San Francisco school board welcomes three new members

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday appointed three new members to the San Francisco School Board, three weeks after former members were ousted in a special election.

Ann Hsu, Lainie Motamedi, and Lisa Weissman-Ward were sworn in at a ceremony at Galileo High School to fill the vacant positions on the seven-member Board of Education.

Before Breed made her decision, she met with parents to identify what they needed in their public schools and what they looked for in leadership.

"As we emerge from this pandemic, we need to focus on delivering on the basic services our residents deserve, and I know these three women will be intensely focused on meeting the urgent needs of our kids and our schools, while also focusing on the long-term health of our public school system," Breed said in a statement. "There’s a lot of work to do, and some tough choices ahead, but working together we can make sure our schools are moving in a positive direction."

Ann Hsu has children who attend San Francisco public schools. Hsu is President of the Galileo High School PTSA and Chairperson of the SFUSD Independent Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee.

Hsu has strong ties to San Francisco’s Chinese community dating back to the 1990s when she was an active member of the San Francisco-Shanghai Sister City Committee.

She's worked in the tech sector for over two decades.

Lainie Motamedi is also a public school parent. She just completed a four-year term serving as the Co-Chair of the Public Education Enrichment Fund Committee (PEEF), where she worked closely with SFUSD and the Board of Education.

Lisa Weissman-Ward has children within San Francisco public school.

She works as an immigration lawyer and educator.

Weissman-Ward is the associate director of the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

Her teaching focuses on issues related to access to justice, systemic inequities, and anti-subordination principles. She is a product of public schools and comes from a family of educators.

Each of the new members will serve the remainder of the vacated terms through the end of 2022. All three seats will be for an election in Nov. 2022.

On Feb. 15 voters overwhelmingly chose to oust Board President Gabriela Lopez and members Faauuga Moliga and Allison Collins from their positions. The pro-recall vote garnered more than 70% of the ballots.

The board recall was fueled in part by a backlash of frustration, mostly missteps that were made during the pandemic.