The San Francisco Board of Education is the school board for the City and County of San Francisco. It is composed of seven Commissioners, elected by voters across the city to serve 4-year terms. It is subject to local, and state law, and federal laws since the district receives federal funding. The board determines policy for all the K-12 public schools in the San Francisco Unified School District. The composition of the board is determined by the Charter of San Francisco, making the board and the school district one of the only school districts in the state regulated by a city charter, a legacy of when cities were responsible for schooling in California.
Responsibilities The board's responsibilities include:
Establishing educational goals and standards Approving curriculum Setting the district budget, which is independent of the city's budget Confirming appointment of all personnel Approving purchases of equipment, supplies, services, leases, renovation, construction, and union contracts Appointing a superintendent of schools to manage the day-to-day administration of the district
Pay
As of 2021, board members are paid around $6,000 a year.
Early history
Founding
In October 1849, John C. Pelton opened a school in a Baptist church in San Francisco. It was funded by voluntary donations and tuition, with poor children able to attend for free. In 1850, the city council adopted an ordinance making it free public school for all children, a first in California. In September 1851, the school was reorganized under an ordinance providing for a San Francisco Board of Education and a superintendent.
Segregating students of East Asian descent
With Japanese immigration to the United States increasing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the board ordered Japanese American and Korean American students attending public schools to transfer to the Oriental Public School, which serviced Chinese students, in 1905. That action drew ire from the Empire of Japan and forced Theodore Roosevelt to intervene, who was wary of Japan's recent victory in the Russo-Japanese War. After Roosevelt realized that this was a matter of immigration and that the ordinance affected only 93 students, he brokered the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, whereby the students would be allowed into the schools and the Japanese government would stop issuing passports for laborers to the United States, after initially failing to persuade the board to rescind their decision.
In the 1920s, the school was renamed Commodore Stockton School and students were allowed to attend nearby schools as the student population became too large. The board officially rescinded the policy in 2017 as a symbolic gesture.
Transition from appointed to elected members For decades up to 1971, the mayor appointed school board members, who were then confirmed by voters in the next election. In November 1971, voters approved Proposition S, which made Board of Education members elected directly by voters. The push came as backlash against the school board's efforts to use busing desegregate schools.
Modern history
2000–2006: Arlene Ackerman era Arlene Ackerman began her tenure as the superintendent of SFUSD on August 1, 2000, succeeding Superintendent Bill Rojas. Under her tenure, Ackerman overhauled the district's facilities department, which was misappropriating city funds. Further investigations led to financial settlements for the district by companies who were defrauding them and the federal government, garnering the district more than $45 million. Her fiscal management garnered praise from even her critics.
Ackerman faced opposition from the board's liberal members. Mark Sanchez and Sarah Lipson were both members of the Green Party and, along with Eric Mar, were allied with the new liberal majority on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Ackerman was supported by the San Francisco Parent Teacher Association. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized in support of Ackerman and opined that the "Three board members in particular—Eric Mar, Sarah Lipson and Mark Sanchez—need to start working with Ackerman, not fighting with her virtually on a daily basis." Commissioners Eddie Chin, Dan Kelly, and Jill Wynns supported Ackerman. Norman Yee, who was elected in 2004, was considered the swing vote.
Toward the end of her tenure, Ackerman was approved a raise, which included a salary of $250,000 and a $375,000 severance package among other benefits, by a 4 to 3 vote during a projected budget shortfall of $22 million which closed four schools. In June 2005, Supervisor Matt Gonzalez sued Ackerman with law partner Whitney Leigh, claiming that the raise was illegal as she had not given the public at least 24-hour prior to the raise in accordance with state law. SFUSD counsel David Campos argued that Ackerman was exempt as she serves as a district superintendent and perform duties as a county superintendent. Ackerman stated that the cost of her legal defense would have cost the SFUSD more than her severance package was worth.
The board unanimously invoked the "compatibility clause" in Ackerman's contract in September 2005, mutually agreeing to Ackerman's resignation within the next year. Ackerman officially quit in June 2006. Commissioner Daniel P. Kelly, an ally of Ackerman's, said that she was "being forced out" due to the "intolerable" infighting. Her opponents, Lipson and Mar, expressed relief over her resignation. Gwen Chan was appointed interim superintendent in February 2006, becoming the district's first Chinese American superintendent.
2006–2019 The board voted 6–1 in June 2007 to hire Carlos Garcia as the new superintendent, signing a contract that was less costly than Ackerman's. Commissioner Kim-Shree Maufas dissenting, citing a need for more time to consider his appointment.
The board voted unanimously to hire Vincent Matthews as the new superintendent in April 2017.
