San Francisco school board proposing cuts that could include closing schools

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Unified School District is holding a special meeting Tuesday to discuss what changes need to be made to re-align school resources for fewer students. This could include budget cuts, program cuts, and merging or closing school sites.

A decline in enrollment, staffing shortages, and aging buildings are affecting San Francisco schools. District leaders say those factors are impacting day-to-day operations and changes need to be made. 

According to a press release from SFUSD, enrollment has decreased by more than 4,000 students since the 2012-2013 school year. And it's estimated to lose an additional 4,600 students over the next 10 years.

"The enrollment started dipping really with the pandemic. I think a lot of parents either went to private school or moved out of San Francisco so our enrollment has taken a really big hit," said Rosa Parks Elementary parent Sarah Shectman. 

As a result, the district says state funding will be impacted. The district is expecting to lose $5 million in funding by the 2025-2026 school year, but says that could increase to as much as a $30 million loss over time.  

"I think that (this) points to a huge problem in California and the US with how we fund education," said Shectman. "What we really need is property tax reform and education funding reform, because we're not spending the money that we need to be spending on these schools."

Less money also means no salary increases for teachers and staff. And there is already a staffing shortage. 

Over the last two years, the SFUSD says at least 15% of classrooms were staffed by substitutes or teachers on special assignment. Custodial Services and Student Nutrition Services has a staffing deficit of close to 25% for the past year, according to SFUSD. 

Parent Kyle Woodward said his daughter is in a joint 2nd and 3rd grade class.

"So they found ways to keep kids in the school, but at some point you as a parent look at that and say, ‘This school might have too many classrooms. There might be too many schools in the district,’" said Woodward. 

To address some of these challenges, the school board plans to propose a list of changes at Tuesday's meeting. These changes will include staffing schools based on enrollment, restructuring services, prioritizing programs that have shown success in the past and recommending other ways to align operations with declining enrollment. That could mean merging schools or closing some school sites.

The Board of Eduction has some difficult decisions to make, and fast. The proposed changes are set to be acted on within a year. By December, Superintendent Wayne will present a staffing model to the board to be included in the 2024-25 school year budget. And by June of 2024, the board will vote on the resource alignment proposals. 

This is all happening while the teachers' union accuses the district of fiscal mismanagement. 

In a report released Monday, United Educators of San Francisco said the district is wasting money that could be used to increase salaries and provide classroom resources. 

The report claims that the district has borrowed irresponsibly, failed to capitalize on vacant properties, hired expensive consultants and overspent on top administrative salaries. It says short term borrowing has cost the district an estimated $30 million since 1986. 

But parents at Rosa Parks don't put blame on the school district, they just want to know what's going to happen next. 

"Blame can only go so far, blame doesn’t make money appear. Maybe the wisest decisions haven’t been made in the past, but today we’re in the situation we’re in," said Woodward. "And you can’t sustain the same number of schools when you’ve lost thousands of kids."

"They have the budget that they have and there's not a lot they can do about that. It’s not their fault," said Shectman.