It’s concerning that most of the San Francisco School Board’s seven spots are in play, said Emily Wang, Potrero Boosters and Dogpatch Neighborhood Association Member-At-Large and Starr King Elementary School parent.
“The decision-making process and execution of the agreed Resource Alignment Initiative [school closure] plan will need continuity and accountability. The timing of this turnover of board members makes it difficult to track accountability for the decisions on school closures and consolidations,” said Wang.
She added that there’s been no transparency or community involvement as to how school closures will be determined. Under SFUSD’s “Goals and Guardrails” policy, engagement with the school community is supposed to be an essential part of decision-making.
“We have not seen any process and adjustment based on community feedback nor do we see any time built into the process for adjustments to the future decisions. Next year will be very bumpy at a minimum,” said Wang.
According to Wang SFUSD hasn’t made it a priority to fill Starr King teacher and staff positions that were approved last spring.
SFUSD stated that there’s “…a hiring freeze based on state mandate. These student-facing positions are critical… This sets a poor precedent of what the community may expect next year. Having teachers in classrooms is a core function of the school and the system which is supposed to support it,” said Wang.
SFUSD has pursued “…our most robust community engagement campaign in recent memory,” countered Laura Dudnick, SFUSD spokesperson. “SFUSD is committed to transparency, inclusivity, and accessibility…In addition to consistent, multilingual updates shared with SFUSD audiences, community engagement to date has included two virtual town halls with 1,000 participants, 16 in-person community sessions with 1,070 participants, 12,206 complete surveys submitted, 3,000-plus community feedback comments received, six community sessions about language pathways, outreach to 295 community-based organizations, 291 attendees at six community-based organization information sessions, 175-plus materials translated into six languages, 1,000 translated flyers delivered to CBOs, and seven meetings with Community Advisory Committees. We agree that having fully staffed classrooms on the first day of school is ideal. We are working hard to move forward with hiring for positions in which there is a qualified candidate. We remain committed to being transparent with families around our plans to provide all students with an educator on the first day of school.”
“There’s a lot of fear and anxiety…” about school closures, said Brandie Bowen-Bremond, policy director for Coleman Advocates, which cannot endorse political candidates because it’s a 501(c)(3) organization. “Our members want to protect smaller schools because there’s been an idea put out there that bigger schools would be better for students. That is not always true for marginalized students who could use the focused support . We hope the candidates will center on racial justice and discuss offering social-emotional support and employing restorative practices in more than disciplinary proceedings. We also want to hear the candidates’ ideas for remedying the decades-long financial mismanagement that has occurred in SFUSD. Everyone can sense a general shift because only one incumbent is running and the board may look a lot different from the current one.”
Individuals who aren’t U.S. citizens can vote in school board elections if they meet certain specifications, including being residents who’ll remain in San Francisco until the next election and are a parent, legal guardian, or caregiver of a child living in the City. Board of Education members serve four-year terms and determine public school policies. The Board sets the district budget and educational goals and standards. It approves curriculum, confirms personnel appointments, and approves purchases of equipment, supplies, services, leases, renovation, construction, and union contracts.
Coleman Advocates will host a youth-led Board of Education candidate forum on Thursday September 19 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the June Jordan School for Equity; https://colemanadvocates.org/
Danny Pham 
Chaitanya Tondepu