:I do believe the vowel in school is the same for that in food and both tall and mall have the same vowel in paw.  In some dialects, the  can alter a preceding vowel or even (as in Cockney) delete.  l-vocalization might have some more information on that.  If you're not sure about a particular word, [www.dictionary.com] has a pronunciation for most words (the default is an ad hoc guide but you can click "show IPA pronunciation" to change that).   [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi]