San Francisco Mayor London Breed is calling for a stop to school district plans to close or merge more than a dozen schools after this school year.
The San Francisco Unified School District announced last week a list of 13 public schools in the city that are facing closures or mergers as part of what Superintendent Matt Wayne called a “resource alignment initiative” to deal with budget problems amid years of declining enrollment and teacher shortages.
Breed in a statement Tuesday said she has heard from parents, teachers and other staff in the district who expressed “confusion and concern around the proposed school closures/merger list and how it has been communicated and managed.”
Wayne initially intended to send out a list in September but delayed it to this month after pushback that included criticism from commissioners on the district’s Board of Education.
“This cannot continue. Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost. Unfortunately, the only achievement has been to make a precarious time for our public schools even more chaotic,” Breed said.
“I have lost confidence in the superintendent’s ability to manage the current process and do not believe this current plan will lead to an outcome that will benefit students and the School District in the long-term,” she said.
“… Whatever this current proposed school closure process was meant to accomplish, or could have accomplished, is lost. Unfortunately, the only achievement has been to make a precarious time for our public schools even more chaotic.”
Mayor London Breed
The mayor said the district has to balance its budget in the next two months to prevent a state takeover of its operations, but “any school closures or mergers would only be one small piece of the overall effort to balance the budget.”
School district officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mayor’s statement.
In his letter to the SFUSD community last week, Wayne said the district is holding three town hall meetings to talk about its budget issues, with one that happened last week and the next two scheduled for Oct. 24 and Nov. 6. On Nov. 12, the Board of Education will be shown a presentation on the recommended closures and mergers, which would then be voted on in December.
The schools currently slated for closures or mergers include June Jordan High School, The Academy – San Francisco @ McAteer high school, El Dorado Elementary, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, Jean Parker Elementary, Malcolm X Academy, Redding Elementary, San Francisco Community Alternative TK-8, San Francisco Public Montessori, Spring Valley Elementary, Sutro Elementary, Visitacion Valley Elementary and Yick Wo Elementary.
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