SFUSD Scraps School Closure Plan, New Superintendent Selected

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) voted to accept the resignation Superintendent Matt Wayne, and brought in San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF) head Maria Su as a replacement. The district announced this past weekend that planned school closures next year will no longer be taking place, leaving San Francisco schools in a radically different place from where they were only a week ago.

While the changes were made suddenly, problems at the SFUSD and with Wayne had been building up for years. Superintendent since June 2022, Wayne took over the SFUSD as it was still transitioning back from COVID restrictions and was still continuing to grow a massive deficit that dated back to the 2010s. During his 26 month tenure, the situation grew worse, with the SFUSD deficit climbing to $421 million, the District slashing 927 vacant positions, and a growing number of cutbacks. All the while, school closures became an increasing probability, with the District finally announcing in March that some closures would be happening in 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. Earlier this month, the long dreaded news came, with a proposed plan for the 2025-2026 school year that would close three schools, have eight 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.

Last week, parents, students, school workers, and lawmakers protested against the decision to close or merge so many schools, despite the decision solving a large part of the deficit and curtailing the number of schools amidst a declining student population. Mayor London Breed even joined the fray, calling for the district to halt the closure plans. This action only brought more pressure to the embattled Wayne, who then announced his resignation.

Wayne out, Su in

The vote came on Friday, where the SFUSD Board of Education voted in favor of his resignation 6-1, with the only ‘nay’ voting member wanting him to quit so he wouldn’t be able to collect his resignation package another year of his $325,000 salary and health benefits. Following the vote, they then recommended that Su take his place. Su, who has been the Director of the DCYF since 2009 and was most recently the leader of a task force started by Mayor Breed to help look for solutions to stabilize San Francisco Public Schools, still needs to be voted on by the Board on Tuesday. However, as she has run a department for 15 years that dealt with youth issues such as early care and education, out-of-school time services, and teens and youth workforce development, she is widely seen as a “safe” outside candidate to become head of the SFUSD through at least 2026.

“Why am I doing this? I believe in the school district,” said Su over the weekend. “I’ve been doing this work at DCYF and we’ve seen how when you have strong operations, strong systems, strong partnerships and deep community support you can get a lot of things done. It’s going to take a while to address the operations and systems at the school district.”

Following her selection, Breed added that “Dr. Maria Su has been a champion for families and children in our city, and she has my full confidence in this new role leading our public schools. We are one city and if our city is going to thrive, SFUSD needs to thrive.”

In addition to Wayne’s resignation and Su’s elevation, the Board also announced that the current school closures process will be stopped, with no closures coming in the 2025-2026 school year. While over 500 jobs in the SFUSD are still to be cut, and the District still needs to inform the state by the end of the year as to how they will be cutting $113 million from the next budget, all schools are expected to remain open now through at least 2026.

“At the direction of Board of Education leadership, Dr. Maria Su, the new Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will stop the current school closure process. There will be no school closures in the 2025-26 school year,” said the SFUSD in an announcement.

Problems with Su

While praised by many over the weekend, for many others, the selection of Su, as well as stopping the plan that would have significantly helped the SFUSD with their budget problem, is problematic.

“On Su, she’s been a leader of that do-nothing Task Force that Breed came up with last month to ‘find solutions’ to all the district’s woes. What happened since she was put in should tell you how successful they were,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Monday. “She’s also been a longtime ally to the whole Newsom and Breed crews for a long time. Newsom didn’t pick her as the DCYF Director, but he sure as hell supported her. She’s been the Director there since 2009 when Newsom was in office for reference. And she has stayed like a MRSA virus there ever since. You can’t get rid of her. Or, well, unless you promote her.

“And Su is so firmly in the Breed camp that she stopped the closure plan now, which is such a mistake. The SFUSD is in such a big hole that they need massive firings and school closures to, you know, survive. But now they put off closures for at least a year, right when they need to shed the deficit the most. Yes, she was a ‘safe pick’, but she is coming in as someone who will need a lot of on the job learning too, which isn’t great.

“What is likely happening is that Breed, who is in the tightest election in San Francisco history right now, needs support from a lot of voters for next month. That means not pissing off a lot of teachers and families with school closures. So Su has delayed those for a year and Breed doesn’t have that burden on her. If reelected, she can then make all the unpopular cuts she wants once clear of the election. The timing of Wayne’s resignation couldn’t have been better for Breed, as well as the Board.

“Su is bringing some baggage with her from the DCYF and the task force too. All together, she is a stop gap choice who is loyal to the SFUSD and Breed, is going to stop those school closures despite being needed desperately, and is very much an insider despite being put in as an outsider replacement.”

Su is expected to be voted in as the next Superintendent on Tuesday.