Potrero Hill PTAs Adjust to SFUSD’s New Expenditure Rules

Last April, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) announced new restrictions on use of funds raised by Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), as well as municipal grants from such sources as the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families (DCYF). These monies have historically paid for intervention and English Learner (EL) teachers, instructional coaches, lunch yard monitors, librarians, social workers, and basic supplies, like paper. 

The District’s discretionary fund restrictions largely limit PTA personnel expenditures to classroom teachers. The San Francisco Board of Education adopted them to help balance its budget and avoid a state takeover. Schools can hire for approved certificated positions, like intervention teachers, when certain conditions have been met, principally that general education spots are 92 percent occupied across SFUSD and all “high potential +” schools have filled vacant out-of-classroom positions. 

High potential + schools are those in which student learning outcomes haven’t changed in the past few years. They can also be Vision, Values, Goals, and Guardrails (VVGG) Focal schools, with a proficiency rate of 50 percent or less of SFUSD goals for end-of-year targets. Intervention teachers are credentialed to assist students experiencing classroom difficulties, often related to reading skills. Instructional coaches are credentialed to support classroom educators, assisting with setting instructional goals and implementing curriculum changes. EL teachers are credentialed to help students who need additional instruction in English to be able to read, write, and speak proficiently at grade level.  

Neither Daniel Webster nor Starr King are high potential + schools. Starr King hasn’t been on that list since the 2019-2020 school year. Daniel Webster has never been placed in that category. 

“If the District were to fund these schools properly so the PTAs didn’t have to raise money for paper, staff for a student wellness center, and a school librarian, there would be more equity. That’s not the case,” said Stephanie McGarrigle, Daniel Webster PTA president. 

“My approach is to be a little cautious but also transparent,” said Anita Parameswaran, Daniel Webster Elementary School principal. “What is expected is ever-changing. I feel that I get new information every couple of days. I can’t get too attached to anything. I can’t get frustrated or upset.”

Parameswaran previously served as Daniel Webster’s Academic Response to Intervention Facilitator – a reading specialist – and has worked in the District for more than a decade, teaching third grade for eight years. A key SFUSD goal is that students matriculate from elementary to middle schools with grade-level reading skills. Reading is both a standalone and foundational ability that determines how well scholars do in all subjects.

“It was unclear what SFUSD would allow Daniel Webster PTA to fund and what the district would fund itself. One thing to understand about PTAs is that they fundraise all the money for the coming school year in the year before. The SFUSD underwent so much back and forth. This made it hard to figure out how much the Daniel Webster PTA would need and what we’d spend the money on,” said J.R. Eppler, Daniel Webster PTA member.

The Daniel Webster PTA typically raises more than $250,000 each school year, paying for basic supplies, lunch yard monitors, and a full-time school librarian and social emotional coach to staff the school’s wellness center. Monies may also support the school’s afterschool program, instructional assistance for kindergarten and first grade classes, maintenance of an on-site parking lot converted to an outdoor education and lunch space, and The Mosaic Project program, which offers a week-long overnight camping trip for fifth graders.

According to SFUSD, many of these items can be funded in accordance with its supplemental hiring guide, which applies to personnel and doesn’t limit PTA support for materials or activities. A PTA can hire United Educators of San Francisco classified positions, like an instructional aide, family liaison, student or elementary advisor. Librarian spots are “conditional.” How a school classifies a position matters. 

“If the position is classified as a civil service health worker, then it is allowed. If it is a social worker or counselor position that is currently funded through site funds, then it is conditional. If they are a certificated interventional position, then it is on-hold,” said SFUSD. 

Daniel Webster PTA contributes roughly $19,500 a year to help support a clinical intervention specialist to provide therapeutic, case management and consultation services for children and families on-site, provided by Seneca Family of Services, an Oakland-based nonprofit. Without these funds the program would be solely reliant on Medi-Cal funding, which doesn’t fully cover costs. PTA support enables a Seneca clinician to meet with students who aren’t on Medi-Cal and offer drop-in counseling hours during lunch. The school is allowed to continue paying for the Seneca clinician as non-SFUSD staff for school year 2025-2026. 

“Since Seneca is a nonprofit organization….and this is a partnership we have with them…we are allowed to fund this position just like our afterschool program or any other contracted community benefit organization. So as far as the district is concerned, this is a role that can be funded by the PTA,” said Parameswaran.

Daniel Webster PTA funding enables a full-time librarian to collaborate with teachers and support students with literacy and research projects. They also have time to teach students computer coding as well as digital agency; how to use technology responsibly, respectfully, and safely. 

SFUSD suspended Daniel Webster’s ability to draw down a $350,000 Community Schools Readiness Award Grant from DCYF’s Student Success Fund program. The money – which the school began spending in 2024-2025 – was supposed to pay for reading intervention specialists. Use of the grant doesn’t meet the discretionary rules. Daniel Webster can’t access the funds unless the 92 percent and high potential + requirements have been met. 

“No longer permitting these funds to be used for credentialed staff is a change in grant terms midstream,” wrote McGarrigle in a comment sent to the San Francisco Board of Education and San Francisco Board of Supervisors.