SF Mayor London Breed Calls For Halt Of Proposed School Closures In City

San Francisco Mayor London Breed called for a halt to the planned San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) school closures on Tuesday, saying that the announcement last week only further confused parents and students, with many now planning protests of the closures.

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) held a special meeting on Tuesday night to go over a recent state audit report on the dire situation of the district’s finances, and what the district could possibly do to avoid a massive deficit next year.

For years, the SFUSD’s future has been unstable at best. Thousands of students have left as the city’s population has dwindled. In 2015, the SFUSD boasted 53,000 students. This year it is around 49,500, with enrollment in 2032 projected to be at about 44,000. Not helping matters has been the rise of teacher pay and pension costs, which shot up dramatically in October after a near strike by teachers. Unexpected costs also struck the SFUSD too, as $34 million was spent on a payroll system that didn’t work, and millions more spent on abuse claims.

This all caused the SFUSD’s deficit to grow dramatically from $169 million in 2020 to a projected $421 million deficit in 2025. The SFUSD slashed 927 vacant positions in an attempt to lessen the deficit amount by $103 million, but those cuts are being challenged. The city, usually having the money to fix department finances, also can’t help because of their own $780 million budget deficit. At a district planning summit in March, the SFUSD, trying to prevent a takeover of the district, said that multiple school closures would be likely by 2025.

However, things reached a crisis point in May when the California Department of Education announced that they would be sending fiscal advisors to look over some financial decisions by the district, essentially taking control of district spending. With no way to quickly confront the $421 million deficit issue, the SFUSD soon began paring down the schools. Last week, the long dreaded news came, with a proposed plan for the 2025-2026 school year that would close three schools outright, have eight be merged into others, and have two becoming a welcoming school for closed schools. In addition, over 500 teaching jobs are to be cut, with another $113 million to be cut out of the school budget.

“In the end, our resources are stretched way too thin and no matter what, we have to reduce our expenditures next year. And so we’re trying to figure out the way which serves our students best and that includes closing or merging some schools,” said SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne.

A closure plan

The closures and cuts were immediately criticized by students, parents, teachers, and many citizens of the city despite the SFUSD and others insisting that there was no other way out of the deficit and to contend with lowered student enrollment. The issue also came to the forefront of the Mayoral election, with candidates jumping on the proposal. With Mayor Breed currently teetering between first and second in election polling, she quickly came out with a statement saying that this not a final decision, hoping to alleviate concerns.

“I want to be very clear; no decisions have been made. This is the beginning of a clear, transparent conversation with facts that needed to be put on the table before decisions would be made,” said Breed last week.

However, she failed to quell any discontentment, with supporters questioning more and more why they should vote for her if she would allow this to happen. Facing several pressure for a week, on Tuesday she called for a stop to the closure plan, saying that it was only confusing and worrying people.

“Over the last week since the school closures/merger list was released, I’ve spoken to parents, educators and staff, and so many in our City who care deeply about our public schools,” said Breed in a statement. “What I’ve heard over and over is confusion and concern around the proposed school closures/merger list and how it has been communicated and managed. I’ve heard from parents, students, and educators who are fearful about the futures of their schools. I’ve heard from too many questioning the long-term stability of the School District and whether their children should remain enrolled there.

“This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost. Unfortunately, the only achievement has been to make a precarious time for our public schools even more chaotic. This has become a distraction from the very real work that must be done to balance the budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover. It is time to immediately stop this school closure process.

“Hardworking staff at the District office are doing incredibly difficult work to avoid a state takeover. That work requires balancing the District’s budget by December. The City’s School Stabilization Team is working alongside District staff on critical operational issues, including expediting teacher credentialing, providing oversight to special education budget and programs, and auditing internal procedures to restore system health. All that work must continue. But they cannot do this under the chaos of this mismanaged school closure process.

“I have lost confidence in the Superintendent’s ability to manage the current process and do not believe this current plan will lead to an outcome that will benefit students and the School District in the long-term. I recognize that discussions around school closures and mergers are difficult and painful, but that only speaks to why any effort to engage in this conversation must be done with care, clarity, and competence. That has not happened here, and I don’t have confidence that it can happen right now under the current conditions.

“To be clear: the weeks and months ahead are going to be incredibly difficult. There are painful but necessary decisions that will have to be made, and any school closures or mergers would only be one small piece of the overall effort to balance the budget. We must do everything we can to ensure that San Francisco public schools remain under local control so our School District can deliver the quality education that our students deserve.”

Breed’s attempt

While Breed’s words quelled many on Tuesday and Wednesday, others are incensed, saying that this is just a political ploy before the election, and that if reelected, she will just agree to the closures.

“A lot of people are not trusting her on this,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Wednesday. “They’ve pointed out multiple times she said she would do something, but just never did. And here, with her saying this before an election just after a poll showing her still behind, it’s very suspicious. She probably doesn’t want closures on a genuine level. I mean, who would. But the financial issues there and lower enrollment. It was a hard call to make, but the SFUSD made it. But now she is saying to not just do it, and come up with a new plan. You know, after the election, after where she called for a stoppage to the plans and got it winning her over to many people. But voters seem to know what is going on here. Polls will be very interesting after this statement. Just how many people will believe her, and how many will see the statement differently?”

SFUSD President Wayne also responded on Wednesday, saying that ““It is my responsibility to ensure that SFUSD can be the best possible school district for each and every one of our 49,000 students. Without having the courage to make deep changes and difficult decisions, we cannot expect to meaningfully improve student outcomes.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the SFUSD has not scrapped the proposed closure plan.