Tuesday night’s SF Board of Education meeting is shaping up to be a raucous one, as parents and teachers are planning to rally before the 6:30 pm meeting, and will likely overflow into the meeting to protest the proposed school closures.
The very contentious process of closing San Francisco public schools because of deficits and declining enrollment got a lot more contentious in the last five days, after an apparent ouster attempt on the district superintendent Matt Wayne over the weekend failed. This led to some sort of Mayor Breed hand-picked “stabilization team” being brought in to look over Wayne’s shoulder, and it seems like he still could get ousted..
As of now, the announcement of which schools will be closed has been delayed until some point in October.
And that delay may give parents and teachers a small opening to stop the school closures altogether. Or so they hope, at least, as KPIX reports that parents and teachers are planning to rally against the closures before tonight’s 6:30 pm school board meeting at 555 Franklin Street.
It’s unclear who’s behind this rally, and a cursory search of social media accounts of the usual suspects (teachers’ union, rabble-rousing parent groups) shows no reference to any planned rallies on Tuesday. The rally may be entirely grassroots and informal.
KPIX merely reports that “parents at San Francisco Unified, they haven’t given up” and “hope they can stop the closure of schools.” The KPIX report makes reference to a goal of “having a choice as to what new school their kids will be sent to next,” and “voicing concern about transportation to that new school.” The report adds the ralliers will be making “one last call” to prevent the closures, and are asking for “deeper investments [in schools] instead of closures.”
Yesterday I announced a new School Stabilization Team to support the SFUSD in this difficult time, and today they are getting to work. Our team will immediately begin meeting with District leadership, including the Board of Education members who are our partners in this effort.… pic.twitter.com/NzKdqUtOVM
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) September 23, 2024
Those deeper investments are highly unlikely, considering that the district’s spending is now under control of state monitors. This Breed “stabilization team” plan comes with $8.4 million in grant money, though an announcement from Breed’s office just vaguely says that money will be used for “emergency needs and emergent strategies to support the school community. ”
Don’t worry! Help is on the way!
— Jerque Cousteau (@neo_antiquarian) September 24, 2024
The mayor has appointed an oversight committee to oversee the mayor’s appointees to the board of education who oversee the superintendent appointed by her appointments. https://t.co/acNAKnoldr
Will that money just be spent on pricey consultants? That would not be out of character for the San Francisco Unified School District! And there is an ounce of truth to the Twitter wisecrack that this team is “an oversight committee to oversee the mayor’s appointees to the board of education who oversee the superintendent appointed by her appointments.” (In fairness, two of those appointees were duly reelected, though one has since quit.)
We still do not know how many schools might be closed. Mission Local seemingly has some inside info and reports “We’re told it’s between 10 to 14 schools.” That outlet adds that “There have been all kinds of cloak-and-dagger insinuations about how the list will be disseminated piecemeal,” though that could backfire, just as did the delayed announcement.
Either way, if you’re interested, Tuesday night’s rally will be at the SFUSD Main offices at 555 Franklin Street, and the rally is likely at 5pm (when the school board is in closed session). The public component of the meeting starts at 6:30 pm, and there will be public comment for any ralliers to address the board directly. The meeting will be broadcast at 6:30 pm on SFGovTV2.
Related: SFUSD Delays School Closure Announcement Until Sometime in October [SFist]
Image: @AFTunion via Twitter