According to a recent report, a troubling plan by San Francisco public school authorities to close several schools has been kept from the district’s school board, which has led to significant frustration.
The San Francisco Unified School District is set to shut down an unspecified number of schools by 2030 to tackle the issue of roughly 14,000 empty seats available in the system. This was revealed in a memo to parents last month.
Like many urban areas in California and other parts of the U.S., San Francisco has been experiencing a steady decline in public school enrollment. This trend can be attributed to demographic shifts due to lower birth rates, escalating living costs, and changing immigration patterns.
Superintendent Maria Hsu plans to present the details and timeline regarding school closures at the upcoming district board meeting. Board members shared with local media their disappointment that the news broke before they could address it.
The closures were initially disclosed in a Chronicle article a couple of weeks ago, written by seasoned education reporter Jill Tucker.
“We’re ready for that,” Sue remarked to the newspaper regarding the closure strategy. “Now the time has come—this is something we’ve been trying to implement for years.”
The report mentioned that Hsu has been working on the preparations to close schools for the last 18 months. However, it doesn’t clarify why the announcement was made so close to the board meeting or why the news was shared with media outlets first.
The San Francisco Standard noted that board members felt it was inappropriate to announce the timeline publicly before informing the board and even suggested it might have been a calculated move.
In recent years, many school districts across California and the nation have been forced to close schools due to dwindling enrollment and budget deficits, which often lead to public protests and other forms of discontent.
Yet, increasing vacancies make school closures seemingly unavoidable in major California cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles.
This situation poses a challenge: In 2024, an attempt to close certain active schools in San Francisco sparked intense backlash, ultimately forcing the district to retract the plan and resulted in the resignation of Superintendent Matt Wayne.
This time, Hsu asserts that the circumstances are different. “For the past 18 months, we have been focusing on stabilizing the district, and thankfully we’ve managed to do that,” she stated.
Amidst all this, San Francisco’s School District 120 has had a tumultuous year, highlighted by teachers striking for four consecutive days—the first such action in fifty years.
“The reality of declining enrollment is a trend moving across the state and the country,” Hsu mentioned. “San Francisco isn’t exempt from this reality.”
