San Francisco school board approves smaller number of layoffs than expected

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - A San Francisco City School Board vote on Tuesday did not include an expected mass layoff of more than 200 teachers, announced earlier this year. During an evening meeting, the board instead voted 7-0 to layoff 20 employees in the district, 15 of whom were administrators, who may be rehired next year.  

The layoffs were expected to help the district close a $125 million dollar budget deficit for the year.  

The district says it's seen a steep decline in students over the last few years, with the biggest drop coming amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Many families chose to leave the city all together. 

The teachers' union, The Unified Educators of San Francisco, released the following statement on Tuesday: "Educators have consistently denounced these unnecessary layoff projections since November. The instability and anxiety these proceedings have caused was entirely avoidable and we hope this serves as a lesson to all, that educators are well informed and deserve the trust and respect of our communities, our city, and our employer."

Tuesday, the district’s superintendent acknowledged how stressful the March 15th layoff notices had been to his staff, and added, "It’s an unfortunate reality that in light of declining enrollment, a structural budget deficit, and an ever-changing outlook related to vacancies, we needed to issue so many preliminary layoff notices. We are very happy that at this point in the process, we are down to so few certificated layoffs," said SFUSD superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews.

Final layoff notices by the district will be sent out on or before Friday.