Wednesday was going to be the big day when the SF Unified School District would announce which schools they’re going to close. But in a surprising Sunday afternoon statement, they said they’re putting off that announcement “until October.”

We’ve known for more than six months that the San Francisco Unified School District [SFUSD] was going to close a bunch of SF schools, amidst declining enrollment and a $400 million budget deficit. And in early August, the district said it would decide and announce exactly which schools would be closing in mid-September.

Welp, here it is mid-September, and the district had been planning on making this dreaded announcement on Wednesday. But in an abrupt and unusual Sunday afternoon statement, the Chronicle reports that the district is now delaying the school closure announcement until October.

“I have decided to delay the release of the recommendation from Sept. 18, as originally planned, until October. This delay is to ensure a thorough review of all aspects of the plan,” Superintendent Matt Wayne said in the Sunday afternoon statement. “The process of closing and merging schools is complicated, and I want to make sure we’ve looked at it from every angle, including how after-school care, grant funding, and transportation will be affected. All of our schools are unique and have many connections throughout the community. When I share my recommendation to close or merge some of our schools, I want to be absolutely certain I have done everything I can to help students and families through this challenging time.”

Wayne did not say when in October this announcement would come. The overall timeline is unchanged, with the closures scheduled to go into effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

SFUSD enrollment has declined to just under 50,000 students, which is probably too few students to justify having 106 schools. Per the Chronicle, the district expects to lose another 5,000 students in the coming five years. And enrollment determines how much state funding the district gets, with SFUSD spending currently under the control of state monitors as the district is in jeopardy of running out of cash.

But school closures are a pretty traumatic thing for both students and parents. Just look at Oakland, where a 2022 plan to close or shrink 11 schools was met with protests plus lawsuits and state probes, forcing the district to close only three of those schools.

A representative of the SF Parent Coalition, a rabble-rousing group that formed in 2020 to protest COVID school closures and aid the school board recall, told KTVU that the delay was “not necessarily surprising, but it was disappointing because I think people were really counting on getting information this week." That representative Sara Meskin added that, "The longer we go without answers, it just makes it really difficult for schools to plan, for teachers to have security, and for parents fundraising for their school."

The teachers’ union was also critical of the delay. “SFUSD’s track record does not inspire confidence,” United Educators of San Francisco president Cassondra Curiel said in a statement picked up by the Chronicle. “School closures, mergers, and co-locations are drastic measures that have never been proven to lead to better outcomes for students.”

That union actually had a news conference scheduled for today to address what they felt was a haphazard process. It’s unclear if that press conference is still happening. But one wonders if this delay indicates a more thoughtful school closure process playing out, or whether we can just expect that just like in Oakland, this is a harbinger of more chaos.

Related: SFUSD To Announce Which Schools They’re Closing In About Six Weeks [SFist]

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