JROTC
In November 2006, the board voted 4–2 to eliminate the JROTC program altogether in the entire city within two years, stating that "armed forces should have no place in public schools, and the military's discriminatory stance on gays makes the presence of JROTC unacceptable."
In December 2007, the board decided to continue JROTC for one more year so the JROTC task force could continue its search for a replacement program without punishing current JROTC students. A non-binding measure called Proposition V was placed on the November 4, 2008 general ballot in San Francisco that supported the reinstatement of the JROTC program in the City. The proposition passed. In May 2009, the school board voted to reinstate the program. In June 2009, the San Francisco School board voted 4 to 3 in favor of reinstating physical education credit for students enrolled in JROTC.
Programs In March 2019, the board unanimously voted to expand the pilot program at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School that housed that school's homeless families to include eligibility across the school district. The program up until that point suffered from lack of use, with the shelter averaging less than two families per night out of a 20 family capacity.
Life of Washington mural destruction attempt
In September 2016, board president Matt Haney began the effort to remove the Life of Washington mural by Victor Arnautoff at George Washington High School, citing objections to its depictions of slaves and a dead Native American. He also suggested that the school be renamed after a San Francisco native such as Maya Angelou, who is an alumna, because George Washington was a slave owner.
The mural had previously been the subject of controversy in the 1960s and 1970s when student activists demanded that it be taken down. In a compromise, the school board and the San Francisco Arts Commission hired Dewey Crumpler to paint a "response mural" at the school, which depicted the historical struggles of Black, Native, and Latin Americans.
In June 2019, the board unanimously voted to paint over the mural, with a provision that allowed the mural to be obfuscated instead if painting over it resulted in delays or other legal issues. After a national outcry, the board reversed its decision in August 2019 by voting 4 to 3 to instead cover the mural. Supporters of the removal say that the mural's imagery creates a hostile environment. Opponents argue that the imagery is subversive as Arnautoff, a communist, was critiquing the country's colonial past.
The high school's alumni association sued the school district in October 2019, contending that it violated California Environmental Quality Act by not conducting an environmental impact report. In July 2021, superior court judge Anne-Christine Massullo agreed that the district did not follow state environmental regulations, including the study of alternatives prior to a decision. In her order blocking the board from covering the mural, she emphasized the adherence to the rule of law over any "parochial political agendas".
2020–present: COVID-19 era
School renaming attempt In 2018, the board created a task force to study the names of schools within the SFUSD in the wake of Charlottesville car attack. The 12-person committee, chaired by a first grade teacher and activist Jeremiah Jeffries, was assembled in 2020 and recommended 44 names that met the criteria of being associated with the European colonization of the Americas, slavery in the United States, exploitation, racism, or abuse for renaming. Early estimates priced the entire process to at least . By a 6 to 1 vote on January 26, 2021, the board approved the entire list, which included all schools named after U.S. presidents with the exception of Grover Cleveland, and asked schools to submit replacement names up until April 2021. Commissioner Mark Sanchez, stated that although he did not anticipate all 44 schools to be renamed, those on the list "should be prepared." The decision drew criticism in the national press and was covered internationally.
The schools selected for renaming were more than a third of the city's 125 schools: Abraham Lincoln High School, Alamo Elementary, Alvarado Elementary, Balboa High School, Bryant Elementary, Clarendon Elementary, Claire Lilienthal (both campuses), Commodore Sloat Elementary, Daniel Webster Elementary, Dianne Feinstein Elementary, El Dorado Elementary, Everett Middle school, Francis Scott Key Elementary, Frank McCoppin Elementary, Garfield Elementary, George Washington High School, Grattan Elementary, Herbert Hoover Middle School, James Denman Middle School, James Lick Middle School, Jefferson Elementary, Jose Ortega Elementary, John Muir Elementary, Junipero Serra Elementary, Lawton Alternative K-8, Lowell High School, Marshal Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Mission High School, Monroe Elementary, Noriega EES, Presidio EES, Presidio Middle School, Sanchez Elementary, Sherman Elementary, Paul Revere K-8, Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School, Sheridan Elementary, Stockton EES, Sutro Elementary, and Ulloa Elementary.
Critics called the renaming effort ill-timed, amateurish and wasteful—citing factual errors, the absence of historians on the committee, inadequate amount of public input, and the price tag during a budget deficit estimated to be at around as primary issues. Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisor Hillary Ronen called for a refocusing on school re-openings during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area rather than the renaming effort. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized, "While most of the country is rightly engaged in removing racist monuments to the Confederacy, only in San Francisco must the heroes of the Union be toppled: The board's list includes Lincoln, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and the abolitionist poet and editor James Russell Lowell."