Lowell High School admission controversy continues in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco education officials have proposed a one-year extension of the lottery based admissions system at Lowell High School.

Superintendent Vince Matthews said there is no time to go back to the previous admissions process based on test scores and grades for the next school year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"We recognize that in light of the recent court decision, families are anxious to know what the admissions process will be for applying to Lowell for the 2022-2023 school year," said Matthews in a statement. "It would be logistically impossible to establish and implement any selective admission criteria prior to the application of Feb. 4 so I am recommending we maintain our current admissions practice at Lowell for the upcoming year."

The district stopped the merit-based admissions for 9th graders during the COVID pandemic claiming there wasn't adequate criteria to judge students because of distance learning.

The school board voted to make the change permanent but critics sued over the switch.

Last month, a judge ruled that the school board did not follow state law when it voted to end the competitive admissions process.

The judge said the district "plainly failed" to follow the state’s Brown Act which requires public officials to provide comprehensive information on board meeting agendas about actions to be considered.