with a big hint-hint in it Thursday: “Congratulations @SFGiants! @SFUnified schools will be in session tomorrow. Go Giants!”

School board member Rachel Norton took to Facebook to urge parents to send their kids to school: “SFUSD is in session tomorrow. If you’re a teacher, we need you in the classroom! If you’re a student, you need to be at school! My own daughter is pleading to be allowed to go to the #sfgiants parade. Her education is more important.”

It was not an entirely popular post, with some arguing for a 57,000-student field trip.

On Thursday, district officials put out a phone message through the auto-dial system to student homes to encourage them to be at school and posted a note on the parent online messaging site saying the same.

District staff also got a nice e-mail from Carranza, their boss, reminding them that Friday is a work day regardless of a World Series win.

— Jill Tucker

Supporter or not: With the election days away, a group of soda tax and David Chiu supporters staged a news conference Thursday, slamming the Harvey Milk Club for taking money from the soda industry — and tying the club and soda industry to David Campos, Chiu’s opponent in a race for the state Assembly.

The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, generally regarded as to the left of the city's other prominent LGBT group, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, supports Campos and opposes the 2-penny per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages that Pepsi, Coke and other big brands have put more than $9 million into defeating.

Campos voted to put the soda tax on the ballot, and is on record as a supporter, but he also made some critical comments about the tax that the soda industry has highlighted in mail to voters.

So while Campos hasn't received any direct donations from the soda industry, critics charge that he might as well have, considering the tens of thousands of dollars big soda has given to the Milk Club and other groups, which have sent out slate mailers that included their support of Campos and opposition to the soda tax.

Dr. Roger Eng, representing the San Francisco Medical Society, likened the soda industry to Big Tobacco and said it’s disappointing to see progressive organizations oppose the tax or align themselves with groups that do — particularly nurses, whose union is supporting Campos.

“The science is clear — sugary drinks lead to greater obesity and diabetes,” he said.

Campos campaign manager Nate Allbee called the charges “ridiculous.” He noted that without Campos’ vote, the soda tax would not have made it onto the ballot and said some groups that support Chiu — including building trade unions and the Black Young Democrats — are either supporting the soda tax, have taken money from soda, or both.

“That's why it's so hypocritical,” he said. “We know what this is — it’s politics, and they are desperate for attention right now so they are hitting us with something that’s untrue.”

— Marisa Lagos

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