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San Francisco Unified board meeting, May 12, 2026

The longest item was Major Decisions Discussion: 2 h 02 min.

8 h 18 min · 20 agenda items · 33 public speakers

School closures ▶ 3:13:48Budget cuts and layoffs ▶ 2:39:04Enrollment ▶ 2:38:41Phones in school ▶ 2:51:24Safety, weapons and police ▶ 3:08:36

Bar segments are agenda items, at the start times the district clerk published. Click any item or moment to jump there. Video length 8 h 18 min.

  1. Agenda · 20 items
What happened

What happened at this meeting

San Francisco school board approves third interim financial report 7:20:09

  • The board heard a presentation from the Asian Parent Advisory Committee and an update on school facilities. 3:35:33
  • The superintendent presented a plan to redesign student assignment first, with a goal of bringing a proposal to the board by April of 2027 and implementation beginning in school year '28-'29. 4:59:51
  • The superintendent said any identification of closures, mergers or co-locations would come after the first year of the new student assignment system. 4:59:51
Item by item (13)
  1. Closed session public comment and recess 0:00
    • The board called for public comment on closed session items before recessing at 4:05 PM. 0:00
  2. Public comment 2:34:13
    • Speakers at public comment raised the closure of Academy, teacher consolidations at Mission High and class size and combo class decisions at Yick Wo Elementary. 2:39:04
    • Several speakers at public comment asked the district to adopt a cell phone policy with phones off and away, bell to bell. 2:51:23
    • Speakers at public comment also raised principal turnover at Galileo, newcomer program closures, enrollment changes and the special education budget. 2:55:39
  3. Report from closed session 3:21:22
    • The board voted 6⁠-⁠0 to release and/or reassign 29 certificated administrators effective at the end of the 25⁠-⁠26 school year, with one commissioner absent. 3:22:23
  4. Student delegate and superintendent reports 3:24:45
    • A student delegate said SAC applications were opening for the upcoming school year for anybody in high school. 3:21:22
    • The superintendent said more than 1,500 families had been offered a seat at waitlisted schools and that outdoor graduations would be held June 1st through June 3rd. 3:29:34
  5. Asian Parent Advisory Committee recommendations 3:35:33
    • Committee presenters recommended sustaining and strengthening language programs and building a local pipeline for Asian language educators. 3:39:30
    • A presenter recommended integrating disaggregated Asian subgroup data into district and school planning cycles. 3:44:09
  6. Student assignment and school portfolio planning 4:57:40
    • A staff member said the alternative timeline was meant to illustrate trade-offs and that the recommendation was the initial proposal timeline. 5:31:14
    • A board member asked what the bridge plan would be for under-enrolled schools from now to 2029⁠-⁠2030. 5:45:08
    • Another board member cited an expected loss of an additional 2,600 students by 2030, which would mean 16,600 more seats than students. 5:49:18
  7. Motion to extend the meeting 5:55:18
    • A motion was made and seconded to extend the meeting past 10:00 p.m. 5:55:18
  8. Student assignment timeline questions 5:55:56
    • In response to a question about the timeline, a speaker said the plan was to engage the community for the next full year and bring a proposal to the board for a vote in April of 2027. 5:56:35
    • A staff member said the district could not implement the zone policy 5101.2 without changes based on simulations done with Stanford. 6:10:22
    • The superintendent said additional staff would be needed for the work, including a communications leader and a strategic initiatives leader. 6:48:31
  9. School facilities update 6:58:35
    • A staff member said the Facilities Department maintains 155 facilities and improved resolution time of heating related issues by about 70%. 7:00:34
    • A staff member said the Mission Bay design-build contract amount is $104 million and the district is planning a new $270 million Series B bond issuance. 7:07:26
    • A staff member said the district has 167 elevators, with 10 currently completely out of service. 7:13:12
  10. Third interim financial report 7:20:09
    • A speaker said CDE had notified the district and agreed that an FSP is no longer needed, so the study session the following week was no longer needed. 7:21:03
    • A staff member said the district captured $32.3 million in savings from vacant positions and $69.7 million from underspent supplies and materials budgets. 7:30:14
  11. District positions on state legislation 8:06:18
    • A motion was made to amend the report to move AB 1861 from the recommend watch list to the recommend support list. 8:07:35
    • A legislative advisor said the bill would require the California Department of Education to create a public online database of special education complaints by January 1st, 2030. 8:08:57
    • After the roll call, a speaker referred to the recommendation list that the board adopted. 8:10:20
  12. Teacher waiver approval 8:14:48
    • A staff member presented one waiver to allow a Junior ROTC teacher to teach at Mission High School. 8:15:07
  13. Consent calendar and adjournment 8:15:43
    • The board president had a standing recusal from the consent calendar, and the superintendent pulled a contract with Partners in School Innovation from item 17. 8:15:43
    • The meeting was adjourned at 12:22 a.m. on Wednesday, May 13th. 8:17:01

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

Who spoke

Who spoke

Parag GuptaCommissionerFirst speaks at 3:46:12
Jaime HulingCommissionerFirst speaks at 4:25:38
Supryia RayCommissionerFirst speaks at 4:35:54
Lisa Weissman-WardCommissionerFirst speaks at 5:23:42
Matt AlexanderCommissionerFirst speaks at 5:41:36
Alida FisherCommissionerFirst speaks at 6:29:38
Phil KimPresident